BLUF[BBC] 'Structural racism is to blame'
As health commissioner in a city where nearly 40% of the residents are black, this misinformation was something Dr Jeanette Kowalik dealt with on a daily basis in her work in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
But just as her department was forming strategies to counter the narrative that the virus was something associated with foreign travel, Covid-19 struck her city.
"In the first week, there were maybe 80 cases in the city, and 70% of them were black," Dr Kowalik tells me.
She lays bare what she thinks is the major reason why African Americans are at a disadvantage when it comes to Covid-19.
"African-Americans have more of the underlying health conditions associated with fatality (among those with coronavirus); the heart disease, diabetes, asthma, obesity," says Dr Kowalik.
She also talks of more subtle ways in which the health of African Americans may be compromised, pointing to studies that suggest that prolonged raising of stress hormone levels like cortisol lead to premature aging of the body, and that some of that "weathering" has been tied to encountering racism.
"These are all things that can be tied back to the structural racism, the policies and practices that have been in place in this country for a very long time," she says.
Dr Kowalik says the way African Americans are being impacted by this crisis and the difficulties that remain in getting a coronavirus test in low-income communities has left people feeling they are being neglected yet again.