Non-black Hispanic/Latinos Spend More Time Outdoors and Have Lower COVID-19 Morbidity Than Non-Hispanic/Latinos

Abstract

We recently showed African Americans have higher COVID-19 mortality rates than would be expected from their frequency in the population, and showed this effect increases with decreasing solar irradiance. On April 13th 2020, the headline article in Science magazine's Daily News and Headlines lumped African Americans with Latinos and suggested their overrepresentation among COVID-19 victims is due to their inability to carry out social distancing at home and at work. We tested this hypothesis by looking at COVID-19 morbidity among white versus black Latinos, and among Latino and non-Latino whites, Asian and Native Americans in Georgia. The results showed Latino/Hispanic ethnicity exhibited reduced rather than increased COVID-19 morbidity. We show Latinos spend more time outdoors, consistent with a role of irradiance in COVID-19 prevention.

Note: Funding: No funding.

Conflict of Interest: No conflicts of interest.

Keywords: COVID-19, coronavirus, african american, black, latino, hispanic, outdoors, irradiance, sunlight