The Atlantic Reporter: America’s ‘Legacy of Racism’ Is Why Many Communities Suffered Disproportionately from COVID

EXCERPT:

YONG: "I think, like, clearly the federal inaction, the lack of clear leadership allowed this virus to take hold in this country, to spread rapidly among its most vulnerable people. And we are still not fighting the pandemic as well as we could do. But I argue in this piece that every vulnerability that America presented to this pandemic was preventable and predictable and stems not only from the events of the last few months, but from the country’s entire history, its devaluation of public health, its legacy of racism and colonialism that so many marginalized communities have suffered disproportionately at the hands of this virus. We have built a world more prone to a pandemic like this, but ever less ready for it. And if we are to avert future disasters that we know are on the way, or even if we are meant to control this current one, we need to grapple with that full reality, that full picture of vulnerability."