DeWine: ‘We should all be outraged’ by racial health disparities in Ohio

Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday he plans to increase the state's efforts to improve health and economic racial disparities (“Source: “'We should all be outraged': Gov. DeWine says Ohio will work to improve racial health, economic disparities,” News 5 Cleveland, June 2).

"We should all be outraged that in the year 2020, in Ohio and in this country, there's still inequality of opportunity and there is still racism," DeWine said. "The coronavirus, this global pandemic, has laid bare our vulnerabilities."

DeWine cited a number of different areas in which there are disparities, including lead paint poisoning children, infant and maternal mortality, the drug epidemic, mental health services and implicit bias in law enforcement.

All of this contributes to a disproportionate impact on black and brown Ohioans when it comes to COVID-19 (see HPIO data brief on Ohio COVID-19 disparities by race), and on communities of color when it comes to other health conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes and asthma.

In a statement on racism and health released this week, HPIO asserted that “The data and research evidence are clear that racism is a systemic and ongoing public health crisis with serious consequences for the health of Ohioans. It is also clear that racism is a crisis with profound and pervasive impacts across all the factors that shape our health. This includes our healthcare, education, housing, food, economic, criminal justice and political systems, among others.”