The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted U.S. racial and ethnic disparities across many domains. While health disparities have long existed, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, a 24-hour news cycle, and growing awareness of entrenched systemic racism in the United States have brought them into the forefront of national consciousness. While COVID-19-associated disparities generally impact adults, the current pandemic has also exacerbated existing disparities in child health. We present an explanatory framework for how the disproportionate effects of adult COVID-19 among racial and ethnic minorities will lead to widening of current and future disparities among children and policy recommendations to curtail it.

For the purpose of this paper, we will refer to non-white Hispanic and Latinx communities as Hispanic and the Black and Hispanic communities together as communities of color. While this paper focuses on disparities among the Black and Hispanic communities, we recognize that many non-white racial and ethnic groups are disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. We believe many of the frameworks explained here are applicable to other racial and ethnic groups.

Log in or create a free account to read this content

Gain free access to this article, as well as selected content from this journal and more on nature.com

Access through your institution

or

Sign in or create an account
Continue with Google
Continue with ORCiD