Advocates Hope Churches Can Help Mitigate COVID-19 Racial Disparities

African Americans are dying of COVID-19 at disproportionate rates in other parts of the country. That data is not available for Nebraska, but in Douglas County black people are slightly over-represented in COVID-19 cases.

Doris Lassiter is director of the Nebraska Center for Healthy Families. She said churches are working to address other health disparities including infant mortality, hypertension and diabetes.

Lassiter believes the same networks used to promote physical fitness or weight loss can be translated to promote social distancing and other COVID-19 information.

“If we take the lead role in this, for our own communities, we can get the message out,” Lassiter said. “We don’t have to outreach. We can inreach and reach more people. Because we know who they are. We can work with our senior citizens who we know are at home, those who live alone. We can follow up with them one by one. That’s something the health department cannot do.”

Lassiter hopes health departments will partner with minority and faith-based organizations during COVID-19. She also wants people to consider the potential institutional causes for racial disparities among COVID-19 patients.