Dr. David R. Williams, Florence Sprague Norman and Laura Smart Norman Professor of Public Health and chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, has been recently featured in The Verge’s “American Set Up Black Communities to be Harder Hit by COVID-19” and The Harvard Gazette’s “COVID-19 targets communities of color”.
In the both articles, Dr. Williams raises concerns about COVID-19 and how it is particularly dangerous against African Americans who suffer from social and healthy inequalities. Such inequalities include jobs that cannot be done from home, higher rates of chronic conditions, and poorer access and quality of health care.
“When you look at [COVID-19] that particularly is virulent for persons who have higher rates of disease, that’s exactly the picture of African Americans. But it’s not their genes.” he says in The Verge. “It’s the social conditions that we have created. I hope this is a wake up call for America.”
