Forget It Jake, It's Baltimore

Jazz Shaw at Hot Air, again, Baltimore Announces That Black People Can Actually Catch COVID-19

How does this keep happening?

As you may recall, CNN host Van Jones recently felt compelled to pen an op-ed informing his fellow African-American citizens that they are not immune to the novel coronavirus. He was moved to do so after one of his well-educated relatives assured him there was nothing to worry about because Black people “have antibodies” to prevent them from contracting COVID-19.

Apparently a lot of people in Baltimore, Maryland don’t read CNN’s website on a regular basis. The same false rumor has been running around Charm City, leading to crowds of Black residents ignoring social distancing orders. This situation forced the city’s Health Commissioner to come out and make a public announcement, letting everyone know that this rumor is totally false and people are dying because of it. (CBS Baltimore)

Health commissioner Dr. Letita Dzirasa said Tuesday the city plans to increase its messaging and outreach efforts to make sure people understand that no one is immune from COVID-19.
“Unfortunately, there is a persistent rumor that African Americans are immune to coronavirus. This is false, and the data shows this is a very dangerous belief,” she said.
Initial racial demographic data of coronavirus cases in the city and across the state also shows African Americans have a higher rate of fatality than whites, she said.

Thus far, Baltimore hasn’t been hit as hard as other large cities like New York. They’ve recorded 1,060 confirmed cases and 25 deaths as of yesterday. But somewhat ironically, at least in terms of this persistent, false rumor, Black residents are both contracting the disease and dying from it at higher rates than white residents.

And by imagining they are immune, and therefore shouldn't be subject to the same strictures the rest of us are facing will only make it worse.

I’ve seen quite a few reports of this rumor making the rounds and the origins of it are starting to become clear. It’s not dissimilar to the early rumors we heard about COVID-19 only affecting Asian people, so everyone else didn’t have to be all that concerned. (Of course it originally affected primarily Asians. The virus came from China!)