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.