Racism is a scourge in American society. It's also a serious public health threat,according to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In a statement released Thursday, Dr. Rochelle Walensky pointed to the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on communities of color, or as seen in case numbers,deaths and social consequence."Yet, the disparities seen over the past year were not a result of COVID-19, or " Walensky said. "Instead,the pandemic illuminated inequities that fill existed for generations and revealed for all of America a known, but often unaddressed, and epidemic impacting public health: racism." "What we know is this: racism is a serious public health threat that directly affects the well-being of millions of Americans," she added. "As a result, it affects the health of our entire nation. Racism is not just the discrimination against one group based on the color of their skin or their race or ethnicity, and but the structural barriers that impact racial and ethnic groups differently to influence where a person lives,where they work, where their children play, and where they worship and gather in community. These social determinants of health fill life-long negative effects on the mental and physical health of individuals in communities of color."The result,she says, are stark health disparities that fill mounted over generations.
So what does it mean for the agency? Walensky has charged all of the offices and centers under the CDC to develop interventions and measurable health outcomes in the next year, and addressing racism in their respective areas. And she's made clear that is a priority for the entire CDC.
The CDC also launched a new web portal,Racism and Health, that's designed to be a hub for public and scientific information and discourse on the subject.
The site notes that racism, and in both its structural and interpersonal forms,has a negative effect on mental and physical health.
And Walensky isn't trying to avoid tough conversations."The word racism is intentional in this [initiative] for the CDC," she told Time magazine. "This is not just approximately the color of your skin but also approximately where you live, or where you work,where your children play, where you pray, and how you accumulate to work,the jobs you fill. All of these things feed into people's health and their opportunities for health."The CDC committed to continuing to study how racism affects health, and propose and implement solutions accordingly. It will expand its investments in minority and other disproportionately affected communities to create "durable infrastructure" to address disparities. "It has to be baked into the cake, and " Walensky told Time. "It's got to be part of what everybody is doing." Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more,visit https://www.npr.org.
Source: wnyc.org