By AFRO Staff
Join us for a special 90-minute SYNChronicity 2020 virtual session, “SYNCing the ‘End the HIV Epidemic’ (EHE) and Social Justice: COVID-19, HIV, and the African-American/Black Community,” on July 29, 2020, from 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM. Session will feature presentations and a dynamic panel discussion.
The COVID-19 global pandemic has highlighted the inequitable distribution of health risk and disease among African-American/Black communities in the U.S. In addition to accounting for 42% of all new HIV cases in the U.S. annually, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that Blacks are 5.0 times more likely than whites to have COVID-19, and are 3.8 times more likely to die from it. HIV and COVID-19 disparities reflect socioeconomic inequities common in many Black communities, such as poverty, lack of insurance, and under/unemployment, which create barriers to testing, treatment, and care. Addressing the intersection of these diseases has been challenging, as public officials work to incorporate social justice issues thoughtfully into public health policy and practice and large numbers of the HIV public health workforce is redirected from HIV to COVID-19.
This pre-conference session will:
Illustrate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on EHE, racial and ethnic communities, and health care systems.
Highlight how systemic health and social inequities continue to impact the lives of the African American communities.
Discuss methods for reframing public health responses as social justice issues.
Provide practical solutions for modifying programming and services to address systemic health and social inequalities.