COVID-19 and Environmental Racism: Challenges and Recommendations

Anuli U Njoku

doi:10.21601/ejeph/10999

Abstract

COVID-19, the pandemic of highly contagious respiratory disease, presents a global public health emergency. Racial and ethnic minority groups in the USA are more likely to contract, be hospitalized with, and die from COVID-19 versus whites, highlighting glaring health disparities. Injustices such as the persistent issue of police brutality against Blacks in the USA, along with the racial disparities and inequities underscored by the COVID-19 pandemic, have brought renewed global focus to issues of social justice in the USA. Moreover, there is a need to examine how environmental racism intensifies the COVID-19 pandemic and illuminates racial inequities in exposure to environmental pollutants. This article describes environmental racism and its impact on people of color in the USA, critically examines how this practice elevates disease risk among racial and ethnic minorities already susceptible to COVID-19, and proposes recommendations to tackle this pervasive issue.

Highlights

The world has been beset by “coronavirus disease 2019” (COVID-19), a pandemic of lower respiratory tract disease resulting in severe illness and potential death from pneumonia-like symptoms (Ameh et al, 2020; Sohrabi et al, 2020; Young et al, 2020; Zhu et al, 2020)
United States (U.S.) data indicates that racial and ethnic minority groups are bearing a disproportionate burden of COVID-19-associated outcomes (CDC, 2021c)
The established risk factors for COVID-19 complications need to be examined within the context of the social determinants of health, such as environmental racism, that place U.S communities of color at increased risk for disease and mortality

Summary

Introduction

The world has been beset by “coronavirus disease 2019” (COVID-19), a pandemic of lower respiratory tract disease resulting in severe illness and potential death from pneumonia-like symptoms (Ameh et al, 2020; Sohrabi et al, 2020; Young et al, 2020; Zhu et al, 2020). The COVID-19 pandemic presents an international public health emergency (World Health Organization (WHO), 2021). The CDC advises people to seek medical care if they are sick with COVID-19 (CDC, 2021a). Persons at higher risk for COVID-19 include adults of any age with certain underlying medical conditions such as cancer, heart conditions, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), weakened immune system, Down syndrome, obesity, smoking, type 2 diabetes mellitus, pregnancy, and sickle cell disease (CDC, 2021b). Black/African Americans, Hispanic/Latinx persons, and American Indian or Alaska Native, Non-Hispanic persons are more likely to contract, be hospitalized with, and die from COVID-19, when compared to non-Hispanic whites (CDC, 2021c)

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