DNC National Press Secretary Brandon Gassaway released the following statement on the the disproportionately high rate of COVID-19 infections and deaths ravaging the African American community:

“It has often been said that when America catches a cold, Black America gets the flu. That contrast is even starker in the face of this global pandemic. Cities like Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, New Orleans, and other areas with high proportions of Black populations are bearing the brunt of infections and deaths. The pandemic disparities in the Black community are appalling, but they aren’t new. Nor are they inevitable. They are the result of systemic inequalities in health that Black communities have suffered for generations.

“Whether it’s health care access, housing discrimination, increased air and water pollution, or the availability of quality nutrition, Black communities have faced historic disadvantages that have put them at greater health risk. And the Trump administration’s lack of preparation and incompetent response to COVID-19 has only exacerbated impact on communities of color. Trump’s failure of leadership has cost jobs, businesses, savings, and even lives — Black lives in particular.

“In 2016, Donald Trump asked Black Americans what we had to lose. We’ve lost protections from housing descrimination through HUD; we’ve lost environmental safeguards through the EPA; we’ve lost access to health care through Trump’s sabotage of the ACA; and we continue to lose our lives at tragic proportions. We cannot afford another term of this disastrous administration. The lives of our friends and family are literally at stake.”