Why Have COVID-19 Racial Health Disparities Emerged?

The racial health disparities that have emerged throughout the COVID-19 pandemic can be boiled down to three root causes: structural racism affecting patient access to care, high occurrence of chronic disease, and economic inequalities leading marginalized populations to work high-risk jobs, according to Patrice Harris, MD, the immediate past president of the American Medical Association (AMA).

During a recent hearing on health and wealth inequality in American, held in the US House of Representatives, Harris joined other health and economic experts to outline how stark racial health disparities came to the forefront during the pandemic.