Six months into the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic, many countries, including the United States, are still struggling to contain the spread of the virus which, as of this writing, has taken 744,649 lives globally. Before mask-wearing was recommended as the simplest and most effective defense against contagion, epidemiologists and public health experts recommended regular handwashing with soap and practicing social distancing as fundamental to curbing the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Briefly it appeared as if WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) services were actually being accorded the importance they deserved. The critical need for water for handwashing, the millions who lack regular supplies of both water and soap, and the difficulties of social distancing in settlements where thousands share a single toilet with no soap were finally headline news.  

“Reproductive justice is the right to reproductive health care, and the right to have children or not, the right to the healthiest possible pregnancy and birth, and the right to raise children in a safe and healthy environment. These rights will be challenged by climate change, including increasing temperatures,” said Linda Goler Blount, President and CEO of the Black Women’s Health Imperative, at a recent webinar on the intersections of environmental and reproductive justice on maternal health, climate change, and birth outcomes. The webinar was held on Juneteenth, the holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, and many panelists’ remarks amplified the significance of the date. “Make this Juneteenth another beginning. One where we commemorate the end of climate injustice for Black and Brown people who bring life into this world,” said Blount.  

“The past months have been profoundly difficult for our nation, and for Black communities in particular,” said Representative Lauren Underwood (D-IL-14) at a recent March of Dimes event on the impact of structural racism on maternal health. COVID-19 has highlighted health outcome inequity caused by race and racism. Though Black people constitute 13 percent of the U.S. population, the CDC estimates they represent over 30 percent of COVID-19 cases. 

Fragile states, where 1.8 billion people live, continue to be where one is most likely to find extreme poverty, violent extremism, and those most vulnerable to natural disasters and pandemics, said Nancy Lindborg, President and CEO of United States Institute of Peace, at a recent Truman Center event on the ties between national security, global health, and development. Those governments that do not have the capacity to meet the needs of their people, she said, also tend to be the ones that cannot manage external shocks.

“The pandemic has shown us in the starkest terms how wide the gaps are in health outcomes between Black and White America and between men and women,” said Representative Alma Adams (D-NC-12) at a recent Wilson Center event on women, race, and COVID-19 in the United States. “COVID-19 has revealed what the Black community and communities of color have known for a long time, health outcomes are further compounded by systemic and structural racism,” said Rep. Alma Adams. And COVID-19 has exposed what women have known for a long time. Gender inequality exists, it threatens economic empowerment, and it increases vulnerabilities.

“We all know that while no one is immune from the Covid-19 virus—and people of all types have caught the virus and died from it—it is the world’s most vulnerable communities that have suffered disproportionately from the pandemic,” said Michael Kugelman, Deputy Director and Senior Associate for the Wilson Center’s Asia Program. He spoke at a recent Wilson Center event on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on refugee communities. As of 2019, 1 percent of humanity was displaced. That’s more than 79.5 million people. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the vulnerabilities of these people. “The health pandemic is fostering a new pandemic of poverty,” said Matthew Reynolds, Regional Representative for the U.S. and the Caribbean at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

“Our world is grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic and also coming to terms with systematic racism and oppression that black communities and communities of color continue to experience in the United States and in other parts of the world,” said Sarah Craven, Director of the Washington, D.C. office at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) at a recent webinar launching UNFPA’s 2020 State of the World’s Population Report. This year’s report, titled Against My Will, covers three widespread practices that violate human rights, but are still accepted in many cultures—son preference, child marriage, and female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C).