How can I help communities with higher levels of Covid-19?

As a person who is not in a position of governmental, policy, or other type of influence, is there anything that I can do to help reduce the disparity or otherwise help those communities with higher levels of Covid-19 risk? I feel like just one person can’t possibly make a difference. 

Irving Vega, Ph.D.:

Speak up!  Differentially exposed individuals are within our community because of social determinants of health, and institutionalized discrimination.  We need to recognize our privileges and use them to give voice to underserved populations and be agents of change.  To do that, you need to educate yourself about social determinants of health, health equity, implicit biases and institutional racism. 

Resources:

• Many Latinos Couldn’t Stay Home. Now Virus Cases Are Soaring in Their Communities.

• The American Medical Association’s Covid-19 Health Equity Resource List

• The Health Equity Initiative

• National Congress of American Indians Resource List

• Resources for Immigrants During the Coronavirus

• The African American Policy Forum Resource List

• AXIOS:  The coronavirus economy will devastate those who can least afford it  

• The Colorado Trust: Pandemics Thrive on Inequality  

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Coronavirus: Resources for Homeless Shelters 

• Nonprofit Quarterly: COVID-19: Using a Racial Justice Lens Now to Transform Our Future 

• Health Affairs Blog: Health Justice Strategies To Combat COVID-19: Protecting Vulnerable Communities During A Pandemic 

• Health Equity: Responding to Healthcare Disparities and Challenges With Access to Care During COVID-19

• Health Equity Initiative: COVID-19 Is a Health Equity Issue 

• Health Equity Initiative: Paid Sick Leave Policy and the Impact on Health Equity

• Human Rights Watch: US: Address Impact of Covid-19 on Poor 

• Kaiser Family Foundation: Key Facts about the Uninsured Population 

• The Marshall Project: Tracking Prisons' Response to Coronavirus 

• Pew Research Center: As coronavirus spreads which U.S. workers have paid sick leave - and which don't 

• UN News: Racism and xenophobia are ‘contagious killers’ too 

• World Economic Forum: Coronavirus: A pandemic in the age of inequality 

• World Heart Federation: Preventing COVID-19 spread in poor areas

• ReachMD: Not Just a Pandemic: Why COVID-19 Is a Health Equity Issue

• Region 2 Public Health Training Center (PHTC): COVID19: Using a Health Equity and Human Rights Lens to Protect Vulnerable Populations during this Pandemic and Beyond