[House Hearing, 116 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
PANDEMIC RESPONSE: CONFRONTING THE UNEQUAL IMPACTS OF COVID-19
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON
EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS,
RESPONSE, AND RECOVERY
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
JULY 10, 2020
__________
Serial No. 116-74
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Homeland Security
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov
___________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
43-191 PDF WASHINGTON : 2021
COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY
Bennie G. Thompson, Mississippi, Chairman
Sheila Jackson Lee, Texas Mike Rogers, Alabama
James R. Langevin, Rhode Island Peter T. King, New York
Cedric L. Richmond, Louisiana Michael T. McCaul, Texas
Donald M. Payne, Jr., New Jersey John Katko, New York
Kathleen M. Rice, New York Mark Walker, North Carolina
J. Luis Correa, California Clay Higgins, Louisiana
Xochitl Torres Small, New Mexico Debbie Lesko, Arizona
Max Rose, New York Mark Green, Tennessee
Lauren Underwood, Illinois John Joyce, Pennsylvania
Elissa Slotkin, Michigan Dan Crenshaw, Texas
Emanuel Cleaver, Missouri Michael Guest, Mississippi
Al Green, Texas Dan Bishop, North Carolina
Yvette D. Clarke, New York Jefferson Van Drew, New Jersey
Dina Titus, Nevada
Bonnie Watson Coleman, New Jersey
Nanette Diaz Barragan, California
Val Butler Demings, Florida
Hope Goins, Staff Director
Chris Vieson, Minority Staff Director
------
SUBCOMMITTEE ON EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS, RESPONSE, AND RECOVERY
Donald M. Payne Jr., New Jersey, Chairman
Cedric Richmond, Louisiana Peter T. King, New York, Ranking
Max Rose, New York Member
Lauren Underwood, Illinois Dan Crenshaw, Texas
Al Green, Texas Michael Guest, Mississippi
Yvette D. Clarke, New York Dan Bishop, North Carolina
Bennie G. Thompson, Mississippi (ex Mike Rogers, Alabama (ex officio)
officio)
Lauren McClain, Subcommittee Staff Director
Diana Bergwin, Minority Subcommittee Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Statements
The Honorable Donald M. Payne Jr., a Representative in Congress
From the State of New Jersey, and Chairman, Subcommittee on
Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Recovery:
Oral Statement................................................. 1
Prepared Statement............................................. 2
The Honorable Peter T. King, a Representative in Congress From
the State of New York, and Ranking Member, Subcommittee on
Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Recovery:
Oral Statement................................................. 3
Prepared Statement............................................. 4
The Honorable Bennie G. Thompson, a Representative in Congress
From the State of Mississippi, and Chairman, Committee on
Homeland Security:
Oral Statement................................................. 5
Prepared Statement............................................. 6
Witnesses
Dr. Georges C. Benjamin, M.D., Executive Director of the American
Public Health Association:
Oral Statement................................................. 7
Prepared Statement............................................. 8
Dr. Leana Wen, M.D., Visiting Professor of Health Policy And
Management, George Washington University Milken Institute
School of Public Health:
Oral Statement................................................. 13
Prepared Statement............................................. 15
Mr. Chauncia Willis, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer,
Institute for Diversity and Inclusion in Emergency Management:
Oral Statement................................................. 19
Prepared Statement............................................. 20
For the Record
The Honorable Donald M. Payne Jr., a Representative in Congress
From the State of New Jersey, and Chairman, Subcommittee on
Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Recovery:
Statement of Joycelyn Elders, MD, 15th U.S. Surgeon General,
and Co-Chair, African American Health Alliance (AAHA)........ 44
Appendix
Questions From Chairman Donald M. Payne, Jr. for Georges Benjamin 51
Questions From Chairman Donald M. Payne, Jr. for Leana Wen....... 51
Questions From Chairman Donald M. Payne, Jr. for Chauncia Willis. 51
PANDEMIC RESPONSE: CONFRONTING THE UNEQUAL IMPACTS OF COVID-19
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Friday, July 10, 2020
U.S. House of Representatives,
Committee on Homeland Security,
Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness,
Response, and Recovery,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 12:20 p.m.,
via Webex, Hon. Donald M. Payne, Jr. (Chairman of the
subcommittee) presiding.
Present: Representatives Payne, King, Thompson, Richmond,
Rose, Underwood, Green, and Bishop.
Also present: Representative Jackson Lee.
Mr. Payne. Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness,
Response, and Recovery will come to order.
Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today. First,
I would like to say my thoughts are with those who have lost
loved ones from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Also, with Tropical Storm Fay making its way through the
northeast, I hope everyone is staying safe.
Our Nation is facing a crisis of unprecedented proportions.
The novel corona pandemic has already infected over 3 million
and killed over 100,000 Americans. The scale of the loss is
staggering, and efforts to produce a life-saving vaccine
continue, but not all Americans have been impacted equally.
Communities of color are not only more likely to be infected by
the COVID-19, but they are also more likely to be killed by the
virus.
In my home State of New Jersey, African Americans
disproportionately make up the COVID-19 fatalities. This
disturbing trend is observed not only in New Jersey, but also
across the Nation. Data from the CDC shows that African
Americans and Hispanic populations are three times more likely
to be infected and twice as likely to die from COVID-19 than
White population.
This administration's response to the outbreak has been an
utter failure on a multitude of levels. Nowhere is this more
acute than in its neglect of minority health.
Since the onset of the outbreak, it has been clear that
communities of color are disproportionately impacted. However,
the impacts on these communities have been obscured by critical
data gaps. Even with this knowledge, the administration has
been painfully slow in setting requirements for collection of
racial and ethnic demographic information of COVID-19
infections. The example is just one of many that demonstrate
the administration's lackluster outbreak response, especially
when it comes to minority health.
Even CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield admitted the failures
of the administration to collect demographic information on
COVID-19 infections and deaths, is an apology at another
Congressional hearing--made that apology at another
Congressional hearing last month. I would say, Dr. Redfield,
that the American people need more than that.
While much of the focus of the administration's response to
minority health during the pandemic is centered around the
Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of
Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA,
is playing a vital role as the lead Federal agency for
response. Americans are counting on FEMA to get it right.
Unfortunately, FEMA has had costly missteps in the past
when it comes to not factoring in the needs of communities of
color, and the researchers have continuously found that FEMA's
recovery programs exacerbate existing disparities. While these
disparities long precede COVID-19, the effect they are having
on minority communities is a National emergency in itself--one,
I worry about FEMA is not doing enough to meet. As we speak,
lives are being lost in the country to long-standing health
inequities, and that is unacceptable.
At today's hearing, I hope we can explore this problem and
hear potential solutions from our panel of experts.
[The statement of Chairman Payne follows:]
Statement of Chairman Donald M. Payne, Jr.
July 10, 2020
Our Nation is facing a crisis of unprecedented proportions. The
novel coronavirus pandemic has already infected over 3 million and
killed well over 100,000 Americans. The scale of loss is staggering and
efforts to produce a life-saving vaccine continue. But not all
Americans have been impacted equally.
Communities of color are not only more likely to be infected by
COVID-19, but they are also more likely to be killed by the virus. In
my home State of New Jersey, African Americans disproportionately make
up the COVID-19 fatalities. This disturbing trend is observed not only
in New Jersey but also across the Nation. Data from the CDC shows that
African Americans and Hispanic populations are 3 times as likely to be
infected and twice as likely to die from COVID-19 than white
populations. This administration's response to the outbreak has been an
utter failure on multiple levels. Nowhere is this more acute than in
its neglect of minority health.
Since the onset of the outbreak, it has been clear that communities
of color are disproportionately impacted. However, the impacts on these
communities have been obscured by critical data gaps. Even with this
knowledge, the administration has been painfully slow in setting
requirements for the collection of racial and ethnic demographic
information on COVID-19 infections.
This example is just one of many that demonstrate the
administration's lackluster outbreak response, especially when it comes
to minority health. Even CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield admitted the
failures of the administration to collect demographic information on
COVID-19 infections and deaths in an apology at another Congressional
hearing last month. I would say to Dr. Redfield that the American
people need more than that.
While much of the focus of the administration's response to
minority health during the pandemic is centered around the Department
of Health and Human Services, the Department of Homeland Security's
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is playing a vital role as
the lead Federal agency for response. Americans are counting on FEMA to
get it right.
Unfortunately, FEMA has had costly missteps in the past when it
comes to not factoring in the needs of communities of color and
researchers have continuously found that FEMA's recovery programs
exacerbate existing disparities. And while these disparities long
precede COVID-19, the effect they are having on minority communities is
a National emergency in itself--one I worry that FEMA is not doing
enough to meet.
As we speak lives are being lost in the country to long-standing
health inequities and that is unacceptable. At today's hearing, I hope
we can explore this problem and hear potential solutions from our panel
of experts.
Mr. Payne. The Chairman now recognizes the Ranking Member
of the subcommittee, the gentleman from New York, Mr. King, for
an opening statement.
Mr. King. Thank you, Chairman Payne. I appreciate the
opportunity, and I think this is a very significant hearing, an
important hearing. I will make my remarks brief. I have a
prepared statement, so I ask my staff that they submit it for
the record.
Let me just say that New York has been hit particularly
hard. We have over 400,000 confirmed cases. In my district
alone, there is more than 20,000 confirmed cases. There is
probably 12- to 1,300 deaths in the district.
Now, in particular, the focus of this hearing, as far as
how it is impacting the minority community, that is
particularly true in my district. The average community in the
district, excluding the minority communities for the purpose of
this debate, discussion, is between 15 and 20 cases per 1,000.
In the minority communities of Brentwood, Central Islip, and
Wyandanch, it has gone from 62 to 70 cases per 1,000. So that
is 3, 4, 5 times higher in the minority communities.
Now, the immediate reason for that seems to be that many of
the front-line workers, the grocery workers, transit workers
are minorities, so they are right on the front lines. They are
the front-line warriors, and they are getting impacted
directly.
I think some of the long-term reasons, though, are that the
underlying health conditions, such as diabetes and high blood
pressure, heart disease, are illnesses that, for a long time,
go undetected, and people may not know they have them, and
there is a lack of health care in the minority communities.
That is why I think it is important--and I worked with
Congresswoman Yvette Clarke on this, too. We have to increase
the use of community health centers. To me, you have to have
them. They are in the community where the people living in that
community feel safe and secure going to them. They don't feel
they are going to be--check the immigration status or anything
else. They can just go.
Also, having it nearby is--just makes it more comfortable.
Also, these are people who very often have low incomes and
really don't want to be going to doctors. They can't afford it,
and, if they don't feel sick, they are not going to go looking
for it, and that is why it is important to get check-ups, be
tested, and I think community health centers are extremely
important.
Now, we really began to realize this in early April, the
extent of the pandemic in the minority communities, so we did
put--I worked with local Suffolk County. They put a testing
center in Wyandanch, and also in Brentwood, which, again, are
two of the most impacted communities, especially Brentwood.
Also, I have been--emphasize that, whenever other
partisanship is going on, fortunately, on Long Island,
Congressman Suozzi, Congresswoman Rice, Congressman Zeldin,
Congressman Greg Meeks, and I have been working extremely
closely on this. Also, I have been working with the State
senator who represents Central Islip and Brentwood, Senator
Monica Martinez, who is a Democrat. We have been trying to work
as closely as we can.
But, again, you know, sooner or later, we are going to come
out of this pandemic, but the fact is, that is only the
beginning, because we have to realize this can certainly occur
again, and, as you pointed out, what this has brought out is
the underlying conditions as far as lack of proper health care
for people in the minority communities. So we are going to have
to address that as we go forward.
As far as the Federal response, I haven't seen that be an
issue on Long Island. Again, both of our county executives are
Democrats. I have worked with them. I have not heard that there
has been a lack of funding from the Federal Government as far
as one community against another, and we did fight hard to get
the ventilators and the gloves and masks, but I--that--so far,
I don't see that being an issue, but I am not ruling it out.
But I do think the underlying, long-term issue is going to
be the issue of proper health care, and we have to take that
into account, strongly into account. We have to find ways to
rectify that going forward.
So, with that, let me yield back, and I look forward to the
testimony.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[The statement of Ranking Member King follows:]
Statement of Ranking Member Peter T. King
July 10, 2020
The novel coronavirus or COVID-19 has already claimed half a
million lives across the globe, and here in the United States, nowhere
has been hit harder than New York. With over 32,000 deaths, my home
State and District have been ravaged by this virus.
While there has been a vigorous Federal, State, and local response,
as our knowledge of the virus continues to mature, data has shown that
COVID-19 is disproportionately affecting certain communities. In an
April Coronavirus Task Force briefing, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome
Adams acknowledged the increased risk of coronavirus to racial minority
populations. The CDC states: ``Long-standing systemic health and social
inequities have put some members of racial and ethnic minority groups
at increased risk of getting COVID-19 or experiencing severe illness,
regardless of age.''
It is important that we understand and recognize which communities
coronavirus is affecting most severely so that we can rally behind our
neighbors and support them as we work to overcome this pandemic
together.
In May, I joined the New York Delegation on a call with the NAACP
that focused on recovery from the pandemic with special emphasis on
communities such as Wyandanch, North Amityville, Central Islip, and
Brentwood. These communities with major minority populations have had
far more coronavirus cases than most others in Long Island. I also
joined colleagues in urging HHS to provide dedicated funding to
community health centers which oftentimes serve as the primary care
provider within communities of color.
Further, I was proud to cosponsor the Pandemic Heroes Compensation
Act, which creates a compensation fund for all essential workers and
personnel who have been injured or impacted by COVID-19. As we
virtually meet today, we must have greater appreciation for the
suffering and sacrifice that our front-line workers face daily. Not
only do police, firefighters, EMS workers, and health care workers put
themselves in danger, but grocery store clerks, delivery workers,
janitorial personnel, and transit workers risk their health and safety
every day to serve the rest of us. And data highlights that minorities
are disproportionately represented in essential front-line jobs, which
increases their exposure to the virus.
I commend all the first responders, medical personnel, essential
workers, and public health officials who have--and continue to--
courageously put their lives on the line throughout this pandemic. I
look forward to hearing from our panel today to understand more about
the effects of the coronavirus and to possibly inform further work with
the bipartisan Regional Recovery Task Force that I co-lead.
Mr. Payne. I thank the Ranking Member for his candor and
honesty, which is one of the reasons why I appreciate his
service to this country so much. Thank you, sir----
Mr. King. Thank you, Chairman.
Mr. Payne [continuing]. Once again, and I would like to
work with you on the community health center issue. That is
something that has been very important to me, and it is good to
hear that you are interested in that, and look forward to
working with you on those issues.
Mr. King. Great. Thank you.
Mr. Payne. OK. So Members are reminded that the
subcommittee will operate according to the guidelines laid out
by the Chairman and Ranking Member in their July 8 colloquy.
With that, I ask unanimous consent to waive committee rule
8(a)(2) for the subcommittee during the remote proceedings
under the covered period designated by the Speaker under House
Resolution 965. Without objection, so ordered.
The Chairman now recognizes the Chairman of the full
committee, the gentleman from Mississippi, Mr. Thompson, for an
opening statement.
Mr. Thompson. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Good
afternoon to my colleagues as well as our witnesses.
I would like to thank both of you and the Ranking Member
for holding today's hearing on health disparities in the COVID-
19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic did not create health
disparities in this country. Instead, the pandemic is further
exposing these disparities and their tragic effects on minority
and disadvantaged communities.
Today's hearing provides an opportunity to examine the
Federal response to the pandemic, and what must be done to
confront the disproportionate impacts of the pandemic in these
communities.
In March, FEMA was tasked with being the lead Federal
agency for COVID-19 response. I have been concerned about
FEMA's past emergency response efforts where it failed to
adequately address the needs of minority and economically
disadvantaged communities. The complexities of the pandemic put
this troubling history in starker view.
In April 2020, FEMA published a new civil rights bulletin
intended to ensure civil rights during the COVID-19 response.
While the publication is an encouraging step, continued
Congressional oversight of the agency's efforts and operations
is necessary to ensure response effort--responsive efforts to
provide equitable assistance to minority and economically
disadvantaged communities.
Of course, direction to FEMA and the entire Federal
Government on pandemic response flows from the top.
Unfortunately, President Trump's response to the worsening
pandemic has been a failure by any reasonable measure. Failure
to address minority and economic health disparities is a
significant part of the shortcomings.
The administration has even struggled to provide policy
makers with COVID-19 case and morbidity data outcomes by race
and ethnicity. In fact, it took pressure from Members of
Congress and the public for the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention to release its first Nation-wide preliminary case on
morbidity estimates by race and ethnicity on June 15, 2020,
well into the pandemic.
Communities of color and the economically disadvantaged
have to contend not only with the deadly virus and failed
Federal response, but also systematic inequities that put these
communities at greater risk for COVID-19-related
hospitalizations and death.
On April 29, 2020, every Democratic Member of this
committee sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human
Services, Office of Inspector General, requesting they look at
this issue and ways the Federal Government can better address
health disparities in emergencies.
Katrina taught us a lot. I thought we had learned a good
bit about communities of color during emergencies, but,
obviously, we still have some work to do.
So I look forward to our witnesses' testimony today, and I
yield back, Mr. Chairman.
[The statement of Chairman Thompson follows:]
Statement of Chairman Bennie G. Thompson
July 10, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic did not create health disparities in this
country. Instead, the pandemic is further exposing these disparities
and their tragic effects on minority and disadvantaged communities.
Today's hearing provides an opportunity to examine the Federal response
to the pandemic and what must be done to confront the disproportionate
impacts of the pandemic in these communities.
In March, FEMA was tasked with being the lead Federal agency for
COVID-19 response. I have been concerned about FEMA's past emergency
response efforts, where it failed to adequately address the needs of
minority and economically disadvantaged communities. The complexities
of a pandemic put this troubling history in starker view.
In April 2020, FEMA published a new Civil Rights Bulletin intended
to ensure civil rights during the COVID-19 response. While the
publication is an encouraging step, continued Congressional oversight
of the agency's efforts and operations is necessary to ensure response
efforts provide equitable assistance to minorities and economically
disadvantaged communities.
Of course, direction to FEMA and the entire Federal Government on
pandemic response flows from the top-down. Unfortunately, President
Trump's response to the worsening pandemic has been a failure by any
reasonable measure. Failure to address minority and economic health
disparities is a significant part of the shortcoming. The
administration has even struggled to provide policy makers with COVID-
19 case and morbidity data outcomes by race and ethnicity. In fact, it
took pressure from Members of Congress and the public for the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to release its first Nation-
wide preliminary case and morbidity estimates by race and ethnicity on
June 15, 2020, well into the pandemic.
Though the data is still incomplete, CDC's estimates suggest what
many non-governmental reports already show--African Americans, Latinos,
Indigenous people, and Alaska Natives are disproportionately affected
by the pandemic. Communities of color and the economically
disadvantaged have had to contend not only with a deadly virus and
failed Federal response, but also the systemic inequities that put
these communities at greater risk for COVID-19-related hospitalization
and death.
On April 29, 2020, every Democratic Member of this committee sent a
letter to the Department of Health and Human Services Office of
Inspector General (OIG), requesting they look at this issue and ways
the Federal Government can better address health disparities in
emergencies. I look forward to the Inspector General's findings on our
request.
Today, I am pleased we are joined by our distinguished witnesses
today. I hope we have a frank discussion about how the Federal
Government can do more to include communities of color and the
economically disadvantaged in its preparation, response, and recovery
efforts for COVID-19 and other emergencies.
Staff. We can't hear you, sir.
Mr. Payne. I thank the Chairman for his opening statement,
and I appreciate his leadership.
Now, Mr. Rogers will not be joining us today, so I will
move on to introducing the witnesses. Member statements may be
submitted for the record.
Our first witness is Dr. Georges Benjamin, who serves as
executive director of the American Public Health Association.
Dr. Benjamin's experience includes having been Secretary of the
Maryland Department of Health & Mental Hygiene and the former
chief of emergency medicine at the Walter Reed Army Medical
Center. He is also a member of the National Academy of
Medicine. Welcome.
Our second witness is Dr. Leana Wen. Dr. Wen is an
emergency physician and visiting professor of health policy and
management at the George Washington University's Milken School
of Public Health, where she is also a distinguished fellow at
the Fitzhugh Mullan Institute of Health Workforce Equity. She
also previously served as Baltimore's health commissioner.
Thank you for being here.
Our third and final witness is Chauncia Willis. Ms. Willis
is the co-founder and CEO of the Institute for Diversity and
Inclusion in Emergency Management. She is a certified emergency
manager, a master exercise practitioner, and serves as the
immediate past president of the International Association of
Emergency Managers, region 4. Welcome.
Without objection, the witnesses' full statements will be
inserted into the record.
I now ask each witness to summarize his or her statement
for 5 minutes, beginning with Dr. Benjamin.
STATEMENT OF GEORGES C. BENJAMIN, M.D., EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF
THE AMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION
Dr. Benjamin. Chairman Thompson, Chairman Payne, and
Ranking Member King, first, thank you very much for allowing me
to spend some time with you this morning.
I am--you have my full testimony. I am going to focus on
three areas: Disparate impact and the cause of it, some
concerns I have about on-going co-occurring preparedness
activity, and then, of course, the importance of rebuilding our
public health infrastructure.
As you know, this has devastated our Nation. Over 3 million
cases, over 130,000 deaths, and they are growing at 60,000
cases a day. If you look at the minority community, we have
been devastated disproportionately. For African Americans, over
13 percent of the population with 24 percent of the deaths.
Hospitalizations are 5 times for African Americans than non-
Hispanic Whites, and 4 times for Hispanics than non-Hispanic
Whites. The Native American population is also substantially
being devastated by this outbreak.
I think that we ought to think about this epidemic as
though we have 3 of them. No. 1, we obviously have this big
infectious disease epidemic. We also have an infodemic, which I
am going to come back and talk about, which is a lot of
misinformation and disinformation. Clearly, fear plays a
predominant role in our community, a lot of it because we don't
know what is going on. It is a new disease. There is lots of
issues that--and, quite frankly, we need to strengthen the
National leadership that we have had on this outbreak.
Obviously, the impact has not just been on health; it has
also been on the economy, it has been on the social welfare, et
cetera. There are 3 main reasons for this: Higher exposure
because of public-facing jobs for minorities, susceptibility
because of a long history of chronic diseases, and social
determinants of health. You know, 80 percent of what makes you
healthy occurs outside the doctor's office.
So, people are set up not to be able to have good health,
and that includes things such as having to work multiple jobs
because of pay inequalities, because of the lack of paid sick
leave, the housing, which prohibits you from being able to
really physically distance, even if you get infected in your
home. These are all concerns that we have to address if we are
going to go forward.
Our response has been challenged in many ways. We have had
inadequate testing. We have had absolutely inadequate data so
we can target our resources and target our responses. Contact
tracing is well behind where it needs to be. In terms of
education, we have not really done a great job of educating the
public on what is going on and how to address this as we go
forward.
I remain concerned that, should we get hit with something
this summer, like a severe storm or another hurricane,
wildfires, or an earthquake, that our ability to simply manage
that will be severely stressed. Imagine being in a shelter
where you can't really manage face coverings very well, hand
washing, and physical distancing. We haven't really planned
adequately for that.
Finally, we need to fix our broken public health system. I
was the health officer in Maryland on 9/11. We had a pretty
good public health system, but even Congress and the
administration at the time buffered and improved our public
health system.
But we, as a Nation, have allowed that to erode away
substantially over the last several years. It has impacted our
response to COVID. It stands to impact our response to natural
disasters, and I remain concerned that the coordination and the
leadership isn't there for us to address these things as we go
forward.
With that, I would be kind enough to stop and, you know,
take questions during the question-and-answer period.
Thank you, Chairman, and Members of the committee.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Benjamin follows:]
Prepared Statement of Georges C. Benjamin
July 10, 2020
Chairman Payne, Ranking Member King, and Members of the
subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to address you today on the
impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on communities of color. I am Georges
C. Benjamin, MD, executive director of the American Public Health
Association in Washington, DC. APHA champions the health of all people
and all communities. We strengthen the public health profession,
promote best practices, and share the latest public health research and
information. We are the only organization that combines a nearly 150-
year perspective, a broad-based member community and the ability to
influence policy to improve the public's health.
The ``outbreak of pneumonia of an unknown cause'' was first
reported in Wuhan, China on Dec. 31, 2019, and was in the United States
by mid-January. The pneumonia was found to be caused by a novel
coronavirus, which has been named and classified as SARS-2. This virus
causes a disease, named COVID-19, which enters the body primarily
through the respiratory route and causes a severe pneumonia as its
major physiological impact. We now know the virus is able to attack
many different organ systems, causing a range of clinical problems. To
date it has stricken over 3 million individuals and caused over 131,000
deaths in the United States alone. We know that this virus is one of a
family of coronaviruses that causes mild diseases like the common cold
and also much more severe infections like Middle Eastern Respiratory
Syndrome (MERS) and its less severe but also lethal cousin Sudden Acute
Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-1). It remains infectious on a variety of
surfaces from hours to days but degrades easily under certain
environmental conditions. It is easily deactivated by common household
cleaning and desanitizing products.
We currently have 3 co-occurring epidemics associated with this
crisis: The infectious pandemic; an ``infodemic'' of misinformation and
disinformation; and an epidemic of fear. The epidemic of fear is caused
by a combination of things: Fear of the virus, but also fear arising
from the uncertainties around its spread and other unknown factors, and
fear stoked by the poor and inconsistent risk communication from some
political leaders.
The epidemiology of this virus shows it is actively spreading
throughout the community and that each person can infect on average at
least 2 other people. It is more infectious than most influenza strains
and causes mild to no symptoms in about 80 percent of cases, with 15-20
percent having more severe disease. The case fatality rate in the
United States is about 4.6 percent (39.6 deaths/100,000 population).
This rate will probably reduce as the number of asymptomatic and mild
cases becomes clearer. We now know that at least 40 percent of infected
people are asymptomatic or presymptomatic spreaders. The virus can
spread in 3 main ways, most frequently from large particulate
respiratory spread, fine respiratory aerosols, and fomites. Fomite
spread occurs when a person contaminates their hand or another object
with respiratory secretions.
People of all ages are at risk of getting this disease; however,
children have been shown in general to have less severe symptoms. There
is, however, a syndrome that is under investigation in a very small
number of children and young adults of a hyper-immune disease triggered
by the virus. The impact on pregnant women and children is less well-
defined but appears at this time not to cause very severe disease.
However, there needs to be much caution to interpreting these early
observations as many clinical impacts on newborn children and pregnant
women can be delayed.
The biggest impact from COVID-19 has been its disproportionate toll
on communities of color. Early in the outbreak it became clear that
African Americans and Hispanics were being impacted by both a higher
incidence of this disease and a higher percentage of premature deaths
when compared to the overall population. Data from a recently published
paper in the Annals of Epidemiology reinforces the finding that African
Americans are harder hit in this pandemic. The study from researchers
at amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, looked at county-level
health outcomes, comparing counties with disproportionately Black
populations to all other counties. Their analysis showed that while
disproportionately Black counties account for only 30 percent of the
U.S. population, they were the location of 56 percent of COVID-19
deaths. Even disproportionately Black counties with above-average
wealth and health care coverage bore an unequal share of deaths.\1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Millett GA, Jones AT, Benkeser D, Baral S, Mercer L, Beyrer C,
Honermann B, Lankiewicz E, Mena L, Crowley JS, Sherwood J, Sullivan P,
Assessing Differential Impacts of COVID-19 on Black Communities, Annals
of Epidemiology (2020).
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Another analysis from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention has also shown this disparity on a National basis,
especially in hospitalized patients.\2\
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\2\ Garg S, Kim L, Whitaker M, et al. Hospitalization Rates and
Characteristics of Patients Hospitalized with Laboratory-Confirmed
Coronavirus Disease 2019--COVID-NET, 14 States, March 1-30, 2020. MMWR
Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2020; 69: 458-464.
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The COVID Tracking Project has been tracing this phenomenon as well
(https://covidtracking.com/race). They have found that 24 percent of
the deaths where race is known are from African Americans, which
comprises 13 percent of the U.S. population. More recently, CDC
reported that as of June 12, 2020, age-adjusted hospitalization rates
for non-Hispanic Blacks or American Indian/Alaska Native persons are
approximately 5 times that of non-Hispanic whites and 4 times higher
for Hispanic or Latino persons than that for non-Hispanic whites.\3\
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\3\ https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-
precautions/racial-ethnic-minorities.html, Accessed on-line July 5,
2020.
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A recent white paper by scholars at Harvard University found that
Black Americans under the age of 65 have lost, collectively, 45,777
years of life as a result of COVID-19. Hispanics and Latinos lost
48,204 years of life, while white Americans under age 65 have lost,
collectively, 33,446 years of life.\4\
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\4\ Bassett, MT, MD, MPH, Jarvis T. Chen, ScD, Nancy Krieger, PhD,
The unequal toll of COVID-19 mortality by age in the United States:
Quantifying racial/ethnic disparities, June 12, 2020 https://
cdn1.sph.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/1266/2020/06/20_Bassett-
Chen-Krieger_COVID-19_plus_age_working-paper_0612_Vol-19_No-3_with-
cover.pdf, Accessed on-line July 5, 2020.
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This disparity in the impact of COVID-19 is not surprising in its
presence, only in its scope. There are several reasons for this
disparity. The first is greater exposure among communities of color due
to their occupations. During this outbreak, more minorities have held
pubic-facing occupations that put them at a higher risk of exposure as
the Nation moved to a stay-at-home posture. For example, grocery store
clerks, transit workers, hotel workers, meatpacking plant workers,
poultry workers and sanitarians were defined as essential workers and
have continued to work and therefore have had higher risks of novel
coronavirus exposures overall.
The second issue was a higher susceptibility to more severe disease
should they get infected. Early evidence from the Chinese experience
showed that the 15-20 percent of people with more severe disease tended
to have pre-existing chronic diseases like heart disease, hypertension,
lung disease, and diabetes. This tendency to more severe disease for
infected people with chronic diseases has played out similarly in the
United States. We know that African Americans are 25 percent more
likely to die from heart disease, 72 percent more likely to have
diabetes, 20 percent more likely to have asthma, and 2 times more
likely to develop hypertension than non-Hispanic whites. We also know
that many of these diseases develop at an earlier age as well.
Hispanics have less heart disease and cancer than whites but have a 50
percent higher incidence of diabetes and are more likely to lack health
insurance.
The third issue is the ``infodemic'' I earlier spoke about. We know
misinformation is rampant in minority communities. Some of it is
purposeful. Early rumors that African Americans were immune from the
disease as well as rumors about false treatments and cures are wide-
spread on social media and are even being spread via flyers and
brochures. One example of a flyer that targeted the citizens of New
Jersey in minority, Jewish, and Muslim communities is shown in the link
in this testimony. This flyer falsely included the logos of the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health
Organization shown here: https://www.njhomelandsecurity.gov/covid19.
Similar flyers and disinformation more specifically targeting African
Americans have been found in cities like New Orleans and on social
media sites. In these cases people have been encouraged not to get
tested or get the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available. The
disinformation often tells people that testing is being done to track
people to give them the disease. Another widely-spread myth: The future
vaccine will make one sterile. The anti-vaccine movement is amplifying
these messages to others to discourage vaccine use. Many of these
efforts are designed to build on existing mistrust of authority figures
and create a sense of confusion and further loss of trust within the
community.
The fourth reason for these health disparities is the presence of
long-standing inequities in the social determinants of health that have
created the conditions for ill health in minorities and disadvantaged
people for years. A recent study by a team of noted researchers from
the Harvard University Center for Population and Development Studies
looked at the relationship between social determinants and excess
mortality from COVID-19. It showed higher mortality from COVID-19 in
cities and towns that had higher rates of poverty, household crowding,
percentage of populations of color and higher racialized economic
segregation.\5\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\5\ Jarvis T. Chen, ScD, Pamela D. Waterman, MPH and Nancy Krieger,
PhD, entitled, COVID-19 and the unequal surge in mortality rates in
Massachusetts, by city/town and ZIP Code measures of poverty, household
crowding, race/ethnicity, and racialized economic segregation. https://
cdn1.sph.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/1266/2020/05/
20_jtc_pdw_nk_- COVID19_MA-excess-
mortality_text_tables_figures_final_0509_with-cover-1.pdf, Accessed on-
line June 2, 2020.
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Finally, we know that place matters and can put individuals at
higher risk for infection. Examples include nursing homes full of
elderly individuals with chronic diseases and jails and prisons where
confinement and limited access to handwashing and respiratory
protections increase risk. Of course the Nation's prisons house a
disproportionate number of men of color because of unjust criminal
justice policies. Awareness about this long-standing injustice has
contributed to recent efforts to deinstitutionalize non-violent
offenders and unadjudicated individuals in custody to reduce their risk
of infection.
We can address these disparities through sound public health
strategies. First, we need broad promotion of physical distancing,
wearing masks and other respiratory protections, handwashing, and
following sound science in disease prevention and control as we
reemerge from our homes back into public spaces. We have to ensure
robust testing for symptomatic individuals and individuals at high risk
due to occupation or place. Testing locations must be accessible to all
communities. In the early roll out of testing when the availability of
tests was limited, many testing sites were not available equally to all
communities. This was a particular problem for the drive-by testing
sites, which were often not easy to get to and required the use of a
car. These factors can play a huge role in determining who gets tested.
Those making decisions about the location of testing sites should
always vet these choices with representatives of the entire community
to ensure they address any potential barriers.
Testing for the virus must be followed up by adequate contact
tracing and sound programs for the isolation and quarantine of infected
and exposed individuals. The use of culturally competent messages and
messengers (including lay messengers, community health workers, faith
community leaders, barbers, beauticians, and social workers) is
critical to address the misinformation and other issues of concern.
Communities should use more radio, social media, and age-appropriate
vehicles for community health education. Materials should be prepared
in a range of languages to reach people for whom English is not their
first language (Spanish, Haitian, Chinese, Portuguese, etc.).
Importantly, we must adequately collect demographic and
occupational data, including race and ethnicity, on who gets tested and
where, the prevalence of the disease, comorbidities, hospitalizations,
and deaths from individuals tested for or diagnosed with COVID-19. This
information is critical to ensuring that public health authorities and
other decision makers can make data-driven decisions on where to place
services and resources to reduce and ultimately eliminate health
inequities.
Also, we must acknowledge how racism in all of its forms has
created a legacy of unequal access to a range of health services,
resulting in differences in the quality of care received, health-
seeking behaviors and in the social factors that affect one's health.
This must be addressed as a component of any solution to reduce the
unequal impact of COVID-19 on communities of color.
There is a great deal of concern that the Nation-wide mass protests
that occurred after the murder of George Floyd at the hands of
Minneapolis police would result in disease spikes because, as I noted
earlier, increased exposure is a risk factor for increased disease in
communities of color, with higher morbidity and mortality. These
increased exposures were complicated by police crowd control actions
like the use of tear gas, pepper spray, and corralling and detaining
protesters into large groups. These actions further increase the risks
of COVID-19 infection.
The presences of mass gatherings in the face of a severe pandemic
do create a perceived health risk paradox. It raises the question, why
would people choose to increase their risk of infection and get sick
with COVID-19 in order to participate in mass protests, and what is the
trade-off they are making? Many people believe the protesters are
making a trade-off between the potential health risks of them becoming
infected with COVID-19 with the real risk of them and their neighbors
experiencing police brutality. For many, the magnitude of ending police
violence, racial profiling, and verbal harassment driven by racism
overshadows the risk of getting COVID-19.
It remains to be seen if the protests will result in increased
disease spikes. Nationally, we have begun to see increases in disease
positivity and hospitalizations as the Nation continues to reopen. It
will be difficult to determine the relative roles the mass protests and
reopening are playing in these exacerbations of the pandemic. However,
it is clear that the health impact from COVID-19 has had a disparate
impact on communities of color, and we must remain vigilant in our
response.
I am concerned about how we plan for several potential health
threats that could hit the United States during the pandemic over the
next 6 months. This summer we are expecting a higher-than-normal
hurricane season, and this fall we will have the seasonal return of
influenza. Climate change has caused more severe storms, floods,
wildfires, and increased the spread of other climate-sensitive
infectious diseases. All of these have been shown to have a disparate
impact on communities of color when they occur. The increase in toxic
air from wildfires and the increase in water-borne and mosquito-borne
diseases all pose an increased risk to COVID-19-compromised patients.
Finally, the traditional approach to managing emergencies will require
more thought and planning as the ability to provide and use
nonpharmacological interventions (masking, handwashing, and physical
distancing) is much more difficult in emergency shelters during heat
waves or mass evacuations. I am aware the Federal Emergency Management
Agency has begun to look into this, but the opportunity to begin
educating the public on what to do differently in an emergency is now.
In order to ensure our States, cities, and territories are better
prepared for the next emergency, it is essential that Congress increase
funding for CDC's Public Health Emergency Preparedness Cooperative
Agreement and ASPR's Hospital Preparedness Program. Unfortunately, PHEP
funding has decreased from $939 million in fiscal year 2003 to $675
million in fiscal year 2020, while HPP has been slashed from $515
million in fiscal year 2003 to $275 million in fiscal year 2020. The
COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated how essential HPP and PHEP are to
the public health and health care systems' ability to respond quickly
and efficiently to emergencies. The investments from the Public Health
Emergency Preparedness Cooperative Agreement created the response
systems and infrastructure that enable States, cities, and territories
to respond to public health emergencies. PHEP has invested in
capabilities critical to the COVID-19 response, such as incident
management, epidemiological investigation, laboratory testing,
community preparedness and recovery, and medical countermeasures and
mitigation. By having staff in place and trained prior to an emergency,
public health departments can respond without delay. Although
supplemental funding is needed during this pandemic, base PHEP funding
allows health departments to hire and retain expert staff. HPP is the
only source of Federal funding for regional health care system
preparedness, minimizing the need for supplemental State and Federal
resources during a disaster. HPP provides funding and technical
assistance to every State, 4 cities, and U.S. territories to prepare
the health care system to respond and recover to events such as COVID-
19. We are calling on Congress to provide at least $824,000,000 for the
PHEP cooperative agreement and at least $474,000,000 for HPP in the
fiscal year 2021 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education
Appropriations bill.
A strong public health infrastructure and workforce are also
essential to helping us reduce health inequities related to COVID-19
and other health threats. In order to better ensure our public health
infrastructure is adequately prepared for addressing the current
pandemic, future pandemics and other public health emergencies, we must
seriously look at fixing our vastly underfunded public health system.
APHA is calling on Congress to provide $4.5 billion in additional long-
term annual mandatory funding for CDC and State, local, Tribal, and
territorial public health agencies for core public health
infrastructure activities.\6\ \7\ This funding would support essential
activities such as: Disease surveillance, epidemiology, laboratory
capacity, all-hazards preparedness and response, policy development and
support, communications, community partnership development and
organizational competencies. This funding is critical to ensuring our
State and local health departments have broad core capacity to not only
respond to the current pandemic but to better respond to the many other
public health challenges they face on a daily basis. For far too long
we have neglected our Nation's public health infrastructure, and we
must end the cycle of temporary infusions of funding during emergencies
and provide a sustained and reliable funding mechanism to ensure we are
better prepared to protect and improve the public's health, including
our most vulnerable communities, from all threats.
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\6\ Organization letter to House and Senate leaders urging a
significant, long-term investment in public health infrastructure in
future legislation to speed the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
April 3, 2020. Available at: https://apha.org/-/media/files/pdf/
advocacy/letters/2020/200403_ph_infrastructure_covid_stimulus.ashx.
\7\ Public Health Leadership Forum. Developing a financing system
to support public health infrastructure. Available at: https://
www.resolve.ngo/docs/phlf_developingafinancingsystemto-
supportpublichealth636869439688663025.pdf.
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Congress should also authorize and appropriate funding in fiscal
years 2020 and 2021 for a public health workforce loan repayment
program. This program was authorized, but not appropriated in the
HEROES Act passed by the House of Representatives.\8\ Providing funding
for this important program will help incentivize new and recent
graduates to join the Governmental public health workforce, encourage
them to stay in these roles, and strengthen the public health workforce
as a whole. The public health workforce is the backbone of our Nation's
governmental public health system at the county, city, State, and
Tribal levels. These skilled professionals deliver critical public
health programs and services. They lead efforts to ensure the tracking
and surveillance of infectious disease outbreaks, such as COVID-19,
prepare for and respond to natural or man-made disasters, and ensure
the safety of the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we
drink. Health departments employ public health nurses, behavioral
health staff, community health workers, environmental health workers,
epidemiologists, health educators, nutritionists, laboratory workers
and other health professionals who use their invaluable skills to
achieve health equity and keep people in communities across the Nation
healthy and safe.
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\8\ Organization letter to House and Senate leaders supporting the
inclusion of the Public Health Workforce Loan Repayment Program in the
HEROES Act. May, 14, 2020. Available at: https://apha.org/-/media/
files/pdf/advocacy/letters/2020/200514_ph_workforce_loan_repay-
ment.ashx.
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Finally, we should support and enact legislation that directly
targets existing disparities and promotes health equity. This would
include legislation that provides support and coordination at the
Federal level for addressing the social determinants of health that
underlie many existing racial and ethnic health disparities. We also
need legislation that addresses these disparities directly through
promoting equity in health care access, workforce representation, data
collection, and other areas. Existing legislation that would further
these efforts includes H.R. 6637, the Health Equity and Accountability
Act of 2020, and H.R. 6561, the Improving Social Determinants of Health
Act of 2020.
I thank you for the opportunity to testify before you on this
important issue. I look forward to answering any questions you may
have.
Dr. Wen. Chairman, I am not sure we heard you.
Mr. Payne. Thank you, Dr. Benjamin, for your testimony.
I now recognize Dr. Wen to summarize her testimony. Thank
you.
STATEMENT OF LEANA WEN, M.D., VISITING PROFESSOR OF HEALTH
POLICY AND MANAGEMENT, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY MILKEN
INSTITUTE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
Dr. Wen. Thank you very much, Chairman Payne, Ranking
Member King, and distinguished subcommittee Members. Thank you
for addressing the intersection of racial disparities and the
COVID-19 pandemic.
So I come to you from the city of Baltimore, where I am a
practicing physician and had the honor of serving as its health
commissioner. In my city, children born today can expect to
live 20 years more or less depending on where they are born and
the color of their skin. There are racial disparities across
every metric of health. That is a result of structural racism
and inequities.
COVID-19 is a new disease that has unmasked these long-
standing health disparities, and the evidence is clear that
African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and other
minorities bear the greatest brunt of this pandemic.
My written testimony outlines 10 actions that Congress can
take now to reduce the disproportionate impact of the pandemic
on people of color. I would like to highlight 6 of them that
are directly relevant to the work of the Homeland Security
Committee.
First, target testing to minority and underserved
communities. Testing must be free, widespread, and easily
accessible, yet it is estimated that we need 10 times the
amount of testing that we currently have. Congress must
instruct FEMA to ramp up testing and to set up testing
facilities all across the country. Existing hotspots should be
the priority initially, but the key is to have enough testing
everywhere to prevent clusters from becoming outbreaks and
outbreaks from becoming epidemics.
Second, provide free facilities for isolation and
quarantining. We know the key to reining in the virus is
testing, tracing, and isolation. Well, if someone tests
positive, we tell them to self-isolate. What do you do if you
live in crowded, multigenerational housing, as minorities
disproportionately do? Other countries have addressed this by
setting up field hospitals and converting unused hotels into
voluntary self-isolation facilities. Congress should request
FEMA to do the same.
Third, institute stronger worker protections. Minorities
constitute a larger percentage of essential workers. The CDC
has issued watered-down guidelines, and OSHA has not met its
mission to protect workers. Your committee can ensure that
workplace protections are followed for Federal workers, like
TSA employees. This includes universal masking for all
passengers in airports, as this will protect the employees as
well as the public. You can also institute stronger protections
to limit the spread of COVID-19 in DHS-run immigration
detention facilities. That includes access to PPE and
appropriate protocols for isolation and quarantining.
Fourth, suspend immigration enforcement for those seeking
medical assistance for COVID-19. Public health hinges on public
trust. Undocumented immigrants who fear deportation will be
scared to seek help if they exhibit COVID-19 symptoms, and pose
a risk not only to themselves, but to their families and
communities.
Congress should prohibit ICE from accessing records at
facilities of those seeking care for COVID-19. Congress should
also ask for temporary cessation of the Trump administration's
public charge rule.
Fifth, prepare for the next surge. It is a National shame
that we ran out of masks and other PPE to protect our health
care workers. There was no excuse in March, and even less of an
excuse now. PPE should not only be available to doctors and
nurses. Why shouldn't grocery cashiers, bus drivers, nursing
home attendants, who are disproportionately people of color,
have protection too? Congress must urge the Trump
administration to have a National strategy. This includes
activating the Defense Production Act to ensure that PPE,
ventilators, and other critical supplies are produced in
sufficient quantity. Lack of action affects everyone, but, in
particular, minority communities.
Sixth, and finally, support local public health. Funding
for public health preparedness has been cut by half over the
last decade, forcing local officials to make impossible
tradeoffs between critical programs. I think we can all agree
that treating COVID-19 should not come at the expense of
preventing cardiovascular disease and reducing overdose deaths.
I urge that your committee also consider the public health
safety net to be part of the backbone of critical
infrastructure and National security in the United States.
I would like to end my testimony by thanking all of you for
focusing on tangible solutions. There are systemic problems
that we must address that will take sustained commitment and
dedicated effort, but we are facing the biggest public health
crisis of our time, literally a life-and-death threat facing
our communities of color now. We cannot just ignore problems.
Now is the time to take action to reduce disparities in COVID-
19 outcomes and, in so doing, improve health for all.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Wen follows:]
Prepared Statement of Leana Wen
July 10, 2020
Chairman Payne, Ranking Member King, and distinguished Members of
the Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response & Recovery: Thank
you for convening this important conversation to address racial
disparities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The numbers are clear. We can plainly see the devastating impact of
COVID-19 that disproportionately affects African-Americans, Latino-
Americans, Native Americans, and other communities of color. According
to new data published in the New York Times this week, Latino and
African-Americans are 3 times as likely to be infected as their white
neighbors. They are twice as likely to die from the virus.
A Brookings Institution report found that in some age groups,
African-Americans have 6 times the mortality than whites. In some
States, Hispanics have more than 4 times the expected rate of infection
based on their share of the population. In California, Pacific
Islanders face a death rate from COVID-19 that is 2.6 times higher than
the rest of the State. In South Dakota, the rate of COVID-19 among
Asian Americans is 6 times what would be predicted based on demographic
data, on a backdrop of surging racism and xenophobia directed toward
Asian Americans across the country. Other minority communities are also
disproportionately affected, including in New Mexico, where Native
American people comprise about 11 percent of the population yet account
for nearly 60 percent of COVID-19 cases. These harrowing numbers are
only the tip the iceberg; there are lot of data missing that would more
fully illustrate the impact of COVID-19 on communities of color.
Why are there such rampant health disparities? I'd like to
introduce a concept we in medicine know well: ``acute on chronic''. In
medical practice, this refers to a patient who has a long-standing
medical condition that is exacerbated by an acute illness. This is the
case for COVID-19: It is a new disease, a global pandemic, that has
unmasked long-standing underlying health disparities.
Let me give you the example from a city I know well, my home city
of Baltimore, Maryland, where I previously served as the Health
Commissioner. A child born today can expect to live 20 years more or
less depending on the neighborhood he or she is born into. There are
racial disparities in just about every metric of health, whether it's
death from cardiovascular disease or maternal or infant mortality. In
my city, and all across the United States, we live in a world where the
currency of inequality is years of life.
This is the existing situation, of rampant health disparities. Now,
we have a new disease that is rapidly transmitted from person to
person. It is not surprising that areas with many individuals who are
essential workers, that also have higher density and crowded living and
working conditions, will have higher rates of transmission; after all,
social distancing is a privilege that many people do not have. On top
of that, COVID-19 causes the most severe illness in people with
underlying medical conditions. Racial minorities who experience higher
rates of high blood pressure, diabetes, and other conditions as a
result of food deserts, lack of accessible care and other environment
conditions will be disproportionately affected once again.
Add on to this that COVID-19 has resulted in stopping key social
programs that are lifelines in my community and all across the country,
like schools and senior centers. Home visitation programs that have
been instrumental to reducing infant mortality and lead poisoning have
been put on hold. Many who have chronic conditions faced additional
problems of accessing care: Not only care for physical health
conditions but also mental health as well. The acute impacts of COVID-
19 worsen the underlying conditions in individuals and communities. Our
solutions must therefore focus on both aspects.
In this testimony, I emphasize 10 actions that Congress can take
now to reduce the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on people of
color. When possible, I emphasize (in the underlined text) the agencies
and entities that are directly under the jurisdiction of the Homeland
Security Committee.
(1) Target testing to minority and underserved communities.
There must be free, wide-spread, and easily accessible testing
that's directed toward the most impacted communities--in this case,
specifically communities of color that will experience the
disproportionate impacts of COVID-19. Not only should these tests be
available at no cost, they must also be easy to obtain. Testing
locations shouldn't just be at hospitals and doctor's offices; they
should be in the community, where people live and work. This, indeed,
is a tenet of public health, to go to where people are.
Reducing the racial disparities in COVID-19 outcomes requires that
public health officials be attentive to detecting COVID-19 cases early
to prevent a cluster from becoming an outbreak. Efforts must be made to
increase testing sites throughout minority and underserved communities,
including with creative outreach efforts: For example, testing drives
at churches, community centers, and public housing complexes. Given
existing disparities in accessing the health care systems, tests should
be made available without a doctor's prescription.
State and local officials cannot do this work alone; it's estimated
that we need 10 times the amount of testing that we currently have.
Congress must instruct FEMA to ramp up testing and to set up testing
facilities all across the country. Existing hotspots should be the
priority, but emphasis should be placed to ensure that community spread
is detected early on to prevent clusters from becoming outbreaks and
outbreaks from becoming epidemics. In addition, FEMA must coordinate
efforts to ensure that the supply chain remains intact, and that surges
in infections do not result in swabs and testing reagents from becoming
limiting factors.
(2) Track demographic information to ensure equitable resource
allocation.
There have been many calls to make publicly available racial
demographic data for infections, hospitalizations, and deaths from
COVID-19. I agree with this, and add one more data point that's
critical: The demographic data for testing. The other metrics are
important too, but they measure what has happened with disease spread,
as opposed to testing, which measures the actions that are in our
control to prevent the spread in the first place.
Public health experts generally agree that sufficient tests are
performed when the positive rate falls below 10 percent. That is to
say, the net is cast wide enough when less than 10 percent in a
population test positive. I would like to see this testing data broken
down by race and zip code. That way, if we see the positive rate in the
population in a community is at 10 percent, but African-Americans are
still testing positive at a rate of 20 percent, that means African-
Americans are under-tested compared to others. Similarly, neighborhood
data would allow for better targeting of tests and resources to
specific areas.
My ideal scenario is to have a dashboard that is updated in real
time, and that's coordinated by the Federal Government with data
uploaded by State and local officials. This provides important
information and also offers the transparency and accountability that
are needed to ensure that communities most in need are receiving the
resources they require. Federal funding can be tied to the availability
of these data, adding a strong incentive for compliance.
The CDC would be the ideal entity to coordinate such a dashboard.
FEMA can also play a role in tracking this information, especially if
it becomes instrumental (as I hope it does) in ensuring wide-spread
testing.
(3) Hire contact tracers from minority communities.
As efforts ramp up to recruit, train, and deploy contact tracers,
there must be recognition that effective contact tracing depends on
community trust. Every effort should be made to recruit contact tracers
from the communities they serve, and to deploy contact tracers based on
community need. Those who are the most ``credible messengers'' must
also have language ability that reflects the needs of those they serve.
This will also serve as an opportunity for employment in communities
hardest hit by the economic impacts of COVID-19 as well.
While contract tracers should come local communities, the
coordination can be done Nationally. It makes no sense to have 50
different protocols for recruitment, training, and deployment. A
National strategy for contact tracers could, in theory, come under the
purview of the Department of Homeland Security, which has experience in
mass deployment for critical infrastructure and security needs.
(4) Provide free facilities for isolation and quarantine.
Individuals who test positive for COVID-19 must be placed in
isolation and those with significant exposure must be quarantined for
the length of time that they are potentially infectious. Many may not
be able to do so safely at home, if they live in close quarters and
multi-generational housing. Facilities should be made available free of
charge to those who choose to isolate/quarantine elsewhere, including
through the use of empty hotels and dormitories, and resources should
be made available to reduce the economic impact of isolation and
quarantine.
Previously, I joined a group of bipartisan leaders to put forth a
proposal to establish such isolation/quarantine facilities and to
replace wages with a small sum--equivalent to what is paid for jury
duty--to incentivize individuals to isolate and quarantine. Such a
proposal is particularly needed for those who face substantial barriers
to housing and who experience economic hardship. Importantly, it
addresses the needs of individuals for whom missing work or finding
alternate housing could mean sacrificing food on the table or shelter
for their families.
Establishing these facilities, rapidly, is something that should be
led by FEMA. FEMA has shown that it can rapidly set up field hospitals.
Isolation and quarantine facilities are just as critical for
controlling the outbreak, and Congress should urgently request FEMA to
oversee these efforts.
(5) Suspend immigration enforcement for those seeking medical
assistance for COVID-19.
Public health hinges on public trust. Undocumented immigrants who
fear deportation will be scared to seek help if they exhibit COVID-19
symptoms, thereby posing a risk not only to themselves but their
families and communities. Congress should prohibit ICE from accessing
records of those seeking care for COVID-19 or in any way having access
to facilities that offer testing and care for patients.This should also
be made clear through public education campaigns in minority
communities.
Congress should also ask for temporary cessation of the Trump
administration's public charge rule. This rule will serve to further
delay legal immigrants from seeking necessary health care. It should be
suspended for a 2-year period given the immediacy of the COVID-19
pandemic.
(6) Institute stronger worker protections.
As a former local health official, I depended on the CDC for
unambiguous guidance in the time of public health crises. At the
beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, the CDC held daily briefings that
were informative and instructive. Unfortunately, these briefings
stopped at the beginning of March. Subsequent guidance from the CDC was
delayed, and the language used in the guidelines was not the specific,
directive, and clear guidance that I am used to seeing from them.
What I would like to see from the CDC is, frankly, what I'm used to
seeing from them in past administrations. For example, with States
reopening, employees are told to go back to work. Exactly what
standards must be met? People should not just be ``encouraged'' to do
social distancing. What exact standards must be met in different types
of workplaces, i.e. office environments vs meat-packing plants? Masks
should not be worn, ``if feasible''. They should be required. I want to
see a clear statement, such as: If these 15 criteria cannot be met,
then reopening isn't safe and employees shouldn't be allowed back in
these spaces. The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA)
should then enforce these rules, as should local and State regulatory
entities. If not, it is people of color and those who already face
systemic disparities who will suffer the most.
Congress must instruct CDC and OSHA to return to their mandates of
protecting the health of the public and specifically workers. It should
also do its part through agencies in the immediate purview of its
committees. The Homeland Security Committee can, for example, ensure
that all workplace protections are followed for TSA employees. This
includes universal masking for all passengers in airport facilities, as
this will protect the employees as well as the public. Such policies
can set an example for not only the Federal Government but also private
industries to secure protections for workers and the public--and in so
doing, protect those most vulnerable including minorities.
Furthermore, there must be stronger protections to limit the spread
of COVID-19 in DHS-run immigration detention facilities. This includes
ensuring access to PPE, appropriate protocols for isolation and
quarantine, and criteria for release of detainees if cases reach a
certain point determined by public health experts. As with all other
workplaces, protecting the staff will also protect those they come into
contact with and reduce community spread.
(7) Prepare for the next surge.
In March 2020, our country faced a situation that I never thought
I'd experience as a health care provider: That we'd run out of personal
protective equipment (PPE) and have to put our front-line clinicians in
harm's way without something as basic as masks. We also came to the
brink of running out of ventilators and other critical equipment.
States were forced to bid against each other for these and other
critical supplies, such as swabs and reagents for tests.
There are a number of reasons why we were not prepared the first
time around. Perhaps it was excusable then. But it is no longer. We
know what is needed now, and we know that a second surge will almost
certainly happen, especially with the convergence of COVID-19 with the
flu season.
Hospitals need to do their part to prepare for the second surge.
Local and State policy makers must gird for this too. The Federal
Government needs to urgently develop and implement a National,
coordinated effort to secure needed supplies and have a plan for
procurement and distribution. PPE should not only be available to
front-line hospital workers, but also to others who must interface with
many people everyday: Why shouldn't grocery cashiers, bus drivers, and
nursing home attendants all have protection for themselves? Lack of
action will affect everyone, but in particular those in our society who
are the most vulnerable and who already face the greatest brunt of
disparities.
The Federal Government also needs to think now about issues that
will come up in months to come. If there is an effective treatment
developed, how will it be equitably distributed? If a limited supply of
a vaccine becomes available, how can we ensure that it's not only those
who are privileged who will access it? Lack of thoughtful planning will
inevitably lead to a situation where those who are well-connected and
well-resourced can obtain scarce resources, leaving many others to go
without.
Congress must take prompt action to urge the Trump administration
to have a National coordinated strategy. This includes activating the
Defense Production Act to ensure PPE, ventilators, and other critical
supplies are produced in sufficient quantity.
(8) Support safety-net public health systems.
Primary care and community-based health care organizations have
suffered substantially during the COVID-19 crisis, and it is not at all
certain that many will survive in its aftermath. Home visitation and
other community outreach programs have also had to curtail their work;
many others may not be financially sustainable either. Efforts must be
made to support these community-based programs that serve as the safety
net for many.
Already, local public health is chronically underfunded, with less
than 3 percent of the estimated $3.6 trillion in annual health care
spending directed toward public health and prevention; CDC funding for
public health preparedness and response programs has been cut by half
over the last decade, forcing local public health officials to make
impossible tradeoffs between critical, life-saving programs that serve
communities in need. There is an urgent need to strengthen local public
health infrastructure not only to ensure a robust response to COVID-19
and future crises, but also so that those interventions do not come at
the cost of health and well-being and thus further perpetuate racial
disparities.
Flexibility is key in future funding. This pandemic has evolved
quickly and local jurisdictions still best know the needs of their
individual communities. They need to be able to adapt and respond to
the needs they have rather than having to find justification to meet
Congressional spending mandates.
There must also be attention to previously marginalized areas of
health care. Mental health is already a neglected area, and the need
for behavioral health services can only be expected to rise with the
convergence of health, economic, and societal crises. Any discussion of
health care reform must take into account mental health as an
equivalent need to physical health. There must be funding for programs
to address trauma and build resiliency. And there needs to be
recognition of the fact that racism is a public health issue--indeed a
public health crisis in and of itself.
As the Homeland Security Committee considers threats to critical
infrastructure, I urge that you also consider the public health safety
net to be part of National security and the backbone of critical
infrastructure in the United States and around the world.
(9) Increases health insurance coverage.
More than 45 million people have lost their jobs during the
pandemic, and with those jobs, many of them lost health insurance.
That's on top of 27 million who were previously uninsured. Lack of
insurance leads to a delay in treating underlying medical problems,
which increases the likelihood of severe illness and death from COVID-
19. Since minorities constitute a higher percentage of the uninsured,
increasing coverage will prevent further amplification of disparities.
States can do this through expanding Medicaid and allowing open
enrollment in exchanges.
Congress must ensure health care coverage for all Americans,
starting with front-line Federal workers. It should also press for
National policies around evidence-based public health practices that
reduce infection risk, including universal mask-wearing.
(10) Target resources to address social determinants of health,
with a focus on areas of greatest need.
Disparities in health are inextricably linked to housing
instability, food deserts, and lack of transportation access. These are
all issues that contribute to poor health broadly and to disparities
associated with COVID-19 specifically.
Any reform of the health care system must take into account that
these social determinants contribute even more to health than the
health care that one receives. For example, there needs to be
examination of affordable housing through investment in the
construction and repair of potential housing options and support of
policies that extend debt forgiveness and prevent eviction. Food
insecurity can be addressed by expanding eligibility and granting
waivers for food assistance programs such as WIC and SNAP, investing in
local food banks, and incentivizing food delivery for low-income and
vulnerable neighborhoods, while education should be made a priority by
ensuring access to books, technology, and internet, all essential
components of virtual instruction. As it relates to the aftermath of
COVID-19, resources provided in the wake of the pandemic should also be
specifically targeted to areas of greatest need.
conclusion
To some, the 10 steps outlined here will seem too small in scope. I
agree that there must be attention to longer-term issues like housing
instability, income inequality, and structural racism that are
inextricably linked to health disparities. But the COVID-19 pandemic is
the life-or-death threat facing communities of color right now. The
perfect cannot be the enemy of the good when there are specific actions
that policy makers can take that will reduce disparities in COVID-19
outcomes and, in so doing, improve health for all. The world that we
strive for should be one in which the currency of inequality no longer
equals years of life: One in which where children are born and what
race they happen to be no longer determines whether they live.
Mr. Payne. Thank you for your testimony.
I now recognize Ms. Willis to summarize her statement for 5
minutes.
STATEMENT OF CHAUNCIA WILLIS, CO-FOUNDER AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE
OFFICER, INSTITUTE FOR DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION IN EMERGENCY
MANAGEMENT
Ms. Willis. Chairman Thompson, Chairman Payne, Ranking
Member King, and Members of the Emergency Preparedness,
Response, & Recovery Subcommittee, thank you for the
opportunity to testify on this important topic.
We are experiencing a paradigm shift across the United
States as we respond to a pandemic, civil unrest, and systemic
racism with an uncertain outlook for recovery or an adequate
recovery plan. The issues plaguing America, including the
disparities associated with COVID-19, are a result of policies
enacted that have historically lacked diversity, inclusion, and
equity.
Of all the emergency management policies, only a few
mention the word ``equity,'' and none address using equitable
strategies to produce better outcomes for vulnerable groups.
Disasters do not discriminate; however, people do. The health
disparities seen during this pandemic can only be improved if
we understand and operationalize equity.
Equity must be present in all plans, policies, programs,
and practices within the field of emergency management. Equity
in all things. Equity is different from equality. For example,
equality is about giving everyone a shoe. Equity is giving
everyone a shoe that fits.
In disaster management, it can no longer be about doing the
most for the most, because, when we do the most for the most,
it leaves a gap, and it [inaudible] who have the least. There
are existing inequities within our country's very fabric that
lead to disproportionate death and negative impacts for the
most vulnerable groups among us.
These inequities are rooted in systemic racism and an
antipoverty mindset that exists. For example, the racist policy
redlining has led to a lack of access to health care, exposure
to environmental hazards, and so forth. The field of emergency
management lacks diversity in representation, which influences
the way policies and programs are crafted and negatively
impacts outcomes in disaster for underrepresented groups.
Currently, emergency management policies indicate that
White male is the default setting and baseline standard for
disaster response and recovery. In fact, the field of emergency
management is overwhelmingly White, made up of over 80 percent
White males in leadership positions. However, the communities
we serve as emergency managers are very diverse, and the
impacts of COVID-19 on diverse populations is significant.
Current data shows that Black and indigenous Americans have
experienced the highest rate of COVID-19 deaths in America. If
they had died of COVID-19 at the same actual rate as Whites,
about 16,000 Blacks, 2,200 Latinos, and 400 Native Americans
would still be alive.
America's disabled population is also suffering, because
they lack access to testing and non-urgent health care. In
addition, although people with disabilities are at high risk
for COVID-19, there is a data gap in reporting that prevents
equitable strategy development.
Also, the needs of rural areas are unique, because they
tend to have older populations with more chronic health
conditions that raise the risk of developing more severe cases
of COVID-19. They have fewer health care providers and more
uninsured residents, meaning they must wait longer for
treatment.
The emergency management system must incorporate
operationalized equity as a foundational principle for policies
using social determinants of health to address the needs of
diverse population. Our organization, I-DIEM, recommends the
following: A thorough review of current emergency management
policies, including an assessment of the intended and
unintended effects of these policies; No. 2, intentional
measurable integration of equity into FEMA doctrine, programs,
grants, and contract awards; No. 3, ensure Federal funding is
tied to demonstrated diversity, inclusion, and equity in all
things, especially grants and contract awards. In addition,
disaster plans and programs should be evaluated and held
accountable, based on the performance of the equity strategy.
No. 4, integrate equity and culturally competent thinking
into emergency management curriculum and continuing education.
Finally, invest a majority of preparedness, mitigation, and
recovery funding in the most vulnerable communities, including
communities of color. Emergency management must make diversity,
inclusion, and equity a priority so that lives will be saved
and not sacrificed in disaster.
Thank you for your time.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Willis follows:]
Prepared Statement of Chauncia Willis
July 10, 2020
Chairman Thompson, Ranking Member King, Subcommittee Chairman
Payne, and Members of the Emergency Preparedness, Response, and
Recovery subcommittee, thank you the opportunity to testify on the
direly important topic of health disparities and the novel coronavirus
pandemic. My name is Chauncia Willis, and I am the co-founder and chief
executive officer of the Institute for Diversity and Inclusion in
Emergency Management (I-DIEM). As a career emergency manager, I have
over 20 years of experience at the Federal, State, and local level, and
within the private sector emergency management enterprise where I have
experienced, first-hand, the disparate outcomes of disasters and
crises. It is this experience that was foundational to the creation of
I-DIEM, which works with local, State, and Federal agencies, research
institutions, local organizations, the private sector, and philanthropy
to eradicate bias and discrimination within emergency management and
proactively develop data-driven, equitable solutions for underserved
populations (women, people of color, people with disabilities, LGBTQ,
various religious beliefs, low-income, and disadvantaged communities)
before, during, and after disasters.
We are experiencing unique circumstances across the United States
as we respond to a pandemic, civil unrest, and systemic racism with an
uncertain outlook for recovery or an adequate recovery plan. The issues
plaguing America currently, including the disparities associated with
COVID-19, are a result of policies enacted that have historically
lacked diversity, inclusion, and equity. The negative outcomes that we
see are not a result of crisis or disaster. Disasters do not
discriminate, but people do. The health disparities seen during the
COVID-19 pandemic are not a result of the pandemic, but of policy that
has failed. Policy, that can only be improved if we understand and
operationalize equity.
From the start, the writing was on the wall and it was well
understood that there would be disproportionate outcomes for
marginalized groups. On March 12, the day before he took the reins of
the COVID-19 response, I personally travelled to FEMA headquarters on
behalf of I-DIEM and met with Administrator Gaynor to offer assistance
in crafting an equitable FEMA response policy and measures to address
the outbreak. Our organization, and its network of emergency managers
and equity experts, has been actively supporting the response from the
very beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. I-DIEM held 3 National
Coronavirus Virtual Convenings early on to focus on the impacts of the
pandemic on vulnerable communities and provide equitable response
solutions for community organizations and government. Based on
emergency management's history of inequitable responses, we knew COVID-
19 would devastate underserved groups. Leadership should be guided by
equity and it must be integrated into all disaster management policies.
Equity refers to fairness, justice, and impartiality. Not be
confused with equality, which refers to equal sharing and division that
keeps everyone at the same level, equity is a needs-based approach.
Equality is not affected by the needs of people or society as it
promotes sameness.\1\ Historically, America has not held true to the
phrase ``all men are created equal,'' and that pivotal piece of the
Constitution was not referencing women or people of color who were seen
as less than white men. Foundationally, the Constitution and its
policies created a system of class and privilege that resulted in the
outcomes that we see today. America must be held accountable for its
response to disasters that have historically sacrificed black and brown
people of color as seen in the Yellow Fever outbreak of New Orleans in
1850 where people of color were said to be ``immune to the disease'' as
a justification for their continued slavery during an outbreak because
it benefited the economy. Or, the slavery of an essential worker
designation as people of color are more likely to work in service
industries placing a vulnerable population at increased risk for
illness or death given the disparities data for COVID-19. At what point
are the lives of underserved populations no longer acceptable losses?
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\1\ Adhikara, S. (2017). Equity vs. Equality. Health Programs and
Policies.
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We have to break away from utilizing ``white'' as the default
setting for policy and action. Creating policy based on how the rest of
society compares to white men is a fight for equality and sameness; a
fight that focuses on doing the most for those with the most. America
has shown that we are not all treated the same and this on-going
inequitable approach to policy and practice has shown us that doing so
is ineffective. The United States spends more money on health care
globally, but has worse health outcomes than comparable countries
around the globe.\2\ We spend billions on the rising costs of
disasters, without much significant change in disaster mortality since
the 1940's.\3\ This pandemic demonstrates that current policies are
ineffective and inequitable. In addition, it must be acknowledged that
emergency management has experienced a failed response in partnership
with public health due to political interference and decreased reliance
on scientific data to inform response. Consequently, the COVID-19
response is an indictment against the emergency management profession
and its failure to integrate equity in all policies.
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\2\ American Public Health Association [APHA] (n.d.). Health
rankings. https://www.apha.org/topics-and-issues/health-rankings.
\3\ Roberts, P.S. (2013). Disasters and the American State: How
politicians, bureaucrats, and the public prepare for the unexpected.
Cambridge University Press: New York, NY.
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It is my hope, that as we address COVID-19 from an emergency
management perspective, we begin to understand the importance of social
determinants of health (SDOH) in the emergency management enterprise as
they are the underpinnings of vulnerability, disparity, and inequity.
Incorporating social determinants of health in emergency preparedness,
response, and recovery enhances resilience which can improve disaster
outcomes. As COVID-19 impacts our economy and society, we will see an
increase in newly vulnerable populations while conditions worsen for
previously vulnerable populations. This will prove costly for the
upcoming disaster season if we continue to function without
operationalizing equity. Moving forward, key areas of my testimony
include:
The Impact of COVID-19 from a Social Determinants of Health
Perspective
Solutions and Strategies for Improving Equity During the
COVID-19 Pandemic
Success Stories: Highlight Successes in Equitable Approaches
to Emergency Management.
the impact of covid-19 from a sdoh perspective
Social determinants of health (SDOH) are conditions in the
environment in which people are born, live, work, play, worship, and
age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-
life (QOL) outcomes and risks.\4\ These determinants are a balance
between our social lives and physical environments that impact our QOL
including:
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\4\ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] (2018). Social
determinants of health: Know what affects health. CDC. https://
www.cdc.gov/socialdeterminants/index.htm.
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Availability of resources to meet basic needs (safe housing
and food markets)
Access to educational, economic, and job opportunities
Access to health care
Availability of community-based resources in support
community living (recreational opportunities and activities)
Transportation options
Public safety (Police, Fire, EMS, 911 Communications)
Social norms and attitudes (e.g. discrimination, racism, and
distrust of the government)
Exposure to crime, violence, and social disorder
Socioeconomic conditions (e.g. poverty, low-income housing)
Language/literacy
Access to information and technology
Culture
Natural environment (e.g. green space) and weather (climate
change)
Built environment
Worksites, schools, and recreational settings
Housing and community design
Exposure to hazards (toxic, physical), and
Physical barriers (people with disabilities).\5\
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\5\ Healthy People 2020 (2020). Social determinants of health.
Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP). https://
www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/social-determinants-
of-health.
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As SDOH impact up to 80 percent of health outcomes,\6\ when
differences in any of these factors exist and create barriers between
the general population, typically non-Hispanic white males as the
control group, and the most vulnerable populations we see disparity.\7\
As emergency managers, we plan with many of these of factors in
consideration. We perform risk analysis, risk assessments, develop
flood plans that include housing and our built environments, coordinate
efforts with transportation, and examine potential barriers, however,
we do this as an overall function our emergency management
responsibility. Emergency managers give equal attention to these issues
is a structured approach to handling crisis and disasters. However,
this approach does not view disasters through an equitable lens. Equity
is achieved when every person has the opportunity to attain their full
health potential and no one is disadvantaged because of socially-
determined circumstances.\8\ Emergency management planning will not
truly be effective without equity which takes accounts for disparities
that exist based on social determinants of health. Historically, this
has been an on-going issue and the COVID-19 pandemic has further
exposed the reality of health disparities in the United States.\3\
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\6\ Alleyne, K.R. (2020). We must address the social determinants
affecting the black community to defeat COVID-19. The Washington Post.
Published: April 26, 2020.
\7\ World Health Organization [WHO] (2012). Emergency risk
management for health: Overview. Global Platform: Emergency Risk
Management for Health Fact Sheets--2013.
\8\ CDC (2020). Health equity. National Center for Chronic Disease
Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP). https://www.cdc.gov/
chronicdisease/healthequity/index.htm.
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social determinants of health and covid-19
From a public health perspective, the poor and socially vulnerable
disproportionately suffer the burden of disease.\9\ \10\ \11\ \12\ From
a disaster science perspective, populations that were suffering prior
to disaster tend to experience relatively poor outcomes.\13\ Combined,
the concept of social vulnerability has become a growing theme in
emergency management giving rise to frameworks such as the Social
Determinants of Vulnerability Framework.\14\ Social vulnerability is
the susceptibility of social groups to the impacts of hazards such as
suffering disproportionate death, injury, loss, or disruption of
livelihood, as well as resiliency, or ability to adapt from
disaster.\15\ The framework examines 7 inter-related factors that drive
vulnerability: Children, people with disabilities, elderly, chronic and
acute medical illness, social isolation, low-to-no income, and
practical approaches to risk reduction.\11\ Each of these are directly
related to social determinants of health and highlight at-risk
populations, particularly, as they relate to COVID-19.
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\9\ Adler, N. & Stewart, J. (2010). The biology of disadvantaged:
socioeconomic status and health. Ann NY Acad. Sci., 1(1186), 275.
\10\ Braveman, P., Egerter, S., & Williams, D.R. (2011). The social
determinants of health: coming of age. Annual Review of Public Health,
32(1), 381-398.
\11\ Marmot, M. (2005). Social determinants of health inequities.
Public Health, 365, pg. 6.
\12\ Mikkonen, J., Raphael, D. (2010). Social determinants of
health: The Canadian facts. York University School of Health Policy and
Management.
\13\ Tierney, K. & Oliver-Smith, A. (2012). Social dimensions of
disaster recovery. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and
Disasters, 30(2), pp. 123-146.
\14\ Martin, S.A. (2014). A framework to understand the
relationship between social factors that reduce resilience in cities:
Application to the city of Boston. International Journal of Disaster
Risk Reduction, 12, 53-80.
\15\ Cutter, S.L. & Enrich, C.T. (2006). Moral hazard, social
catastrophe: The changing face of vulnerability along the hurricane
coasts. Ann. Am. Acad. Polit. Sci., 604(1), 102-112.
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Attention to disparities in incidence, prevalence, and mortality
associated with COVID-19 in racial/ethnic communities is increasing.
Blacks comprise 13 percent of the U.S. population but account for 28
percent of COVID-19 cases and 33 percent of hospitalizations.\16\ These
numbers are increasingly alarming in local, community settings. A
recent study in Queens, NY highlighted that COVID-19 cases were 30
percent greater in communities with extremely high cases versus
moderate cases.\17\ Out of 6 communities (Extremely high cases=3;
Moderate cases=3), communities with extremely high cases were
predominantly black vs. predominantly white, had a significantly higher
percentage of persons with less than a high school diploma, were 40
percent more uninsured, and had higher rates of chronic and acute
conditions (diabetes, obesity, and hypertension).\14\ \15\ In Chicago,
more than 50 percent of COVID-19 cases and nearly 70 percent of deaths
involve black individuals, although blacks only comprise 30 percent of
the population. In Louisiana, 70.5 percent of deaths have occurred
among Black persons although they only comprise 32 percent of the State
population, and in Michigan, 40 percent of deaths have occurred among
Black individuals who comprise 14 percent of the population \18\
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\16\ Turner-Musa, J., Ajayi, O., & Kemp, L. (2020). Examining
social determinants of health, stigma, and COVID-19 disparities.
Healthcare, 8(168), 1-7.
\17\ Harlem, G. & Lynn, M. (2020). Descriptive analysis of social
determinant factors in urban communities affected by COVID-19. Journal
of Public Health, 1-4.
\18\ Yance, C.W. (2020). COVID-19 and African-Americans. JAMA--
Journal of the American Medical Association, 323(19), 1891-1892.
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Accounting for 18 percent of the U.S. population, Hispanics/Latinx
populations comprise 28 percent of COVID-19 cases in the United States
and are among the highest rates of mortality in the Nation.
Specifically, Hispanic/Latinx populations have a mortality rate 4 times
than that of non-Hispanic whites only following Blacks and American
Indians/Alaskan Natives who are 5 times more likely to be hospitalized
or die as a result of COVID-19.\19\ As of June 12, 2020, age-adjusted
hospitalization rates are the highest among American Indian/Alaskan
Native populations \16\ which is consistent, despite sparse data
although highlights from data available through the Indian Health
Service show disproportionate rates of infection among States with
higher concentrations of Native Americans.\13\ This data is consistent
beyond the United States as Data from the National Office of Statistics
in the United Kingdom show that Blacks are 4.2-4.3 times more likely to
die from COVID-19 than whites in England and Wales while also
highlighting that Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Indians, and those of mixed
ethnicities are at increased risk of death from COVID-19.\13\ Each of
these disparities have commonalities that link them when examining
social determinants of health.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\19\ CDC (2020). COVID-19 in racial ethnic and minority groups.
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/
2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/racial-ethnic-minorities.html.
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Social determinants affecting these populations are believed to
make them more vulnerable to the virus including lack of access to
health care, economic insecurity, poor neighborhood and housing
conditions, and availability of resources.\13\ Lower access to health
care is correlated to uninsured populations, testing, and chronic
conditions. Decreased access to health care contributes to decreased
testing and testing sites which is alarming as 30 million people do not
have health insurance and this is highly likely to be the case in low-
to-no income communities that are characterized by racial/ethnic
minorities. Additionally, among the risk factors for COVID-19 are
chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory
disease, hypertension, and cancer which are all associated with an
increased risk of death \20\ of which Blacks have higher mortality
rates in all categories.\21\ Lack of access to transportation and
reduced train and bus schedules in COVID-19 places more people onto
fewer transports decreasing the ability for proper social distancing
\3\ while also increasing the risk of infection due to overcrowding.
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\20\ Jordan, R.E., Adab, P., & Cheng, K.K. (2020). COVID-19: Risk
factors for severe disease and death. British Medical Journal,
368(1198), 1-2.
\21\ Cunningham, T.J., Croft, J.B., Liu, Y., Lu, H., Elke, P.I., &
Giles, W.H. (2017). Vital signs: Racial disparities in age-specific
mortality among blacks or African Americans--United States, 1999-2015.
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), 66(17), 444-456.
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Housing and neighborhood density also contribute to overcrowding
where racial/ethnic minorities are more likely to live in densely-
populated areas increasing contact with other people. Moreover, racial/
ethnic minorities are more likely to live in neighborhoods with a lack
of healthy food options, recreational facilities, safety, and lighting
which contributes to health conditions such as diabetes and obesity
which are risk factors for COVID-19.\13\ Much of this is a result of
income inequality where we see disparities in the labor and economic
system.
In the United States, white workers earn 28 percent more than Black
workers and 35 percent more than Hispanic/Latinx workers. Moreover,
along racial/ethnic minorities, blacks and Hispanics or more likely to
have service, transportation, or jobs in sales which classifies them as
``essential workers'' who must continue to work during the pandemic
without ``work-from-home'' options, paid sick leave, or adequate health
coverage. This is further exacerbated by job loss during the pandemic
while research shows that Blacks and Hispanics/Latinx populations are
less likely to have savings to cover living expenses for at least 3
months \22\ suggesting that these populations may not have access to
the health care or necessities needed which could worsen outcomes.\13\
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\22\ Parker, K., Horowitz, J.M., & Brown, A. (2020). About half of
lower-income Americans report household job or wage loss due to COVID-
19. Pew Research Center: Social and Demographic Trends. https://
www.pewsocialtrends.org/2020/04/21/about-half-of-lower-income-
americans-report-household-job-or-wage-loss-due-to-COVID-19/.
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Each of these social determinants are considerations that must be
included in planning. Measures that do not account for social
determinants of health have contributed to the disparities and negative
outcomes totaling $802 billion dollars in disaster funding over the
last decade \23\ and a 17.7 percent expenditure of the Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) on health care \24\ which does not justify the costs
versus poor health outcomes. The focus on ``flattening-the-curve''
instead of addressing risk and vulnerability can have negative effects.
Solutions should focus on not producing new forms of inequity and
disparity by focusing on segments of the population that are already
vulnerable, such as racially marginalized, and economically
disadvantaged populations, as a foundation for equitable
strategies.\25\
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\23\ Smith, A.B. (2020). 2010-2019: A landmark decade of U.S.
billion-dollar weather and climate disasters. National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration. https://www.climate.gov/news-features/
blogs/beyond-data/2010-2019-landmark-decade-us-billion-dollar-weather-
and-climate.
\24\ Rollston, R. & Galea, S. (2020). COVID-19 and social
determinants of health. American Journal of Health Promotion, 34(6),
687-689.
\25\ Rangel, J.C., Ranade, S., Stucliffe, P., Mykhalovskiy, E.,
Gastaldo, D., & Eakin, K. (2020). COVID-19 policy measures--advocating
for the inclusion of the social determinants of health in modelling and
decision making. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 1-3.
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solutions and strategies for improving equity during the covid-19
pandemic
Social determinants of health are present through all aspects of
the COVID-19 pandemic. As the Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) leads whole-of-America coronavirus operations,\26\ along with
White House Coronavirus Task Force, and the Department of Health and
Human Services (DHHS), the pandemic highlights the very important
intersection of public health and emergency management that could
benefit from integrative policies and approaches but often operate in
silos negatively impacted by flow of information and coordination
between the CDC and ASPR guidelines under DHHS, while emergency
management follows guidelines from the Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) which has an entirely different focal area.\27\ Fortunately, and
unfortunately, COVID-19 has exhibited that this silo between public
health and emergency management cannot exist as both disciplines
operate with similar goals and coordinated response which is why
emergency management planning should focus on social determinants of
health which can improve coordinated efforts in key issues such as
pandemic response and recovery. In such, solutions in pandemic response
should focus on 5 key components:
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\26\ FEMA (2020). FEMA leads whole-of-America coronavirus
operations. FEMA. https://www.fema.gov/blog/2020-03-24/fema-leads-
whole-america-coronavirus-operations.
\27\ Jacobson, P.D., Wasserman, J., Botoseneanu, A., Silverstein,
A., & Wu, H.W. (2012). The role of law in public health preparedness:
Opportunities and challenges. Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and
Law, 37(2), 297-328.
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Thoroughly reviewing current emergency management policy,
including the intended and unintended effects of policies.
Integrating equity into the current FEMA doctrine and
programs, including grants, to provide recommendations on areas
of opportunities for future practice and funding.
Integrating diversity, inclusion, and equity on
disproportionate impacts of crisis and disaster into FEMA's
planning, guidance, and priorities including equity-related
performance measures in EM grants and other grant requirements.
Implementing equity and culturally-competent thinking into
emergency management curriculum (academia) and continuing
education/training (practice).
Investment in integrative technology toward predictive
modeling to prevent inequitable outcomes.
thoroughly reviewing current emergency management policy, including the
intended and unintended effects of policies
Throughout history, emergency management policy has been a constant
battle between civil defense and terrorism, and natural disasters. What
remains constant in this wavering battle are policies based on a white-
default setting. The majority of emergency management policy has not
been inclusive of people of color. This is of paramount importance
because the lives of Black, brown, and indigenous people in America
depend on these policies. As evident by the protests, people of color
are tired of seeing the worst outcomes. This includes life and disaster
that has impacted the United States including COVID-19. Being a racial/
ethnic minority should not be a death sentence. It is a clear sign that
policy is ineffective toward underserved, marginalized populations.
Federal emergency management laws and policies govern or affect
State emergency preparedness and response activities. Key laws and
policies include the: Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC),
Federal Employees Compensation Act (FECA), Federal Tort Claims Act
(FTCA), National Emergencies Act (NEA), Pandemic and All Hazards
Preparedness Act (PAHPA), Public Health Service Act Section 319, Public
Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP), Robert T. Stafford
Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (Stafford Act), Social
Security Act Section 1135, Volunteer Protect Act, Homeland Security
Policy Directives (HSPDs) and Presidential Policy Directives (PPDs),
National Incident Management System (NIMS), National Response Framework
(NRF), and National Strategy Documents. Content analysis of each of
these laws and policies reveal that each policy lacked context on the
terms minority, vulnerable, diversity, inclusion, underserved, ethnic,
ethnicity, black, Hispanic, indigenous, and marginalized. A few, such
as the Stafford Act, included `race' in a standard non-discriminatory
statement. The term `equity' was commonly used in policies and laws
regarding housing assistance in disasters, but not regarding equitable
strategy. This is evident in a the current state of disaster loans
which entrench disparities in black communities by basing loans on
credit scores which results in black home and business owners receiving
fewer Federal loans than white counterparts.\28\
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\28\ Frank, T. (2020). Disaster loans entrench disparities in Black
communities. Policy and Ethics. https://www.scientificamerican.com/
article/disaster-loans-entrench-disparities-in-black-communities/.
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This is unacceptable. It is imperative that we thoroughly examine
how policies have been crafted and implemented within emergency
management to determine whether equity has been integrated. An analysis
of policy can highlight areas within policy that is inequitable,
unjust, and promotes oppression within the policy system. Identifying
how policy contributes to vulnerability can help reshape an equitable
line of thinking into the policy process; one that is diverse,
inclusive, culturally competent, and improves resilience to crisis and
disasters.
integrating equity into the current fema doctrine and programs,
including grants, to provide recommendations on areas of opportunities
for future practice and funding
Similar to law and policy, we must thoroughly review and seek to
integrate equity into FEMA doctrine, programs, grants, and contracts.
FEMA programs, grants, and contracts are huge investments, however,
failure to invest in equitable solutions is a waste of time and money.
Typically, those who write the best grants will receive those grants
without respect to the needs of the community. Grants supporting the
development and implementation of programs should be an investment that
is based on the current state of our communities. For example, an
investment into local, community-based business would support the local
economy post-disaster, improve recovery, and improve resilience.
However, awarding grants to key figures negates the community overall.
Further, contracts awarded should be representative of a diverse
portfolio of minority-owned businesses and contractors. Previously,
contracts awarded have been disproportionate as evident by the 1
percent of contracts awarded to minority contractors in response to
Hurricane Katrina. It would be interesting to note the percentage of
women and minority contractors that have received COVID-19 response/
recovery funding, thus far. Our investment should be one that builds
resilience which cannot be ascertained without addressing
vulnerability. This was a key focal point in I-DIEM's commentary and
contributions to the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities
(BRIC) program in which I-DIEM advocated for equitable community
capacity building to improve resilience. Failure to incorporate equity
in programs, grants, and contracts results in high investment spending
that leads to higher spending in response and recovery. In such,
examining doctrine, programs, grants, and contracts can identify
whether equity is integrated within the system, identify further
solutions that are equitable, and recommend more impactful alternatives
for program, grants, and contract funding that promotes reducing
vulnerability and increasing resilience through equity.
integrating diversity, inclusion, and equity on disproportionate
impacts of crisis and disaster into fema's planning, guidance, and
priorities including equity-related performance measures in em grants
and grant requirements
Eighty percent of emergency management leadership is comprised of
white males. Thus, the decision making behind FEMA's planning,
guidance, and priorities lacks diversity, is not inclusive of the
voices affected by these decisions and is not equitable. With 21 years
of emergency management experience, I truly believe that emergency
managers have a huge job and huge responsibility with a desire to do
what's best, but politicians are politically focused often overlooking
the recommendations of emergency managers. I have experienced this on
many occasions where I have recommended that our Government focuses on
underserved populations. I have been told, on many occasions, that
marginalized groups are not a major focus in the list of priorities for
Government. Unfortunately, marginalized groups do not have a seat at
the table or a microphone to voice their concerns, especially in
emergency management. Subsequently, as emergency management aims to
reduce the harmful effects of all hazards including disasters including
the loss of life and property, it is our responsibility to represent
the populations that we intend to protect as public servants. For this
reason, we have an obligation to be representative of the populations
that we serve which is best facilitated through diversifying our
leadership. This allows for the integration of diversity, inclusion,
and equity in FEMA's planning, guiding, and priorities. This approach
should be all-inclusive, which the FEMA's Whole Community Approach
recommends, with respect to looking at communities from an equitable
perspective.
Further, large-scale grant funding in the health sector is
requiring outreach and engagement components to be included in grant
proposals as a requirement for funding. Additionally, monitoring and
measuring systems are integrated into grants that ensure compliance.
Emergency management planning, guidance, and funding should focus on
incorporating equity into emergency management planning that ensures
that funding results in actionable, equitable solutions. Performance
monitoring and measures should be incorporated to ensure compliance.
More importantly, most emergency management grants and programs do not
include an evaluation component that would be beneficial to identifying
strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats for the overall program
as well as specific equity-related goals and objectives.
implementing equity and culturally competent thinking into emergency
management curriculum (academia) and continuing education/training
(practice)
The COVID-19 pandemic spotlights how failure to incorporate
research and data-driven science to make risk-informed decisions a
priority over risk-based decisions can have negative effects. The
rising number of confirmed cases and deaths earmarked by notable
disparities suggests that social determinants of health, cultural-
competence, and an understanding of public administration and policy
are imperative to improving emergency management outcomes. As emergency
management continues to grow in the world of academia, it is important
that we begin incorporating social determinants of health into
emergency management curriculum as we prepared the next generation of
future emergency management leaders. The growth of emergency management
programs across the country at the associates, bachelors, masters, and
doctoral level represents an investment in emergency management
enterprise. We are doing a disservice to the field if we do not
adequately focus on the root causes of disparity and vulnerability that
is counterintuitive to the outcomes we seek to achieve. This same
notion applies to continuing education/training for emergency managers.
As practitioners, it is essential that we stay educated and current in
our practice of emergency management. We see this in tabletop exercises
and drills across the field of emergency management that maintain level
of preparedness necessary to negate the devastating effects of
disasters. Implementing social determinants of health and equity into
continuing education and training is beneficial for both emergency
managers and the communities we serve.
investment in integrative technology toward predictive modeling to
prevent inequitable outcomes
Emergency Management must rethink its focus on excessive spending
on incident response technology and focus more on research-driven,
community data that is already available. This data can inform
predictive modeling. Predictive modeling can be applied to any type of
event and analyzes historical and current data to generate a model that
helps predict future outcomes. To achieve this, emergency managers
should seek partnerships with academic institutions and technology
firms to develop more predictive technology. Many universities have the
capacity and funding to develop integrative tools such as predictive
modeling to assist in emergency management especially with the
expansion of emergency management programs. This approach allows
opportunities for collaborative community work that is mutually
beneficial while also bridging the gap between emergency management
academia and practice.
Additionally, partnerships with technology firms will allow for a
strong research background and robust technology innovation that
support equitable solutions. For example, I-DIEM's partnership with
Aleria Research, a nonprofit research organization that leverages
science and technology to improve diversity and inclusion, has been
contributory to grant opportunities and funding that focuses on the
develop of a simulated predictive modeling system that focuses on
community education and preparedness as well as recovery planning.
These opportunities allow for innovative and integrative approaches to
equity that aim to improve the emergency management enterprise through
technology.
conclusion
The key to influential change is leveraging mutual aid, coalitions,
leadership, and advocacy during COVID-19. Social determinants of health
help identify areas of disparity and inequity and should be a focal
point of emergency management moving forward, but progress cannot be
made without effective change in policy. The pandemic is a devastating
period for the United States, but it provides opportunity to improve
upon systems that contributed to disparities and negative outcomes. In
emergency management, many of the key policies have been guided by
disaster. For example, the Department of Homeland Security was created
in the wake of 9/11. We have the opportunity to utilize what we have
always known, and what we see on full display during the pandemic, to
improve. The mutual aid between FEMA and public health can be leveraged
along with the many organizations involved in the response and future
recovery of COVID-19.
Leadership can take more diverse, inclusive, and equitable forms as
we see transitions in global responses to systemic racism and civil
unrest. The time is now to understand and integrate social determinants
of health into emergency management as a foundation to diversity,
inclusion, and equity. This must be a focal point as the disparities
present in COVID-19 are the same disparities that are present in
disasters. The same social determinants of health that guide advocacy
for health equity are inherent in all phases of the disaster management
cycle. The key to adopting these determinants into practice is
operationalizing equity which is achieved by looking at all of our key
decisions through an equitable lens. We should be advocating for
disaster equity. We should be looking at equity in emergency management
within all policies. This is a key focal point of the ``Health In All
Policies (HIAP)'' strategy that integrates and articulates health
considerations into policy making across sections to improve the health
and communities of all people.\29\ We must be equally as innovative in
emergency management to improve disaster outcomes across our
underserved, and marginalized communities. This is especially important
with the impending hurricane season.
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\29\ CDC (2016). Health in all policies. Office of the Associate
Director for Policy and Strategy. https://www.cdc.gov/policy/hiap/
index.html#::text=Health%20in%20All%20Policies%20-
%28HiAP%29%20is%20a%20collaborative,beyond%20the%20scope%20of%20traditio
nal%20pub- lic%20health%20activities.
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future focus
America is still in the midst of response to COVID-19. Response is
typically the shortest phase of disaster, but due to the lack of
Federal strategy, many States are struggling to contain and mitigate
the pandemic impacts. Imagine, for a moment, if equity had been
considered at the start of this terrible health outbreak. Health care
workers, many who are women of color, would have been prioritized in
receiving personal protective equipment (PPE). A strategy to provide
States with the resources they need would have been developed, rather
than one that promoted competition among States. Leadership must be
guided by equity, not political maneuvering and capitalism, at the
expense of human lives.
Mr. Payne. Thank you for your testimony. I would like to
thank all the witnesses for their testimony. I remind the
subcommittee that we will each have 5 minutes to question the
panel.
I will now recognize myself, but before I do that, I ask
unanimous consent that Congresswoman Jackson Lee be permitted
to sit and question the witnesses. Without objection.
So, Ms. Willis, FEMA has a history of emergency responses
plagued with racial and socioeconomic disparities. Despite this
history, the Trump administration has made little to no effort
to assure communities that the agency will respond to the
pandemic in an equitable manner. With preexisting disparities
in mind, what types of emergency response strategies should our
country utilize to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic?
Ms. Willis. Thank you, sir. That is a great question.
One of the most important strategies will be to ensure that
we are training our emergency managers in equity, to assist
them in focusing policy creation and implementation on equity
and vulnerable groups.
Right now, within FEMA and emergency management as a whole,
equity is not a priority, and, in fact, it is not seen as a
priority in many areas of disaster management, and that is a
significant problem that must be addressed. We need an equity
revolution. We must confront the intersection of race and
poverty on biased disaster management policies as well. A
thorough review of policies is needed, and more funding must go
into equity training and education.
Thank you.
Mr. Payne. Am I correct in saying that we are not asking
for special treatment in these communities; we are asking for
equitable treatment in these communities? Is that correct?
Ms. Willis. That is absolutely correct.
Mr. Payne. Thank you.
Ms. Willis. Providing equity in disaster should not be an
``other.'' It should be----
Mr. Payne. Thank you.
Ms. Willis [continuing]. A priority. Thank you.
Mr. Payne. Thank you very much.
Dr. Wen and Benjamin, when asked about racial disparities
at a Congressional hearing in June, Dr. Fauci said that
institutional racism contributed to the disproportionate impact
of COVID-19 on African Americans and that they have suffered
from race----
Ms. Jackson Lee. How do I take this off silent----
Mr. Payne. Excuse me.
Ms. Jackson Lee [continuing]. Because I don't want to
miss----
Mr. Payne. Somebody needs to mute, please. I am sorry.
Dr. Fauci was saying that the communities suffered from
racism for a very, very long period of time. If the Trump
administration has known of these factors for a long time, why
has the administration not done more to address these problems?
Either one of you can start.
Dr. Benjamin. Sure. I would be happy to start.
You know, there are--if you think about the response, there
are really 3 areas where the administration can step up a bit
more. I know some of it, they have done, but there is still
more things that they can do.
No. 1, testing. Early on, as you know, there wasn't a lot
of tests, but, when we did have tests, they weren't in the
hood, quite frankly. They weren't easy to get to. The drive-
through testing, if you didn't have a car, you couldn't get
there. You have got to make sure that testing is available to
all parts of the community, to people that have shift work, to
people that don't have paid sick leave, so they can actually
get to the testing.
Then we need to make sure that that testing is available.
You know, television pictures that we were seeing in the last
couple of weeks of long lines of people waiting hours to get
tested are, frankly, unacceptable for every citizen within our
country, and specifically for communities of people that are at
higher risk. You know, you are sitting in a line 3 hours when
you have symptoms and you don't feel well, and from a clinical
perspective, just makes no sense, of course.
Second, we know that the whole issue of access to care
remains a big issue. I applaud Ranking Member King and you and
all about community health centers, and that is wonderful, but
every citizen in this country ought to have access to quality,
affordable health care. That is important. We have to get
Medicaid coverage to all of our low-income citizens, and we
need to stop fighting about that. Health care is a fundamental
human right, and we need to fix that right now.
I think the third thing is, we have got to really deal with
this issue of misinformation and disinformation. One of the
things we did during the AIDS epidemic is we did a lot of work
educating faith leaders, barbers, beauticians, anyone who was
an influencer in our community to get to communities of color,
to get to communities that had languages other than English as
their first language, to make sure they understand the disease
process and how they can get help, and what they can do to
protect themselves. We haven't----
Mr. Payne. Thank you.
Dr. Benjamin [continuing]. Done that.
Mr. Payne. Thank you, sir.
Dr. Wen, I am going to--my time has expired, so----
Dr. Benjamin. Oh, I am sorry.
Mr. Payne [continuing]. I am going to have to yield. I am
sorry.
I now recognize the Ranking Member of the subcommittee, the
gentleman from New York, Mr. King, for questions.
Mr. King. OK. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I would like to focus my questions to Dr. Wen, at least to
start. In New York and Long Island, we have a particular issue
with the fact of transportation.
The New York City subway system carries millions of people
every day. The Long Island Railroad carries hundreds of
thousands of people in and out of Manhattan to Brooklyn and
back, and there is tremendous transportation back and forth. We
are talking about millions and millions of people are on the
trains every day.
I am trying to think about the next pandemic or the second
wave of this one. What can you suggest that we do to try to
anticipate the problems we are going to get from
transportation, having so many people packed together on these
trains, and as far as having testing sites, and ways to detect
it? Because, again, that is where you have people of all
economic strata, races, religions, everyone traveling together
in very close quarters, both from low-income communities--low-
income communities, high-income communities, from the suburbs,
the inner cities, all coming together. Can you think of any way
we can do it to minimize the impact of the, you know, second
wave spreading or another pandemic after this?
Dr. Wen. Yes. Thank you very much, Ranking Member. This is
an excellent question.
The most important thing that we can do in order to
mitigate the spread on public transportation actually is the
same as, I would say, if you had asked me about what can we do
to keep schools open? It is the same answer, which is that we
need to keep a level of COVID-19 in the community to be as low
as possible, because you can imagine, when you have communities
in parts of the south where one in 100 people have COVID-19, if
one in 100 people have it and don't know it, and they are
getting on trains or they are going to schools or really any
public place, that is a lot of potential people that they could
be infecting.
So we really have to do our part in order to keep the level
of infection as low as possible throughout the country. At this
point, we know exactly what that would mean. We know that this
is a combination of physical distancing, wearing masks, also
good sanitation practices and cleaning, but, ultimately, this
is about keeping that level of infection down as low as
possible.
Two more things quickly. Another is testing. To piggyback
on what Dr. Benjamin had said earlier, we absolutely need wide-
spread free testing available to where people are, and it needs
to be rapid. It doesn't do any good when there is a test result
that comes back in 5 to 7 days or even 10 days in some cases,
because what is that patient supposed to do in the mean time?
In that time, they are also spreading the disease to many
others, and so that rapid testing is critical.
The final point is surveillance. To your point about
transportation as well, we need to know where it is that people
are picking up illness, and we also have to have surveillance
in the community so that we can identify some--a cluster of
outbreaks or a cluster of infections before it becomes a large
outbreak.
Mr. King. Thank you, Doctor.
I will address this question to anyone who wants to answer
it: In my district in particular, we have several large
Hispanic American, low-income communities, with both documented
and undocumented people living in those communities. I think it
was you, Dr. Wen, that mentioned about multigenerational, and
that they are more inclined to have multi generations living in
those communities.
How is the best way to get testing into those communities,
to alert the people to get the testing? Again, I am not
advocating over the immigration rule, but, again, undocumented
people are afraid to go to doctors. They are afraid to go for
testing. Rightly or wrongly, how do we overcome that, and can
we aggressively go into those communities more, not for our
good, but for their good, find out, get them tested? I guess
you can't force people to be tested, but really encourage it in
those communities?
Anyone who wants to answer?
Dr. Benjamin. Sure. I--you know, a van. What you--all you
need----
Mr. King. Thank you, Doctor.
Dr. Benjamin. Sir, I am sorry. This is Georges Benjamin,
sir.
All you need is a swab, a van, a testing, and a place to
cool the sample down. So you can take mobile vans in those
communities very effectively, park them on the corner, and ask
people to come in, but you have got to obviously communicate
with them so they don't feel threatened. Or go to schools. You
have got lots of empty buildings in the community, and you can
set a rapid testing clinic in.
Mr. King. Another--I am sorry. Go ahead.
Dr. Wen. If I may add, too, I completely agree with Dr.
Benjamin. You need to go to where people are. Churches,
community sites, public housing. Also, it is really critical to
enlist trusted members, trusted messengers in the community. To
the point that you raised, Congressman, that you need
individuals who have the community trust. Public education
needs to be a part of that, including public education about
how everyone should receive health care. This is not a time to
be asking about immigration status.
Many people are going to be terrified to seek help because
they think that they are going to be arrested by ICE and
deported, and so it is really important to reassure them that
this is not going to happen at this time, that this is about
protecting not only them, but everybody else around them, too.
Mr. King. My time is up. I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you. I thank the witnesses.
Mr. Payne. I would like to thank the gentleman from New
York.
The Chair will now recognize other Members for
questioning--questions that they may wish to ask witnesses. As
previously outlined, I will recognize Members in the order of
seniority, alternating between Majority and Minority. Members
are reminded to unmute themselves when recognized for
questioning.
The Chair now recognizes for 5 minutes the gentleman and
the Chairman of the full committee, the gentleman from
Mississippi, Mr. Thompson.
Mr. Thompson. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and I
thank the witnesses.
One of the things we have tried to work with, with FEMA is,
in the issue of any National or natural disaster, they need to
have a plan for the entire population, and that plan should
include transportation, should include housing, health
facilities, all of that.
Most of the plans we have come in contact with, or have
been presented, try to look at communities as one entity, and
not--as Peter was talking about, certain people stay in one
area, certain people sit in another.
I guess what I am saying is we get cookie-cutter plans that
many people assume will fit every situation, and what I have
heard from the witnesses today is that you really have to have
a greater understanding of the communities with which you are
working, and your plans have to reflect it.
The best example I can tell you, I am speaking from my
Congressional office, and we had a testing site that was 5
miles from my Congressional office, and we don't have public
transportation. So, in the run of a day, they did 26 people
because nobody could afford to get to the site. If they had
just talked to somebody and said, ``Where is the best place to
come to do a site testing,'' they would say, ``Well, you need
to come where the people are.'' So, it is that comfort level
sometimes that our emergency responders go to.
So can you give Members of Congress--how do we work with
FEMA and other personnel in this venue to get them to
understand that you have to include the entire community in
your planning, especially from an emergency preparedness
standpoint, because otherwise, they will get overlooked? I will
just throw that out to Dr. Benjamin, Dr. Wen, and then to Ms.
Willis.
Dr. Benjamin. I think--this is Georges Benjamin. We have to
make sure that FEMA understands that real job is to build
resilience and preparedness of communities, and that means that
they can't do cookie cutters. They have to plan with
communities, and not to communities. That means they have got
to have community engagement. They have got to be part of the
planning process throughout every aspect of it.
We need to make sure that--Congress can require that the
Governors and emergency planners show that they engaged
communities as part of the planning process. Remember the HIV/
AIDS days, when we were challenged to get good HIV/AIDS plans
in place? Well, Congress required planning communities be part
of that planning process. So I think you can put that--link
that to their funding in some way, to let--or some other
mechanism to demonstrate that those communities are planned--
are part of the planning process, because, as you know, there
is an enormous strength in communities that are not be being
used.
Mr. Thompson. Absolutely. Dr. Wen.
Dr. Wen. If I may add very quickly that, right now, we
don't even have that cookie-cutter approach. I mean, I agree we
need to have a tailored approach, but, right now, we don't even
have a National strategy, really, of any kind. We need a
National strategy around testing. We need a National strategy
around quarantine, isolation facilities, around procuring
supplies, the Defense Production Act. We need to have that
strategy in order for us to save lives.
Mr. Thompson. Thank you.
Ms. Willis.
Ms. Willis. Thank you, sir.
I would say that equity must become a core competency for
emergency managers, certainly in the emergency management
leadership. And I would also say that we need to begin tying
funding to the investments of minority communities. And right
now, that is not happening. We need to invest a majority of
FEMA funding for preparedness, mitigation, and recovery in our
most vulnerable communities rather than continuing to overfund
communities that will bring in revenue, such as tourism areas.
And so, that is something that has been a--that has been a
problem and continues to be a problem. There is an
underinvestment and divestment in communities of color.
Thank you, sir.
Mr. Thompson. Great. Thank you very much. I yield back.
Mr. Payne. Thank you. I thank the gentleman from
Mississippi.
I now recognize the gentleman from Louisiana, Mr. Richmond,
for 5 minutes.
Or maybe not. OK. Well, it doesn't seem like he is here, so
now we will go to the gentlelady from Illinois, Ms. Underwood,
for 5 minutes.
Ms. Underwood. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I am so
grateful to our witnesses for appearing before the panel today.
This certainly is a topic that touches close to home, as you
know. So much of the disparities conversation related to COVID-
19 did begin with Illinois, as we were one of the first to
release our data by race and ethnicity, and that has certainly
jump-started our National conversation.
In the last week, my State of Illinois surpassed 7,000
lives lost from COVID-19. Hundreds of thousands more are out of
work, and every single community has been impacted. But the
harm done by this pandemic has not been inflicted evenly.
Communities of color are experiencing disproportionate rates of
illness, hospitalization, financial loss, and death.
In Illinois, the cumulative rate of positive coronavirus
tests for Hispanic residents is more than 5 times the rate for
White residents. In one county in my northern Illinois
district, the positive test rate for Hispanic residents has
been nearly 8 times as high--8. Across the country, people of
color, and particularly Black folks, are losing both their jobs
and their lives at staggering rates.
To tackle these inequities head-on, we need to make
culturally-relevant investment in public health and economic
opportunity, which is why I introduced, with my House and
Senate colleagues, the Health Force and Resilience Force Act,
which would fund public health departments to hire locally for
testing and contact tracing.
Dr. Benjamin, for Latinx communities and other underserved
populations, why is it so important to have local residents
supporting health departments with initiatives like contact
tracing and information sharing?
Dr. Benjamin. I don't speak Spanish. I don't speak Spanish.
So it is language, it is trust, it is knowing where to go. When
I was--I was the Washington, DC health officer, and I have got
to tell you that we were successful in many of our efforts
there to reduce a whole range of infectious diseases, because
they had outreach workers that knew the community; knew who to
go to; and, when people didn't want to do something, were able
to convince them to follow medical advice.
That is essential in communities of color, and
particularly, in communities where they are concerned about
immigration, where English isn't the first language, and,
frankly, right now, in these last few years, we have
stigmatized.
Ms. Underwood. Yes. So we have invested billions of dollars
in the search for a vaccine, but actually developing a safe and
effective vaccine is only the first step. We will then need to
prepare to rapidly deploy it across the country, and
unfortunately, we know that Black and Latinx Americans have
lower immunization rates than their White counterparts.
Dr. Benjamin, can you describe the importance of community-
specific efforts to increase vaccination rates in Black and
Latinx communities for recommended immunizations like measles
and smallpox and flu vaccines? Also, what does the evidence
from the deployment of those vaccines tell us about how we need
to prepare to deploy an eventual COVID-19 vaccine to ensure
strong vaccination rates among communities of color?
Dr. Benjamin. Well, we should start recognizing that there
is a disparity in vaccine uptake in communities of color. In
other words, communities of color don't get vaccinated as
frequently as Whites in this country. Second, we should
recognize there is an enormous amount of mistrust that
currently exists. That is coupled with, primarily, the anti-
vaccine community and others, though, who are sending a lot of
disinformation.
Look, we have already got people in social media space and
passing out flyers telling community of color don't get
vaccinated, it will make you sterile, it will give you AIDS, it
will give you the disease, it will kill you. So there are
already a lot of disinformation out there, and we need a
National effort to do that.
But, more importantly, we need a National plan. The Federal
Government needs to step up to the plate and put together a
plan, just like we did with H1N1, to figure out how we are
going to deploy this vaccine. We have got lots of mechanisms to
do that, but we have no plan.
Ms. Underwood. Well, I am so glad you said that, because,
last month, I introduced the Protecting Against Public Safety
Disinformation Act. This bill would help public health
officials mitigate the impact of false information that can
undermine efforts to keep our communities safe during this
pandemic and beyond.
Dr. Benjamin, in what ways could the spread of
disinformation worsen disparities, and the impact of COVID-19,
particularly with respect to vaccines, but also wearing masks?
Dr. Benjamin. Well, again, there is a group out there who
is actively working to confuse us all around vaccines, around
masks. Look, there are flyers. I saw some flyers that were
being passed out in New Jersey which had the CDC and the World
Health Organization logo on them. They were obviously
misinformation, but they are flyers that basically said, you
know, If you are infected, go to a synagogue. If you are
infected, go to a low-income community. If you are infected,
ride public transportation. In other words, they are trying to
spread the virus.
So they are giving misinformation to hurt people, and so I
think we have got to push back against that kind of effort as
aggressively as we can.
Ms. Underwood. In the same way that you all discussed,
targeting the strategies to mitigate spread, like testing and
treatment in the communities that are most--most impacted, we
also need to target those same types of campaigns to spread
accurate information and empower those public health officials
to do the same. In May, the House----
Dr. Benjamin. Absolutely.
Ms. Underwood. Thank you. In May, the House passed the
HEROES Act, which included nearly $7.5 billion in direct
funding for public health departments, in addition to $500
billion in relief for States, and $375 billion for local
government. Unfortunately, the Senate has yet to act to pass
this bill.
We know that there are significant public health
consequences to continued delays in passing the HEROES Act, and
so we are calling on our colleagues in the Senate to rapidly
take up this legislation, and empower our State and local
public health departments to do this much-needed work.
With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back. Thank you to our
witnesses.
Mr. Payne. I would like to thank the gentlelady from
Illinois for her questions. Always poignant. Please make sure
my office has all of your pieces of legislation so that I can
sign off.
Ms. Underwood. Yes, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.
Mr. Payne. Next, I believe we will recognize the gentlelady
from Texas, Ms. Jackson Lee, for 5 minutes.
I thought she was on. Staff, is she available?
Staff. Not at the moment, sir. It is just you and Ms.
Underwood.
Ms. Underwood. Well, Mr. Payne, if you would yield a couple
more minutes, I do have a couple more questions for our
witnesses.
Mr. Payne. I will yield.
Ms. Underwood. Thank you so much, sir.
My next question is for Dr. Wen. In June, the CDC reported
that pregnant woman might be at increased risk for severe
COVID-19 illness, and the risks appear to be even higher for
Black and Hispanic pregnant women.
Dr. Wen, as Congress develops another COVID-19 relief
package, which policies should be considered to protect
pregnant and postpartum women during this pandemic?
Dr. Wen. Thank you for that excellent question, and I know
that you and I have worked closely on issues of maternal
mortality. I thank you for your leadership on these really
important factors.
So there is--so I think there are two separate but related
issues. One is about COVID and disparities, and then the other
is about maternal mortality, and now they are intersecting in
this way because of the increased likelihood of severe effects
among pregnant women during COVID. So I think we have to take
them separately.
For COVID-19, I do think that all the recommendations that
we have made thus far still stand. In this case, I would just
continue to emphasize the importance of a National strategy,
because right now, we have seen what happens when we have this
piecemeal approach across the country, when we have,
unfortunately, elected officials who are not following the
advice of public health experts, and, in fact, as Dr. Benjamin
said, are feeding into misinformation.
So everything that we can do, that all of you can be doing
to ensure that there is a National strategy to the best of your
ability would be extremely helpful, and to spread that
information, too, or to counter the misinformation that is also
rampant.
Then I would say, when it comes to maternal mortality, we
need to be not only looking at what happens during pregnancy,
which is really critical, but also, how can we be improving
health for women, and, in particular, for Black women and women
of color throughout their lives? I think that everything that
you have done, Congresswoman Underwood, to support and improve
maternal mortality would also, therefore, not only address the
maternal mortality issue, but specifically, also improve
outcomes during COVID-19 as well.
Ms. Underwood. Well, thank you for your leadership on this
issue and all other matters of public health.
I want to return back to Dr. Benjamin. I started to raise
the Heroes Act, and the significant financial investment that
would be made for States and local governments. With your
background in leading the American Public Health Association,
can you describe the potential public health consequences of
the Senate's inaction on this emergency funding for States,
localities, and public health departments?
Dr. Benjamin. You know, here is the challenge we have. You
know, we have got 3 million people with this disease, and even
though, you know, we don't have as many deaths today because of
the young people who are getting it who may not be as
susceptible to dying, death is a lagging indicator, as you
know. We do not have a public health system that can adequately
trace and do the contact tracing.
This is going to get worse before it gets better--I can
assure you of that--as we return to work, and so, we are going
to have to build that system. We need to do that as quickly as
possible. Without those funds, frankly, we are up the creek.
I was just talking yesterday to some folks about going back
to school. We don't go back to school unless we get our hands
around this disease process, as Dr. Wen pointed out.
Ms. Underwood. Yes. So the thing I want to make sure that
the committee and the American people understand is for
decades, our State and local public health systems have been
systematically seeing their funding sources reduced. They have
been working at the very top of their capacity across this
country.
That was during a time of health and well-being largely,
right? We were not in a pandemic environment. So these types of
resource are not going toward these State and local health
departments as sort of excess, right. They are to fill critical
functions to protect the communities that they serve.
So, when we talk about bills like the health force, the
resilience force, and hiring community members, training them
and giving them a sustainable skill set to further pour into
those communities that they come from, it only serves to build
the capacity of those local institutions. Would you care to
comment, Dr. Benjamin?
Dr. Benjamin. Oh, absolutely. When I was--you know, in my
health department when the anthrax letters hit our Nation, my
surge capacity came from my HIV/AIDS programs, my chronic
disease programs, et cetera. I pulled epidemiologist and
outreach workers through all of our programs, and then we had
to deal with--continue to deal with HIV and STDs.
As Dr. Wen pointed out, we still have people dying. Other
than COVID growing very quickly, the leading cause of death is
still cardiovascular disease and cancer. Those did not go away,
and we still have to address them. It is still much cheaper for
our Nation to prevent these diseases than to treat them when
they occur.
Ms. Underwood. That is right. Thank you again, and I yield
back.
Mr. Payne. Thank you.
The Chair now recognizes--and can see her--the gentlelady
from Texas, Ms. Jackson Lee.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Mr. Chairman, thank you so very much for
your kindness. Thank you to the Members. We are all doing
double-duty.
Let me also say, Mr. Chairman, I am delighted with your
leadership, Chairman Thompson's leadership, but I must, again,
publicly say congratulations on the recent success that we had
that we will be able to see you again in the year and months to
come. So thank you so very much.
Mr. Thompson. Thank you.
Ms. Jackson Lee. All the witnesses, I have encountered you
in the past, and the Members that are on. So let me just be
very clear, I am now in the COVID epicenter. I am in what would
be politely called Hades--not Haiti--but in an experience that
we never thought we would be in.
We opened up on May 1. The CDC guidelines were not adhered
to, which is a consistent decline in COVID-19 cases. I get
personal calls from constituents of Members who have died at
home, or who died with, in quotes, unknown causes or something
called pneumonia untested.
The Federal Government is pulling out from testing. We have
only tested 2.5 million in a State of close to 30 million
persons. I am in the most populous county, the most populous
city of the State of Texas. I am in the 18th Congressional
District, which is the heart of these issues.
So let me--I did give an opening, and I am going to ask for
quick answers so that I can ask all of you. Let me say to the
witnesses that I am convinced of your position, Dr. Benjamin,
on building up the public health infrastructure. I can assure
you my public health officials say that.
But let me just ask you, when you said get your hands
around it, if you find a pandemic of this nature in a
community, would it not add to the process of getting around
COVID-19, or getting your hands around COVID-19 for a stay-at-
home--a reissuance of a stay-at-home order that then allows the
medical professionals and others to understand where the
hotspots are?
Now we have got 100 firefighters in quarantine because of
their exposure. We are in restaurants. We are in various
places. Let me just yield to you, what about a stay-at-home
order--and you can answer it generically. I just use some
facts.
Dr. Wen, I would like you to be able to focus on the fact
that Latinx population, the African American population are the
higher numbers, but we have Latinx persons who work every day,
children who go to school, but are undocumented scared with the
posture of ICE. What should be said?
I have asked for ICE to stand down. I have asked for the
Federal Government--I have asked the White House task force to
ask ICE to stand down. How dangerous is that when we have
communities that are fearful of their accessing health care,
and what should we do?
Dr. Daniels--excuse me, I am so sorry. Dr. Benjamin, would
you answer that question about the viability of stay-at-home
order?
Dr. Benjamin. Yes. Yes. Yes. Texas is in big trouble, and
you folks ought to have a much tighter stay-at-home order and
mandatory mask wearing any time anyone has to go out. Look, it
works. It absolutely works. Every Nation in the world has
demonstrated that it works. It worked in 1918. It is going to
work again in 2020.
But folks are playing too much politics with this. We
cannot get the economy back until we get our hands around it.
You can't get your hands around it until you stop the
transmission of this disease.
You get this disease from other people. That means we have
to stay away from each other as much as we can in an organized
way, and then as we return to trying to engage one another, we
need to do so in a cautious, measured, controlled manner with
facial coverings, hand washing, and physical distancing as--you
know, because that is what we have right now.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Thank you, Doctor.
Dr. Wen, would you comment on that, and I guess you might
add, I mentioned the testing point, the Federal Government is
pulling out of testing here, transferring it to local vendors.
I certainly welcome that. But we are not at that point. How
important is testing in addition to the question I gave you?
Thank you.
Dr. Wen. Testing is----
Ms. Jackson Lee. If the witness wants to answer that--I am
sorry--wants to join in, Ms. Willis, please, likewise.
Dr. Wen, thank you for your services.
Dr. Wen. Congresswoman, thank you. Testing is absolutely
essential. If you don't know who has the infection, how can you
stop the spread, especially given that we know about
asymptomatic transmission. A new study showed that up to 50
percent or even more of all the spread occurs with people who
don't even know that they have it.
So we absolutely need testing. States and local officials
cannot do this alone. There is no way for them to ramp up
testing without Federal support, and that is why FEMA's support
in this and leadership in this is going to be so important.
To the question that you raised, Congresswoman, about
Latinx and other immigrant populations, look, we cannot have
policies that will scare people. We cannot have individuals who
are too terrified to seek care because they think that they or
their loved ones are going to be deported.
So you absolutely cannot have ICE have anything to do with
testing. They cannot have anything to do with having medical
records or being in hospital facilities or any health care
facilities.
We also know that contact tracing, in addition to testing,
is critical to reining in the infection. So when somebody calls
an individual, and they are asking about their close contacts,
they must be reassured that that information will never go to
immigration officials of any kind.
If we do not have those policies in place, then we are not
going to be able to control the infection. Of course, this is a
huge problem for exacerbating existing disparities, but it is
also a problem for everyone in the country if there are some
people who are too scared in order to receive care.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Mr. Chairman, if you would indulge me, I
don't know if Ms. Willis wanted to answer the question.
Mr. Payne. Your time is expired, but I will allow you
another 3 minutes.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Oh, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Ms. Willis, just before you answer, I would like to throw
back after you answer, Dr. Benjamin and Dr. Wen, you know, we
are in hurricane territory. I don't want to wish it on us, but
we don't know what to expect in the coming months, August,
September.
I would like you to emphasize how important it would be--I
think, Dr. Wen, in your testimony, you talked about the
different set-aside sites that might be for people who are
asymptomatic, or maybe who have certain conditions of COVID-19
that don't warrant hospitalization, but we are going to be in
the middle of a hurricane. How do we deal with handling
hurricane victims that need to be placed somewhere and take
care of COVID-19?
But I am going to go to Ms. Willis first, and if you all
would answer that after that with my 3 minutes. Thank you, Ms.
Willis, if you wanted to answer.
Ms. Willis. Yes, ma'am. Very quickly, I would just say that
when we focus on community-center responses, we are more
flexible and we have a desire to listen. So as emergency
managers, we must incorporate those factors in dealing with
communities, especially those who might have a fear of
deportation, or a general distrust of Government. We must be
sensitive and culturally competent. Thank you, ma'am.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Thank you for the answer.
Dr. Daniels--Benjamin. Daniels, my bad. Dr. Benjamin.
Dr. Benjamin. Yes. Let me just add that, obviously,
shelters are clearly not ideal places when we have to ask
people to shelter in place. Of course, we saw this with both
Katrina and Rita.
We have got to rethink and reimagine how we are going to
protect people should we get hit with another hurricane or
tornado or anything that we have to evacuate people and move
them, even the coastal storms that we have.
We have got to figure out how we are going to make sure
they have access to hand washing, how they are going to have
access to potable water. You know, how they are just going to
handle waste is going to be a big issue in light of this
outbreak.
We need to do that planning--we should have done it months
ago, but if we don't do it now with a particular focus on
communities that are most vulnerable, we are going to see huge
outbreaks of disease.
Trying to manage just a flu outbreak or any other
infectious virus in a conjugate setting is an absolute
nightmare for managers. But we know the science. We know how to
not make that happen. I don't think we are doing that. I don't
think we are planning for it.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Thank you.
I have a few seconds, Dr. Wen.
Thank you, Dr. Benjamin.
Dr. Wen. We keep on reacting to what has happened instead
of anticipating what is ahead. In this case, we know exactly
what is ahead, and we know exactly what we need to do to
control COVID-19 in the process. So, I think that is something
that the Trump administration, with Congress' urging, can
really do. You know what is going to be coming our way, and now
it is the time to prepare.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Thank you so very much.
Mr. Chairman, thank you for indulging.
I know that--just to put on the record--the most important
part of Congress' work is to pass the Heroes Act so that we can
get resources out for PPEs, testing, hospitals, and others, and
we really need to get past the obstruction and the blocking by
the U.S. Senate so that we can pass that legislation, get it
signed for the people of the United States who need it.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Mr. Payne. Absolutely. You know, our thoughts and prayers
are with you in Houston. We know that you are really going
through it right now. You know, we had it in Jersey, so I know
how horrific it can be. So hang in there and just hope we can
get people to stay safe. Thank you.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Thank you. Thank you for your kind words.
Thank you.
Mr. Payne. Absolutely.
I have another question or two that I want to--if I may.
For all of you, it is in reference to school openings. The CDC
has released guidance for United States K-12 schools and
children's programs to plan and prepare and respond to COVID-
19.
On Tuesday, the President threatened to withhold funds from
schools that did not reopen in the fall, and tweeted on
Wednesday that he disagreed with the CDC's guidance, calling it
very tough and expensive.
The White House is reportedly preparing its own school
reopening guidance, and the CDC was reportedly considering
modification to its own guidance for schools. The
administration's rush to reopen schools without following all
of the necessary precautions is troubling, not just to policy
makers, but also to parents as well.
If schools do not reopen in a responsible way, what are the
possible impacts on communities disproportionately affected by
the pandemic? We will start with Ms. Willis.
Ms. Willis. Thank you, sir. That is an excellent question.
This entire policy that the President is enforcing is actually,
to me, very significantly traumatizing because I am a parent.
Mr. Payne. Right.
Ms. Willis. When I consider that my son will be exposed to
COVID-19 because I am a single mother, because I do have to
work, I am absolutely horrified. I know that so many other
Americans are in the same position, where you have to work, and
so now, your kids must be sacrificed.
To me, it is similar to the time when the President forced
the meatpacking industry back to work knowing that they were
going into dangerous circumstances, and there was nothing that
could be done because they had to work.
It is similar to slavery, when we think about the essential
workers and we think about what occurred in 1850 with the
yellow fever. This concept of sacrificing those who are most
vulnerable and those who do not have a voice, it is absolutely
astonishing, and it is an indictment against America.
Thank you, sir.
Mr. Payne. Dr. Benjamin.
Dr. Benjamin. Yes. Let me just add, we should never cut
corners. Let's be real clear, I have looked at the CDC
guidance. It is not too tough. It is a good baseline, and they
should not weaken that guidance at all. That is the first
thing.
Second, you know, the issue around cost, you know, it is
probably the least affordable of our options because if we have
a bunch of kids that get sick, even if they don't get real
sick, they can't go to school. Their parents can't go to work.
So all you have to do is have an outbreak in a second-grade
class, all those kids are out of school, their teachers are out
of school, their parents are out of work. So where is the
savings? Their parent may get really sick, and so then there is
a huge health, both from a humanistic perspective as well as a
cost perspective for their medical care.
So I don't get the economic analysis. By the way, he is not
a doctor. So, quite frankly, we should listen to the
professionals that know what they are talking about and not
someone whose motives that I question.
I am not making a political statement. I am a physician,
and I believe that doctors and health care providers know what
we ought to do, and that we ought to listen to us very well. I
don't tell lawyers what to do. I don't tell teachers what to
do.
Mr. Payne. Thank you.
Dr. Wen.
Dr. Wen. I agree completely with my colleagues. I am also
the mother of two young kids. I am the daughter of a
schoolteacher in Los Angeles who has passed away, but she was a
long-time school teacher. I just want to mention this in this
context. It is about students. It is also about teachers and
staff, too.
My mother had breast cancer. She was on chemotherapy for 8
years while she was teaching full-time. I think teachers want
to get back to in-person instruction, but there are many
teachers who also have chronic medical illnesses that we have
to watch out for as well.
In this case, you mentioned, Chairman, about the CDC
guidelines, if we are unable to meet the guidelines for safe
reopening, the answer isn't let's change the guidelines. The
answer is, what is the hard work that we are going to be doing
in order to safely reopen?
I agree with Dr. Benjamin. We have already seen what
happens when we cut corners. When we cut corners, we get rises,
surges, explosive spread of infections. We should have already
learned our lesson. When we muzzle scientists, when we do not
listen to public health, people die.
To Ms. Willis' point, the people who will suffer the most
are those for whom it is not a choice to go to work. Who are
they? It is African Americans, Latinx populations, Native
Americans, people of color, the ones who bear the brunt of the
greatest health disparities and who, unfortunately, are
suffering the greatest health disparities now, too.
Mr. Payne. Thank you.
One last question. Reports continue to suggest that the
Trump administration and FEMA are not adequately allocating
medical resources, testing, and other supplies to communities
disproportionately impacted by the virus. What are some of the
ways FEMA can improve its efforts to ensure communities
disproportionately impacted by the pandemic are receiving all
the necessary medical resources?
Let me just add to that, I have been on this committee
since coming to Congress in 2012, and I have watched FEMA move
through different administrations. A lot of FEMA's issue is who
is in the White House right now, and their hands being tied.
So though FEMA has some issues they need to overcome
internally, a lot of their problem is with the person in the
White House and the restraints that he is putting on different
entities of the Federal Government.
With that, what do you think FEMA is not adequately
allocating in those areas, Ms. Willis?
Ms. Willis. Thank you, sir. That is an excellent question
and an accurate observation. Politics influences emergency
management way too much. The response from FEMA has been
greatly influenced by the President, by the administration,
and, in general, by, you know, a lack of science and informed
decision making. Unfortunately, politics drives a lot of what
emergency management will do in terms of response measures,
including recovery and relief measures.
Unfortunately, within emergency management, equity is not a
priority. It is not a core function of FEMA's mission. So the
focus on vulnerable groups and using social determinants of
health has never been a priority for FEMA.
That needs to change. We need to begin focusing on equity
and focusing on those groups who are most vulnerable. Once we
do that, everyone will benefit. Studies have shown everyone
benefits when we focused on those who are most vulnerable.
Thank you, sir.
Mr. Payne. Thank you.
Dr. Benjamin.
Dr. Benjamin. Yes. You know, I am always not in the room
when they are making those decisions. What I do know for one
thing is that FEMA really has to beef up its situational
awareness. It doesn't work very well. They really have to
improve their situational awareness and their supply chain
management, and their ability to make decisions very quickly.
You know, when you have a really good emergency medicine
function, it works extraordinarily well. But when you have one
that is politicized; when you have one that is not simply doing
things because it is in the right mode to help the public; when
you think your job at FEMA is only to coordinate activities and
not to understand that they are really an emergency response
health agency, then they are going to fail.
I used to run the EMS system for the District of Columbia
when it was working. The good news is it is working now. You
know, we believe that it was important to help people, to save
lives. If FEMA takes that as their benchmark, then I think they
will do better in the future.
Mr. Payne. Thank you.
Dr. Wen.
Dr. Wen. Thank you. I would only add to everything my
colleagues said that we desperately need this National
strategy. One thing that we haven't talked about as much today
is about PPE and the supplies that I just cannot believe--we
went through this once in March and April.
We saw that my colleagues, who are doctors and nurses
around the country, were asking on Facebook and Twitter about
who had masks that maybe they used for some home improvement
project that they can be donating. Are there garbage bags and
rain ponchos that they could be cutting holes out of in order
to use as gowns?
I mean, it is just unconscionable that we are out of those
supplies again, that we are making medical professionals go on
the front lines with no armor, with nothing to protect
themselves and their families.
Also, as I said in my testimony, we also desperately need
those PPE for other essential workers as well. Now that we know
about asymptomatic transmission, how are we still having people
sitting shoulder-to-shoulder to one another in closed spaces
without the protection that they desperately need?
So, that is something that FEMA can absolutely do and
coordinate. Again, if we do not do that, then we also, again,
know who are those who are going to be the most impacted.
Mr. Payne. Thank you.
I want to thank all the witnesses today for their wonderful
testimony. It really helps us move forward in trying to combat
these issues around disproportionate disparities in communities
of color. As you said, if we do well in those communities,
everyone benefits.
So, we will continue to do what we can, and we will call on
you as we need to for your expertise. But I want to thank you
for being here today. The three of you have been tremendous,
tremendous witnesses today, and I appreciate all your
testimony.
I ask unanimous consent to enter into the record a
statement from Dr. Joycelyn Elders. Without objection.
[The information follows:]
Statement of Joycelyn Elders, MD, 15th U.S. Surgeon General, and Co-
Chair, African American Health Alliance (AAHA)
Good afternoon Chairman Payne, Ranking Member King, and Members of
the House Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response, & Recovery.
I am Dr. Joycelyn Elders the 15th Surgeon General of the United States.
I am also co-chair of the African American Health Alliance a nonprofit
organization working to help eliminate racial and ethnic health
disparities and the social determinants thereof. We thank you for
convening this special hearing on Pandemic Response: Confronting the
Unequal Impacts of COVID-19 along with the many other coronavirus
hearings held and to be held by this subcommittee and the full
committee.
COVID-19 remains a major matter of National and world-wide
security, and of public health in America and world-wide. The Pandemic
continues to take its deadly toll, especially across the Black
community and other vulnerable populations. During COVID-19, as the
United States seeks to protect National security, send workers back to
work and children back to school, among the major missing factors to
date remains: Safe and effective treatments and vaccines, and an
overall safe, effective, and sustained public health response that
includes on-going robust reliable testing, contact tracing, care and
treatment, and isolating. Confronting and addressing the unequal
impacts of the coronavirus must be a National priority and it requires
a National plan of action.
In a whirlwind of disasters, Americans remain barraged by a world-
wide pandemic of a new virus and medical unpreparedness; shortages of
PPE, hospital space, and medical personnel; Government unpreparedness,
economic recession, and unemployment; huge numbers of hungry and
homeless people; police brutality and systemic racism. We must remember
that this also impacts members of and families of our Nation's
military.
Our Nation's underbelly has been exposed in COVID-19, brutal
policing, racism, income insecurity, and National security. People are
taking to the world's streets to demand peace with justice and an end
of racism and all its consequences. The world has awakened to discover
that huge numbers of people are dissatisfied with disparities that are
obvious in all areas of economics, social justice, education, housing,
medicine, National security, and more. Black lives do matter.
It is crystal clear that the events of the past few weeks and
months have revealed the awful truth about the impact made by racial,
health, and economic disparities in our country, its consequences and
implications. Standing there naked in view of the world, we are
humbled. However, being humble is not enough. We can see clearly how
unfavorably we compare to other countries in the world, and they can
see it, too. The people of the United States have not fared as well as
other developed countries. Our Nation's responses to the coronavirus
pandemic including its disease rates are higher and our ability to
mobilize resources, identify the presence of the virus, isolate and
support people while they do, is miserably deficient.
Our Nation's infection rates and death numbers are higher than many
other industrialized countries. While our Nation offers hope of a
vaccine that remains out there on the horizon the immediate need is for
safe, effective, life-saving treatments that are accessible to all that
need it. This must be coupled with an effective ``Test-Trace-Treat-
Isolate-Repeat'' package. We must not reach a point of military vs.
non-military. People across the Nation and around the world are asking
how, when, where, why, and what went wrong in United States, that
America has been bent so low? Especially with regard to coronavirus, it
seems ridiculous, since America has the best doctors, nurses, medical
teams, and research laboratories in the world. However, being the best
professionals doesn't cover all our bases in providing the best health
care for all our people. Why, because, all our people do not have
access to this remarkable world of medicine that we have built.
Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member, and Members of the subcommittee
surely you can understand my deep concerns regarding access to safe,
effective, and accessible treatments and vaccines to the Black
community, other vulnerable communities, and to our military. Even
before COVID-19, our Nation's delivery system, for all its wonderful
medical know-how, was and remains broken. And, doctors scarcely have a
word in the way health is delivered to all our people. While doctors
provide medical expertise, the organizational power is given over to
others in the corporate and political world.
At least for 30 years, we have been ``working'' on eliminating
health care disparities. When Healthy People 2000 came out in 1990,
eliminating Disparities in Health Care was an objective. Then, it was
an objective in Healthy People 2010; then, it was an objective in
Healthy People 2020. In these 30 years, we have not made much of a dent
in the actual disparities. The Affordable Care Act is helping and it
must be protected and strengthened. Additionally, we must address the
social determinants of health. Clearly, a person is only as healthy as
the least healthy person. This is true for the military as well.
Health care must be extended to everyone for public health to be
good. Without it, there are added risks to protecting our Nation as
well as opening America including its schools. A comprehensive response
requires the appropriate tools, resources, medical and mental health
teams, PPE, safe and effective coronavirus treatments as well as access
to safe, effective, and affordable medications for pre-existing health
conditions and more. The unintended negative consequences are real and
must not be ignored. We must ``test-trace-treat-isolate-repeat''.
The compounding coronavirus pandemic, the economic collapse, police
brutality and systemic racism, individually and collectively take their
toll on all fronts. Again, while these epidemics are truly humbling,
being humble is not a solution. As a Nation, we are at a dangerous low
point in society and humanity. Know that when there is a vacuum,
someone and/or something will fill it good or bad. We are all in this
together: Doctors, nurses, scientists, clergy, elected officials,
front-line workers, the public and private sectors, the military and we
the people. Equity is important to the well-being of every man, woman,
and child and to our Nation on every front.
Confronting the unequal impacts of COVID-19 must be a National
priority. Disparities must not only be addressed; they must be
eliminated. COVID-19, racism, excessive policing, and the economic
disaster, continue to show us that we can no longer just re-arrange the
deck chairs on the Titanic. We must conquer coronavirus, put an end to
racism, reform our policing and health care system, and build a life-
sustaining economy for all. Among these, that includes developing a
health care system that provides health care to all and eliminates
disparities in health and health care.
Now, our Nation only has a sick-care system for all, with a health
care system for some. The United States cannot stop at only health care
access and delivery; we must also address all the disparities in the
social determinants of health. They too adversely impact those serving
in our Nation's military and their families. Addressing social
determinants are the backbone on which to develop the most effective
response. America has not wanted to spend the money investing in health
care for all and public health. Now, America is reaping the negative
consequences of her reluctance to invest in people. The United States
will continue paying until our Nation invests in eliminating racial and
ethnic disparities.
Confronting the unequal impacts COVID-19 and the compounding
intersecting adverse outcomes come as no surprise. Either we will
invest in people now or pay later. The subcommittee will recall the
findings of the 2002 Institute of Medicine Report ``Unequal Treatment''
that urged the Nation to confront racial and ethnic disparities in
health and health care. As the 15th U.S. Surgeon General, co-chair of
and along with the African American Health Alliance Board, we strongly
believe that if the recommendations of that IOM report had been
implemented the burden of coronavirus and other health disparities
would not be so dire. Nevertheless, we are once again at the urgency of
now and must effectively deal with this deadly novel coronavirus and
confront its unequal impact head-on.
While Coronavirus has been declared a National Emergency, the void
is clear racial and ethnic health disparities elimination and racism
elimination have not. Surely, the deadly extent of coronavirus in the
Black community and the impact of the virus across communities of color
demands that racial and ethnic health disparities elimination and
racism elimination must be declared National emergencies, and
effectively addressed as such. To that end, from lessons learned to
protecting homeland security, to the opening of places of work,
schools, entertainment, and more, the African American Health Alliance
submits recommendations via my testimony to this distinguished
subcommittee to help our Nation better address the COVID-19 pandemic.
These recommendations will help our Nation and communities better
address the unequal impact of COVID-19.
It is against this collective backdrop that the African American
Health Alliance urges implementation of the recommendations coupled
with the accelerated development of safe, effective, accessible, and
affordable to all COVID-19 treatments and vaccines, and the required
wrap around services people need to benefit from them.
recommendations details and justification
Coronavirus requires a National comprehensive response. Black lives
do matter.
Declare Racism a National Emergency.--Declaration to provide for
inclusion of racism elimination and prevention provisions in all
policies, practices, and programs. This action systematically takes
into account the adverse consequences of racism in policing and all
social determinants impacting the quality of life. For all, the
declaration limits and helps to prevent the harmful effects of racism
across the lifespan. Black lives do matter.
The elimination and prevention of racism is vital to helping to
ensure that all persons achieve their fullest potential, freedom, and
justice. Conduct racism impact assessments, elimination efforts
including engaging State and local and community workgroups for the
purpose of informing decisions that promote elimination thereof as well
as those that prevent elimination. Racism's consequences and protests
Nation-wide and world-wide against racism support this declaration.
[Within, that is AAHA's recommendation for the declaration of
``Racism'' and the ``Elimination of Racial and Ethnic Health
Disparities'' National emergencies.'']
disease detection, manage, control, and monitor
Coronavirus Testing: Provide Testing, Contact Tracing, Isolate,
Treat, Social Distance, Repeat.--Remove barriers and provide
accessible, robust rapid accurate and timely testing with accurate
rapid results: Priority testing must be targeted especially for those
African Americans with chronic pre-existing health conditions that
place them at increased risk for coronavirus deaths and disease. Lack
of testing remains a major missed opportunity to help control the
spread and reduce coronavirus cases and deaths, and for making informed
decisions about re-opening. This requires testing of not just those
with symptoms but also those without.
Provide both COVID-19 mobile testing labs along with mobile health
units. This companion effort provides for continuity of care for pre-
existing chronic health conditions. Together, they are absolutely
essential especially in high-risk communities, pre-existing health
condition, hot spot breakout areas, crowded public housing, and front-
line jobs/workplaces. Additionally, re-energize the DHHS health in
public housing program. DPA: Robust test production, testing, contact
tracing, and isolation are essential to help control this deadly
pandemic and treat and manage pre-existing health conditions.
Coronavirus test to also include the serology test. Negatives must
continue precautions including social distancing and isolation.
Effective contact tracing requires that tracers also include African
Americans and others from communities of color. Coronavirus testing
coupled with contact tracing, monitoring, identification, isolation,
diagnosis, and immediate coronavirus care, treatment and management
coupled with on-going testing and treatment for pre-existing health
conditions is a must solution.
State and local health departments must be supported also to help
do the contact tracing and follow-up that is necessary to be effective.
Directly fund each State and territory to do contact tracing and robust
testing. The CDC's respiratory surveillance system is not adequate to
the task. States must demonstrate a system where data is collected from
all populations indicating the ability to provide rapid diagnostic
services to all residents and on-going serologic monitoring the State's
population including unserved and underserved areas (MUAs).
Responsible opening, care, treatment, and control are dependent
upon test-trace-treat-isolate. Surely, children must be tested as well
as those that teach and provide them care. Do not open schools without
testing. Without it, the approach is reckless. National robust testing
requires releasing the full powers of the Defense Procurement Act; that
act exists to help save lives; do it now.
Engage/Command/Control/Preparedness/Emergency Response/Resilience
Expert.--We strongly urge you to work with retired General Russell
Honore to develop a comprehensive Coronavirus Resilience National
Strategy with emphasis on public health, the supply chain, economic
security, vulnerable populations, cybersecurity, broad band and more
including a build-back-better approach. General Honore has tremendous
expertise that is needed to help improve the coronavirus response.
extent of need: pre-existing health conditions
Pre-existing Health Conditions: Provide Health Care Access for Care
and Treatment: Expand and ensure access to care and treatment.--Include
Medicaid expansion; allow Medicare enrollment at age 45, allow
``special open ACA enrollment season now'' and permit young adults to
remain on their parents' health care plan to age 30. In addition,
expand existing community health centers and continue to increase the
number of new centers especially in unserved and underserved
communities. There must also be mobile community health satellite
centers with full or near-full array of services. Coronavirus and
chronic health conditions together require immediate, short- and long-
term care, treatment, and follow-up.
Continuity of care is vital. Expansions in access to care and
treatment with wrap-around services is necessary to respond to both the
coronavirus medical, mental health conditions, and to chronic pre-
existing health conditions that the virus further complicates. Overall,
make sure everyone has some form of affordable health care coverage
with facilitated access to it, and that effective responds to their
needs.
Concern abounds about rationing.--Care, treatment, medications and
testing, including that for chronic pre-existing health conditions.
Unserved and underserved communities need reliable connectivity
technologies to effectively accommodate and benefit from telemedicine,
tele-health, tele-mental health, tele-dental, and tele-nutrition to
name a few. Stable reliable internet/broad-band services are essential
for health, home schooling, higher education, training in the trades,
and more.
These deficiencies adversely limit health, education, and
employment opportunities. In addition to care, treatment, and dire
testing shortages, medication shortages are also on the rise.
Addressing the overall twin conditions: Coronavirus and on-going health
needs of people in public housing, nursing homes, prisons, assisted
living, the homeless, and similarly-situated environments is paramount.
data collection analysis and reporting
extent of the coronavirus: provide data collection, analyses,
monitoring, and reporting
Racial and ethnic health disparities are well known to Federal,
National, State, local leaders, officials, and community gate-keepers
and agencies. Data must be collected and documented at point of medical
system and testing entry. Agencies must collect, analyze, monitor, and
publicly report coronavirus racial and ethnic demographic data. Months
into the coronavirus pandemic and National emergency race and ethnic
data are insufficient to appropriately inform the medical, the Nation's
and community's response to the deadly and highly contagious
coronavirus.
The Department of Health and Human Services and its agencies must
collect, compile, analyze, release, and report race and ethnic
demographic data including but not limited to that on cases, deaths,
location, zip code, outbreaks, hospitalizations, and testing. Data is
extremely limited and seriously life-threatening-insufficient.
National, State, and local coronavirus reporting must be accurate,
timely, complete, and transparent. Additionally, data is an essential
factor helping to identify where services and resources must be
targeted and concentrated. Testing, care, and treatment data help
inform efforts to improve outcomes.
workforce
Provide Hazardous Pay, Worker Protections, and Whistle-Blower
Protections.--Provide hazardous pay to coronavirus front-line workers,
double existing pay/salary. Months into this deadly contagious
coronavirus the shortages of staff, personal protective equipment, and
gear continue to place workers and their family at increasing risk for
disease and death. The front-line workforce includes nurses and
doctors, non-medical hospital staff; home health and nursing home
workers; grocery store, postal, transportation, medical technicians,
meat-packing plant workers; the list goes on and on. Direct OSHA to
update issue and monitor coronavirus worker protection guidelines.
Provide whistle-blower protections.
Coronavirus front-line and essential workers across all fields must
be paid hazard pay, double current pay. Every day, they put their life
on the line to serve the public . . . facing the deadly coronavirus
head-on without hazardous pay. Months into this deadly pandemic,
despite dire working conditions, still the full powers of the DPA have
not been released and that deficiency has now spilled over into the
extreme deadly shortage of coronavirus tests. Essential materials,
equipment, test and test material remain in short supply including
medical equipment, cleaning supplies, gowns, gloves, masks, and
medications.
care and treatment
Establish Coronavirus Community Access Points.--Because of the
highly contagious nature of COVID-19, the fact that it may spread
before the individual becomes symptomatic, the severity of its illness,
and the fact that many individuals will be at risk of becoming infected
for years to come, the health system must adopt modifications
immediately to respond to medical, mental health, social determinant
requirements, and complications stemming from coronavirus in immediate,
short-, and long-term.
Without National testing and within it African American priority is
testing, the coronavirus is more deadly for all. Community Access
Points must be developed to provide unserved and underserved
communities with sites which will be: Highly accessible loci for
services and for the provision of information regarding COVID-19; sites
providing immediate testing and informing of virus status; care entry
points for those testing positive; and loci for isolating, counseling,
and contact tracing staff in the community. [Test-trace-treat-isolate-
repeat.]
Access points must have separate waiting areas for patients and
address (treat, manage, and control) pre-existing chronic health
conditions. These facilities must have: Up-to-date laboratory test and
equipment; access to the most up-to-date COVID-19 information provided
by DHHS; ability to diagnose and quickly report COVID-19 status; a
waiting room separate from non-COVID-19 patients; and ability to
transport positive patients to an in-patient facility which serves
symptomatic COVID-19 patients. Staffing team minimum requirements: A
physician or nurse practitioner; nurse, technicians, counselor with
social work training; and contact tracing staff. The unit/entity/
facility should be located on the site of an established community
health facility and operated by that facility collaborating with local
or State health departments.
Establish Prison Coronavirus Systems.--The Federal Bureau of
Prisons must develop a coronavirus plan for each of its regions. Each
plan must specify mechanisms for: Identifying positive staff and
inmates; separation of positive staff and inmates from the general
population; isolation, contact tracing, and also on-going
identification of staff and inmates missed in the initial screening;
and screening of all incoming staff and new inmates and separation of
positives.
Collaborating with State health departments for contact tracing
purposes.--Each region must designate a COVID-19 coordinator,
preferably a physician. A COVID-19 counselor must be designated within
the staff of each prison's clinical facility. This counselor must have
direct communication with the regional coordinator. Regions must also
designate a clinical facility for patients who must be hospitalized and
specific systems for transportation to the facility and management of
the hospitalized inmates.
State Grants.--Make grants to each State to develop systems to
manage COVID-19 within its prisons. Each plan must specify mechanisms
for: Identifying positive staff and inmates; separation of positive
staff and inmates from the general population; contact tracing; and on-
going identification of staff and inmates missed in the initial
screening; and screening of all incoming staff and new inmates and
separation of positives. Collaborating with the State health department
for contact tracing purposes: States must designate a COVID-19
coordinator, preferably a physician, for its prison system. A COVID-19
counselor must be designated within the staff of each prison's clinical
facility. This counselor must have direct communication with the
State's coordinator. States must also designate a clinical facility for
patients who must be hospitalized and specify specific systems for
transportation to the facility and management of the hospitalized
inmates. Oversight of these State systems must be shared by the Federal
Bureau of Prisons and the Department of Health and Human Services.
[Test-trace-treat-isolate-repeat.]
small businesses and community investment
Provide for Small Businesses.--Continuing to struggle, African
American businesses are among the hardest hit. Low cash and weaker
banking connections threaten their existence as they compete for PPP
against much larger businesses. The combination compounding crises
income, pay checks, unemployment insurance, job instability, and others
seriously threaten small businesses and their staff. The disadvantage
conditions collide and escalate in the coronavirus National emergency
requiring automatic triggers and pathways to help save families and
businesses during this National emergency that is no fault of their
own. They did not choose the deadly coronavirus health and financial
crises.
Invest in Community Development.--Increase investments in jobs
(with living wages); quality education Pre-K through 12th grade; safe
schools; meaningful employment training; job creation and placement;
entrepreneurial opportunities; creation of avenues for innovation;
grocery stores and transportation; business development, growth and
sustainability; safe affordable housing; convenient access to quality
affordable health care; safe communities; and affordable quality day
care.
These interlinking investments are absolutely essential for viable
productive communities. Establish and make available to communities a
team of Federal Government experts from Department of Justice, to
Department of Education, DHHS to EPA, to Office of Preparedness and
Response, to Department of Labor, SBA, DHS, and others to work in
partnership with local agencies, community leaders, business, and
others. Provide technical assistance focused on helping communities
identify and establish linkages and partnerships with business and
industry. Fund at such sums as necessary.
Community Empowerment Zones.--Provide community partnership grants
to establish community empowerment zone programs in communities that
disproportionately experience over-policing. Funding provided for Black
communities that seek to improve economic, race relations, health,
education, environment, and policing to help reduce disparities, and
other highly coronavirus-vulnerable communities. Assist community in
accessing Federal programs; to obtain and coordinate the efforts of
governmental and private entities regarding the elimination of racial
and ethnic justice disparities and over-policing crisis.
Communities to be served by the empowerment zone program are those
that disproportionately experience over-policing and economic
opportunity deserts. The community establishes an empowerment zone
coordinating committee: Determine priorities, establish measureable
outcomes, obtain technical assistance, and utilize but not limited to
community and evidence-based strategies including goals, management,
implementation, monitoring, assessment, and evaluation. Submit to the
Congress community empowerment zone reports. Fund at such sums as
necessary.
training and education
Conflict Resolution Training.--Include conflict resolution in the
education curriculum Pre-K through 12. The techniques learned in
conflict resolution training would be beneficial across the life span.
They would be helpful in encounters with police and all other
relationships. Fund at such sums as necessary.
Expand Academic Opportunity and Achievement.--Have school systems,
courts, and police work with the community and academic institutions to
implement mentorship programs focused on youth including troubled youth
to provide them with insight and opportunity to better benefit from the
powerful value of education and training beyond high school. Tie
college and training scholarships to these programs, and help to ensure
that free community college becomes a real accessible opportunity. This
investment in the individual's and America's future helps to further
innovation, entrepreneurial development, research, business, industry,
and technology advances on all fronts in all fields. Fund at such sums
as necessary.
Provide Summer Enrichment and After-school Programs.--After-school
and summers is the most unsupervised period of time facing latchkey
children and teenagers. Effective programs must be implemented that
provide that supervision ranging from summer jobs, to summer education
and training, to sports and arts, to innovation and business, to
enrichment programs and Junior Achievement. For young children, provide
summer Pre-K. Overall, programs must also provide meals and
transportation for those in need. Fund at such sums as necessary.
Establish National Teaching-Learning-Tutoring Corp [Establish,
Provide, Conduct, Monitor, and Fine-tune as necessary].--Provide
students and parents the academic assistance needed to bring students
up to grade level and beyond. This must be a joint goal. The portfolio
must include but is not limited to materials, computers, technologies,
skilled supplemental personnel and other resources needed. Students and
parents must not be penalized for the education and stress crises
created by the Pandemic. Additionally, establish a family support hot-
line professionally staffed to address family stress, mental and
behavioral health control, and management support.
Compile, train, and provide techniques and exercises that parents
and students need to help control and manage stress.--Also, identify
and provide parents and students the privacy tools needed to help keep
on-line schooling and socializing safe. Remain mindful that our
Nation's children and parents sudden thrust into full-scale home
schooling, on-line learning/educating has placed students at increased
academic disadvantage and to successfully close the void they must be
provided the necessary resources. Fund at such sums as necessary.
Additionally, increased on-line use by the elderly also places them at
increased on-line fraud. Fund at such sums as necessary.
enhance community participation
State and Local Offices on Community Relations.--Establish Offices
on Community Relations to help communities empower themselves: Make
available technical expertise, linkages, and resources. Create and make
available community relations improvement resource tool kits that
communities can tailor to fit their needs.
Voting.--The African American Health Alliance would be remiss to
not highlight voting. Voting no matter what form or forms it takes must
be protected, voter-friendly and facilitated, and funded at such sums
as necessary. Voter registration and rolls must also be respectively
facilitated and protected. Every vote counts and must be counted. Also,
as a Nation, we can and must improve the response to all aspects of the
coronavirus National emergency. The response deficiencies are life
threatening especially for Blacks and others at high risk. Clearly,
everyone must be a part of the solution to the Nation's emergencies
racism, policing, COVID, and the economy.
In closing, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member, and Members of the
subcommittee our collective purpose must hold us accountable to the
reality that we are all in this together and we must do our part. As
Dr. King's quote continues to remind us: ``We are caught in an
inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.
Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.''--Martin Luther
King Jr.,
why we can't wait
The coronavirus pandemic requires a comprehensive National
response. The African American Health Alliance thanks you for this
opportunity to provide testimony for the record and recommendations. We
deeply appreciate your on-going leadership and support. Black lives do
matter.
Mr. Payne. With that, I want to thank the witnesses one
more time for their valuable testimony and Members for their
questions.
The Members of the subcommittee may have additional
questions for the witnesses, and we ask that you respond
expeditiously in writing to those questions.
Without objection, the committee record shall be kept open
for 10 days.
Hearing no further business, the subcommittee stands
adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 1:44 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
----------
Questions From Chairman Donald M. Payne, Jr. for Georges C. Benjamin
Question 1. As the number of COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the
Southern and Western States, what new health disparities might we
observe as compared to the earlier outbreak in March and April?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 2. What can the Federal Government do to help close
testing disparities among minority and disadvantaged populations?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 3. What can the Federal Government do to help close PPE
disparities among minority and disadvantaged populations?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 4. This administration has consistently undermined public
health official messaging during this emergency. What are the potential
impacts of this mixed messaging during a National emergency?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Questions From Chairman Donald M. Payne, Jr. for Leana Wen
Question 1. As the number of COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the
Southern and Western States, what new health disparities might we
observe as compared to the earlier outbreak in March and April?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 2. What can the Federal Government do to help close
testing disparities among minority and disadvantaged populations?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 3. What can the Federal Government do to help close PPE
disparities among minority and disadvantaged populations?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 4. This administration has consistently undermined public
health official messaging during this emergency. What are the potential
impacts of this mixed messaging during a National emergency?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Questions From Chairman Donald M. Payne, Jr. for Chauncia Willis
Question 1. What can the Federal Government do to help close
testing disparities among minority and disadvantaged populations?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 2. What can the Federal Government do to help close PPE
disparities among minority and disadvantaged populations?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 3. This administration has consistently undermined public
health official messaging during this emergency. What are the potential
impacts of this mixed messaging during a National emergency?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 4. How can FEMA ``operationalize equity'' so that its
crisis responses are more equitable?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
[all]