Synergistic Disparities and Public Health Mitigation of COVID-19 in the Rural United States.
J Bioeth Inq
; 17(4): 649-656, 2020 Dec.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-917148
ABSTRACT
Public health emergencies expose social injustice and health disparities, resulting in calls to address their structural causes once the acute crisis has passed. The COVID-19 pandemic is highlighting and exacerbating global, national, and regional disparities in relation to the benefits and burdens of undertaking critical basic public health mitigation measures such as physical distancing. In the United States, attempts to address the COVID-19 pandemic are complicated by striking racial, economic, and geographic inequities. These synergistic inequities exist in both urban and rural areas but take on a particular character and impact in areas of rural poverty. Rural areas face a diverse set of structural challenges, including inadequate public health, clinical, and other infrastructure and economic precarity, hampering the ability of communities and individuals to implement mitigation measures. Public health ethics demands that personnel address both the tactical, real-time adjustment of typical mitigation tools to improve their effectiveness among the rural poor as well as the strategic, longer-term structural causes of health and social injustice that continue to disadvantage this population.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Social Problems
/
Poverty Areas
/
Public Health Practice
/
Rural Health
/
Healthcare Disparities
/
Pandemics
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
North America
Language:
English
Journal:
J Bioeth Inq
Year:
2020
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S11673-020-10049-0
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS