U.S. lawmakers declare racism a public health emergency
Long before a white police officer killed George Floyd and sparked nationwide outrage, long before Covid-19 began killing Black people at twice the rate of their white counterparts, doctors and health experts were raising alarms that systematic racism is itself a pervasive, deadly pandemic – one that kills both instantaneously and insidiously, burdens Black and Brown Americans with generational trauma, contributes to higher rates of infant mortality and heart disease, and even speeds up the ageing process.
Now, amid a national reckoning with entrenched inequality, lawmakers are finally hearing those alarms – and officially declaring racism a public health emergency. The city councils of Cleveland, Denver and Indianapolis have voted to acknowledge a crisis. Officials in San Bernardino county, California, and Montgomery county, Maryland, have done the same. State representatives in Ohio and Michigan are looking to follow suit.
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These declarations are “long overdue”, said Dr Allison Agwu, an infectious disease specialist and associate professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. As a physician on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic, Agwu said she had been amazed at how quickly the medical establishment mobilized to develop diagnostic tests, and produce thousands of research papers seeking a treatment and vaccine. If the government can commit the same sorts of resources and funds to addressing issues of systemic racism, Agwu said, “That’s a start.”
The stark health disparities in the cities and counties that have declared emergencies have been clear for decades. In Cleveland, the city where a white officer shot and killed with impunity 12-year-old Tamir Rice, Black infants are nearly three times as likely to die as white infants. Maternal mortality rates for Black women are two to three times greater compared to white women, and neighborhoods where the majority of residents are Black have the highest rates of lead poisoning.
“Even as an elected official, when I’m driving, when the police drive up behind me – I feel a sense of nervousness that comes over me, “ said Basheer Jones, a Cleveland council member who introduced legislation declaring racism a health crisis. “The trauma of seeing your children, your sons, your daughters, your wives being killed, in living color – that kind of stress … also plays a part in the ailments that affect our bodies.”
