Many factors have contributed to higher infection rates and serious illnesses in minority communities. Blacks, Latinos, and Native Americans are more likely than whites to live in overcrowded households and are less likely to be able to work from home. Minority Americans have higher rates of underlying health problems that increase their risk for severe Covid-19, and they often have limited access to medical care. Asian-Americans were less likely to be infected than white Americans, but had slightly higher rates of hospitalizations and deaths.
While almost every American today knows someone affected by Covid-19, in color communities at least a third of people have lost someone close to them. “Think about the individual toll that costs,” said Dr. Nunez-Smith. “These are people’s parents, friends and relatives. We cannot overestimate the disproportionate impact. “
Dr. Nunez-Smith is currently one of three co-chairs on an advisory board that advises the Biden transition team on managing the pandemic. Colleagues describe her as a brilliant scientist with a gift for consensus-building, a sharp contrast to the politically motivated administrative officials who led the response during the Trump era.
“She is a national gem,” said Dr. Harlan Krumholz, Professor of Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine. “This is a person who spends their days thinking about how we can make health care more equitable and what interventions can address these differences.”
At Yale, Dr. Nunez-Smith many hats – practicing internist, scientist, teacher, mentor, and director of several research centers. She heads Yale’s Equity Research and Innovation Center, which she founded, and a National Institutes of Health-funded research collaboration investigating chronic diseases in Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, and the US Virgin Islands.
She is also involved in community organizations such as the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven and Connecticut Voices for Children. “She’s not sitting in her ivory tower,” said Christina Ciociola, senior vice president of grants and strategy at the foundation.
