COVID-19 has exposed the devastating realities of long-standing structural racism in the United States.
Dr Susan Moore died of COVID-19 in December, after making a video and declaring: “I put forth and I maintain: If I was white, I wouldn’t have to go through that.”
Four female African American medical professionals put it bluntly in a
Washington Post Op-Ed on December 26: “Susan Moore’s death underscores the racism embedded in the United States health care system.”
Aletha Maybank is chief health equity officer at the American Medical Association. Camara Phyllis Jones is a family physician, epidemiologist and past president of the American Public Health Association. Uché Blackstock is founder and CEO of Advancing Health Equity. Joia Crear Perry is president of the National Birth Equity Collaborative.
New York State Team
Racial and ethnic disparities have emerged in the COVID-19 vaccination push in New York and threaten to extend suffering in the communities hit hardest by coronavirus infections and deaths, new data show.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday released statistics showing African American, Hispanic and Latino essential workers and elderly received disproportionately fewer COVID vaccine shots than whites.
Among the new numbers:
African-Americans represented 17% of eligible essential workers, including teachers, police, firefighters and other select jobs in Phase 1b, but only 5% of vaccine recipients in the group.
Hispanic or Latino people represented 12% of the population of New Yorkers age 65 and above eligible, but only 5% of vaccine recipients in the group.
What we know (and don t know) about COVID-19 vaccinations among Black, Latino people in NY David Robinson, New York State Team
Nurse relieved after getting COVID vaccine
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As New York state’s slow COVID-19 vaccine rollout gained momentum last month, Gov. Andrew Cuomo credited government transparency with helping turn the tide.
“We got more aggressive, talking about percentages, showing transparency, people across the state what regions were doing what, what facilities were doing what,” he said during a press briefing on Jan. 20, as vaccinations topped 1.1 million.
But two weeks later as vaccinations approached 2 million, Cuomo has not yet revealed how many potentially life-saving COVID-19 vaccine doses are going to people of color hit hardest by coronavirus deaths, despite mounting concerns about racial disparity in the vaccination push in New York and across the country.
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Influential Black Americans nominated these these trailblazers.
By GMA Teamvia
• 141 min read
ABC News Photo Illustration
Black History Month has become a time-honored tradition since it was first conceptualized as Negro History Week in 1925 by Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), and first celebrated in 1926. In 1976, honoring the heritage of Black Americans became a month-long celebration, officially recognized in the United States by President Gerald R. Ford.
Now more than ever, February is a time to remember the people who have enriched the community with knowledge, pride and respect. We recognize the contributions, struggles and history of African Americans, and reflect on the idea that Black History is at the heart of American history.Welcome to the first
After her longtime friend died of COVID-19, Abigail Echo-Hawk sat in her chair crying.
She wondered if her friend and mentor, a Native American like her, would be counted among the deaths – a worry that only added to her grief.
“I couldn’t help this thought that ran through my head: Is his story going to be present in the data? Or did we lose him even there?” she said of the tribal leader in his mid-50s.
Echo-Hawk is chief research officer at the Seattle Indian Health Board and a member of the We Must Count Coalition. The group of health equity leaders calls for better health data tracking to shed light on racial disparities because people of color suffer disproportionate rates of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths as a result of longstanding systemic inequities and racism.