By Lydia Chávez, California Health Care Foundation, September 13, 2021
Throughout the pandemic, communities of color, often filled with essential workers returning home to crowded households, have been contracting and dying from COVID-19 at the highest rates in the country. This year, Public Health Advocates, a California organization that advances policies to reduce health disparities, created an initiative to respond to the deep-rooted inequities brought into focus by the pandemic.
The initiative advocates for policies, programs, and resources to help communities recover from the pandemic and create long-term solutions to improve health equity. Public Health Advocates formed a steering committee of California public health and health equity leaders to help set the initiative’s priorities and strategies and establish a game plan to implement solutions. The steering committee named the initiative California COVID Justice: Recovery, Response and Repair.
I recently spoke to Flojaune G. Cofer, PhD, MPH, senior director of policy at Public Health Advocates, about the initiative and her hopes for how California COVID Justice will help historically underinvested communities. Our conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.
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