By Ahmed Sougueh and Jokho Farah, Stanford Social Innovation Review, December 2020
From balconies in New York City to the National Assembly in Kenya; across Spain, Italy, Turkey, Singapore, India, and many other nations around the world—some of the most inspiring images from the pandemic have shown leaders, celebrities, and everyday people clapping, ringing cowbells, and banging on pots to recognize and give gratitude to the health workers on the front lines of the COVID-19 response.
This global acknowledgment was heartening to see, considering that frontline health workers too often go unrecognized. Yet, they are playing a critical role in caring for those communities most effected by the pandemic, while at the same time risking their own lives. Especially in underserved communities, frontline workers like community health workers (CHWs) are helping vulnerable patients to reduce their risks by understanding symptoms and seeking testing and treatment early.
In the United States, the need for such support is greater for people who live in communities of color, which have been disproportionately exposed to the virus and are more likely than people in white communities to not receive care they need or to experience severe disease or death. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Black Americans are 2.1 times more likely to die of COVID-19 and 4.7 times more likely to be hospitalized than white people. Hispanic Americans have a 4.6 times greater risk of hospitalization and 1.1 times greater risk of death than white people as well.
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