Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams said on Friday that it is alarming, but it’s not surprising that minorities are having a higher mortality rate during the coronavirus pandemic. Adams said it’s not because they are genetically predisposed to get COVID-19, the highly contagious respiratory illness caused by the new coronavirus. “The chronic burden of medical ills is likely to make people of color especially less resilient to the ravages of COVID-19," Adams said. In Chicago, about 30% of the population identified as black, yet about 70% of the COVID-19 patients who died are black. In Milwaukee, about 26% of the population identified as black, yet 66% of the patients who died are black.