Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading epidemiologist, said on Sunday “the undeniable effects of racism” have led to disproportionate and unacceptable health disparity that has harmed black people, Hispanics, and Native Americans amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“COVID-19 has shone a bright light on our own society’s failings,” Fauci said during a graduation ceremony event for Emory University.
Fauci made his remarks via a webcast for the Atlanta-area university, saying many people in minority groups work in essential jobs in which they have a greater chance of coming into contact with the virus. He also said the likelihood of becoming infected is enhanced due to medical conditions such as hypertension, chronic lung disease, diabetes, or obesity.
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“Now, very few of these comorbidities have racial determinants,” the chief medical adviser to the president said. “Almost all relate to the social determinants of health dating back to disadvantageous conditions that some people of color find themselves in from birth regarding the availability of an adequate diet, access to healthcare, and the undeniable effects of racism in our society.”
In June, Fauci testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, stating institutional racism played a role in the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 among the black community.
“Would I consider institutional racism as contributing? … Obviously, the African American community has suffered from racism for a very, very long period of time, and I cannot imagine that hasn’t contributed … so the answer, congressman, is ‘yes,'” he said last summer.
Fauci said on Sunday that correcting societal wrongs would take decades of commitment, urging the graduating students to become part of the solution. He also said once society returns to “some form of normality,” the public should not forget that infectious diseases have long disproportionately hospitalized and killed people of color.
During the ceremony, Fauci was awarded the Emory University president’s medal. Previous recipients of the award include former President Jimmy Carter, the Dalai Lama, and the late civil rights trailblazer Rep. John Lewis.
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After contracting COVID-19, black people have died at 1.4 times the rate of white people, Native American or Alaska Native populations have died at 1.3 times the rate of white groups, and Hispanic or Latino death rates were 1.2 times that of white populations, a data set from the Atlantic’s COVID-19 Tracking Project showed.
There have been approximately 32.9 million cases of COVID-19 reported in the United States since the outset of the pandemic, and more than 585,000 deaths have been attributed to the disease, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
