The COVID-19 virus was once called the “great equalizer” because of its potential to infect anyone and everyone at pandemic speed. But data on mortality rates tell a different story.

Instead of affecting everyone equally, the coronavirus is amplifying the racial disparities in health outcomes across the United States. The disparities result from the country’s own pre-existing condition: an environment where people’s living and working conditions are anything but equal when it comes to pollution levels and protection from harmful toxins.

These disparities are most visible in urban environments that have become pandemic hot spots. There, the coronavirus kills a higher percentage of minorities than it does of the cities’ overall populations.

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In the nation’s pandemic epicenter, New York City, black and Latino people die at about twice the rate of the total population. In Chicago, the disparity is even more dramatic: Black people account for about 70 percent of coronavirus deaths but make up roughly 30 percent of the city’s population.

In early April, before Wisconsin went ahead with in-person voting, about 80 percent of Milwaukee’s coronavirus fatalities were black people, though the black share of the city’s population is just 25 percent. Since then, seven more coronavirus cases have been linked to voting on Election Day, but the full impact of virus spread is not yet known.

While these statistics shocked many, environmental-justice experts and advocates were not surprised.

“You can’t equalize from a gross place of inequality in a pandemic,” says Michael McAfee, president and CEO of PolicyLink, in an interview with the Prospect. “I think the story line that is being missed is that we are here by design, we are here by our arrogance, we are here by our lack of leadership, we are here because our institutions have stopped caring and knowing how to serve those most in need. Our disinvestment is coming back to haunt us, but it was hiding in plain sight already.”

About 70 percent of black people in the U.S. live in counties where pollution levels exceed federal standards.

Although there are regulations and limits on harmful toxins used in industries ranging from energy to farming, those rules are not always followed and the impacts disproportionately affect minorities. About 70 percent of black people in the U.S. live in counties where pollution levels exceed federal standards and thus violate federal law, according to the EPA.

Black and Hispanic people are also more likely to work essential jobs, meaning they are still going to work, risking coronavirus exposure with limited protections and protective gear. In many cities, minorities make up a major share of essential public-sector employees, operating and maintaining buses and subways, working in public hospitals and clinics.

The wide range of environmental factors at home and at work—as well as differences in access to regular health care—have long been determinants in people’s health. Before the coronavirus, it was known that black people are more likely to have asthma or develop cancer because of regular exposure to harmful toxins. Black children are also more likely to die from an asthma attack than their white peers. And black people are also more likely to have lung disease than white people, even though they are less likely to smoke cigarettes.