Open AccessDiseases with health disparities as drivers of COVID‐19 outcome
Author(s) -
Moore John T.,
Pilkington William,
Kumar Deepak
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of cellular and molecular medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.44
H-Index - 130
eISSN - 1582-4934
pISSN - 1582-1838
DOI - 10.1111/jcmm.15599
Subject(s) - pandemic , covid-19 , disease , face (sociological concept) , intensive care medicine , medicine , health equity , public health , infectious disease (medical specialty) , sociology , virology , pathology , social science , outbreak
The COVID‐19 pandemic has forced our society to come face to face with complex issues that were once theoretical but are now being played out in real time. As data from the pandemic accumulates, it is clear that COVID‐19 is impacting some parts of society more than others. Unfortunately, there is an almost complete overlap between COVID‐19 risk factors and conditions that are already represented as health disparities, such as hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, lung disease and immune disorders. In this review, we discuss our current understanding of the physiological and pathophysiological pathways that link these diseases to COVID‐19 outcome. An increased awareness of the factors underlying this issue, both societal and medical, is needed to understand the long‐term implications and possible solutions needed going forward.