Racism, A Public Health Threat
There has been an ongoing race to declare racism a public threat.
While most ignore the racial disparities, the mayor of Utah is creating change.
On July 20, 2021, an announcement was made on Twitter by the Salt Lake City Mayor.
Erin Mendenhall wrote on Twitter saying she and the city council signed a joint resolution.
This is because they are declaring racism a public health crisis.
The tweet read, “We are publicly acknowledging the existence of a grave inequity many in our community have long
experienced, and are committing ourselves to create policies and ordinances that are anti-racist,”
CDC Says Racism Is A Public Health Threat
According to the CDC, “racism has harmful impacts on the mental and physical health of communities of color.”
President Bidens‘ CDC director also declared racism a serious threat to public health in April.
The Salt Lake City resolution strengthened the many ways racism is a threat.
The resolution went on to say that racism affects where people live, where they work, and where they go to school.
This creates inequities in access to a range of social and economic benefits, such as housing, education, and employment.
For instance, the resolution read, “The COVID-19 pandemic has illustrated how pre-existing structural inequities created
heavier burdens of disease, death, and social consequences onto communities of color in Utah.”
How Many People Make Up This Threat?
Most importantly, the resolution cites numerous statistics from the Utah Department of Public Health.
This also includes the odds of a coronavirus infection being three times more likely in Latino neighborhoods.
While Latinos count for 14% of Utahs’ population, they have developed 40% of the states’ cases.
Moreover, American Indian and Alaska Native people have a death rate three times higher than average,
Lastly, black people are more likely to die of cancer but less likely to get screened,