Health disparity may not mean what the literal term “disparity” means; however, the generalization of the topic has created a misconception among the common people of the United States.
We know for a fact how people from different racial or ethnic backgrounds go through typical kinds of diseases. For example, American Indian men are more likely to develop prostate cancer, but why is that so? What makes diseases so different and in a fast-growing world, does every individual has different reactions and tendencies to these diseases?
The term Health Disparity does not differentiate on generalization. Moreover, it deals with the differences in diseases based on economically damaged people. Office of Health Disparity Research has been working on the said notion to stabilize health disparity and create a world with health equity.
Health disparity and health equity both come hand-in-hand. To understand how we can bring forward the concept of health equity, it very important given the current era. People are dying due to hundreds of diseases every day, mostly, people from third-world-countries go through this a lot. It is about time that the WHO took a step to sustain life all around the globe.
According to federal agencies, the term health disparity defines the differences in health among different health groups or we can say among different ethnic and racial backgrounds. Nonetheless, the literal meaning of disparity is to define a distinguished difference between two things.
Why is it important to fight for Health Equity?
Do you feel decent enough to let someone else lay down their life to save yours? If the answer is no, then you should think about the current conditions. More African-Americans are dying due to COVID-19 than White-Americans. Health disparities are preventable, the poor people of our country do deserve a chance at life. They are not worthless and they are equal to every other American.
Health disparity usually targets economically disadvantaged people. People who are working odd jobs and are exposed to different kinds of diseases prove that there is discrimination settled in the mindsets of people all around the world.
Racial discrimination is not the only issue at hand right now, but we cannot disregard the issue by deeming it not worthy. We have to some extent have cleansed the mindset of many individuals about accepting people regardless of their color and ethnic backgrounds. It is about time we laid institutions to stabilize health disparity all around the world.
Amid the coronavirus crisis, 1 out of 1850 black American has died; the ratio of racial deaths is more than white Americans, is this justice? COVID-19 has shown us that health disparity is very much of a problem in the current day scenario. APM Research Lab recently conducted an analysis to differentiate between the rates of black deaths in America and white deaths and the results were 2.4 percent higher.
APM Research Lab further laid down their research on ethnic backgrounds and this is what they concluded:
- 1 in 1,850 Black Americans died due to COVID-19
- 1 in 4,000 Latino Americans died due to COVID-19
- 2 in 8,400 Asian Americans died due to COVID-19
- 2 in 8,800 White Americans died due to COVID-19
What can we do to establish Health Equity?
COVID-19 has opened the eyes of every single individual, shocking the world to its very core, health disparities are not only restricted to COVID-19. Another research showed that around 80 percent of cases of COVID-19 were Black Americans.
The fight against Health disparity is not going to be easy and the world will not change overnight. This will be a long and slow process. We need to reinstitutionalize how our system works with equal opportunities for people regardless of their racial or ethnic backgrounds.
Our elected officials should campaign against the hardship of social workers and establish laws to make sure that everyone gets the same kind of medical treatment. They should present plans to reduce police violence, housing, education inequality, and mass incarceration.
We need to realize that one person cannot fix an entire institution, it will require all of us to work together for the betterment of our nation. The Government should centralize the wages and keep a check on institutions. Governments should also invest more in their health sector to improve methods and have more options to save a life.
We should all acknowledge the fact that all lives matter, regardless of color, regardless of status. Death of one innocent person is the death of all of humanity!
