A Republican Senator from Ohio is in deep water after making a disturbing comment during a hearing on whether to make race a public health crisis.
According to reporting by the Washington Post, Senator Steve Huffman, an emergency room doctor asked if "African Americans or the colored population” have been disproportionately impacted by the novel coronavirus pandemic because they “do not wash their hands as well as other groups.”
Huffman appeared to question why African American communities are suffering from significantly higher numbers of COVID-19 cases and subsequent deaths.
Huffman posed the question to the executive director of the Ohio Commission on Minority Health, Angela Dawson.
“I understand African Americans have a higher incidence of chronic conditions and that makes them more susceptible to death from covid. But why does it not make them more susceptible to just get covid?” he asked. “Could it just be that African Americans or the colored population do not wash their hands as well as other groups? Or wear a mask? Or do not socially distance themselves? Could that be the explanation for why the higher incidence?"
Dawson, who is black, replied to Huffman, saying, “That is not the opinion of leading medical experts in this country,” and later adding: “Do all populations need to wash their hands? Absolutely, sir, but that is not where you are going to find the variance and the rationale for why these populations are more vulnerable.”
Huffman defended himself during a phone interview with the Post, explaining that he thought “people of color” and “colored population” were similar, but then admiring that, “People of color would have been better, but they seem to be interchangeable,” he said. Huffman also said his question was rhetorical.