Marcella Nunez-Smith, chair of President Biden’s COVID-19 Equity Task Force, told press and advocates during a January 28 White House health briefing that outreach to communities of color, people with disabilities and other marginalized groups will be a priority for the administration’s COVID-19 response. Black, Latino and Native Americans have disproportionately suffered higher rates of infection, hospitalization and death since the beginning of the pandemic, with the national death rate of Black patients reaching twice that of White patients last summer. Some distribution data suggest vaccine uptake is currently almost twice as high among White people on average than Black and Latino people despite the disproportionate morbidity and mortality rates.
