The Latest: Fauci says pandemic highlights racism's impact

The Latest: Fauci says pandemic highlights racism's impact

The immunologist who leads the COVID-19 response in the United States says “the undeniable effects of racism” have led to unacceptable health disparities that especially hurt African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans during the pandemic

By The Associated Press

May 16, 2021, 5:11 PM

• 11 min read

Bodies of suspected Covid-19 victims are seen in shallow graves buried in the sand near a cremation ground on the banks of Ganges River in Prayagraj, India, Saturday, May 15, 2021. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

ATLANTA — The immunologist who leads the COVID-19 response in the United States said Sunday that “the undeniable effects of racism” have led to unacceptable health disparities that especially hurt African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans during the pandemic.

COVID-19 has highlighted “our own society’s failings,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said during a graduation ceremony for Emory University.

Speaking by webcast from Washington, Fauci told the graduates in Atlanta that many members of minority groups work in essential jobs where they might be exposed to the coronavirus. He also said they are more likely to become infected if exposed because of medical conditions such as hypertension, chronic lung disease, diabetes or obesity.

“Now, very few of these comorbidities have racial determinants,” Fauci said. “Almost all relate to the social determinants of health dating back to disadvantageous conditions that some people of color find themselves in from birth regarding the availability of an adequate diet, access to health care and the undeniable effects of racism in our society.”

Fauci said correcting societal wrongs will take a commitment of decades, and he urged the graduates to be part of the solution.

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— India finds hundreds of bodies buried in riverbanks as the prices for cremations soar

— UK gears up for big reopening but fast-spreading virus variant first found in India threatens future plans

— Turkey eases some COVID-19 restrictions but keeps curfews on for weeknights and weekends

— Barefaced, footloose: New Orleans eases masking, OKs dancing

— Nepal scales back Hindu chariot festival amid virus surge

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Follow more of AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine

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HERE'S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

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SANAA, Yemen - Yemen’s soccer association said the country’s national team coach died Sunday from COVID-19.

The Yemen Football Association says Sami al-Naash died in a hospital in the southern port city of Aden.

Local reports say al-Naash was infected while in a camp for the national team in the southern province of Shabwa last month.

Yemen’s national team was preparing for three games in the coming weeks in hopes to qualify for the Asian Cup and the 2022 World Cup finals in Qatar. Yemen is playing in Group D along with Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Singapore, and the Palestinian territories.

The country, which has been convulsed by civil war since 2014, has been experiencing a surge in coronavirus cases that has overwhelmed Yemen’s depleted medical facilities.

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KATHMANDU, Nepal — A special chartered flight filled mostly with U.S. nationals, stranded in Nepal because of a lockdown imposed last month, was flying out of the Himalayan nation on Sunday.

It is the first flight taking foreign nationals out of Nepal who have been stuck there since a lockdown was imposed in April in an attempt to stop spiking cases of COVID-19.

Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal official Raj Kumar Chhetri said the Qatar Airways flight was fully packed with 270 passengers, most headed for the United States. There will be two more similar flights later in the week.

Nepal has been recording its highest number of daily new cases and deaths this month, while the country struggles with shortages of hospital beds, medication and oxygen for patients. Nepal so far has reported 5,000 deaths from COVID-19.

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ROTTERDAM, Netherlands — Organizers of the Eurovision Song Contest say a member of the Icelandic delegation has tested positive for COVID-19.