Structural Racism, Social Risk Factors, and Covid-19
Leonard EC. Egede, M.D., and Rebekah J. Walker, Ph.D.
The New England Journal of Medicine
Current protests throughout the United States are highlighting the history of marginalization of and discrimination against Black Americans, including 250 years of slavery, 100 years psychological trauma resulting from state-sanctioned violence such as police brutality and chronic exposure to discrimina- tion; and diminished participation in healthy behaviors or increased participation in unhealthy behav- iors as coping mechanisms.1,2 The relationship between structural racism and health is not moder- ated by age, sex, birthplace, or ed- ucation, which suggests that ef- forts to address it must target the entire population.
