Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Rep. Yadira Caraveo speaks to Antonio Jaramillo about Marshall, his almost-two-year-old, in an exam room at Peak Pediatrics in Thornton. Dec. 17, 2020.
In early December, with coronavirus deaths and hospitalizations at the highest levels of pandemic, Colorado’s top public health leader took questions from the state legislature’s Joint Budget Committee.
The topic was health disparities, which have been underscored by the crisis.
The tension was clear between Jill Hunsaker Ryan, executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, and committee member Rep. Leslie Herod, who chairs the Black Democratic Legislative Caucus.
After a presentation from Ryan, Herod, from Denver, one of the six members on the bipartisan panel, noted that last summer Ryan’s agency and the governor had declared racism a public health emergency.