California lawmaker calls for declaring racism as public health crisis

LOS ANGELES - California State Senator Richard Pan called on the state to recognize racism as a public health crisis since "the COVID pandemic underscores ongoing disparities in health, education and wealth afforded to different Americans depending on their race".

The fatal COVID-19 doesn't discriminate based on race, but the virus' spread and severity depends on the circumstances of its victims, Pan said in an article published Tuesday on the official website of CalMatters, a nonpartisan and nonprofit journalism platform.

"Black and Latino Americans are twice as likely to test positive for COVID-19 and are almost three times more likely to be hospitalized for COVID, while Native Americans are three and a half times more likely to be hospitalized," Pan said in the article.

"Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders are three times more likely to contract COVID as white people and have the highest death rate of all racial and ethnic groups," said the state lawmaker, a Democrat from Sacramento.

Pan's remarks were echoed by the California Budget and Policy Center, a group providing independent fiscal, policy analysis.

In a report issued this February, the center noted that the COVID-19 pandemic had "underscored the depths and reach of racism on the health of children, families, and individuals, with communities of color in California experiencing higher rates of illness, death, and overall hardship due to the virus".

The report based on official data showed disproportionate infection and death rates for Californians of color since the onset of the pandemic.

Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander Californians continued to have the highest rate of COVID-19 infections, followed by Latinx Californians, the report said, adding researchers also found that Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander, Latinx and Black Californians experienced the highest rates of COVID-19 deaths, as of early March.

The report blamed the bad situation on racist policies and practices in various systems, specifically housing, environment, employment, health care, justice system, and education.

"Only by first declaring racism a public health crisis can we then begin to minimize, neutralize, and dismantle the systems of racism that create inequalities in health for Californians," the report said.