As we have seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, health and social disparities exist that result in disproportionately higher rates of exposure, illness, hospitalization and death from COVID-19 for marginalized communities. In January, the White House established a Presidential COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force, which last week released a comprehensive report with recommendations for mitigating inequities caused or exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and for preventing such inequities in the future.

The CDC Foundation was pleased to provide support to the development of this report, and our team thanks all the health equity experts for the critical role they played in the Task Force by providing their perspectives on a diverse set of topics that informed the final report and recommendations. These individuals include Rhea Boyd, MD, MPH, FAAP; Daniel Dawes, JD; Juliet Choi, JD; Alicia Fernandez, MD; Camara Jones, MD, PhD; Nancy Krieger, PhD.; Larry Levitt, MPP; Jewel Mullen, MD, MPH; and Lisa Walke, MD, MSHA, MPH.