On Wednesday's Amanpour & Co. show on PBS and CNN International, as host Christiane Amanpur spoke with Nikole Hannah-Jones of the 1619 Project about racial disparities in Covid-19 deaths in the U.S., Amanpour surprisingly admitted that the UK's National Health Service has not prevented a similar disparity there after Hannah-Jones claimed that racism has prevented universal health care from being implemented in the U.S.
After listing some of the risk factors that make blacks more likely to contract Covid-19 and die from the illness, Hannah-Jones then complained that the U.S. has the "stingiest" social safety net of advanced countries:
NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES, THE 1619 PROJECT: And the interesting thing is, when you look at the United States, what sets us apart from every industrialized country that we like to compare ourselves to is that we have the stingiest social safety net. We don't have universal health care. One out of 10 black people in this country is uninsured.
She then blamed racism against blacks flor the absence of universal health care in the U.S.:
HANNAH-JONES: And this is also because of the racial lens that America produces public policy. What the polling shows is that the more support -- excuse me -- the larger numbers of black people are perceived to benefit from a social program, the lower the support becomes among white Americans. And so when you look at the way that we differ from other countries, it's largely because of our ongoing legacy of racism.
Amanpour then admitted that the death rate for minorities compared to whites is also high in Britain:
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: We've looked at the figures here (in the United Kingdom) as well. I mean, it's socioeconomic as well. But here, as you know, we have universal health care -- national health care system here in the UK -- and the Covid mortality rates for blacks and other minorities here are four times higher than those of white Britons according to the Office of National Statistics. You know, they're obviously in the public facing jobs. Are you surprised that it's happening also in a nation that does have a welfare net -- a social security net, you know, the NHS?
Not mentioned was that the UK's overall per capita death rate from Covid-19 is substantially higher than in the U.S. both in terms of the number of residents and the number of confirmed Covid-19 infections. Additionally, the UK has a lower per capita rate of testing its citizens for Covid-19 than the U.S.
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Wednesday, May 20, Amanpour & Co. on PBS and CNN International:
NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES, THE 1619 PROJECT: When we look at what is happening with Covid-19, it's really not surprising that black Americans are suffering the worst. Black people remain -- so the group of people who did not choose to come to the United States -- a nation of immigrants with the exception of Native people and black people -- we are at the bottom of every indicator. We are the most segregated, we are the most likely to live near environmental toxins that cause comorbidities that lead Covid to be so deadly -- so asthma, hypertension, diabetes.
We have least access to quality health care -- we have highest rates of being uninsured -- we are far more likely to be working in public sector and service jobs that meant that black people could not shelter in place -- we have less access to level one trauma centers to treat us when we have these diseases.
So every way that Covid would -- that would cause you to become most exposed to become more sick from Covid and to then die from Covid, black people are overrepresented.
And the interesting thing is, when you look at the United States, what sets us apart from every industrialized country that we like to compare ourselves to is that we have the stingiest social safety net. We don't have universal health care. One out of 10 black people in this country is uninsured.
We really have divested from our public hospitals and our public institutions. And this is also because of the racial lens that America produces public policy. What the polling shows is that the more support -- excuse me -- the larger numbers of black people are perceived to benefit from a social program, the lower the support becomes among white Americans. And so when you look at the way that we differ from other countries, it's largely because of our ongoing legacy of racism.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: You know what, we've looked at the figures here (in the United Kingdom) as well. I mean, it's socioeconomic as well. But here, as you know, we have universal health care -- national health care system here in the UK -- and the Covid mortality rates for blacks and other minorities here are four times higher than those of white Britons according to the Office of National Statistics. You know, they're obviously in the public facing jobs. Are you surprised that it's happening also in a nation that does have a welfare net -- a social security net, you know, the NHS?
