George Floyd death: Racism is a 'public health crisis' evident in high Covid-19 toll among blacks, say experts
After protests over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis, several doctors' groups - the American Public Health Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association and American College of Physicians - have called racism an ongoing public health crisis that needs urgent attention.
“We are appalled but are not surprised by the despicable way Floyd was killed. We weep for the man, his family, and a country that continues to allow this to happen. We also join in the chorus for justice and ring the alarm to all Americans. Racism is a longstanding systemic structure in this country that must be dismantled, through brutally honest conversations, policy changes, and practices. Racism attacks people’s physical and mental health. And racism is an ongoing public health crisis that needs our attention now,” said the American Public Health Association (APHA). The group said that discrimination can be seen in all aspects of life, including housing, education, the criminal justice system, and employment and it has been amplified during this pandemic as communities of color face inequities “in everything, from a greater burden of Covid-19 cases to less access to testing, treatment, and care.”
Condemning the incident, the American Academy of Pediatrics also called racism a public health issue and asked for a “deep examination” of how to improve the role of policing. “Systemic violence requires a systemic response,” it added.
The American Medical Association (AMA) has released a joint statement from its board chair Jesse M. Ehrenfeld and president Patrice A. Harris, stating “police brutality must stop.” Stressing that racism is a driver of health inequity, the statement says that police violence is a striking reflection of the American legacy of racism — a system that assigns value and structures opportunity while unfairly advantaging some and disadvantaging others based on their skin color. “AMA policy recognizes that physical or verbal violence between law enforcement officers and the public, particularly among Black and Brown communities where these incidents are more prevalent and pervasive, is a critical determinant of health and supports research into the public health consequences of these violent interactions,” they said.
The experts said that while in any season, police violence is an injustice, its harm is elevated amid the massive stress people are facing during the Covid-19 pandemic. “Even now, there is evidence of increased police violence in the form of excessive police-initiated force and unwarranted shootings of civilians, some of which have been fatal. This violence not only contributes to the distrust of law enforcement by marginalized communities but distrust in the larger structure of government including for our critically important public health infrastructure. The disparate racial impact of police violence against Black and Brown people and their communities is insidiously viral-like in its frequency, and also deeply demoralizing, irrespective of race/ethnicity, age, LGBTQ or gender,” said AMA.
The AMA statement said what is often not highlighted are the harmful health impacts that result, such as the connection between excessive police activity and health. The medical experts explained that the trauma of violence in a person’s life course is associated with chronic stress, higher rates of comorbidities, and lower life expectancy, all of which bear extensive care and economic burden on the healthcare system while sapping the strength of affected families and communities. They cited the findings from a 2018 study which showed that that law enforcement-involved deaths of unarmed black individuals were associated with adverse mental health among Black American adults — a spillover effect on the population, “regardless of whether the individual affected had a personal relationship with the victim or the incident was experienced vicariously.”
“Police brutality amid public health crises is not crime-preventive — it creates demoralized conditions in an already strained time. It exacerbates psychological harm and has a clear impact on bystanders. To help confront this systemic issue in our society, the AMA urges other leading health organizations to also take up the mantle of intolerance for police brutality and racism. We urge states to require the reporting of legal intervention deaths and law enforcement officer homicides to public health agencies. We urge health institutions and physician organizations to explicitly denounce police violence, particularly in times of Covid-19 and during other public health crises,” they said.
The American College of Physicians, meanwhile, said that internists are “gravely concerned” about discrimination and violence against communities of color, whether by police or private individuals. “It is evident that African-Americans, in particular, are at risk of being subjected to discrimination and violence against them because of their race, endangering them and even costing them their lives. This should never be acceptable and those responsible must be held accountable,” said a statement.
Universities condemn systemic racism
Many universities have responded to the death of Floyd by criticizing police brutality by terming racism a public health crisis. “We recognize that the death of George Floyd is more than a grave injustice that must be condemned. It is a gut-wrenching consequence of what we in the public health community know all too well — and a reality that people of color are confronted with every day: Racism is a public health crisis,” said Michelle A. Williams, dean of the faculty, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in an open letter to the Harvard Chan school community. This reality, said Williams, is apparent not just in the police brutality that disproportionately claims the lives of Black Americans, but in the legacy of slavery and discrimination that persists in countless social determinants of health. “While the Covid-19 pandemic has newly laid these inequities bare for all Americans to see, the underlying injustices have endured for generations. And all of us have a responsibility to acknowledge and address them,” said the statement.
In a letter to students, faculty, staff, and alumni, Ellen MacKenzie, dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said that law enforcement violence is a public health issue. She emphasized that it is just one dimension of racism as a “present and deadly force” in society. “As shocking as these high profile examples are (killing of Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia), they represent the tip of the iceberg of persistent racial inequities that constitute a crisis for public health,” said a statement from MacKenzie and Lisa A. Cooper, director of the Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute. The letter said that the roots of disparities run deep to the structural and institutional racism that shapes policing, housing, transportation, education, and health in the US, and the Covid-19 pandemic has reexposed the consequences of this legacy. “The profound impact of racism on life and death demands a full response from every part of our society, including -- and especially -- our field of public health. Our own efforts must include becoming aware of and challenging our own biases, more work to document the problem and its consequences, more research into practical solutions and more effective advocacy to embed these solutions into practices and policies,” said the letter.
The president of Cornell University, Martha Pollack, said she was heartbroken and sickened by the deaths of Floyd and other black Americans before him. “The amount of pain in the Black community is unfathomable, especially as these are occurring amid a pandemic that is having such a disproportionate impact on communities of color. Decent people and institutions cannot stand silent while such violence against our fellow citizens continues. I want to make clear, both personally and on behalf of Cornell, that we will do all we can as a university to address this scourge of racism,” said Pollack.
University of South Florida president Steven Currall stressed the deaths of Floyd in Minneapolis and Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, should prompt everyone to pause and think about how racism impacts everyone’s lives.
Judith Kelley, dean of the Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University, said that adding insult to injury, some authorities are chastising and threatening those who are speaking up against this hatred and those who are reporting the truth. “Those who should be consoling are instead inciting violence. Those who should be holding abusers accountable are themselves abusing power. This atrocious behavior, from the individual in Central Park, to the representation of public authority by some members of the police and our government, is injurious first and foremost to our fellow human beings directly targeted. It is also an affront to democracy itself, an assault on the values we hold dear, and a dangerous undermining of our freedom,” said a statement.
She said the fact that such incidents are happening in the middle of a pandemic, “at a time when we need to display our best character, pool our talents, and hold up each other,” is deplorable, and unfathomably irresponsible. “There have been so many of these acts in the last few years that speaking up against them all is becoming like a broken record. But we must not give into the normalization of these behaviors. Yes, we need to give a damn! We must all give a damn,” said Kelley.
Likewise, in an email to the Duke School of Nursing community, Brigit Carter, associate dean for diversity and inclusion in the School of Nursing, encouraged the community to use their feelings to take action. “I challenge you not to let this become normal in your everyday life. It is not normal to see a black man die on television at the hands of a white law enforcement officer. It is not normal to see a black man out for a jog having to fight for his life at the hands of two white men that feel they have the right to take his life,” said Carter.