Covid-19 and Health Disparities as Global Crises

Health Disparities
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Health Disparities

Introduction

Covid-19 And Health Disparities: Insights From Key Informant Interviews is an article by Harold Pollack and Caroline Kelly published on 27^th October 2020 on the Health Affairs website. The authors posit that the onset of Covid-19 has exposed global public health systems revealing the extent to which the system is affected by disparities. According to Pollack and Kelly (2020), while the pandemic fully spares no part of the United States, the virus' burden is unequally distributed. Observed at all points, from initial infection to intensive care, the pandemic exposed disparities by income & wealth, race & ethnicity, immigration status, and in the effectiveness of the public health system, its resources, and in preexisting disease vulnerability. The interest in this topic is motivated by the desire to provide and be part of a universal health system that has minimal disparities. As a student, my academic experience should be aligned with the vision and mission to acquire the necessary experience and knowledge to contribute to the current problem. Covid-19 provides a watershed moment in which health disparities can be highlighted to gain support in public discourse.

Research and Analysis Description

             The current paper relies on secondary sources to establish the extent and impact of the existing disparities. The predicaments caused by the pandemic show that even before the virus, health disparities were not only an American problem but a global crisis. Thus, existing research articles such as peer-reviewed articles are ideal in formulating an opinion on the current crisis. Therefore, the research process relied on online databases where ten peer-reviewed articles were identified. The articles were divided into three categories based on research outcomes. These include qualitative, quantitative, and mixed research outcomes. The databases considered for the research paper include Google Scholar, PubMed, CINAHL, and NCBI. These databases were chosen because they provide extensive research articles on public health. The final four research articles were at most five years old. Besides publishing, other exclusion criteria involved emphasis on observation design and qualitative or quantitative outcomes. The keywords used during the search process include health, public health, disparities, inequality, equity, access, quality, care, and efficiency.

Credibility and Relevance of Selected Sources

All the articles chosen are peer-reviewed and available in different journals related to public health. Further, the authors of the chosen articles are experts in medicine and public health, specializing in different subfields. The article by Wasserman, Palmer, Gomez, Berzon and Said (2018) is peer-reviewed and available in the American Jou...