New York City has become the latest American municipality to declare racism a public health crisis.
On Oct. 18, the NYC board of health came to the resolution to recognize the impact of racism on health during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, the department’s press release read. The resolution institutionalizes a declaration the department made in June 2020.
“Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) New Yorkers have suffered from disproportionately high rates of COVID-19 infection and death, including a disproportionate drop in life expectancy for Black and Latino New Yorkers,” the resolution read, “and Black and Latino New Yorkers have inequitably low rates of COVID-19 vaccination.”
The health department’s resolution went on to highlight the inequivalent rates of HIV, gun violence, infant mortality, maternal mortality, chronic disease prevalence and mortality and premature mortality. The document also claims there’s a connection between increased law enforcement interactions and living in low-income communities.
“Structural racism systematically excludes, marginalizes, and harms BIPOC across NYC through discriminatory housing, employment, education, healthcare, criminal legal, and other systems,” the resolution read, “all of which result in avoidable and unjust health outcomes.”
Part of the resolution encourages the NYC health department take a number of steps “dismantling systemic racism.” The steps include performing an anti-racism review of the NYC Health Code with relevant community organizations to unpack the systemic, structural racism and bias, before recommending alternatives to “dismantle” the racism and bias. The department is also encouraged to report to the Board of Health twice a year to promote the work related to the resolution and to ensure accountability on the health department’s progress.
There are now 118 cities and 217 governing bodies that have declared racism a public health crisis, according to the American Public Health Association. California has made 32 declarations of the public health crisis, more than any other state in the country, while Mississippi is the only state south of Virginia and east of Colorado that has recognized racism as a public health crisis.
