CDC Says Racism is a ‘Serious Threat to Public Health “Racism is operating not only with respect to Covid-19 but also with respect to infant mortality, maternal mortality, obesity,” said a past president of the American Public Health Association
Published April 9, 2021 •
Updated on April 9, 2021 at 6:33 am
Getty Images
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday called racism a “serious threat” to public health, becoming the latest, and largest, U.S.-based health agency to single out racism as having a “profound and negative impact on communities of color” and contributing to disproportionate mortality rates among people of color, NBC News reports.
Loading the player.
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has declared racism a “serious public health threat” in this country.
Dr.
Rochelle P. Walensky, who was named head of the agency by President
Joe Biden, said the CDC will be “accelerating” its work to address racism as a fundamental driver of racial and ethnic health inequities in the United States.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has declared racism a “serious public health threat” in this country. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Walensky began her statement by highlighting that the COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted communities of color, populations that have “experienced disproportionate case counts and deaths, and where the social impact of the pandemic has been most extreme.”
Complaint May Spur Review of Meat Industry’s Virus Response By Josh Funk | April 9, 2021
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) A union complaint about whether an Oklahoma meatpacking plant is doing enough to protect workers from the coronavirus could test the industry’s response to the pandemic because Seaboard Foods says it is following recommendations from the government and trade groups.
The local United Food and Commercial Workers union filed a complaint this week with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration about the Seaboard Foods pork processing plant in Guymon, Oklahoma. The union says Seaboard should be doing more to promote social distancing at the plant and to encourage workers exposed to the coronavirus to stay home from work.
CDC Says Racism is a ‘Serious Threat to Public Health “Racism is operating not only with respect to Covid-19 but also with respect to infant mortality, maternal mortality, obesity,” said a past president of the American Public Health Association
Published April 9, 2021 •
Updated on April 9, 2021 at 6:32 am
Getty Images
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday called racism a “serious threat” to public health, becoming the latest, and largest, U.S.-based health agency to single out racism as having a “profound and negative impact on communities of color” and contributing to disproportionate mortality rates among people of color, NBC News reports.
Scientific American
Pandemic highlights for the week
.” To receive newsletter issues daily in your inbox, sign up here.
U.S. colleges and universities are planning for a “kind of normal” fall ’21 semester, reports Mark Kreidler at Kaiser Health News (4/6/21). By normal, administrators mean a campus that is open, with students in residence halls and attending classes in person. Some schools expect to stagger student attendance in class, and “all plan to have vaccines and plenty of testing available,” the story states. Most administrators are not requiring students and staff to get vaccinated because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has only authorized the use of the COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use, to date. Approval could come later and change that thinking. Schools can keep students safe from the virus in dorms so long as community infection rates remain low, according to the University of Southern California’s chief health officer, the story states.