If reparations for the descendants of slaves had been made before the pandemic, transmissions of the virus could have been significantly reduced not only for Black Americans, but across racial groups, suggests a new study co-authored by William A. Darity, Jr. “We demonstrate that had a program of reparations for black American descendants of US slavery been enacted prior to the pandemic—had the nation already closed the racial wealth gap—infection rates and mortality would have been dramatically lower not only for black Americans but for all Americans,” Darity said. The study appears in the journal Social Science & Medicine. Read more here.