The COVID-19 pandemic "exposes the inequalities that have been hidden for a long time," Stephen Ndegwa, a scholar at the Nairobi-based United States International University-Africa, has told Xinhua.
"Saying that America is the land of the free, is the land of equality, is a fallacy," he said, adding that "when the crash (COVID-19) came, the United States was unable to treat everyone equally."
The numbers of COVID-19 cases were surging in more than half of U.S. states and territories, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently.
Inequality in access to the vaccine and a racial gap have impacted the success of the nation's vaccination campaign. Federal figures show that counties with higher percentages of black residents have lower vaccination rates in the country.
Produced by Xinhua Global Service
