ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic is a critical public health concern that has disproportionately affected the Black community in the United States. The purpose of this study was to examine the risk and protective factors faced by residents in the City of Miami Gardens during the COVID-19 pandemic, with emphases placed on racial health disparities and Black heterogeneity. Using convenience and snowball sampling, quantitative and qualitative data for this study were collected via an anonymous online questionnaire using QuestionPro. Survey links were distributed by e-mail invitations with assistance from city officials to the residents of this predominantly Black city in Florida (n = 83). Descriptive statistics and relevant qualitative responses are presented. Furthermore, a machine learning (ML) approach was used to select the most critical variables that characterized the two racial groups (Black versus non-Black participants) based on four ML feature selectors. Study findings offered important and interesting insights. Specifically, despite the greater prevalence of adopting measures to protect themselves and others from COVID-19, Black participants were more susceptible to activities that increased their COVID-19 risk levels. In addition, their rate of infection, particularly among the Afro-Caribbean ethnic group, was reported to be higher, indicating the need to further investigate the underlying conditions and root causes (including vaccine hesitancy and refusal) that contribute to their greater health disparities. © The Author(s) 2023.