Racism and Public Health

The Tuskegee syphilis study—which deceived Black men into thinking they were being treated for “bad blood” when they really had untreated syphilis—is a ubiquitous part of the public narrative around minorities’ mistrust of the medical establishment.  

That’s the sentiment in Atlanta’s Asian American community after a gunman shot and killed 6 Asian women and 2 others Tuesday night at 3 massage parlors,

Black citizens of Seminole Nation are being denied COVID-19 vaccines, pandemic financial relief, and other services—underscoring a long-standing tension between tribal governments and citizens descended from slaves.  

A new 

People of color continue to bear a disproportionate burden of the ~3,400 US health care worker deaths since the pandemic began, according to an ongoing Guardian project.   Key findings: 

The Lunar New Year is headed for a sad beginning as a spate of attacks—some against elderly people—have highlighted the rise of anti-Asian racism since the first COVID-19 cases were identified in China.    

Botched US efforts to collect demographic data on early COVID-19 vaccine recipients are making it tough to measure equity in early vaccine distribution. Key points:

In 2014, Detroit began turning off the taps of residents who couldn’t pay their water bills—most of them poor and Black.   The pandemic has triggered a moratorium until 2022 on depriving water to those who can’t pay—but a permanent solution is still out of reach.

For many detainees in US immigration facilities, the coronavirus was impossible to avoid. They were sleeping 3 feet apart with 36 people in a room.

The data show that communities of color have been hit the hardest in the pandemic—yet many still do not see systemic racism as a barrier to good health.