A study published last week in the Social Science & Medicine journal found that paying $250,000 in reparations to individual descendants of slaves, or $800,000 per family, could have mitigated coronavirus transmission rates among black Americans. The Harvard study analyzes the effects of "pre-intervention" reparations—or payments if they had existed before the coronavirus pandemic—on COVID-19 contact rates and transmission of the virus.
Dr. Michelle Morse—one of the Harvard Medical School assistant professors who led the study—told the Harvard Crimson that reparations "could have been as effective" at combating the coronavirus in African-American communities as a vaccine. Duke University professor William Darity, an economist and reparations advocate who co-authored the Harvard study, recently estimated that such payments would cost up to $12 trillion.
"Show me da money!"
The Harvard team's research was conducted as part of the Lancet Commission on Reparations and Redistributive Justice, which is expected to release a full report on worldwide reparations this summer.
The study was published days before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties held a hearing on H.R. 40, a bill that would establish a reparations task force to study the lasting effects of slavery and segregation and "recommend appropriate remedies." More than 170 Democrats have cosponsored the bill, which has gained traction since Democrats took control of Congress in January.