Read Coronavirus War Room’s Racial Disparity Report Here
On a virtual press event this afternoon, US Senator Cory Booker, Representative Lauren Underwood (IL-14), and Protect Our Care’s Chair Leslie Dach joined the Coronavirus War Room to discuss racial disparities in the coronavirus pandemic and efforts taken by the Biden administration, leaders in Congress, health care workers, and communities all over the country to address them.
In addition, Protect Our Care’s Coronavirus War Room announced the release of a new report, Crisis Within A Crisis: How The Pandemic Has Taken a Disproportionate Health, Economic, and Social Toll on Black Americans, February 2021. The report highlights how the COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated existing racial disparities in public health spaces. The report focuses specifically on the Black community and the multi-dimensional challenges it has endured during the pandemic as a result of years of structural racism. It outlines how communities of color are disproportionately affected in this crisis in nearly every area – from infection rates and health outcomes to economic impacts and vaccine distribution rates. It also seeks to highlight the efforts of BIPOC experts and doctors working on this issue and how the Biden Administration and community leaders are now focusing on addressing the crisis.
“In this report, Protect Our Care has laid out the stark reality that people of color are facing every day of this pandemic,” said Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ). “We are facing multiple crises at once: first, a deadly disease that we know is disproportionately affecting and taking the lives of people of color happening in the context of a health care system saddled and saturated with inequity that has historically failed — and continues to fail — people of color. Second, an economic crisis that is exacerbating already existing inequalities and injustices in our nation. I’m grateful that President Biden has a plan and has proposed something at the scale that we need to confront this public health and economic crisis.”
“The stark racial disparities in COVID-19 outcomes exacerbate underlying inequities that predated the spread of this virus in the United States,” said Representative Lauren Underwood (IL-14). “Longstanding health disparities, driven by structural racism and disparate level of access to health care, are driving disproportionate levels of severe illness and death, and lower vaccination rates within the Black community. We need to take bold and targeted action to make the investments that will be needed to not only end this pandemic, but also rebuild our health care system and public health infrastructure on a foundation of equity.”
“The American Rescue Plan has critical provisions that will address these disparities and make a dramatic difference for communities of color,” said Leslie Dach, Chair of Protect Our Care. “They include Representative Underwood’s bill that will make health care more affordable to millions of Americans and get more people covered. It includes provisions to be sure that those states who have refused to expand Medicaid have greater incentives to do so, which could mean 4 to 6 million people could get covered, including 60 percent of those being people of color. It also includes critical provisions on vaccine distribution, renter relief, and increased unemployment insurance.These provisions are supported by majorities of Democrats and Republicans, in blue states and in red states. We need to pass the American Rescue Plan and we need to pass it quickly.”