Category Archives: Health Equity

Doing the Work—or Not: The Promise and Limitations of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

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Stuffed animals on a couch: baby yoda,stingray, hello kitty, owl

We talk about diversity all the time- are equity and inclusion just extra words?

Caitlin Jade Esparza MS4 explains the fundamental problems in DEI work at US medical schools:

“The catch-all term, “diversity, equity and inclusion” can thus allow institutions to hide behind language and skirt the difficult work of examining and uprooting the foundations upon which medicine has accumulated and concentrated power…”

 

Read the full commentary here:

Doing the Work—or Not: The Promise and Limitations of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in US Medical Schools and Academic Medical Centers

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.900283/full

Putting equity at the heart of the US government’s rollout of COVID tests and masks

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“In the wake of the Omicron variant’s arrival, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released revised guidelines for isolation, quarantine, testing, and upgrading mask quality. Still, Americans are asked to engage in individualised actions, regardless of their access to resources to protect themselves and their communities. This is the antithesis of a public health response. What we need is an approach based on equity that improves access to masks and tests for those with the least access.”

In this Op-Ed, led by Deshira Wallace, MSPH, PhD, from the University of North Carolina, with Kristin Urquiza from Marked By COVID, Julia Raifman, PhD from Boston University, and myself, we review current US programs on masks and tests distribution, and how all of our policies need to be better designed and implemented for equity.

-Read the rest on BMJ Open here: https://www.bmj.com/content/376/bmj.o344