Colorado will declare racism a public health crisis following a push by staffers inside the state’s health department to respond to ongoing social-justice protests and the inequities highlighted by the coronavirus pandemic.
Since June, employees at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment have pressed Executive Director Jill Hunsaker Ryan to make such a public declaration and became increasingly frustrated when she didn’t move faster to do so.
When asked this week about those internal conversations, Hunsaker Ryan told The Denver Post the state will join the American Public Health Association in declaring racism a public health crisis, and that will become formal policy within the health department....
