Coronavirus' Impact on Minority Communities

Floor Speech

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Ms. KELLY of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to challenge this Congress to act to end the shocking health disparities that COVID-19 has put on display. To date, nearly 250,000 Americans have lost their lives to COVID-19 and more than 10 million have been infected. And these numbers are still rising.

Shocking, but not surprisingly, a disproportionate number, as you have heard, of those who fought and those who fought and lost battles with COVID-19 have been people of color. Once again, another public health crisis has taken an oversized toll on Black Americans, Latinx Americans, Asian and Pacific Americans, and Native Americans.

COVID-19 is simply the latest in a long list of diseases, including cancer, addiction, HIV/AIDS, maternal mortality, diabetes, cardiovascular conditions, and on and on and on, with a disproportionate impact on communities of color.

Why does this continue to be the case in America, the greatest, richest, most powerful country in the history of our world?

The answer is simple: health disparities.

In America, despite all of our technology and pledges to equity, the ZIP Code in which you are born is nearly inescapable as a determinant of your life, your health, and, yes, even your death.

In Chicago, part of my district, life expectancy varies up to 30 years by neighborhood. The pattern is the same across most American communities.

But what are the social determinants of health, or, as I like to say, the social determinants of life?

In short, they are all of the nonmedical factors that impact your health, the things you don't necessarily see a doctor for, such as not having ample fresh food and vegetables in your diet because there aren't any grocery stores in your community; missing routine preventive care, such as cancer screenings, because seeing the doctor means getting up at 4 a.m., taking two buses, and missing a day of work or school.

It means worrying about manganese or lead poisoning in the air you breathe, the water you drink, or the playground where your child plays.

It means dealing with stress, anxiety, and depression from housing instability on top of a recession and pandemic.

All of these factors decide our lives, our health, and, tragically, again, our death. So many of these factors are out of one's individual control, including environmental factors, the location of medical facilities, discriminatory housing policy, and discrimination and so forth.

We all know these factors have been with us for a long time. They have been undermining our health and the health of generations of Americans for centuries.

As we work on these issues, I am continuously reminded of a quote from Dr. King: ``Of all of the forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane.''

Despite 70 years passing and amazing technological and societal advancement since he spoke these words, injustice in healthcare, of all of the forms of inequality, still remains the most shocking and inhumane.

Right now, we are seeing parallel COVID-19 pandemics: one in wealthier, whiter communities, and a much harsher one in vulnerable communities of color.

But this is America. There shouldn't be a two-tiered system, because when it comes to public health, we are all in this together.

The only solution is to root out health disparities at their source. We must end systemic racism and a lack of opportunities for low-income and minority communities.

To address these issues in healthcare, my colleague and mentor, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, has introduced the COVID Community Care Act, H.R. 8192. This legislation, which I am proud to support and my office helped develop, will provide grants for community-based organizations and nonprofits to conduct testing, tracing, and outreach activities in communities.

Given the number and rates of COVID-19, we know that these resources are most urgently needed in communities of color. I believe this legislation is central to making health equity a cornerstone of our Nation's immediate pandemic response. I am proud to be an original cosponsor of this important and immediate-acting legislation.

Additionally, I have introduced the Ending Health Disparities During COVID-19 Act, H.R. 8200, which provides a sweeping approach to addressing the widening health disparities from COVID-19. It tackles the immediate-term needs of testing, tracing, and public awareness from COVID-19.

But just as crucially, the bill makes long-term investments to build a stronger system to reduce and eliminate health inequities in the future via investments in the social determinants of health, technology, research, workforce diversity, and community health centers and workers.

Lastly, H.R. 8200 makes our government accountable for progress on health equity by creating a Federal task force with oversight over health disparities during COVID-19 and beyond and protects the Office of Minority Health. That is a long list to do, but it is all desperately needed.

I truly feel that this long-term approach, combined with strict accountability for health disparities, is exactly what this moment calls for. For the first time, many Americans are waking up to the reality faced by communities of color, a reality that the Tri-Caucus and our fellow Members of Congress, such as champions like Representative Barbara Lee, are working to address.

We need to harness this rightful outrage and catalyze it into action. We need to make this the last pandemic to have a disproportionate impact on any American community, because the fact is Americans deserve a public health system that works for all Americans. We deserve to live in one America, not an unequal America with worse health outcomes for Black and Brown people.

We all deserve healthcare because healthcare is a human right, yet it is not easily won. It must be fought for. As Frederick Douglass taught us: ``Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.'' The only path forward is for us to demand it.

We demand action to end health disparities once and for all. We must do this by passing the COVID Community Care Act, H.R. 8192; and Ending Health Disparities during the COVID-19 Act, H.R. 8200.

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