The media continues to report on the COVID-19 pandemic and racial and ethnic disparities in our communities. These two issues come to a head in a recently released article by Goyal at al (10.1542/peds.2020-009951). Researchers studied children who presented for COVID-19 testing at a single testing site in Washington, DC. The test outcomes were then related to the children’s racial/ethnic background and mean family income. Unfortunately, the results were pretty much as expected: children of color and children from poorer communities were much more likely to have a positive test.
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to highlight the racial and ethnic disparities that are pervasive in our country. These disparities start in childhood and continue through a child’s lifespan resulting in increased health burdens, poorer quality of life, and early death.
I don’t have an answer or solution to this issue except to say that the first step is recognition. By identifying these disparities, we can start to ask why, and this study starts to ask those questions. Why do families of color suffer a greater economic burden? Why do we see more people of color working in service industries, where they cannot work remotely and are more likely to be exposed? Why are minorities less likely to seek medical care?
Once we generate the questions, we can start to look for answers and move toward solutions. As Rosa Parks said, “To bring about change, you must not be afraid to take the first step. We will fail when we fail to try.”
