As the coronavirus spreads, black people are less likely to have access to proper health care and more likely to have health issues that make the virus more dangerous.
Demographics
Explore population trends, diversity, and data shaping Texas communities, politics, and policy.
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Coronavirus in Texas
Meatpacking workers in Texas Panhandle have little power to avoid the coronavirus
A workforce of immigrants has long powered the massive JBS meatpacking plant in Cactus, where a cluster of coronavirus cases is under investigation. They’re risking their lives each shift in the county with the state’s highest known infection rate.
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Coronavirus in Texas
Impacts of coronavirus on Texans of color clouded by incomplete data
The emerging national picture shows black Americans disproportionately getting sick and dying from COVID-19. The same trend may be playing out in Texas’ black and Hispanic communities, but sparse data has been collected.
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Coronavirus in Texas
Health care workers on the front lines of coronavirus don’t get expanded paid sick leave protections
The Labor Department has urged employers to “be judicious” in exempting their workers. Critics say the exemption hurts nurses and doctors, who have already complained about their lack of protective equipment.
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Coronavirus in Texas
As coronavirus spreads, some Asian Americans worry their leaders’ language stokes a stigma
“If the virus has already been named by the [World Health Organization] as COVID-19, any renaming is highly politically charged and motivated,” said one researcher.
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Coronavirus in Texas
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn draws rebuke for blaming coronavirus on China
The Republican Texas senator alluded to a now-debunked myth that the outbreak began after a woman ate bat soup. And he incorrectly cited China as the birthplace of two previous outbreaks.
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Coronavirus in Texas
Staying home slows the coronavirus, but what if you’re homeless?
Local, state and national leaders are recommending people take a range of actions to protect themselves from the new coronavirus. But for those without homes, many of those measures are next to impossible.
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Coronavirus in Texas
Coronavirus derails ground game for Texas census count
Years of work went into planning neighborhood canvasses and educational efforts to reach out to every Texan, especially those most likely to be missed in the tally. Now those efforts are down for the count.
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Demographics
Counting in Texas for the U.S. census has begun. Here’s what you need to know.
The accuracy of the count in the state will go a long way toward determining its economic, social and political future.
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Coronavirus in Texas
With six confirmed cases, panic in Fort Bend County spreading faster than the coronavirus
If there is an epicenter of the new coronavirus in Texas, it’s arguably Fort Bend County, which had the first confirmed case of COVID-19 outside of the federal quarantine site in San Antonio. There are six total cases there now, all stemming from an Egypt cruise trip.