{"id":10647,"date":"2021-06-17T18:39:04","date_gmt":"2021-06-17T18:39:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prd-www.mccdn.io\/vitals\/?p=10647"},"modified":"2024-03-13T22:40:36","modified_gmt":"2024-03-13T22:40:36","slug":"health-care-disparities-and-their-relationship-to-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/updates-www.mccdn.io\/vitals\/health-care-disparities-and-their-relationship-to-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Health care disparities and their relationship to COVID-19","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"<div>This Saturday is Juneteenth, a day that has marked the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States since June 19, 1865, when enslaved people living on the far edge of the Confederacy in Texas finally learned of their freedom.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>What began as a local event in Texas has since grown to be recognized across the country, and many communities of color will mark the day with joyous celebrations large and small. However, it is important to remember that there is still much work to be done, and that many inequities and disparities remain, including in health care. In fact,\u00a0one of the most persistent and unacceptable disparities in health\u00a0care is based on the color of your skin \u2014 and the COVID-19\u00a0pandemic has called those disparities out in stark relief.<\/p>\n<h2>A history\u00a0of inequity<\/h2>\n<p>Health care has historically\u00a0provided many important benefits\u00a0to humanity and society. But the\u00a0history of medicine in the United\u00a0States is also filled with examples of\u00a0harm done to people of color.<\/p>\n<p>People of color weren\u2019t simply denied access\u00a0to medical care. Enslaved Black people,\u00a0especially women, were subjected to brutal\u00a0medical experimentation. Colonists in some\u00a0settlements tried to spread smallpox to Native\u00a0Americans by distributing infected blankets.<\/p>\n<p>In the early part of the 20th century, forced\u00a0sterilization laws disproportionately targeted\u00a0people of color. Those laws were repealed in\u00a0the 1960s, but reports of forced sterilization\u00a0continued and one investigation in California\u00a0showed illegal sterilizations of at least 144\u00a0incarcerated women, most of them Black\u00a0or African American and Latinx American,\u00a0from 2006-2010.<\/p>\n<p>Today, disparities persist. In a 2016 survey,\u00a073 percent of U.S. medical students had false\u00a0beliefs about biological differences between\u00a0the races. Some believed Black or African\u00a0American people have thicker skin. Perhaps\u00a0the most prevalent misconception is the belief\u00a0that Black or African American people don\u2019t<br \/>\nexperience pain the same way white people do.\u00a0That has led to patients ranging from children\u00a0with appendicitis to adults with cancer not\u00a0receiving adequate pain relief treatment.<\/p>\n<p>If you are a person of color, you have\u00a0probably experienced at least one health\u00a0care encounter that left you feeling\u00a0dismissed, unheard or disrespected.<\/p>\n<p>The result of this, and racism in other systems,\u00a0is that people of color tend to have poorer\u00a0health outcomes and greater exposure to\u00a0diseases like diabetes that have nothing to do\u00a0with biological differences.<\/p>\n<h2>Eroded trust &amp; the impact of COVID-19<\/h2>\n<p>COVID-19 is no different. Nationally, Native American and Alaska Native peoples are 3.5 times more likely than white people to be hospitalized for COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control. African Americans are 2.8 times more likely to be\u00a0hospitalized and Latinx Americans are 3.0\u00a0times more likely than non-Hispanic\u00a0white Americans.<\/p>\n<p>The reasons have nothing to do with biological or genetic differences. COVID-19 hit those communities particularly hard because of systemic disparities, including \u201ctesting deserts\u201d in neighborhoods of predominantly marginalized people, more densely populated neighborhoods and homes, as well as the fact that many members of these communities are frontline workers, more frequently exposed to the virus and less likely to be financially able to\u00a0work from home, isolate and quarantine.<\/p>\n<p>Given that background, it\u2019s not surprising that some people in these communities are hesitant to trust health care experts when they say vaccines for COVID-19 are safe and effective. And that, unfortunately, is one more way that health care inequities of\u00a0the past \u2014 and the present \u2014 hurt already\u00a0marginalized people.<\/p>\n<h2>Reasons to have faith<\/h2>\n<p>But there are plenty of reasons for people of\u00a0color to have faith in the vaccines developed\u00a0to prevent COVID-19.<\/p>\n<p>Immunologist Kizzmekia Corbett holds a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology, and is the scientific lead for the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institutes of Health.\u00a0She helped design the Moderna vaccine and has been a leader in evaluating all the available vaccines. Corbett is also an African American woman who is keenly aware of the health care disparities facing non-white Americans.<\/p>\n<p>She spoke to the science journal\u00a0Nature\u00a0about COVID-19 vaccines and\u00a0people of color, telling them:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Vaccines have the potential to be the equalizer\u00a0of health disparities, especially around\u00a0infectious diseases. I could never sleep at night\u00a0if I developed anything \u2014 if any product of\u00a0my science came out \u2014 and it did not equally\u00a0benefit the people that look like me. Period.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The vaccines approved for distribution in the\u00a0US included significant numbers of non-white\u00a0people in clinical trials. They proved equally\u00a0safe and effective regardless of race.<\/p>\n<h2>Working to close vaccine gaps<\/h2>\n<p>Vaccine providers are committed to making\u00a0sure that vaccine events are free and safe for\u00a0all people, regardless of immigration status.\u00a0You will not be charged to receive a COVID-19\u00a0vaccine and you do not need insurance.<\/p>\n<p>People of color have disproportionately been\u00a0burdened by the harm of COVID-19. Our best\u00a0bet to stop this harm is to get vaccinated\u00a0and to urge others in our family and our\u00a0communities to do the same.<\/p>\n<p>More information about the COVID-19\u00a0vaccine and its availability in our communities\u00a0\u2014 including links to local and regional health\u00a0department vaccine pages \u2014 is available on\u00a0MultiCare\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/updates-www.mccdn.io\/covid19\/vaccine\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">vaccine page<\/a>.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Sources:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/coronavirus\/2019-ncov\/vaccines\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Centers for Disease Control<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mayoclinic.org\/coronavirus-covid-19\/vaccine\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mayo Clinic<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/my.clevelandclinic.org\/landing\/covid-19-vaccine\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cleveland Clinic<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.doh.wa.gov\/Emergencies\/COVID19\/vaccine\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Washington State Department of Health<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This Saturday is Juneteenth, a day that has marked the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States since June 19, 1865, when enslaved people living on the far edge of the Confederacy in Texas finally learned of their freedom. What began as a local event in Texas has since grown to be recognized across [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":123,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,51,155],"tags":[31],"class_list":["post-10647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-covid-19","category-health-equity","tag-featured-stories"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.6 (Yoast SEO v27.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Health care disparities and their relationship to COVID-19 - MultiCare Vitals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Juneteenth, a day that has marked the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States since June 19, 1865.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/updates-www.mccdn.io\/vitals\/health-care-disparities-and-their-relationship-to-covid-19\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Health care disparities and their relationship to COVID-19 - 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