COVID-19 has amplified the catastrophic health inequalities in the United States. Can you bridge it?

Over the last 100 years, we have made incredible advances in health care. This is an advance that is considered a miracle by previous generations. To give an example Life expectancy in the United States It was 68.2 years in 1950. Since then, we’ve added 10 years to that average. Social programs have helped two of the most vulnerable populations, the young and the elderly, receive unprecedented levels of care and attention. Telemedicine is also decoupling the health support and surveillance of many Americans from physical hospitals and expanding access to care.

But despite these advances, and conveniently Spend other OECD countries on healthcare, The United States maintains vast health inequalities. As James Madara, CEO and Executive Vice President of the American Medical Association I wrote on the organization’s site as follows: “The US healthcare system that exists today is a collection of very expensive and inefficient ideas, programs, and regulations. Despite its size and technological advances, our healthcare system is in a tremendous gap. I’m suffering. Inequality that supports some groups and unfairly disadvantages others. “

Our current plight stems from the socio-historical forces of devastating crustal movements that have changed the outlook for healthcare. For peak people, good care, education, resources, and access to social networks can help protect their health. For those in the canyon, the ground weathers with each past and ongoing crisis. For example, consider an imbalanced fallout from. Dissolution of the Mental Health System Law..

After that, COVID-19 appeared.

COVID-19 deepens US health inequalities

Communities on the detrimental side of American health inequalities have their own history, environment and social structure. They are spread all over the United States, but they all have one thing in common.

“There is one common disparity in the American community, which is poverty,” he said. Debbie Saras-Lopez, MD, MPH, Senior Vice President of Community and Population Health at Northwell Health. “It is the undercurrent that reveals poor health, poor health, or a poor prognosis of health for future well-being.”

Social determinants have widespread health implications, and poor communities have unfavorable social determinants. To choose one of the many examples Food insecurity It reduces access to high-quality foods, leading to chronic medical condition deterioration and community endemic disease. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified some of these symptoms, such as obesity and type 2 diabetes, as increasing the risk of developing severe cases of coronavirus.

The pandemic did not cause poverty or food insecurity, but exacerbated both, and the consequences were devastating.A study published this summer General Internal Medicine Journal “Social factors such as income inequality may explain why some parts of the United States are being hit harder by the COVID-19 pandemic than others,” he said.

That doesn’t mean that wealthy American families weren’t harmed. A Paper from Center for Economic Policy Research Family members in counties with high median incomes pointed out that they experienced pandemic-related adjustment costs. For example, we reduced income-to-income interactions to align with social distance policies. However, the paper found that the cost of social distance is much higher for poor families who cannot easily change their living environment. It also disproportionately represents important tasks such as retail, transportation, and healthcare where it is almost impossible to maintain physical distance.

The paper also cited a positive correlation between higher income inequality and higher coronavirus infection rates. “In our interpretation, poor people are unable to protect themselves and lead to a variety of choices. The tighter trade-off between health and financial well-being in the context of the threat posed by COVID-19. We are facing. ”, Says the author. I have written.

“This pandemic is getting worse because there are so many pandemics happening,” said Dr. Saras Lopez.

One example is the gap between health and wealth. The psychological stressors of maintaining a low socio-economic status, especially in the face of extreme affluence, can have a physically detrimental effect on health. Write in this gapRobert Sapolsky, a professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University, found that socio-economic stressors raise blood pressure, lower insulin response, increase chronic inflammation, and prefrontal cortex through anxiety, depression, and cognitive load. And other brain functions may be impaired.

“Therefore, from the macro level of the systemic system to the micro level of individual chromosomes, poverty finds ways to produce exhaustion,” Saporsky writes. “It’s ridiculous that if children are born into the wrong family, they tend to be in poor health by the time they start learning the alphabet.”

Studies of COVID-19’s economic and mental health fallout show two things: its unemployment is hitting Low-income young American Most are in the midst of a pandemic, potentially further widening the gap between health and wealth. And not only does the pandemic worsen mental health stressors, but it does so at a clinically appropriate level.So Author of one review He writes that the pandemic impact on mental health is itself an international public health priority.

We are all humans, so we need to find a way to unify this country. We are all made equal and believe that health is one of those important rights.

Work to close health inequalities

Northwell Health Coronavirus Testing Center at Greater Springfield Community Church.

Credit: Northwell Health

Although new coronaviruses can spread and infect indiscriminately, the risk of infection increases due to existing conditions, environmental stressors, and lack of access to care and resources. These social determinants make the pandemic more dangerous and erode the ability of communities and families to recover from pre-pandemic health crises.

How do you eliminate these disparities? Dr. Saras Lopez says the first step is cognition. “We have to open our eyes to see the suffering around us,” she said. “Northwell does not avoid it.”

“We are steadily working to improve the health of vulnerable and undervalued communities suffering from the epidemic of chronic disease. This issue is of African descent during the COVID-19 pandemic. It resulted in disproportionately high mortality rates between Americans and Latin Americans. ” Northwell President and Chief Executive Officer Michael Dowling. “As healthcare providers, employers, buyers and investors, we are free to use all our tools to combat inequality, Fairness of care Everyone deserves it ”

Recognizing the need, Dr. Saras Lopez wants the healthcare system to move upstream and become more active in those hit communities. This requires the healthcare system to play a strong role, but not a one-sided role.They need to build Partnerships with leaders in those communities And use them to ensure that the relationship lasts beyond the current crisis.

“We need to meet with community leaders and discuss with them to get their perspective on what the needs of the community are and what they believe should be for the future. Together, I Can jointly create a plan for measurable improvement [community] Be healthy and be prepared for everything that comes next. “

Northwell is a poorly serviced community of colors that has built relationships with community organizations based on local beliefs. Through these partnerships, Northwell was able to test more than 65,000 people across New York’s metro region. The health system also provided education on coronavirus and preventative measures to control its spread.

These initiatives have begun the process of building trust. We hope that Northwell will return to these communities to administer the flu vaccine and prepare for experts fearing the flu season will be difficult.

Northwell has begun to bridge across the boundaries of the New York region, but much still needs to be done to treat overall US health care. We hope that the COVID pandemic will awaken us to the serious disparities in the United States.

“COVID has changed our world. We must take this opportunity, this pandemic, to make this crisis better,” said Dr. Saras Lopez. “We will provide better care. We will provide better health. We will be better partners. We will be better community citizens. We will treat each other with respect and dignity.

“Because we are all human, we need to find a way to unite this country. We are all created equally and we believe that health is one of those important rights. “