The evidence is clear – the COVID pandemic has hit Native Americans, communities of color, and other high-risk and vulnerable populations the hardest, putting front and center the nation’s systematic health and societal disparities. The immediate impact is already evident: disproportionate job, wage, and savings losses; health and health care challenges; food insecurity; housing instability; caregiving gaps; and education disruption. Additional resources can help now, but what about the long-term health and financial effects? How can we ensure that these individuals weather the storm and that needed societal changes are put firmly in place? On November 10, Dr. Richard Besser, President and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Dr. Mary Bassett, Director of the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University, joined Aspen Ideas: Health for a hard look at the communities being left behind by America’s COVID-19 response and the prospects for recovery that promise a brighter, more just future through the lens of health equity.

Read the full article about health equity at The Aspen Institute.