The Intersection of HIV, Covid-19 and Systemic Racism

ABSTRACT The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) pandemic has taken the greatest toll on racial and ethnic minorities in the United States. Blacks and Latinxs suffer greater disease incidence, prevalence, morbidity and mortality from HIV as compared with Whites. Similarly, the Covid-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has disproportionately affected Blacks, Latinxs, and Native Americans causing higher rates of infection, more severe disease, and higher rates of mortality as compared with Whites. The pandemic of racism is as ubiquitous as the pandemics of HIV and Covid-19. Its sustaining forces drive wealth inequality, poverty, racially segregated and overcrowded housing, unequal employment opportunities, unequal education and mass incarceration, all of which contribute to health disparities in HIV, Covid-19 as well as other health conditions. Systemic policies that either sustain, or fail to address the unequal social conditions affecting Blacks, Latinxs and other minorities need to be addressed if health equity is to be achieved for all residents in the U.S.. Health equity is unlikely to be achieved by solely addressing disparities within the health care system alone