A Deadly Triple Threat : Three Layers of U.S. Racial Inequity in COVID Infections and Deaths (updated)

COVID infections and deaths in the United States have affected racial groups differentially. Until now, there has been no analysis of the role that structural racism plays in those health outcomes. We use three models of ascending complexity to quantify the state-level impacts of reporting bias, socioeconomic difference, and endogenous policy choices in a treatment model. Even after controlling for confounding factors like Black Lives Matter and other public demonstrations, multivariate regressions conclude that all three explain the phenomenon. We estimate massive avoidable costs of over 870,000 infections and 39,000 deaths due to unequal health outcomes by race