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COVID-19 has proven to exacerbate inequities in systems. If policy-makers, decision-makers, and advocates are not explicitly and overtly focused on equity then we are propagating and cultivating the existing inequalities and -isms. How are we complicit in -isms? Follow me… 1/14
RACISM. People of color are disproportionately affected by COVID-19. In Calgary, NE mostly racialized communities have > 35% of active cases. Community care teams have started creating collaborative culturally-appropriate solutions - months in. 2/14 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/covid-calgary-northeast-upper-alberta-health-1.5819848
COVID RACISM demands that we need to collect and act-on race-based data. We need to acknowledge and support the essential workers who are placed at risk in food and supply chains, as taxi and Uber drivers, or managing retail. 3/14 @BoukaMD @yolandebouka https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/may-2020/canadas-covid-19-blind-spots-on-race-immigration-and-labour/
COVID RACISM supersedes other kinds of power – even a BIPOC physician was accused of drug seeking and her pain was ignored (say her name – Dr. Susan Moore). We are just now discovering that O2 saturation monitors underestimate the hypoxia of people with dark skin. 4/14
SEXISM. When we demand that schools be closed (yes, when community spread is rampant and hospitals full – they should be), there needs to be a concrete response that encompasses the unpaid labor that womyn. Schools are not childcare, but childcare needs are real. 5/14
COVID SEXISM creates the expectation that womyn working from home can do their FT jobs while FT homeschooling and having dinner on the table. If a female-identifying person is forced to isolate, chaos ensues. Yes, others buy groceries, cook, clean but we know who does more. 6/14
COVID SEXISM means that when kids are sent home from school to isolate, disproportionately more womyn are forced into taking time from work (often unpaid, creating larger burdens on BIPOC and impoverished families b/c HEY #intersectionality…) 7/14
AGEISM. We’ve all seen the headlines and interviews with leaders who dismiss the pandemic as only affecting the elderly. If mortality is limited to the age of life expectancy, then we are encouraged to see this as simply nature at work. 8/14
COVID AGEISM forces MDs into impossible moral dilemmas of determining who is worthy of limited resources. Some ICU policies are age-based, others use frailty indices. Many nations chose to let the old die first but there are disparate perspectives. 9/14 https://www.sidewalkcitizenbakery.com/tzavta-blog/dr-azim-shariff
COVID AGEISM means that we isolate the unfortunate trapped in care homes, where their QOL was already substandard and the private businesses cut corners until they are literally pounding on the walls to get help. Our elders deserve better; care systems need total rehauling. 10/14
ELITISM ah – how can we forget that? It’s what makes America great, right? That ole meritocracy. While many of our citizens lose jobs and livelihoods, small businesses go under while loans mount… the rich get richer. 11/14 https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/oct/07/covid-19-crisis-boosts-the-fortunes-of-worlds-billionaires
COVID ELITISM precludes a person from getting reasonable sick days every time they need to isolate or every time their child is sent home with a contact tracing notice. It forces people to go to work with symptoms if it means losing the roof over their family’s heads. 12/14
COVID ELITISM could be the way that CERB in Canada rolls over into UBI, but for unfounded accusations that it fuels addictive behaviors and laziness. Instead of allowing people to take the pressure off having their basic needs met, we rely on landlords and business owners. 13/14
All COVID-ISMS have cracked wide open over the past 9 months. When the challenges, rather than democratic systems creating equal circumstances for all, the gaps are widening. We need an equity lens on all policies now. Or the post-COVID world may not be worth fighting for. 14/14
