The Joe Biden administration will invest an additional $ 785 million to stop the spread of COVID-19 in vulnerable populations across the country. The funds will be directed to serving rural areas, African American communities and community organizations.
The funds are expected to promote confidence in vaccines and help establish a more diverse public health workforce, authorities announced Wednesday.
The context: He added that the additional money will add to the billions of dollars already invested in equity-focused programs by the administration to protect the communities most affected and most at risk from COVID-19.
- The funding will help build a pool of public health workers in underserved communities.
- The Indian Health Service will have money to hire more school nurses and community organizations will have more resources to help overcome barriers to vaccination in underserved communities.
- A White House task force delivered a final report Wednesday and more than 80% of its recommendations have been implemented, said Marcella Nunez-Smith, chair of the COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force.
- The White House has set out to try to close the gap in how different populations have been impacted by the pandemic, particularly with vaccines. For Nunez-Smith and Zients these efforts have been successful.
What do they say? “The funds will support tribal communities leading the mitigation of the spread of the virus and will also protect people with disabilities from infection and the ramifications of the pandemic,” Nunez-Smith reported during a press conference.
- “The resources will support community organizations that promote vaccination in African American communities, rural areas, and low-income populations,” added Nunez-Smith.
- White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients added that the additional funding is a direct response to the task force’s recommendations to help eradicate health disparities and support underserved communities.
- “Health equity is a critical mission for the Biden-Harris administration,” said Nunez-Smith. “There is no credible path to a new normal without it.”
- “We have more work to do, but this is significant progress that we can build on,” concluded Zients.
The data: In October a US National Cancer Institute report claimed that COVID-19 killed a disproportionate number of African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans in the country last year and exacerbated health disparities between the groups, a new study concludes.
“Racial / ethnic disparities in risk, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19 have been attributed to structural and social determinants of health with established and deep roots in racism,” the Cancer Institute study cites.
- Deaths among African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans were two to three times higher compared to the white and Asian populations.
- According to the study, the disparities were similar when the 61,200 deaths that were not attributed to COVID-19 were taken into account.
- Deaths among African Americans and Native Americans were three to four times higher, while among Latinos they were almost twice as high, compared to white populations, the study states.
- In contrast, the most recent survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation showed that 73% of African-American adults, 72% of whites and 70% of Hispanics had been vaccinated for at least the first time by mid-October, Zients reported. .
Main source of the news: The Hill
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