Ohio Senator Steve Huffman Claims ‘Colored Population’ Have Higher COVID-19 Cases Due To Poor Handwashing
Ohio state Senator Steve Huffman, a Republican, is the latest official being asked to resign, this after he claimed “black people or the colored population” show higher COVID-19 cases due to poor handwashing. Currently, the CDC shows around 33 percent of patients are black.
Huffman, who is also an emergency room physician, made the offensive suggestion during an Ohio Senate Health Committee hearing on Tuesday, where officials gathered to determine if the state should declare racism a public health crisis.
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The Senator stated, “I understand that African Americans have a higher incidence of prior conditions and it makes them more susceptible to death from COVID. But why it does not make them more susceptible just to get COVID? We know it’s twice as often. Correct? 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 just be maybe the explanation of why there’s a higher incidence?”
Countering his suggestion, a black woman and the director of the Ohio Commission on Minority Health, Angela Dawson, rebutted, “That is not the opinion of leading medical experts in this country.” She notes that the reason for higher cases is not found in handwashing data, but rather, preexisting disparities in chronic conditions and health care.
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While trying to clarify his comments with The Columbus Dispatch, Huffman claimed he’d asked the question “in an unintentionally awkward way that was perceived as hurtful and was exactly the opposite of what I meant.”
He says, “I was trying to focus on why COVID-19 affects people of color at a higher rate since we really do not know all the reasons,”