Racism and Public Health

When Boston’s Brigham and Women's Hospital dug into the details of COVID-19 deaths, it forced a reckoning with hospital policy.   For one, patients, often Latino, who spoke little or no English had a 35% greater chance of death. Also, lower-paid hospital workers getting…

Yesterday’s conviction of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in the murder of George Floyd delivered justice and a measure of relief for many.  But Black Americans who witness such violence through the news and social media endure lingering mental health…

Birth workers of color believe that growing their ranks could help improve outcomes for Black mothers and babies—but it’s also an access issue.  

Days after declaring racism a “serious public health threat,” the CDC released a pair of studies quantifying COVID-19’s disproportionate toll on America’s communities of color,

Horrific anti-Asian violence in the US during this pandemic is part of a long line of outbreaks fueling fear of the “other.”

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: