Health Equity, COVID-19, and What Should be Common Sense Healthcare Design

COVID-19 has shined a blinding light on the deep-rooted inequities in America in communities of color at every level. From the disproportionate number of essential workers for whom there is no remote alternative to the higher than average rates of chronic disease in younger populations, methods to prevent the spread of COVID-19 have not included what should be common sense design principles. From my own formal training and lived experience, I know that what is happening (or not happening) right now in response to COVID-19 is an artifact of design principles that insert equity, if ever, only on the second pass.