Ahmed Ranie, Jamal Omer, Ishak Waleed, Nabi Kiran, Mustafa Nida
Department of Health and Society, University of Toronto, 1265 Military Trail, Toronto, ON, M1C 1A4, Canada.
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Toronto, 1265 Military Trail, Toronto, ON, M1C 1A4, Canada.
Trop Dis Travel Med Vaccines. 2021 Jun 10;7(1):15. doi: 10.1186/s40794-021-00138-2.
A failure to ensure racial equity in response to the COVID-19 pandemic has caused Black communities in Canada to disproportionately be impacted. The aim of the current study was to determine the needs and concerns of Black communities in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and to highlight the importance of collecting race-based COVID-19 data early on to address these needs.
Six qualitative interviews were conducted with local community health centre leaders who serve a high population of racialized communities within the GTA. Content analysis was used to extract the main themes and concerns raised during the interviews.
The findings from this study provide further evidence of the disproportionate impact COVID-19 has had on Black and other racialized communities. Difficulty self-isolating due to overcrowded housing, food insecurity, and less social support for seniors were concerns identified by community health leaders. Also, enhanced financial support for front-line workers, such as Personal Support Workers (PSWs), was an important concern raised. In order to lessen the impact of the pandemic on these communities, leaders noted the need for greater accessibility of testing centres in these areas and a greater investment in tailored health promotion approaches.
Overall, our findings point to the importance of collecting race-based data to ensure an equitable response to the pandemic. The current "one size fits all" response is not effective for all individuals, especially Black communities. Not all populations have access to the same resources, nor do they live in the same conditions (Kantamneni, J Vocal Behav 119:103439, 2020). A deeper consideration of the social determinants of health are needed when implementing COVID-19 policies and responses. Also, a lack of attention to Black communities only continues to perpetuate the under-acknowledged issue of anti-Black racism prevalent in Canada.
在应对新冠疫情时未能确保种族平等，导致加拿大的黑人社区受到了尤为严重的影响。本研究的目的是确定大多伦多地区（GTA）黑人社区的需求和担忧，并强调尽早收集基于种族的新冠疫情数据以满足这些需求的重要性。
对当地社区健康中心的领导人进行了六次定性访谈，这些领导人服务于GTA内大量的种族化社区。采用内容分析法提取访谈中提出的主要主题和担忧。
本研究的结果进一步证明了新冠疫情对黑人和其他种族化社区产生了不成比例的影响。社区健康领导人指出的担忧包括，由于住房拥挤、粮食不安全以及老年人获得的社会支持较少，导致自我隔离困难。此外，加强对一线工作人员，如个人支持工作者（PSW）的财政支持，也是提出的一个重要担忧。为了减轻疫情对这些社区的影响，领导人指出需要在这些地区增加检测中心的可及性，并加大对量身定制的健康促进方法的投入。
总体而言，我们的研究结果表明收集基于种族的数据对于确保公平应对疫情的重要性。当前“一刀切”的应对方式对所有个体，尤其是黑人社区并不有效。并非所有人群都能获得相同的资源，也并非生活在相同的条件下（Kantamneni，J Vocal Behav 119:103439，2020）。在实施新冠疫情政策和应对措施时，需要更深入地考虑健康的社会决定因素。此外，对黑人社区缺乏关注只会继续使加拿大普遍存在的未得到充分认识的反黑人种族主义问题长期存在。
