The Colors of COVID-19: Confronting Health Disparities During a Global Pandemic

Dear Colleagues,

Never in our lives have we experienced such a global phenomenon. For the first time in history, the world has come together, focused on the same existential threat, consumed by the same fears and uncertainties, eagerly anticipating the same, yet unrealized, promises of medical science. In a matter of months, human civilization has been brought low by the novel SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2), a microscopic parasite 10,000 times smaller than a grain of salt. COVID-19 attacks our physical bodies, but also the cultural foundations of our lives. Depending upon how we respond, our lives, and literally our way of life, hangs in the balance.

Today, we are using mitigation interventions designed during the 1918 Flu pandemic 100 years ago. The approach is largely focused on slowing the rate of spread, flattening the curve of morbidity. There are no cures, and the promise of a vaccine is distant. If history is any lesson, the mumps vaccine took four years and that is the fastest vaccine ever developed. The development and deployment of a safe and effective vaccine for COVID-19 at “warp-speed” (12–18 months) is fraught with potential complications. 

We must all be mindful that in human history, pandemics and plagues have a way of shifting the course of history, and not always to the benefits of the survivors. As companies eliminate or close, the internet brings entertainment and sporting events into our home, and airline travel becomes ever more problematic and miserable, people will adapt. The financial uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will cast a long shadow, especially on populations made more vulnerable due to poverty and discrimination. 

While COVID-19 does not discriminate, it exposes what is wrong and right in how different societies are organized and structured. As a result, health inequities have been exacerbated by this pandemic. We may all be in the same storm, but everyone is not in the same boat. What can we learn when success in one nation is rejected by another? How do we create prevention strategies and messages tailored for the most disadvantaged and least privileged?

The purpose of this Special Issue is to highlight the disproportionate effects of COVID-19 on vulnerable populations, especially communities of Color, around the world. We wish for the accepted manuscripts to present the latest interdisciplinary and innovative research, tools, methods, and approaches to assess, reduce, and prevent these environmentally driven social, racial, and ethnic health disparities—the underlying conditions that make COVID-19 such a deadly disease. We welcome review artices focused on, but not limited to: 1) geospatial dimensions of health disparities, 2) community capacity building for environmental justice as a framework for solutions, 3) community-engaged research where potential study participants are working in collaboration with scientists, and 4) the bioethics of COVID-19 clinical trials. We also encourage submissions that address social determinants of health, intersectionality, and critical racial and ethnic analyses, as well as approaches that inform decision-making for legislation and program development/implementation to reduce/prevent health disparities in the era of COVID-19. Our aim is to advance health equity research into the arena of pandemic diseases and help accelerate efforts designed to improve access to healthy communities for all vulnerable populations.

Prof. Dr. Stephen B. Thomas
Prof. Dr. Craig S. Fryer
Prof. Dr. Tiffany Gary-Webb
Prof. Dr. Mindi Spencer
Guest Editors

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