NYC Board of Health Declares Racism a Public Health Crisis

Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images.

The New York City Board of Health has passed a resolution declaring that racism is a public health crisis.

The four-page resolution, which passed on Monday, went into effect immediately.

“To build a healthier New York City, we must confront racism as a public health crisis,” said Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi. “The COVID-19 pandemic magnified inequities, leading to suffering disproportionately borne by communities of color in our City and across our nation. But these inequities are not inevitable. Today is an historic day for the country’s oldest Board of Health to officially recognize this crisis and demand action.”

One of the 23 points in the resolution claims that “involvement with law enforcement has grown markedly in the US in recent decades, and studies have shown these interactions are associated with poorer health outcomes, including injuries and fatalities.”

The resolution also decries “structural racism” in “impacting services and care across all institutions within our society” and in New York City through “discriminatory housing, employment, education, healthcare, criminal legal, and other systems, all of which result in avoidable and unjust health outcomes.”

Nine of the actions the resolution calls for include the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene establishing “a Data for Equity internal working group to ensure the Health Department apply an intersectional, anti-racism equity lens to public health data and provide annual guidance to other NYC Mayoral agencies on best practices to collect and make available to the Health Department relevant data to track and improve health equity.”

The resolution also “requests that the NYC Health Department make recommendations on anti-racism, health-related NYC Charter revisions to the Mayoral Racial Justice Commission to strengthen NYC’s effort to combat racism.”

Finally, the resolution “requests that the NYC Health Department continue collaborations with sister agencies to report on fatalities, injuries, health conditions, by race, gender, and other demographics, to improve data quality and care.”

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