COVID-19 The emergence of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) spun the world into a global pandemic that resulted in more than 200 million people being infected by the virus and over 4 million deaths worldwide. Individuals with pre-existing conditions or overall poor health were those hardest hit by the pandemic. In the United States “the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) revealed deep seated inequities in health and healthcare for communities of color and amplified the impact of social and economic factors” that are already contributing to poor health outcomes (SAMHSA, 2020). Most disadvantaged by these social and economic conditions were Black and Latinx individuals (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2020). Consequently, it is not surprising that while life expectancy in the United States decreased by a full year 2020 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the decrease for Black and Latino populations was far greater. Climate Change The National Academy of Medicine (2020) has suggested that climate change will be one the most significant threats to human health in the 21 st century and the negative impacts of the change will “disproportionately affect the very young, the very old, people who are ill, those impoverished or homeless, and populations that depend on the natural environment for survival.” Long-standing racist policies such as racial segregation and locating waste disposal sites near low-income communities will exacerbate the impact of climate change on people of color and impoverished communities (Rysavy and Floyd, 2020). Moreover, the United States Global Change Research Council warned that the adverse health consequences of climate changes are projected to worsen with additional changes to our climate (USGCRP, 2018). Food Insecurity According to Feeding America, as many as 54 million people across the country may be food insecure (2020). Those who are food insecure are more likely to experience diet-sensitive chronic diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Young people who are food insecure are also likely to experience significant delays in development. Moreover, food insecurity does not exist in a vacuum, rather is it shaped by the unequal distribution of material, social, and cultural resources and is exacerbated by existing inequities in the broader food system. Therefore, food insecurity cannot be changed by feeding people, but by changing the unjust and oppressive social structures, processes, and practices that put the ultimate control of power and wealth in the hands of the few (Borras & Mohamed, 2020). Health Insurance On the positive side, the number of uninsured in the U.S. dropped from nearly 46.5 million in 2010 to 28.79 million in 2019 as a result of the Affordable Care Act (KFF, 2020). Still, out of about 30 million uninsured individuals, about half of them are Black. Some of the states with the highest proportion of Black residents were also states that refused to expand Medicaid coverage under the ACA (Kirby & Kaneda, 2010). Additionally, the rate of uninsured individuals has increased each year since 2016 due to the elimination of the ACA’s individual mandate for coverage.
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