COVID-19 Pandemic Inequities and Social Justice

As we enter our third year living in a global pandemic, HERE4Justice, the student activist group of the Simmons University MPH program, is creating a platform for its community to collectively reflect on COVID-19 pandemic-related inequities that individuals, families, and communities have faced and continue to face every day. As the MPH program is focused on health equity and addressing systemic and structural inequities that create barriers to health, we find it critical to call attention to the injustices of the pandemic that have caused unnecessary suffering and death.   

The pandemic has caused a great deal of pain among many people across the world, and that pain has been emphasized by existing social inequalities. There has been  loss, unemployment, and stress experienced on the individual, community, national, and global  level, as the world attempts to navigate the uncertainty the pandemic has caused.

HERE4Justice works to advance health equity and social justice, as inequity affects racial groups domestically and globally. The CDC has published extensive data on risk for COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and death based on racial/ethnic group in the US.

Race and ethnicity are two drivers for the social determinants of health that play a role in health, well-being, and socioeconomic status. As can be seen in the CDC data, individuals of racial and ethnic backgrounds including American Indian or Alaska Native, Black or African American, and Hispanic or Latino are disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, COVID-19 hospitalizations of American Indian or Alaska Native persons occurred at 3.1 times the rate of COVID-19 hospitalizations of White individuals. 

Research has shown that disparities among minority populations, stemming from race or socioeconomic status, contribute to quality of healthcare or lack thereof. Health disparities among low-income and minority groups existed before the pandemic, but have become more evident throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. People of color are disproportionately impacted by pandemic-related deaths. Incidence of mortality associated with COVID-19 is higher for minority populations.

A global inequity we have observed throughout the pandemic has been access to vaccines and protective measures. The World Health Organization has called for every country to have 70% of its population vaccinated by mid-2022. Over 11 billion vaccines have been administered across the globe; However, there are inequities embedded in this achievement: vaccines have been distributed unevenly, and countries across Africa lack distribution and support. 

This pandemic has brought health equity to the forefront of public health and to the minds of many public health professionals. This blog series will highlight various pandemic inequities within topics including:

• Childhood health and schools

• Mental health

• Housing insecurity

• Food insecurity  

• Vaccines, masks, and other protective measures 

• Human rights and pandemic response

• Global inequalities

• Impact on healthcare workers 

With this blog series HERE4Justice is setting out to promote education about the inequities of the COVID-19 pandemic through a racial justice and racial equity lens. We also will offer actions that readers can take to call for needed policies and changes. For now, check out these organizations and ways to take action from the comfort of your own home:

• Sign for a People’s Vaccine

• Sing to tell Congress: Fund the Fight Against COVID

• Immunity for All! Survey for Chicago Residents

• Urgency of Equity Toolkit for Schools

We have invited the Simmons University MPH community to submit their research, stories, or reflections–including through creative and visual media–on these past two years of living through a global pandemic. We invite you to share and engage with them through our social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter). We hope to not only raise awareness on the need to eliminate inequity but also to start  a conversation among the wider public health community  and to be a platform for providing information on pandemic inequities that have affected so many.

Julia Wood is an MPH candidate at Simmons University studying food access disparities and food insecurity in the Boston area, in collaboration with the Allston Brighton Health Collaborative. Julia is from Massachusetts, and currently lives in San Diego, CA with her partner David.