The COVID-19 pandemic has made visible the inequities that riddle the American healthcare system. Black and Latinx Americans have been three times more likely to contract the coronavirus and twice as likely to die from it. But even before the pandemic, minority populations often had higher rates of illness and death from an array of conditions, including diabetes, asthma, and heart disease.
In response to these disparities, Rutgers University announced this week the Rutgers Equity Alliance for Community Health (REACH), an initiative to improve health and quality of life in economically disadvantaged communities. Funded by a $10 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, REACH will focus on social determinants of health, the environmental factors that can affect wellness, such as education, employment, and housing. To read the full article.