A Connecticut state senator has written to Governor Ned Lamont asking him to declare racism a public health emergency. That’s because COVID-19 has led to a disproportionate number of deaths in the African American and Latino communities.
Senator Saud Anwar is a physician from South Windsor. The Democrat says declaring racism a public health emergency would help Connecticut begin to tackle the systemic segregation of housing that has resulted in poor health outcomes for African Americans and Latinos.
“If we can fix that, we would be able to allocate resources into prevention of illnesses, prevention of the problems that people are facing and increase the strength of our state.”
Governor Lamont has yet to officially respond to Anwar, but agrees racism is a problem.
“There are two highly infectious germs that are infecting the body. One is COVID and the other is racism in this state. I could not have been clearer on that. And we are going to eradicate both. As best we can.”
Anwar would also like his fellow lawmakers to take up the issue when they meet in a special session this summer.