• Andrea Maria Narciso Rocha de Paula, Daniel Coelho, Claudia Luz de Oliveira, and Ana Paula Venuto Moura.
• Universidade Estadual de Montes Claros, UNIMONTES, Montes Claros, Minas Gerais, Brazil; Nucleo interdisciplinar em Investigaçao Socioambiental/NIISA, Brazil.
• Med. Hypotheses. 2021 Jan 1; 146: 110359.

AbstractThe context of the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the structural inequalities and vulnerabilities experienced by black communities in the world, and in Brazil it is no different. The data generated in Brazil demonstrate that Brazilian inequality is alarming. Underreporting, non-prioritization of data that consider the variable race and color, and social groups in social vulnerability, help the unequal instrumentalization of epidemiological surveillance; many deaths from the black population are not being accounted for. Structural racism and the invisibility of the black population have been intensified with the pandemic. There is emerging evidence that COVID-19 may disproportionately affect black people, who in addition to the vulnerability resulting from socio-spatial conditions, appear to be more susceptible to contamination with a more serious and lethal outcome. Finally, biological differences, such as impaired functioning of the immune response, can be increased by structural racism. In this sense, we reinforce that possible relationships between social and biological vulnerabilities of black communities and the SARS-CoV-2 infection pandemic need to be considered and investigated.Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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