Ohio Governor Mike DeWine says racism is a public health crisis.
During his Thursday COVID-19 briefing, the governor declared racism a public health crisis and said it’s something we need to work on every day.
“We have to do better, we can do better.”
The governor released the recommendations of his Minority Health Strike Force which was formed to examine how the coronavirus has disproportionately affected African Americans and Latinos.
The group’s final report gives several recommendations, which include dismantling racism, removing obstacles to public health and improving data collection to better understand disparities.
Ohio Democratic lawmakers have asked that the state declare racism a public health crisis to acknowledge the ways that race plays a role in disparities.