. >> a city divided is an adage that's long held true for richie torres, city councilman. >> god bless you. >> we want to provide people with a warm meal, groceries, a mask. and water. >> he, too, recently recovered from covid-19. si nstuts has meant seeing a little less face. >> i can't recognize anyone with a mask. >> i know. >> youngest ever elected to new york city council at 25 now 32 and running to represent the poorest congressional district in the country, vowing to improve public housing. >> i felt that public housing had become the forgotten city. i could advocate from a place of experience. i grew up hire hat at 2761. apartment 2apartment. my maternal family has been living here for two generations. my grandmother moved here, one of the first puerto ricans. hey, ma. love you. >> love you more, love you more. >> my mother is 60, has hypertension. so you have to maintain distance from your own loved ones for their own protection. >> her hypertension, one of the many invisible ties bonding poverty to poor health. this borough, home to waste treatment facilities and tucked betwe

. >> reporter: richie torres told our juju chang that social distancing in the projects he grew up inw represents is impossible. >> my maternal family has been living here for three generations. my mother's 60. she has hypertension, so you have to maintain distance from your own loved ones for their own protection. >> that takes a toll on the body. >> the difference in life expectancy between the south bronx and the upper east side of manhattan is ten years. so poverty is poison. >> almost every patient i saw was covid-positive was a female. >> reporter: in chicago, this doctor works the front line of this crisis. >> minority neighborhoods, the number of positive cases is twice, even three-times the number of positive cases we're seeing in white, more affluent neighborhoods. >> reporter: del rios told our deborah roberts we're seeing the impact of healthcare systems that have been mistreating minorities for generations. >> when a person who walks into a hospital, are they are already at a disadvantage? >> there are multiple studies that suggest that you are more likely to be triaged a