Disparities

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• 1A: Coronavirus: Death Toll Racial Disparities
  WAMU 1A, 4/13/2020;
  Producer: Haili Blassingame, Host: Sasha-Ann Simons.
  Guests:
  Tegan Wendland, lead coastal reporter, WWNO
  Maria Zamudio, investigative reporter, race, class and communities desk, WBEZ
  Dr. Sharrelle Barber, assistant research professor of epidemiology and biostatistics, Drexel University.
  
  
• As Coronavirus Cases Rise, Navajo Nation Tries To Get Ahead Of Pandemic
  Laurel Morales, NPR, April 4, 2020
  
• Coronavirus, Pubic Health, & Their Relationship to Health Inequities (3:37)
  Lovell Jones on health inequities and why they continue to be an issue. Recorded two years ago, his remarks illustrate why we should not be surprised at the inadequacy of our society's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the major disparities in its impact.
• COVID-19 Medical Vulnerability Indicators: A Predictive, Local Data Model for Equity in Public Health Decision Making
  Paul M. Ong, Chhandara Pech, Nataly Rios Gutierrez, Vickie M. Mays. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(9), 4829; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18094829
  Abstract
  This article reports the outcome of a project to develop and assess a predictive model of vulnerability indicators for COVID-19 infection in Los Angeles County. Multiple data sources were used to construct four indicators for zip code tabulation areas: (1) pre-existing health condition, (2) barriers to accessing health care, (3) built environment risk, and (4) the CDC’s social vulnerability. The assessment of the indicators finds that the most vulnerable neighborhoods are characterized by significant clustering of racial minorities. An overwhelming 73% of Blacks reside in the neighborhoods with the two highest levels of pre-existing health conditions. For the barriers to accessing health care indicator, 40% of Latinx reside in the highest vulnerability places. The built environment indicator finds that selected Asian ethnic groups (63%), Latinx (55%), and Blacks (53%) reside in the neighborhoods designated as high or the highest vulnerability. The social vulnerability indicator finds 42% of Blacks and Latinx and 38% of selected Asian ethnic group residing in neighborhoods of high vulnerability. The vulnerability indicators can be adopted nationally to respond to COVID-19. The metrics can be utilized in data-driven decision making of re-openings or resource distribution such as testing, vaccine distribution and other pandemic-related resources to ensure equity for the most vulnerable.
• Global Movement for Sustainable Health Equity
  The movement for sustainable health equity gathers people and networks from all regions, cultures and ideologies around the ethical principle of the universal right to health, bringing the ethical principle of equity to the global fight against Covid-19 and to the new world order emerging from it.
• In Black Communities’ Fight Against COVID-19, The Real ‘Pre-Existing Condition’ Is Poverty (30 min)
  Stacia Brown & Frank Stasio, WUNC The State of Things, April 22, 2020
  Host Frank Stasio talks about the race disparity during the COVID-19 pandemic with Lori Carter-Edwards, an associate professor at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, and William “Sandy” Darity, director of the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University.
• In Chicago, 70% of COVID-19 Deaths Are Black
  Maria Ines Zamudio, Elliott Ramos, WBEZ News, April 5, 2020
• Indian Country, where residents suffer disproportionately from disease, is bracing for coronavirus
  Dana Hedgpeth, Darryl Fears and Gregory Scruggs; The Washington Post, April 4, 2020
  Conditions in Indian Country are ripe for a rapid spread of the coronavirus. Rates of infection among Navajos is a major concern.
• PBS Frontline: Covering Coronavirus: Indian Country (17 min)
  Native American communities were already dealing with underfunded health services. Then the coronavirus outbreak began. Journalist Antonia Gonzales, herself a member of the Native community, reports from New Mexico — where Navajo Nation, one of the largest tribes in the country, has seen a higher rate of confirmed COVID-19 cases than most states. (Audio; includes transcript)
• Poverty Amidst Pandemic: A Moral Response to COVID-19
  The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us into an unprecedented national emergency. This emergency, however, results from a deeper and much longer-term crisis - that of poverty and inequality and of a society that ignores the needs of 140 million people who are poor or a $400 emergency away from being poor.
• Racial Health Disparities and Covid-19 — Caution and Context
  Merlin Chowkwanyun, Ph.D., M.P.H., and Adolph L. Reed, Jr., Ph.D. New England Journal of Medicine, May 6, 2020
  DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp2012910
  "... to mitigate myths of racial biology, behavioral explanations predicated on racial stereotypes, and territorial stigmatization, Covid-19 disparities should be situated in the context of material resource deprivation caused by low SES, chronic stress brought on by racial discrimination, or place-based risk."
• Rush to Vote-by-Mail could cost Dems the Election Mail-in Voting puts Millions of Minority Ballots at Risk
  April 16, 2020, Greg Palast for Nation of Change
  In 2016, 512,696 mail-in ballots—over half a million—were simply rejected, not counted. That’s official, from the federal Elections Assistance Commission (EAC).
  But that’s just the tip of the ballot-berg of uncounted mail-in votes. A study by MIT, Losing Votes by Mail, puts the total loss of mail-in votes at a breathtaking 22%.
• Something Inside: COVID-19 weekly Facebook Live forum
  Wednesdays, 5:00 PM PT/ 8:00 PM ET
  Join hosts Hilary Beard, Phill Wilson, and Dr. Camara Jones for informative and engaging conversations about the impact of COVID-19 on communities of color. Ten episodes online and more to come.
  
• The Fierce Urgency Of Now: Closing Glaring Gaps In US Surveillance Data On COVID-19
  Nancy Krieger, Gregg Gonsalves, Mary T. Bassett, William Hanage, Harlan M. Krumholz. Health Affairs, April 14, 2020
  "... we assert the time is now for the COVID-19 public health surveillance system to record and publicly share the critical data needed to protect the people’s health and prevent health inequities."
  
  
• UNC SOM Center for Health Equity Research COVID-19 webinars and resources
• Webinar: Pursuing Data on COVID-19: The Health Inequity Multiplier
  Webinar Apr 28, 2020, 12:00PM - 1:30PM ET, Roundtable on the Promotion of Health Equity
  Objectives:
  Provide an overview of COVID-19 demographic data: what we know now
  Outline limitations of data as it stands: methodological, organizational and political
  Share any substantive, validated disaggregated data that describe potential areas of disparity, including race, gender, geography, and socioeconomic status
  Speakers:
  Stephen B. Thomas, PhD, Director, Maryland Center for Health Equity
  Lawrence Brown, PhD, MPA, Director, County Health Rankings & Roadmaps
  Rebekah Gee, MD, MS, MPH (NAM), CEO, Louisiana State University Healthcare Services