CDC Launching ‘Agency-Wide Strategy’ On ‘Health Equity’ For LGBT, Minorities

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced Thursday that it will reorganize its Office of Health Equity (OHE) in a way that emphasizes serving racial minorities, foreigners and members of the LGBT community.

OHE, under the CDC’s new organizational rules, “coordinates programs, practices, policies and budget decisions” in a way that takes into consideration health disparities among different races, genders and sexual orientations, according to an announcement posted to the Federal Register. Another arm of the CDC, the Office of Minority Health (OMH), will work with OHE to improve the health of racial and ethnic minority populations by helping to develop agency-wide guidance documents under the reorganization.

The organizational shifts represent “a realignment of work functions” but “no change in scope or priority,” a CDC spokesperson told the 🏢Daily Caller News Foundation.

Under the newly reorganized CDC, OHE’s director is expected to perform duties aimed at closing disparities in health outcomes between different groups. Among them, the director is responsible for “leading and coordinating the planning and implementation of an agency-wide strategy” for addressing the health disparities experienced by LGBTQ+ people, the disabled and those living in rural communities.

It is unclear what this “agency-wide strategy” would entail and how it may impact the way the CDC serves the broader nation.

OHE’s director is also expected to develop training materials aimed at helping professionals better care for “disproportionately affected communities,” like minorities or foreign-born individuals, during emergencies. To accomplish this, the director is told to seek out people “who can assist in a culturally responsive and linguistically appropriate manner” and engage with “community leaders” during an emergency response.