Dr. Nancy Krieger, Professor of Social Epidemiology, has recently written “ENOUGH: COVID-19, Structural Racism, Police Brutality, Plutocracy, Climate Change—and Time for Health Justice, Democratic Governance, and an Equitable, Sustainable Future” in the American Journal of Public Health.
In the article, Dr. Krieger is alarmed by the continuation of police brutality that has resulted in the death of George Floyd and other innocent Black Americans, the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 in communities of color, and other social injustices that has resulted in preventable health inequalities.
“US Black and American Indian populations have long lived sicker and shorter lives than the US White non-Hispanic population,” she writes. “The pattern repeats with COVID-19. Higher burdens of COVID-19 cases and deaths, especially among working-age adults—and in surges of death overall—are documented among communities with high proportions of people of color, high poverty, crowded housing, and high levels of racialized economic segregation.”
