Faculty,Health Behavior and Health Equity Results

racism in healthcare

Structural Racism Is Not an Exemption from Accountability

In February 2021, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) tweeted, “No physician is racist, so how can there be structural racism in health care?” The tweet was designed to promote a podcast that was ostensibly focused on structural racism yet did not include experts on the topic. The subsequent uproar highlighted the harm caused by deep intentional ignorance of the term structural racism, defined in the American Journal of Public Health as “policies and practices…that confer advantages on people considered White and ideologies that maintain these advantages, while simultaneously oppressing other racialized groups.”

A closeup of baby feet.

Widely Used Herbicide Linked to Preterm Births

New research from John Meeker

Exposure to a chemical found in the weed killer Roundup and other glyphosate-based herbicides is significantly associated with preterm births, according to a new University of Michigan study.

An older woman receiving a COVID-19 vaccine from a nurse.

COVID-19 Vaccine: Understanding Herd Immunity, Vaccine Hesitancy

Q&A with Abram L. Wagner

Since the beginning of the pandemic, herd immunity has been portrayed as the holy grail to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic. Abram Wagner, research assistant professor of Epidemiology, explains why reaching herd immunity might not be as simple as we thought, and what vaccine hesitancy and availability have to do with it.