Health Justice: A Framework for Mitigating the Impacts of HIV and COVID-19 on Disproportionately Affected Communities

Abstract

Health crises have a disproportionate impact on communities that are marginalized by systems of oppression such as racism and capitalism. Benefits of advances such as in the prevention and treatment of HIV disease are unequally distributed. Intersecting factors including poverty, homophobia, homelessness, racism, and mass incarceration expose marginalized populations to greater risks while limiting access to resources that buffer these risks. Similar patterns have emerged with COVID-19. We identify comparable pitfalls in our responses to HIV and COVID-19. We introduce health justice as a framework for mitigating the long-term impact of the HIV epidemic and COVID-19 pandemic. The health justice framework considers the central role of power in the health and liberation of communities hit hardest by legacies of marginalization. We provide 5 recommendations grounded in health justice: (1) redistribute resources, (2) enforce mandates that redistribute power, (3) enact legislation that guarantees support for people with long-haul COVID-19, (4) center experiences of the most impacted communities in policy development, and (5) evaluate multidimensional effects of policies across systems. Successful implementation of these recommendations requires community organizing and collective action. (Am J Public Health. 2023;113(2): 194–201. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2022.307139 )