But the thing that I think people maybe don’t realize is that environmental racism causes diseases and vulnerabilities, every single one of which is a risk factor for coronavirus. We know that air pollution causes lung ailments, and it exacerbates and causes asthma, which is a risk factor for coronavirus, but it also causes kidney disease and heart disease, both of which are risk factors for coronavirus. Lead poisoning is related to increased vulnerability to a lot of viral assaults.

I could on and on, frankly, but the fact is that every single risk factor that we know of for coronavirus is caused or exacerbated by environmental racism.

Sarah Begley, in GEN.