Xu, AnnieLoch-Temzelides, TedAdiole, ChimaBotton, NathanDee, Sylvia G.Masiello, Caroline A.Osborn, MitchellTorres, Mark A.Cohan, Daniel S.2022-02-042022-02-042022Xu, 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.https://hdl.handle.net/1911/111975The 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.engThis 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.Journal articles41598-021-04507-xhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-04507-x