Health Equity In The Wake Of COVID

Clockwise from top left: Kica Matos, Dr. Setu Vora, Rev. Robyn Anderson, Steven Hernández // CUTLINE

The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted a fundamental fact: disparities in health outcomes by race and ethnicity exist across the country and the state, and COVID-19 has taken an unequal toll on Black people, Latinos, and Native Americans.

Nationwide, Black Americans are nearly twice as likely to have died during the pandemic than their white counterparts. In Connecticut, Black people make up 10% of the population, and 14% of COVID deaths. While we all may feel like we’re moving away from the danger of the pandemic here in Connecticut — community and healthcare officials are trying to take the lessons from this past year into the future.

This hour on Disrupted, we listen to a conversation featured last month as part of Connecticut Public’s CUTLINE: Health Equity in the Wake of COVID.

GUESTS:

• Kica Matos – Vice President of Initiatives at the Vera Institute of Justice
• Setu Vora, MD – Chief Medical Officer of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation
• Steven Hernández – Executive Director of the Commission on Women, Children, Seniors, Equity and Opportunity
• Reverend Robyn Anderson – Pastor at the Blackwell Memorial AME Zion Church and Executive Director of the Ministerial Health Fellowship Advocacy Coalition

Disrupted is produced by James Szkobel-Wolff, Zshekinah Collier, and Catie Talarski. Our interns are Kelly Langevin and Maisy Carvalho.