Brookings, February 18, 2022, The pandemic showed why social and structural determinants of health matter. Now it’s time for policymakers to act.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionately devastating impact on Black and Latino communities—both from an economic and a health perspective. Last year, Black and Latino individuals experienced 2.9 and 3-year declines in life expectancy respectively, largely due to Covid-19 deaths. That is roughly 2.5 times the decline for white individuals.