Lessons Learned from Health Disparities in Coronavirus Disease-2019 in the United States.

In the United States, the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has disproportionally affected Black, Latinx, and Indigenous populations, immigrants, and economically disadvantaged individuals. Such historically marginalized groups are more often employed in low-wage jobs without health insurance and have higher rates of infection, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19 than non-Latinx White individuals. Mistrust in the health care system, language barriers, and limited health literacy have hindered vaccination rates in minorities, further exacerbating health disparities rooted in structural, institutional, and socioeconomic inequities. In this article, we discuss the lessons learned over the last 2 years and how to mitigate health disparities moving forward.

The COVID-19 pandemic beyond Health Sciences: reflections on its social determination. / A pandemia de COVID-19 para além das Ciências da Saúde: reflexões sobre sua determinação social.

This paper aims to perform a theoretical reflection on the historical-social foundations of the COVID-19 pandemic. The "capital worldization", "capital-imperialism", "space-time compression", and "structural crisis of capital" categories are conjured from the historical materialistic-theoretical matrix, outlining a course that transcends the limits of Health Sciences to understand global health, of which the COVID-19 pandemic is an expression. We then return to the field of health, when the category of "social determination of health" allows elucidating the bases of the pandemic studied. We show that, other elements typical of the current phase of contemporary capitalism have become universal besides the SARS-CoV-2 characteristics or the dynamics of the rapid movement of people and objects around the world, unifying the health social determination process.

Este artigo possui o objetivo de realizar uma reflexão teórica sobre os fundamentos histórico-sociais da pandemia de COVID-19. A partir da matriz teórica materialista histórica, evoca-se as categorias da "mundialização do capital", "capital-imperialismo", "compressão espaço-tempo" e "crise estrutural do capital" traçando um percurso que ultrapassa os limites das Ciências da Saúde a fim de entender a saúde global, da qual a pandemia de COVID-19 é expressão. Posteriormente, faz-se o retorno ao campo da saúde, quando a categoria da "determinação social da saúde" permite elucidar as bases da pandemia estudada. Demonstra-se que, para além das características próprias do SARS-CoV-2 ou da dinâmica de rápido trânsito de pessoas e objetos pelo mundo, há outros elementos típicos da atual fase do capitalismo contemporâneo que se tornaram universais, unificando o processo de determinação social da saúde.

Geographic concentration of SARS-CoV-2 cases by social determinants of health in metropolitan areas in Canada: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Understanding inequalities in SARS-CoV-2 transmission associated with the social determinants of health could help the development of effective mitigation strategies that are responsive to local transmission dynamics. This study aims to quantify social determinants of geographic concentration of SARS-CoV-2 cases across 16 census metropolitan areas (hereafter, cities) in 4 Canadian provinces, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec. METHODS: We used surveillance data on confirmed SARS-CoV-2 cases and census data for social determinants at the level of the dissemination area (DA). We calculated Gini coefficients to determine the overall geographic heterogeneity of confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 in each city, and calculated Gini covariance coefficients to determine each city's heterogeneity by each social determinant (income, education, housing density and proportions of visible minorities, recent immigrants and essential workers). We visualized heterogeneity using Lorenz (concentration) curves. RESULTS: We observed geographic concentration of SARS-CoV-2 cases in cities, as half of the cumulative cases were concentrated in DAs containing 21%-35% of their population, with the greatest geographic heterogeneity in Ontario cities (Gini coefficients 0.32-0.47), followed by British Columbia (0.23-0.36), Manitoba (0.32) and Quebec (0.28-0.37). Cases were disproportionately concentrated in areas with lower income and educational attainment, and in areas with a higher proportion of visible minorities, recent immigrants, high-density housing and essential workers. Although a consistent feature across cities was concentration by the proportion of visible minorities, the magnitude of concentration by social determinant varied across cities. INTERPRETATION: Geographic concentration of SARS-CoV-2 cases was observed in all of the included cities, but the pattern by social determinants varied. Geographically prioritized allocation of resources and services should be tailored to the local drivers of inequalities in transmission in response to the resurgence of SARS-CoV-2.

How public health crises expose systemic, day-to-day health inequalities in low- and-middle income countries: an example from East Africa.

BACKGROUND: The current Coronavirus disease pandemic reveals political and structural inequities of the world's poorest people who have little or no access to health care and yet the largest burdens of poor health. This is in parallel to a more persistent but silent global health crisis, antimicrobial resistance (AMR). We explore the fundamental challenges of health care in humans and animals in relation to AMR in Tanzania. METHODS: We conducted 57 individual interviews and focus groups with providers and patients in high, middle and lower tier health care facilities and communities across three regions of Tanzania between April 2019 and February 2020. We covered topics from health infrastructure and prescribing practices to health communication and patient experiences. RESULTS: Three interconnected themes emerged about systemic issues impacting health. First, there are challenges around infrastructure and availability of vital resources such as healthcare staff and supplies. Second, health outcomes are predicated on patient and provider access to services as well as social determinants of health. Third, health communication is critical in defining trusted sources of information, and narratives of blame emerge around health outcomes with the onus of responsibility for action falling on individuals. CONCLUSION: Entanglements between infrastructure, access and communication exist while constraints in the health system lead to poor health outcomes even in 'normal' circumstances. These are likely to be relevant across the globe and highly topical for addressing pressing global health challenges. Redressing structural health inequities can better equip countries and their citizens to not only face pandemics but also day-to-day health challenges.

Need for payer-provider partnerships in addressing social determinants of health.

This article examines payer-provider partnerships in social determinants of health (SDoH) interventions, identifies important factors for an approach centered around return on investment (ROI) using integrated delivery and finance systems as case studies, and advocates for increased collaboration between payers and providers when addressing SDoH. Despite the numerous examples where payers and providers have attempted to independently address SDoH, there is limited evidence for the success of these interventions. Since most stakeholders individually do not have access to financial and clinical data, identifying an ROI for SDoH interventions is logistically challenging, but even when these data are available, stakeholders may not want to share their learnings due to negative findings and/or unwillingness to share proprietary information. These issues are further amplified by the effects of COVID-19 and its worsening effect on widening health disparities, but many payers and providers have risen to the challenge together. This article advocates for the importance of payer-provider partnerships to address SDoH and uses examples of integrated delivery and finance systems as case studies of how these partnerships could function. DISCLOSURES: No outside funding supported the writing of this article. Hartle is employed by Geisinger Health System. The other authors have nothing to disclose.

Family Medicine With Refugee Newcomers During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Certain members of society are disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 crisis and the added strain being placed on already overextended health care systems. In this article, we focus on refugee newcomers. We outline vulnerabilities refugee newcomers face in the context of COVID-19, including barriers to accessing health care services, disproportionate rates of mental health concerns, financial constraints, racism, and higher likelihoods of living in relatively higher density and multigenerational dwellings. In addition, we describe the response to COVID-19 by a community-based refugee primary health center in Ontario, Canada. This includes how the clinic has initially responded to the crisis as well as recommendations for providing services to refugee newcomers as the COVID-19 crisis evolves. Recommendations include the following actions: (1) consider social determinants of health in the new context of COVID-19; (2) provide services through a trauma-informed lens; (3) increase focus on continuity of health and mental health care; (4) mobilize International Medical Graduates for triaging patients based on COVID-19 symptoms; and (5) diversify communication efforts to educate refugees about COVID-19.

Fundamentally uncaring: The differential multi-scalar impacts of COVID-19 in the U.S.

2020 in the United States was marked by two converging crises-the COVID-19 pandemic and the large-scale uprisings in support of Black lives. These crises were met with both a counterproductive and inadequate response from the federal government. We examine these converging crises at the individual, social, and political scales. The biological realities of COVID-19 impact different populations in widely varied ways-the poor, the elderly, Black, Indigenous, and people of color, and those living with comorbidities get sick and die at the highest rates. Social distancing guidelines shifted millions of people to work-from-home and millions more lost their jobs, even as care laborers, preponderantly women, Black, Indigenous, and people of color, were asked to put their and their loved ones' lives on the line for the continuation of all of our lives. These biological, social, and economic crises have been punctuated by civil unrest, as millions took to the streets for racial justice, noting the unequal impacts of the pandemic. These converging crises have laid bare decades of neoliberal and neoconservative policies and ideologies, undergirded as they have been by racial capitalism, for their fundamental uncaringness. In this paper, we argue that this pandemic not only made a wider population more acutely aware of the necessity and importance of the need to care and for caring labors, but also that we stand at the precipice of potentiality--of producing a more caring society. To frame our argument, we draw on Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Margaret Lock's (1987) framework of three bodies-individual, social, and political-to unpack the multi-scalar entanglements in the differential impacts of COVID-19, questions of care, and their articulation in the current political-economic context.

Laboratory Perspective on Racial Disparities in Sexually Transmitted Infections.

BACKGROUND: Rates of sexually transmitted infections (STI) have risen steadily in recent years, and racial and ethnic minorities have borne the disproportionate burden of STI increases in the United States. Historical inequities and social determinants of health are significant contributors to observed disparities and affect access to diagnostic testing for STI. CONTENT: Public health systems rely heavily on laboratory medicine professionals for diagnosis and reporting of STI. Therefore, it is imperative that clinicians and laboratory professionals be familiar with issues underlying disparities in STI incidence and barriers to reliable diagnostic testing. In this mini-review, we will summarize contributors to racial/ethnic disparity in STI, highlight current epidemiologic trends for gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis, discuss policy issues that affect laboratory and public health funding, and identify specific analytic challenges for diagnostic laboratories. SUMMARY: Racial and ethnic disparities in STI in the US are striking and are due to complex interactions of myriad social determinants of health. Budgetary cuts for laboratory and public health services and competition for resources during the COVID-19 pandemic are major challenges. Laboratory professionals must be aware of these underlying issues and work to maximize efforts to ensure equitable access to diagnostic STI testing for all persons, particularly those most disproportionately burdened by STI.

Social Determinants of Health Mediate COVID-19 Disparities in South Florida.

BACKGROUND: There are several reports of health disparities related to COVID-19. Understanding social determinants of health (SDoH) could help develop mitigation strategies to prevent further COVID-19 spread. Our aim is to evaluate self-reported and census-based SDoH as a mediator of health disparities in COVID-19. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional ecological study and included all COVID-19 cases report by the COVID-19 Florida dashboard as the dependent variable. The independent variables were census-based median household income, population and household size, and self-reported SDoH using a validated survey. We calculated the incidence rate ratio (IRR) of COVID-19 by zip code using Poisson regression and structured equation modelling to evaluate the mediation effect of income and SDoH on COVID-19 cases. RESULTS: We included 97,594 COVID-19 positive cases across 79 Miami-Dade ZIP codes with a median age of 43 years; females represented 50.7% of the cases. The highest IRR (4.44) were for ZIP code 33125 (income $21,106, 6% Black, 93% Hispanic), while the lowest IRR (0.86) was for ZIP code 33146 (median household incomes $96,609, 3% Black and 53% Hispanic). In structured equation models, the indirect coefficient of income in the relationship between race/ethnicity and COVID-19 were only significant for Blacks and not Hispanics. CONCLUSIONS: This ecological analysis using ZIP code and aggregate individual-level SDoH shows that in Miami-Dade county, COVID infection is associated with economic disadvantage in a particular geographical area and not with racial/ethnic distribution.