Cultural differences and Covid cases

I was browsing an NIH study on Covid in Boston which reported that most people hospitalized with it would recover. Good news, right? Well, there's a racial disparity. Covid19 disproportionately affects people of color, and the researchers found a large number of their patients were Hispanic (30 percent) or Black (10 percent). Well, that didn't look very alarming to me, and I'm not a demographer. So I took a quick look at the population of Boston. Now, some ZIP codes are 60-70% minority, but overall, the population is 28.2% black and either 17.5 or 19.7% Hispanic depending on the source. If viruses cared about equity, there would be more blacks and fewer Hispanics in Boston with Covid.

Because "Hispanic" is a made up term, people in that demographic are not a racial group, but black or white or multiracial people who either speak Spanish, or whose parents did. So checking further, I did find an article that seems to indicate black Hispanics do more poorly than white Hispanics, and overall, Hispanics use more intensive care and support than other groups. When the data diving has finally used up all the grant money, I think researchers will find a cultural element to these infection numbers. We have been warned about keeping our distance from the beginning of this viral spread, and if you have any experience outside your own neighborhood, you know that personal space differs widely among cultures. People of Latin American and Southern European countries require less personal space according to research, and Asians are comfortable with more distance and will start backing up if you get too close. Europeans (including the majority of white Americans), Asian Indians and Native Americans prefer something in the middle. So think about how viruses spread. Close up and personal. Little tiny virus particles clinging to bits of droplets expelled when breathing, talking or singing.