Activists, artists, and public health academics collaborate to tackle racism’s impact on heath
As it became clear that Covid-19 was disproportionately infecting and killing people of color in the U.K., just as it was in the U.S. and elsewhere, a new group tackling disparities and systemic racism within health care saw its mission crystallize.
The group — called Race and Health — was first envisioned at the start of the year as an academic project among public health researchers in the U.K. Once the pandemic hit shortly after, the researchers knew that publishing a series of papers on the impact of systemic racism on health disparities, as the initial project was intended, was “no longer an option,” said Sujitha Selvarajah, an OB-GYN and one of the core organizers of Race and Health. The group formally launches Thursday with a webinar that will be livestreamed around the world on the impacts of racism, xenophobia, and discrimination on health beyond the pandemic.
