scholarly journals The Black Lives Matter movement and health inequalities

2021 ◽  
pp. 01-04
Author(s):  
Jagriti Gangopadhyay
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Racial Disparities ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Public Health System ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
The United States ◽  
Racial Inequalities ◽  
Black Lives Matter ◽  
And Gender

With the recent Black Lives Matter movement, existing racial inequalities in various sectors of the United States have regained prominence. Due to the pandemic, statistics on racial disparities in the health sector have been aggravated. On a related note, while the #Black Lives Matter movement received substantial support from India’s online community, deeply entrenched inequalities in terms of caste, community and gender in India’s health sector need to be critically evaluated as well. This paper is an attempt to understand how the awareness generated by the Black Lives Matter movement could be an opportunity to address structural inequalities in India’s own public health system.

Structural Transphobia, Homophobia, and Biphobia in Public Health Practice: The Example of COVID-19 Surveillance

2021 ◽  
pp. e1-e7
Author(s):  
Randall L. Sell ◽  
Elise I. Krims
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Public Health Surveillance ◽  
Public Health Practice ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Surveillance ◽  
Essential Information ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Public Health Surveillance System

Public health surveillance can have profound impacts on the health of populations, with COVID-19 surveillance offering an illuminating example. Surveillance surrounding COVID-19 testing, confirmed cases, and deaths has provided essential information to public health professionals about how to minimize morbidity and mortality. In the United States, surveillance has also pointed out how populations, on the basis of geography, age, and race and ethnicity, are being impacted disproportionately, allowing targeted intervention and evaluation. However, COVID-19 surveillance has also highlighted how the public health surveillance system fails some communities, including sexual and gender minorities. This failure has come about because of the haphazard and disorganized way disease reporting data are collected, analyzed, and reported in the United States, and the structural homophobia, transphobia, and biphobia acting within these systems. We provide recommendations for addressing these concerns after examining experiences collecting race data in COVID-19 surveillance and attempts in Pennsylvania and California to incorporate sexual orientation and gender identity variables into their pandemic surveillance efforts. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print June 10, 2021: e1–e7. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.3062727 )

Police Killings, Political Impunity, Racism and the People’s Health: Issues for Our Times

HPHR Journal ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Krieger
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Black Men ◽  
The United States ◽  
Criminal Prosecution ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Black Lives Matter

“Black lives matter.” “I can’t breathe.” “Racism kills.” These searing statements visibly appear on handwritten placards, on buttons, and on the shirts, hoodies, hats, and even bodies of hundreds of thousands of people who have been participating in protests across the United States, triggered by the recent round of police killings of unarmed black men and, in the case of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, the abject failures of grand juries to call for criminal prosecution for their deaths. Starkly revealing the profound links between racism and the people’s health, these statements also illuminate the flip side of this pain: the fundamental links between social justice and public health.

scholarly journals Changes in Racial and Gender Inequality since 1970

2015 ◽  
Vol 663 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Matthew Snipp ◽  
Sin Yi Cheung
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Census Data ◽  
The United States ◽  
Racial Inequalities ◽  
And Gender ◽  
White Workers

The decades following 1970 to the present were an important period because they marked an era in which measures such as Affirmative Action were introduced to improve opportunities for American minorities and women. Ironically, this also was a period when income inequality dramatically increased in the United States. We analyze Census data from 1970 to 2009 to assess whether inequality in the earnings received by women and minorities has changed in this period. We find a complicated set of results. Racial inequalities persist though to a lesser extent than they did four decades earlier. Asian workers in particular have seen improvements and a lessening of inequality relative to White workers. Gender inequality also persists, though more in some groups than others. Overall, the results of this study underscore the persistence of racial and gender inequality in the United States.

scholarly journals Oscillations in U.S. COVID-19 Incidence and Mortality Data Reflect Diagnostic and Reporting Factors

mSystems ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aviv Bergman ◽  
Yehonatan Sella ◽  
Peter Agre ◽  
Arturo Casadevall
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Public Health System ◽  
Epidemiological Data ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mortality Data ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Periodic Oscillations ◽  
The Public ◽  
Incidence And Mortality

ABSTRACT The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic currently in process differs from other infectious disease calamities that have previously plagued humanity in the vast amount of information that is produced each day, which includes daily estimates of the disease incidence and mortality data. Apart from providing actionable information to public health authorities on the trend of the pandemic, the daily incidence reflects the process of disease in a susceptible population and thus reflects the pathogenesis of COVID-19, the public health response, and diagnosis and reporting. Both new daily cases and daily mortality data in the United States exhibit periodic oscillatory patterns. By analyzing New York City (NYC) and Los Angeles (LA) testing data, we demonstrate that this oscillation in the number of cases can be strongly explained by the daily variation in testing. This seems to rule out alternative hypotheses, such as increased infections on certain days of the week, as driving this oscillation. Similarly, we show that the apparent oscillation in mortality in the U.S. data are mostly an artifact of reporting, which disappears in data sets that record death by episode date, such as the NYC and LA data sets. Periodic oscillations in COVID-19 incidence and mortality data reflect testing and reporting practices and contingencies. Thus, these contingencies should be considered first prior to suggesting biological mechanisms. IMPORTANCE The incidence and mortality data for the COVID-19 data in the United States show periodic oscillations, giving the curve a distinctive serrated pattern. In this study, we show that these periodic highs and lows in incidence and mortality data are due to daily differences in testing for the virus and death reporting, respectively. These findings are important because they provide an explanation based on public health practices and shortcomings rather than biological explanations, such as infection dynamics. In other words, when oscillations occur in epidemiological data, a search for causes should begin with how the public health system produces and reports the information before considering other causes, such as infection cycles and higher incidences of events on certain days. Our results suggest that when oscillations occur in epidemiological data, this may be a signal that there are shortcomings in the public health system generating that information.

scholarly journals Aging, Diabetes, and the Public Health System in the United States

2012 ◽  
Vol 102 (8) ◽  
pp. 1482-1497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl J. Caspersen ◽  
G. Darlene Thomas ◽  
Letia A. Boseman ◽  
Gloria L. A. Beckles ◽  
Ann L. Albright
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Health System ◽  
Public Health System ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Public

Advocating for an Incarcerated Informed Lens in Therapy

2020 ◽  
pp. 0306624X2097516
Author(s):  
Eman Tadros ◽  
Rayna Hutcherson ◽  
Aubrey Greene
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Family Therapy ◽  
Racial Disparities ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
The United States ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Couple And Family Therapy ◽  
Incarcerated Population

Exceptionally high rates of incarceration in the United States have caused a need for a major social justice movement. This paper explains the various collateral damages endured by the incarcerated population. Several research studies related to the unintended consequences of incarceration on outcomes related to couple and family relationships, racial disparities, employment, poverty and public health are examined. The importance of individual, couple, and family therapy and its effectiveness toward improving the lives of those negatively impacted by incarceration is discussed.

Primer on Depression

Depression ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 118-135
Author(s):  
Jennifer L. Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Protective Factors ◽  
Suicidal Behavior ◽  
Public Health Problem ◽  
Risk And Protective Factors ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
And Gender

Suicide is a public health problem worldwide and one of the leading causes of death in the United States. Suicidal behavior is also a major public health concern, with more than 1 million people per year attempting suicide in the United States. Suicide is a complex phenomenon, occurring because of a convergence of genetic, environmental, psychological, social, cultural, and systemic risk and protective factors. As such, suicide prevention efforts must include interventions across the spectrum of society, from healthcare to school to public health and community efforts. This chapter reviews the risk and protective factors related to suicide; research findings about the mechanisms and functions of suicidal behavior; principles of crisis intervention; treatments to address suicidal behavior; an overview of suicide risk and treatment in special populations, including youth, geriatric, and sexual and gender minority populations; and an overview of postvention efforts.

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