I can’t breathe! This has become an all too familiar cry for many African Americans who everyday struggle to breathe in a society suffocated by systemic racism and entrenched inequities. They struggle to live in a society that has intentionally erected barrier after barrier intended to weaken their bodies and hasten their deaths. What we have is the perfect storm for a disaster—a serious health crisis, an inequitable method of health delivery, millions of uninsured and under-insured people, an uneven and politically charged approach to dealing with the pandemic, police brutality, and other ...

Dear Brother & Sister X, The feeling of grief, fear and frustration felt by our fellow Black and Brown siblings in America after the death of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breona Taylor is impossible to dismiss, especially when it has been met with the president’s public combativeness towards protesters and promotion of state violence. History has shown us time and time again that the outcome of putting all of our hopes into large scale structural change leaves communities of color waiting for government institutions to act on our behalf; and while we wait, we ...

Part of this developing crisis is very well known: On December 31, 2019, Chinese officials reported a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan and identified the novel coronavirus as the causative agent on January 7, 2020. This novel coronavirus spread rapidly, and on March 11, 2020, the

Although the term health equity is widely used, a common understanding of this term is lacking. Viewing health equity through the lenses of allostatic load and intersectionality could help. This blog post considers three case scenarios, all of which are composites of actual cases that have occurred within the United States, to explore ideas of health equity related to intersectionality and the concept of allostatic load. Case 1 A young, black woman was admitted to Labor & Delivery and progressing well in her own labor. Shortly after ...