Katherine L. Dickinson, PhD, is an Assistant Professor and Natalie Banacos, MS, is a Professional Research Assistant; both in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado Anschutz, Aurora, CO. Jennifer D. Roberts, DrPH, is an Assistant Professor, Department of Kinesiology, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park, MD. Lindsay Neuberger, PhD, is an Associate Professor, Nicholson School of Communication and Media, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL. Elizabeth Koebele, PhD, is an Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV. Danielle Blanch-Hartigan, PhD, MPH, is Associate Professor of Health Studies, Department of Natural and Applied Sciences, Bentley University, Waltham, MA. Elizabeth A. Shanahan, DA, MPA, MS, is a Professor and Associate Vice President of Research Development, Department of Political Science, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT.
Health Secur. 2021 Jun;19(S1):S14-S26. doi: 10.1089/hs.2021.0031. Epub 2021 Jun 1.
The long, fallacious history of attributing racial disparities in public health outcomes to biological inferiority or poor decision making persists in contemporary conversations about the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the disproportionate impacts of this pandemic on communities of color, it is essential for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers to focus on how structural racism drives these disparate outcomes. In May and June 2020, we conducted a 6-state online survey to examine racial/ethnic differences in exposure to COVID-19, risk mitigation behaviors, risk perceptions, and COVID-19 impacts. Results show that Black and Hispanic individuals were more likely than White respondents to experience factors associated with structural racism (eg, living in larger households, going to work in person, using public transportation) that, by their very nature, increase the likelihood of exposure to COVID-19. Controlling for other demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, non-White respondents were equally or more likely than White respondents to take protective actions against COVID-19, including keeping distance from others and wearing masks. Black and Hispanic respondents also perceived higher risks of dying of the disease and of running out of money due to the pandemic, and 40% of Black respondents reported knowing someone who had died of COVID-19 at a time when the US death toll had just surpassed 100,000 people. To manage the current pandemic and prepare to combat future health crises in an effective, equitable, and antiracist manner, it is imperative to understand the structural factors perpetuating racial inequalities in the COVID-19 experience.
在当代关于 COVID-19 大流行的讨论中，将公共卫生结果中的种族差异归因于生物学劣势或决策失误的这种长期错误观念仍然存在。鉴于这场大流行对有色人种社区的不成比例的影响，学者、从业者和政策制定者必须专注于结构性种族主义如何导致这些不同的结果。2020 年 5 月和 6 月，我们在六个州进行了在线调查，以检查 COVID-19 暴露、风险缓解行为、风险认知和 COVID-19 影响方面的种族/族裔差异。结果表明，与白人受访者相比，黑人或西班牙裔个体更有可能经历与结构性种族主义相关的因素（例如，居住在更大的家庭中、亲自上班、使用公共交通工具），这些因素本身就增加了 COVID-19 暴露的可能性。在控制其他人口统计学和社会经济特征的情况下，非白人受访者采取保护自己免受 COVID-19 侵害的措施，包括与他人保持距离和戴口罩的可能性与白人受访者相同或更高。黑人和西班牙裔受访者也认为死于该疾病和因大流行而耗尽资金的风险更高，40%的黑人受访者报告说，在新冠死亡人数刚刚超过 10 万人的时候，他们认识一个死于 COVID-19 的人。为了有效、公平和反种族主义地管理当前的大流行并为未来的卫生危机做好准备，了解导致 COVID-19 经历中种族不平等的结构性因素至关重要。
