Everyone has a right to good health and well-being, but America's promise has fallen short. Individual health does not exist in a vacuum. It is tied to the community conditions in which we are born, grow, live, work, and age. For people of color, geography, income, and race are longstanding predictors of health outcomes. The roots of historic inequity run deep in fragmented public and private health systems and disadvantaged opportunities across the lifespan.
NAACP is committed to ending racial health disparities. Our aim is not simply disease prevention, but to create an inclusive culture of healthy people and communities. We collaborate with communities through coordinated action to improve the social determinants of health — racism, poverty, exclusion, inferior schools, unsafe housing, poor nutrition, and toxic environments. We disrupt the status quo by working at the intersection of policy and systems change to drive sustainable impact for the sake of our future.
Throughout the world, the coronavirus pandemic has underscored how important it is for a healthy nation to offer its residents robust health care options. In the U.S., our collective unwillingness to ensure affordable, accessible, quality, and timely health care for all has cost too many Black lives and unnecessarily compromised our nation's health and economic security. The U.S. is overdue for a health care system that truly bolsters health for all its people rather than fragments them further.
The public and private health care systems must be transformed to be affordable, accessible, and offer high-quality health care to everyone.
Part of good health begins with access to good nutrition and quality resources. Conventional food systems that limit access to locally sourced, healthy, affordable food must be disrupted.
Ongoing systems of oppression are at the root of health inequities. We work toward the redistribution of money, power, and resources as well as the adoption of proactive policies at the national, state, and local levels to optimize health for all.
Health disparities left Black Americans vulnerable to contracting COVID-19 and dying from it at higher rates, nearly two times greater than their share of the population. Black students, businesses, employees, and homeowners have all been hit hard by the pandemic. As the dangerous Delta and Lambda variants wreak havoc around the world, it is important now, more than ever, to take all precautions to protect yourself and your community.
Use this up-to-date research, resources, and stories to help ease the uncertainties and safeguard your community. With the facts, we can all make the best decisions for ourselves and our families.
85% of African Americans are concerned about new variants and strains that could potentially be more contagious or deadly.
The CDC has just announced today's vaccines are only about 66% effective against the Delta variant. In some cases, booster shots may be necessary.
Now isn't the time to give up. As of August 2021, 70% of African-Americans have received the vaccine, which helps protect our families against hospitalization and death. We're going to continue to fight against Delta - together.
We all have questions and concerns as we navigate this pandemic. Get the information you need to protect yourself and your community.
HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF AND OTHERS
Learn more about the most commonly used terms surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.
Presenting no symptoms of a disease. In the case of COVID-19, this means the absence of fever, dry cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, and body aches, among other less common symptoms. Notably, it is recommended that individuals do not get tested unless they exhibit symptoms because of the risk of false negatives. In other words, most tests will not be accurate unless symptoms are present.
When researchers study a medical test or treatment in a set group of people to make sure it's safe and effective before giving it to the public.
Someone who has been within 6 feet of an infected person (laboratory-confirmed or a clinically compatible illness) for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period (for example, three individual 5-minute exposures for a total of 15 minutes in one day). An infected person can spread SARS-CoV-2 starting from 2 days before they have any symptoms (or, for asymptomatic patients, 2 days before the positive specimen collection date) until they meet the criteria for discontinuing home isolation.
A family of related viruses. Many of them cause respiratory illnesses. Coronaviruses cause COVID-19, SARS, MERS, and some strains of influenza, or flu. The coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is officially called SARS-CoV-2, which stands for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.
According to experts, herd immunity is a term used to describe the slowing of disease spread that occurs "when a significant portion of a population becomes immune to an infectious disease." Herd immunity limits the spread of disease. It can protect people in a community who are not immune if enough individuals are immune to the infection.
Your body's ability to resist or fight off an infection. Your immune system is a network of cells throughout your body that helps you avoid getting infected and help you get better when you are infected.
MRNA vaccines teach our cells how to make a protein — or even just a piece of a protein — that triggers an immune response inside our bodies. The benefit of mRNA vaccines, like all vaccines, is those vaccinated gain protection without ever having to risk the serious consequences of getting sick with COVID-19.
Occurring over a wide geographic area and affecting an exceptionally high proportion of the population.
The separation of a person or group of people reasonably believed to have been exposed to a communicable disease but not yet symptomatic from others who have not been so exposed to prevent the possible spread of the communicable disease. Quarantine may be voluntary or compelled by federal, state, or local public health order.
A preparation that is administered (as by injection) to stimulate the body's immune response against a specific infectious disease.
