(The Center Square) – An “insight report” published and partially funded by the Washington State Department of Health argues that the response to COVID-19 “illustrates pre-existing inequities” and led to a disproportionate impact on nonwhite and non-Asian people.
Titled “Voices From The Frontlines: A Chorus of COVID,” the report was created by “thought partners” with DOH’s Community Collaborative and argues that “it’s urgent that politicians, institutions, employers, and sometimes everyday people not forget what COVID ruthlessly taught us all over three heartbreaking years.”
“Don’t forget sometimes white people disengaged on safety when they learned people of color needed help,” the report also states.
The groups represented in the report include:
- Women of Wisdom – TriCities;
- LatinX Unidos of the South Sound;
- Asian Pacific Islanders Coalition SPS and Multicultural Center of the South Sound;
- Building Changes;
- Refugee & Immigrant Services NW; and
- Equity Institute
The report’s central thesis is based on differences in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths among various ethnicities. For example, it states that American Indiana and Alaskan Natives had 2.5 times higher age-adjusted death rates than Asian and white Populations, and that Black and African-American populations have COVID-19 death rates twice as high as Asian, white and “multiracial populations.”
The first reported cases of COVID-19 in Washington state was in January 2020. According to a DOH report, there were 262,516 reported cases of COVID-19 in the state that year that resulted in 15,667 hospitalizations (6%) and 4,461 deaths (1.7%).
Although the “insight report” notes that it does not “necessarily” reflect the views of DOH, the state agency has already released its own report earlier this year making similar conclusions.
“The pandemic has exacerbated the underlying and persistent inequities among historically marginalized communities and those disproportionately impacted due to structural racism and other forms of systemic oppression,” the February report states. DOH also already receives $29 million from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to “strengthen public health infrastructure, preparedness, and response capabilities and services to address health disparities caused by the COVID-19 virus.”
Among its strategies through that initiative are drug user health programs “to improve the health and quality of life for people who use drugs” and a Refugee and Immigrant Health program “to build, leverage, and expand infrastructure support for COVID-19 prevention and control among populations that are at higher risk and underserved.”
Among the insight report’s recommendations is to “keep lowering the barriers to accessing funds. Make public dollars available for community-led data collection and continue vital partnerships with most affected communities” and “use COVID as an opportunity to invest in youth and particularly youth of color, incarcerated youth, unhoused youth, food insecure youth, but do so by celebrating their gifts. Don’t stigmatize or typify them when society fails them.”
The report also recommends that people “talk to loved ones and coworkers when they spread misinformation by word of mouth and on community channels.”
