Race and ethnic minority, local pollution, and COVID-19 deaths in Texas

dc.citation.articleNumber1002en_US
dc.citation.journalTitleScientific Reportsen_US
dc.citation.volumeNumber12en_US
dc.contributor.authorXu, Annieen_US
dc.contributor.authorLoch-Temzelides, Teden_US
dc.contributor.authorAdiole, Chimaen_US
dc.contributor.authorBotton, Nathanen_US
dc.contributor.authorDee, Sylvia G.en_US
dc.contributor.authorMasiello, Caroline A.en_US
dc.contributor.authorOsborn, Mitchellen_US
dc.contributor.authorTorres, Mark A.en_US
dc.contributor.authorCohan, Daniel S.en_US
dc.date.accessioned2022-02-04T19:19:14Zen_US
dc.date.available2022-02-04T19:19:14Zen_US
dc.date.issued2022en_US
dc.description.abstractThe costs of COVID-19 are extensive, and, like the fallout of most health and environmental crises in the US, there is growing evidence that these costs weigh disproportionately on communities of color. We investigated whether county-level racial composition and fine particulate pollution (PM2.5) are indicators for COVID-19 incidence and death rates in the state of Texas. Using county-level data, we ran linear regressions of percent minority as well as historic 2000–2016 PM2.5 levels against COVID-19 cases and deaths per capita. We found that a county's percent minority racial composition, defined as the percentage of population that identifies as Black or Hispanic, highly correlates with COVID-19 case and death rates. Using Value-of-Statistical-Life calculations, we found that economic costs from COVID-19 deaths fall more heavily on Black and Hispanic residents in Harris County, the most populous county in Texas. We found no consistent evidence or significant correlations between historic county-average PM2.5 concentration and COVID-19 incidence or death. Our findings suggest that public health and economic aid policy should consider the racially-segregated burden of disease to better mitigate costs and support equity for the duration and aftermath of health crises.en_US
dc.identifier.citationXu, Annie, Loch-Temzelides, Ted, Adiole, Chima, et al.. "Race and ethnic minority, local pollution, and COVID-19 deaths in Texas." <i>Scientific Reports,</i> 12, (2022) Springer Nature: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-04507-x.en_US
dc.identifier.digitals41598-021-04507-xen_US
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-04507-xen_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1911/111975en_US
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisherSpringer Natureen_US
dc.rightsThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.en_US
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/en_US
dc.titleRace and ethnic minority, local pollution, and COVID-19 deaths in Texasen_US
dc.typeJournal articleen_US
dc.type.dcmiTexten_US
dc.type.publicationpublisher versionen_US
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