Race, Racism & COVID-19 in Canada by Dr. Arjumand Siddiqi
Bio: Dr. Arjumand Siddiqi is Professor and Division Head of Epidemiology at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, where she holds the Canada Research Chair in Population Health Equity. Dr. Siddiqi’s research centers on understanding why health inequalities are so pervasive and persistent, and what can be done about this, with an emphasis on the role of societal conditions.
Abstract: As the COVID-19 pandemic has raged around the world evidence is emerging that Canada resembles the United States in terms of the clear racial inequity in the impact of the pandemic. COVID-19 is the first time governments are tracking health by race, and it is forcing long overdue discourses in Canadian society to address the racial distribution of COVID-19 in the context of the longstanding, deep seeded issues of racism that have gotten us to this point. In this seminar we will discuss the science of race, racism, and COVID-19 in Canada and the dialogues that have emerged between scientists, community members, and government entities.
