State actions helped reduce racial disparities during pandemic, says new report

A new report from the Michigan Coronavirus Racial Disparities Task Force says the state’s actions in 2020 and 2021 “helped reduce racial disparities in COVID-19 response and deaths.” The task force is led by Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist.

“We’re proud that progress has held through the surges of omicron and delta.” —Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist

The report also includes a number of policy recommendations, as well as updates on the task force’s short-term and long-term goals.

Listen: Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist talks about Michigan’s COVID-19 racial disparities and the state’s response.

Guest

Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist is the chair of the Michigan Coronavirus Racial Disparities Task Force.

While Black Michiganders make up about 14% of the population, they represented about 40% of the deaths in the pandemic’s onset, says Gilchrist, noting that 27 people he knew personally died from COVID-19.

But Gilchrist says the state was able to reduce racial disparities in COVID-19 deaths during more recent waves.

“We’re proud that progress has held through the surges of omicron and delta,” he says.

The report says the state’s actions to reduce racial disparities included “reducing barriers to testing in communities of color, expanding testing to the most at risk for serious illness, developing culturally competent messaging for best practices of COVID-19 mitigation, improving racial data collection, and sharing, and improving access to health care for marginalized populations.”