BUFFALO (WBEN) - The University at Buffalo and other local officials held a press conference Wednesday morning as they believe the UB-community partnership has better situated the city to handle the COVID-19 pandemic than many communities across the nation.
In fact, they're suggesting that Buffalo may be one of few American cities that has been able to reduce the percentage of COVID-19 fatalities among African Americans.
The partnership between UB's Community Health Equity Research Institute, the African American Health Equity Task Force and the Buffalo Center for Health Equity also puts Western New York in a better position for the challenges that lay ahead later this fall and winter, they said.
"If you look at national numbers, 34% of COVID-19 deaths are among African Americans," said Liberty Missionary Baptist Church Pastor Kinzer Pointer, who also serves on the African American Health Equity Task Force. African Americans comprise a much smaller proportion of the U.S. population, at 13%.
However, in Erie County, Pointer noted, since the pandemic began, African Americans have comprised 16% of COVID-19 deaths and they make up 14% of the county's population.
"We may be the only community in the country that's been able to mute the impact of this pandemic, and that's directly attributable to the work we did with our university partners that started in previous years," he said. "There is a real commitment to shoulder this together and not just watch people die."
That cautious optimism was also expressed by Tim Murphy, MD, director of the Community Health Equity Research Institute and UB's Clinical and Translational Science Institute.
"The fact that this community-university partnership was able to mitigate the high mortality among African Americans in the first wave puts us in a position to build on that achievement during this coming flu season and a possible second wave," he said. "And it's something that can be replicated in other communities."
