April is National Minority Health Month. It’s a time to learn more about the health status of racial and ethnic minority populations in the U.S. and to encourage action through health education, early detection and control of disease complications.
This year’s theme is: Give Your Community a Boost! It serves as a reminder of the continued importance of the COVID-19 vaccination, including boosters, as one of the strongest tools we have to end the COVID-19 pandemic that has disproportionately affected communities of color.
Experiences with racism and discrimination can contribute to mistrust of the healthcare system among racial and ethnic minority groups, leading to mistrust of factual information on vaccines and boosters. Because of this, the Give Your Community a Boost! theme also supports the U.S. Surgeon General’s recommendations on combating COVID-19 and vaccine misinformation at the individual, community, and organizational levels.
One easy thing that you can do is to share only credible, factual, science-based information about the COVID-19 vaccines and boosters. Another thing that you can do is to learn more and health equity and health disparities.
What is Health Equity?
Health equity is when everyone has the opportunity to be as healthy as possible.
What Are Health Disparities?
Health disparities are the differences in health outcomes and their causes among groups of people. For example, African American children are more likely to die from asthma compared to non-Hispanic White children. Reducing health disparities creates better health for all Americans.
Why is Health Equity Important?
Health is central to human happiness and well-being and is affected by where people live, learn, work, and play. According to the World Health Organization, health also makes an important contribution to economic progress.
Resources:
National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities
US Department of Health & Human Services Office on Minority Health Month