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University of Maryland, Dept of Public Health
New Earth Conversation event co-sponsored by Geography
A Syndemic 400 Years in the Making
In the United States, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) have been impacted by systemic racism and structured inequalities since the founding of this country. Communities of color do not have just access to good quality housing, jobs, recreation, food infrastructure, transit, or healthcare. These same communities have been used as sacrifice zones for environmental hazards due to environmental racism, experience climate change impacts differentially, and now are dying at higher rates from COVID-19 during the viral pandemic. These communities are not experiencing just one pandemic, but multiple pandemics simultaneously. This is known as a syndemic. In this lecture, Dr. Sacoby Wilson will discuss the syndemic that has been scourge of BIPOC communities in the United States. He will discuss why these communities are experiencing a syndemic and what needs to be done to stop the syndemic including how he is working with frontline and fenceline environmental justice communities in community-based science projects.
https://sph.umd.edu/people/sacoby-wilson