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AGENCY TESTIMONY
COVID-19 response and reduction in racial health disparities
0:18:15
ยท
92 sec
Commissioner Morse discusses the department's COVID-19 response, highlighting significant reductions in mortality rates and the narrowing of racial inequities in health outcomes. She emphasizes the success of targeted initiatives like the Public Health Corps.
- Reports a 96% drop in COVID deaths since 2020 and a 76% reduction in hospitalizations
- Highlights the narrowing of racial inequities in COVID-19 mortality rates
- Describes the Public Health Corps initiative, which focused on vaccine outreach in priority neighborhoods
Michelle Morse
0:18:15
Black and Latino communities die younger than their white and Asian neighbors.
0:18:20
Despite citywide gains, black New Yorkers are dying more than five years earlier than white New Yorkers.
0:18:26
I wanna take a moment to delve into what's driving both the increase in life expectancy and the persistence of racial inequity.
0:18:32
First, we can take pride in the fact that we're gaining back years largely because our COVID related mortality has dropped so dramatically.
0:18:40
Our 2024 data shows that COVID deaths have dropped by ninety six percent since 2020 and hospitalizations are down seventy six percent.
0:18:49
That drop is in and of itself an enormous victory.
0:18:52
But what stands out to me is that overall numbers have declined and the racial inequity and mortality rates has narrowed significantly.
0:19:00
That was no accident.
0:19:01
When we realized that black and Latino New Yorkers were getting vaccinated at lower rates, the health department created the Public Health Corps, a community health worker led initiative focused on vaccine outreach in priority neighborhoods.
0:19:13
As government, we recognized that we weren't the right messengers.
0:19:16
The Public Health Corps ensured that people of color were getting information about and access to vaccines from trusted community members in the language, location, and approach that they wanted.
0:19:27
Our COVID recovery trajectory is proof that we can make meaningful, equitable, and rapid change when we have the political will to work across sectors and take a whole of government approach and when we appropriately invest in public health.
0:19:43
Unfortunately, extreme racial inequities persist among other causes of death in our city.