The Impact of Race and Ethnicity on COVID-19 Outcomes: Audio Commentary

Systemic racism, which includes race-based residential segregation, school and occupational segregation, concentrated poverty, intergenerational wealth, and mass incarceration, causes inequity in the social environment of Black Americans including population density, low housing quality, lack of food and water security, low air quality, excess social stressors, police violence, and lack of access to healthcare. These factors all influence negative health outcomes and exacerbate the inequities we are witnessing with the number of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths due to COVID-19 in the United States. By recognizing and studying the causes of health inequities, we can create public health policies and mitigation efforts that will improve social and political conditions in the country and protect communities of color from shouldering unequal burdens