Warren, Pressley Pen Letter to HHS Over Admin’s Response to Racial Health Disparities Amid COVID-19

Two Democratic lawmakers are teaming up to call on the U.S. 🏛️Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar to provide information, as they look to reduce racial health disparities amid COVID-19.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) penned a letter, first obtained by Politico, to Azar on Tuesday, where they wrote, “To help us understand why HHS under the Trump Administration has failed to take appropriate action to address racial disparities in health care and health outcomes, we ask that you, please provide the requested documents and answers to the following questions.”

The two lawmakers addressed concerns that there are serious racial health disparities amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“The unjust reality that Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities have been disproportionately infected and killed by COVID-19 underscores that racism, discrimination, and bias are public health problems that the federal government must prioritize,” they wrote.

Warren and Pressley note that reports from the HHS to Congress are required by law bi-annually on progress to address racial health disparities, but, as they write, “these reports appear to have stopped under the Trump Administration.”