COVID-19 amplified America’s devastating health gap. Can we bridge it?

The COVID-19 pandemic is making health disparities in the United States crystal clear. It is a clarion call for health care systems to double their efforts in vulnerable communities.

Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
  • The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated America's health disparities, widening the divide between the haves and have nots.
  • Studies show disparities in wealth, race, and online access have disproportionately harmed underserved U.S. communities during the pandemic.
  • To begin curing this social aliment, health systems like Northwell Health are establishing relationships of trust in these communities so that the post-COVID world looks different than the pre-COVID one.
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A normal tourist map, "but everything is negative"

'Critical Tourist Map of Oslo' offers uniquely dark perspective on Norway's capital.

Credit: Markus Moestue
  • Your standard tourist map is irrepressibly positive about its location—but not this one.
  • Norwegian activist/artist Markus Moestue reveals the dark and shameful sides of Oslo.
  • He hopes his 'Critical Tourist Map' will inspire others to reveal the dark side of their cities.
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One century ago, women's suffrage swept America

In this 1915 map, Lady Liberty shines her light in the West on women in the East, still in electoral darkness

Image: Library of Congress, public domain
  • One century ago, the main electoral issue moving public opinion was women's suffrage.
  • This 1915 map shows how votes for women were won in the West, and yearned for in the East.
  • In 1920, the 19th Amendment granted 26 million women the vote, just in time for that year's presidential elections.
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Why the US must break the grip of huge monopolies

Monopolies wield an immense amount of economic and political power and influence. So what can we do to make the economy more equitable?

  • According to Vanderbilt law professor and author Ganesh Sitaraman, America has a monopoly problem—a problem that is almost universally acknowledged as such, yet little is done about it.
  • Sitaraman explains how monopolies of today share DNA with trusts of the 19th century, and how the increased concentration and consolidation of these corporations translates to increased power both economically and politically.
  • "We need to think about reinvigorating our anti-trust laws and the principles of anti-monopoly that gave spirit to those laws and to lots of other regulations," he argues. Restoring faith in government and the economy starts with dismantling the things that make people question its allegiances and priorities.
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Is the US actually a democracy?

Law professor Ganesh Sitaraman explains why America has never achieved true democracy—and how it can.

  • Three essential components of democracy are economic equality, social unity, and a government that acts in the interest of the people. America lacks all three of those components, says Vanderbilt University Law School Professor Ganesh Sitaraman.
  • "In study after study, political scientists have shown that our government is responsive primarily to the wealthy and interest groups, not to ordinary people," says Sitaraman. "A system of government that is mostly unresponsive to the people is not a democracy at all."
  • Sitaraman argues that the neoliberal era is what divided America and continues to prevent the country from realizing a true democracy. In this video, he explains the problem with neoliberalism and how a new agenda could create far better opportunities.
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