Public Health Accountability in Action: The King County Pandemic and Racism Community Advisory Group

Public Health Rep. 2024 Feb 12:333549231223923. doi: 10.1177/00333549231223923. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTAfter a tumultuous 3 years of pandemic-, political-, and race-related unrest in the United States, the public is demanding accountability to communities of color (defined here as American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Black, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, and Hispanic people) to rectify historic and contemporary injustices that perpetuate health inequities and threaten public health. Structural racism pervades all major societal systems and exposes people to detrimental social determinants of health. Disrupting structural racism within public health systems is essential to advancing health equity and requires organized partnerships between health departments and community leaders. As those who are most affected by structural racism, communities of color are the experts in knowing its impacts. This case study describes the King County Pandemic and Racism Community Advisory Group (PARCAG) and its use of an innovative accountability tool. The tool facilitated institutional transparency and accountability in the adoption of community recommendations. PARCAG was influential in shaping Public Health-Seattle & King County's COVID-19 and antiracism work, with 66 of 75 (88%) recommendations adopted partially or fully. For example, a fully adopted recommendation in May 2020 was to report King County COVID-19 case data by race and ethnicity, and a partially adopted recomme...
Source: Public Health Reports - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Source Type: research