COVID-19: New Research Concludes Black and Asian People are Two Times More Vulnerable to Coronavirus

The coronavirus pandemic still hasn't ended, and by now, the world is relying on the upcoming COVID-19 vaccine candidates that are awaiting the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval before they can be distributed.

New Research About the COVID-19 Pandemic

However, the research is ongoing to allow scientists to know more about the virus, and in a new comprehensive research study, scientists concluded that black and Asian people are more vulnerable to the virus compared to white ethnicities.

According to LBC, the new COVID-19 research, which was published in EClinical Medicine by The Lancet, concluded that Asian ethnicities are 1.5 times more likely to contract the virus, while black people have double the risk.

Moreover, the paper concluded that Asian people are more likely to be sent to intensive care after testing positive for the disease.

The results were acquired after analyzing over 18 million people from both the United States and the United Kingdom.

Reasons Behind the Result

Researchers involved in the study also have a dire warning to Asian people, saying they are more likely to die from the virus than black and white people.

"In terms of (the risk of) death, it (the result) was very borderline," Dr. Jatinder Minhas, a National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) academic clinical fellow at the University of Leicester said. "But there was some signal to suggest that Asian individuals are at higher risk of death as compared to white individuals. This wasn't seen in those of black ethnicities."

Scientists behind the paper said that their research findings "should be of importance to policymakers going forward."

They also provided some of the "many reasons" why these minorities were more likely to catch COVID-19, saying that they tend to have "lower socioeconomic status," which would increase the likelihood of these people living in crowded areas they live in larger-sized households.

Furthermore, these people are often working in the frontlines and are more exposed to people who might have the virus.

The End of the Pandemic?

As of now, there is no cure for the coronavirus disease, but a few leading pharmaceutical companies are close to providing the vaccine that could hopefully stop the pandemic and allow the people to go out without fear.

Among the leading companies is Pfizer, which has announced earlier this week that their early data suggests that their vaccine is 90% effective against COVID-19, as per Business Mirror.

However, the company is facing another big challenge as its vaccine requires a complicated and ultra-cold requirement for storage, something that even the most prestigious hospitals in the US, such as the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, don't have.

According to a previous report by Tech Times, the vaccine needs to be kept at -70 degrees Celsius or -94 Fahrenheit so it can be stored for a longer time.

But since the storage requirement is pretty rare even in the US, the company is working double time to find a solution on how they can ship and distribute the vaccines as well as how they can prolong its shelf life.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by: Nhx Tingson