Addressing Health Issue,Steps Required & Necessary Stakeholders:Covid19

        Policy Brief   Student Name Instructor Name Institutional Affiliation Course Number and Name Due Date
Policy Brief             The U.S. health care delivery system’s environment has received significant criticism due to the discriminatory treatment of specific populations. Although racial disparities have remained persistent in the nation for years, the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic as a public health issue further exposed the prevalence of this problem. The sudden disruptions in health services revealed the magnitude of preferential care within U.S. hospitals, with the African American population being one of the most disadvantaged groups. Even before COVID-19’s emergence, African Americans suffered from complex health-related challenges, including inaccessible and unaffordable healthcare and poor health outcomes. However, COVID-19 has demonstrated the seriousness of this policy health issue and prompted the need for appropriate interventions. Level of Occurrence and Evidence About the Issue             Coronavirus data desegregation by racial identities in the United States reveals concerning trends about the health issue. For instance, Reyes (2020) indicates that minorities, especially African Americans, have received disproportionate impacts of the disease due to unequal treatment within the healthcare delivery settings and other related elements. Reports by World Health Organization explored by Reyes (2020) illustrate that the population grapples with a unique toxic combination of social policies, systemic discrimination, and poor services, leading to their disadvantage during the pandemic. Findings by Peek et al. (2021) state that the disparities facing African Americans remain distributed across the nation and that they were affected in the same way irrespective of the state. For instance, in South Carolina and Chicago, their mortality rate stood at 51% and 70%, respectively, despite constituting a meager 30% of the entire state’s population (Peek et al., 2021). National statistics further uncovered a trend that places with a higher concentration of this population recorded significantly higher morbidity and mortality rates. Reyes (2020) states that for every 100 000 African Americans, 97.9 of them succumbed to COVID-19, a frequency beyond double the figures recorded for the whites. These statistics demonstrate that coronavirus disproportionately affected the African American population at the national level in the United States. Problem Statement             Substantial evidence demonstrates that African Americans continue to bear the heaviest burden of COVID-19 due to the dynamic and complicated health disparity issues in the healthcare system in the nation. Snowden and Graaf (2021) present convincing data from renowned institutions to illustrate how the ongoing situation exposes national programs and policies gaps. For instance, they indicate that CDC’s surveillance data by 28^th September 2020 showed that African Americans had recorded mortality and morbidity rates of 20.9% and 18.2%, respectively, despite constituting only 13.4% of the entire U.S population. A report by Hamel et al. (2020) sheds light on such variations by highlighting the challenges facing African Americans in the U.S. healthcare systems that leave them vulnerable. It reveals that structural and systemic constructs expose them to unconducive working environments that diminish their capacity to acquire insurance covers or even access healthcare. As a result, the rise of COVID-19 health issues complicates their problems, explaining why their probability of dying from the disease is up to 3.5 times that of their white counterparts (Snowden & Graaf, 2021). Such aspects affirm their sensitive situation in the ongoing pandemic.             Evidence demonstrates that their vulnerability is a policy issue because it arises from disparities in the nation. The concealed elements of their disadvantaged position worsen this health problem in diverse ways. For instance, Snowden and Graaf (2021) indicate that the environment of an unsupportive U.S healthcare delivery system leaves them at risk of adverse health illnesses and underlying conditions. These issues increase their likelihood of becoming seriousl...