Health care disparities and their relationship to COVID-19
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, one of the most persistent and unacceptable disparities in health care is based on the color of your skin — and the COVID-19 pandemic has called those disparities out in stark relief.
A history of inequity
Health care has historically provided many important benefits to humanity and society. But the history of medicine in the United States is also filled with examples of harm done to people of color.
People of color weren’t simply denied access to medical care. Enslaved Black people, especially women, were subjected to brutal medical experimentation. Colonists in some settlements tried to spread smallpox to Native Americans by distributing infected blankets.
In the early part of the 20th century, forced sterilization laws disproportionately targeted people of color. Those laws were repealed in the 1960s, but reports of forced sterilization continued and one investigation in California showed illegal sterilizations of at least 144 incarcerated women, most of them Black or African American and Latinx American, from 2006-2010.
Today, disparities persist. In a 2016 survey, 73 percent of U.S. medical students had false beliefs about biological differences between the races. Some believed Black or African American people have thicker skin. Perhaps the most prevalent misconception is the belief that Black or African American people don’t
experience pain the same way white people do. That has led to patients ranging from children with appendicitis to adults with cancer not receiving adequate pain relief treatment.
If you are a person of color, you have probably experienced at least one health care encounter that left you feeling dismissed, unheard or disrespected.
The result of this, and racism in other systems, is that people of color tend to have poorer health outcomes and greater exposure to diseases like diabetes that have nothing to do with biological differences.
Eroded trust & the impact of COVID-19
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 hospitalized and Latinx Americans are 3.0 times more likely than non-Hispanic white Americans.
The reasons have nothing to do with biological or genetic differences. COVID-19 hit those communities particularly hard because of systemic disparities, including “testing deserts” 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 work from home, isolate and quarantine.
Given that background, it’s 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 the past — and the present — hurt already marginalized people.
Reasons to have faith
But there are plenty of reasons for people of color to have faith in the vaccines developed to prevent COVID-19.
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. She 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.
She spoke to the science journal Nature about COVID-19 vaccines and people of color, telling them:
“Vaccines have the potential to be the equalizer of health disparities, especially around infectious diseases. I could never sleep at night if I developed anything — if any product of my science came out — and it did not equally benefit the people that look like me. Period.”
The vaccines approved for distribution in the US included significant numbers of non-white people in clinical trials. They proved equally safe and effective regardless of race.
Working to close vaccine gaps
Vaccine providers are committed to making sure that vaccine events are free and safe for all people, regardless of immigration status. You will not be charged to receive a COVID-19 vaccine and you do not need insurance.
People of color have disproportionately been burdened by the harm of COVID-19. Our best bet to stop this harm is to get vaccinated and to urge others in our family and our communities to do the same.
More information about the COVID-19 vaccine and its availability in our communities — including links to local and regional health department vaccine pages — is available on MultiCare’s vaccine page.
Sources: Centers for Disease Control, Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic,Washington State Department of Health
