The pandemic has highlighted the complex links between inequality, racism and disease risk in America. Harvard public health scholar David Williams explains.
Sign up for our newsletter: [ Ссылка ]
The coronavirus pandemic has affected everyone, but in the United States, communities of color have recorded a disproportionate number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths. In this video, Harvard’s David Williams, a renowned scholar of the link between racial discrimination and health, explains why decades of inequality have left populations of Black, Latinx, Native American and others more vulnerable to Covid-19.
“Although all Americans are in the same storm — we are in the same pandemic — but we are not in the same boats,” Williams says. “Those boats that have wealth, you are better able to navigate the storm. You’re better able to protect yourself … than those [in] very fragile boats — households that have no wealth.”
Williams discusses how stress — be it economic, psychosocial, environmental or caused by facing racism — increases the risk of conditions such as high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes, all of which are associated with worse outcomes in Covid-19.
“Persons who report high levels of everyday discrimination are more likely to get diabetes. They’re more likely to develop high blood pressure. They’re more likely to become obese. So across a broad range of indicators…, we find that stress in general and discrimination [in particular] leads to poorer health,” Williams says.
The solutions, he says, lie in recognizing the problem we are facing, and working to bridge what he calls the “empathy gap” that’s enabled health disparities to persist for so long. “The biggest challenge that we have is the fact that, to put it bluntly, we don’t care enough about the populations of color that are suffering this disproportionate burden.”
See our full video catalog here: [ Ссылка ]
Related Articles:
5 things worth knowing about empathy – [ Ссылка ]
America the Unhealthy: Inequality kills – [ Ссылка ]
How health insurance is faring under Covid – [ Ссылка ]
Racism and Health: Evidence and Needed Research – [ Ссылка ]
Self-Reported Experiences of Discrimination and Health: Scientific Advances, Ongoing Controversies, and Emerging Issues –[ Ссылка ]
About Knowable Magazine:
Knowable Magazine explores the real-world significance of scholarly work through a journalistic lens. We report on the current state of play across a wide variety of fields — from agriculture to high-energy physics; biochemistry to water security; the origins of the universe to psychology.
Review articles written by leading scholars from the 51 Annual Reviews journals serve as springboards for stories in Knowable Magazine. Through in-depth features, explainers, articles, essays, interviews, infographics, slideshows, and comics, Knowable Magazine presents insights from research to a broader audience.
Connect with us:
Follow us on Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Follow us on Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Follow us on Linkedin: [ Ссылка ]
Thumbnail art: Eric Millikin
