Here is a popular Democratic formula: A + B = Q.
That’s what Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee just did by attempting to connect COVID to racism.
Jackson Lee made this crazy connection on the House Floor on Thursday and once again called for reparations while comparing COVID to slavery.
She claimed that her rant was not accusatory and only about “reconciliation,” “restoration,” and “repair.” But with a straight face, she said, “It stands on the basis of facts. There is no doubt we have been impacted, that DNA in the trajectory of slavery to today. For example in COVID. Black African-Americans got COVID at a rate of nearly 1.5x higher than that of white people, or hospitalized at a rate of nearly 4x higher and 3x likely to die. COVID hit us very desperately.”
Therefore, she claimed: “Reparations are curative; they’re not punishment.”
To be fair, there are several Harvard Medical School references to COVID and race disparity that appear on Google, including Pandemic Inequality, with the subhead: Study IDs racial, ethnic disparities in-hospital mortality for COVID, non-COVID patients.
Here is an excerpt:
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, Hispanic Medicare patients hospitalized with COVID-19 were more likely to die than non-Hispanic white Medicare beneficiaries, according to a study led by researchers from the Department of Health Care Policy in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School.
The analysis also found that existing pre-pandemic racial and ethnic disparities in hospital mortality widened during the pandemic—an exacerbation that was fueled by a widening gap between deaths of Black and white people, the researchers said.”
The key line there is “Existing pre-pandemic racial and ethnic disparities.” This would include diet, underlying health-related issues, lifestyle, obesity, diabetes, respiratory or heart problems, and several autoimmune diseases.
Jackson Lee did not say anything about this part of the real equation.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) gives powerful support for reparations for descendants of those enslaved in the U.S.:
"You did not see us attack this most solid and somber institution — sacred — on January 6, 2021. We were not the masses that were trying to undermine democracy." pic.twitter.com/TVED0whyKV
— The Recount (@therecount) November 17, 2022
