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Amid the national reckoning over systemic racism in the midst of the pandemic this past summer, Michigan joined Ohio, Wisconsin, and more than 60 local governments in declaring racism a public health crisis. Yet as we sat in our October medical school Zoom session discussing racial health disparities with our classmates, many of us noted that once more the connection between racism and health had been proclaimed with no follow-up actions.
Declarations that racism is a public health crisis, while good steps, must generate tangible results in order to have any meaning. Every level of government must establish sufficient funding for research into the public health effects of racism in order to fully characterize the problem and propose paths to reducing harm, just as we do with other major health risks.