Weakened minority health office left blacks vulnerable to coronavirus, critics say
For more than two decades, the state’s Office of Minority Health ran campaigns to help African Americans who suffer a disproportionate share of diseases that can shorten people’s lives.
But that office is barely functioning today as South Carolina’s black population struggles with a new and dangerous illness that is sweeping through the state, critics say.
The disease is known as COVID 19, or the coronavirus, and it is killing a greater proportion of blacks than whites, while infecting a large percentage of African Americans.
Had the Office of Minority Health not been de-emphasized years ago, many of the health disparities that face African Americans today might have been reduced before the COVID-19 disease pandemic struck — and saved lives, say some of the state’s black leaders. The office was overseen by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control..
“The sole purpose of the Office of Minority Health was to prevent the kind of disparities that African Americans are experiencing today (with) COVID-19,” said J.T. McLawhorn, the Columbia Urban League’s chief executive.
Black residents should have a dedicated advocacy organization at the state health department to help address the diseases they face, including the coronavirus, said McLawhorn, state Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg, and state Sen. Darrell Jackson, D-Richland.
“There used to be a commitment in this state to address disparities through DHEC’s Office of Minority Health, but it was decimated years ago,’’ Cobb-Hunter said. “It is a shell of what it used to be.’’
State Sen. John Scott, D-Richland, said maintaining the Office of Minority Health could have helped focus attention on securing more funding to help African Americans and others who need health care.
State Sen. Kevin Johnson, a Clarendon Democrat and member of the Senate Finance Committee, said he’d like to know more about the Office of Minority Health. He’s been in office more than eight years and has never heard of the office, he said. Johnson has been vocal in backing state efforts to address minority health issues that make African Americans more prone to complications from diseases like the coronavirus..
DHEC officials say they are doing plenty to address minority health disparities, even though the Office of Minority Health has been revamped. They said the office has been absorbed into another DHEC division that examines health issues affecting black South Carolinians.
Former DHEC director Catherine Templeton, who initiated the changes, also said the reformed minority health effort has been successful since the office was retooled.
Formed in 1990, the Office of Minority Health was fully staffed with an advisory board that met quarterly to discuss health issues in the black community, said McLawhorn, who served on the committee.
The minority health office ran advertising campaigns and connected with African American communities to discuss health issues, he and Cobb-Hunter said. The office, which was recognized nationally, led efforts to discuss health disparities among black residents, as well as housing and wages.
Its goal was to help improve the health of African Americans in South Carolina over time by keeping a close eye on the issues and raising awareness, McLawhorn, Jackson and Cobb-Hunter said. The office advocated for policies to eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities, according to the National Association of State Offices of Minority Health.
The office’s strength was that it operated directly under the DHEC director and had an advisory board that met regularly about African American health, McLawhorn said.
“Various programs and initiatives of the (office) have fostered community involvement and engagement in planning and implementation through partnership development, education, awareness and outreach activities,’’ according to a narrative of the South Carolina office by the national association, which highlighted financial commitments in the Palmetto State from 2005-2010. “Communities have been encouraged to advocate for policy changes through collaboration and coordination.’’
Now, black South Carolinians face a particularly chilling health threat, with many of the health problems affecting African Americans unresolved, critics said.
“This is when we need them now more than ever, particularly when you see COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted the minority community,’’ Jackson said. “I think it’s a shame. In the past, it was very active. They stayed in touch with legislators, particularly black caucus members, black elected officials, they did outreach programs with African American churches. Now, none of that is being done.’’
Despite Jackson’s assertion, DHEC officials said they have conducted telebriefings with “members of the Legislative Black Caucus,’’ as well as with faith-based leaders.
Rep. Jerry Govan, who chairs the Legislative Black Caucus, said DHEC had a briefing recently with the caucus about the coronavirus and agency staffers had at other times spoken individually with black caucus members.
Still, Govan, D-Orangeburg, said the Office of Minority Health should have been maintained, and if adequately funded, would have helped in the overall effort to address the disparities that exist in the black community.
“It could have made a difference,’’ he said.
Coronavirus killing African Americans
Since the coronavirus outbreak was first detected March 6 in South Carolina, the virus has infected more than 5,000 people, killing more than 150. Black people are particularly vulnerable.
As of last week, African Americans accounted for 56 percent of the coronavirus deaths in South Carolina, compared to 42 percent for whites. And though the state’s black population is under 28 percent, 43 percent of the confirmed cases involved African Americans, compared to 46 percent for whites..
Linda Bell, DHEC’s epidemiologist, said Friday the coronavirus disparities may be caused by underlying health conditions African Americans suffer.
Those conditions include cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity and lung disease, as well as asthma. Black people suffer those problems because they are less likely to have access to health care, Bell said.
“African Americans and other people of color are not at increased risk for exposure, they are at increased risk for complications should they become infected,’’ she said.
That’s why Cobb-Hunter, McLawhorn and others are particularly upset about changes they said made the Office of Minority Health a non-factor in the fight to address racial health disparities.
“Health disparities have been a conversation that is a minimum of 20 years old,’’ Cobb-Hunter said. “The systemic issues associated with this disparity have been here all along.’’
Officials at DHEC said the Office of Minority Health has been folded into another division called the Bureau of Health Improvement and Equity, but the agency is doing plenty to help black South Carolinians.
Despite a request from The State, the department did not provide information showing how the budget for the Office of Minority Health had changed over time. But statistics kept by the National Association of State Offices of Minority Health show the budget dropped from 2005 to 2013.
DHEC said the last records it had for the minority health office showed total expenditures of $421,946 in state and federal funds in 2013. The office had five full-time or temporary grant positions and one hourly position, the agency said. In 2005, the budget for the S.C. Office of Minority Health was more than $760,000, the national minority health association statistics show.
McLawhorn said the effort is nothing to boast about because the Office of Minority Health was targeted toward specifically helping minorities with health issues. McLawhorn said the Office of Minority Health began to lose its effectiveness about eight years ago, when DHEC stopped holding meetings of the advisory committee he served on.
Templeton defends effort
He blames the office’s demise on former DHEC director Templeton, who made an array of changes at DHEC in her three years of service. Among other things, she fired or demoted many long-serving staff members in environmental and health programs and brought in a new health director with little experience to replace a seasoned agency veteran.
Templeton’s effort was an attempt to shake up a department long-criticized for its failure to act swiftly on health and environmental problems in South Carolina. But McLawhorn said changes at the Office of Minority Health went too far.
“It has no presence today,’’ he said.
Templeton, a Republican from Mount Pleasant, didn’t dispute making changes to the minority health office, but she said they were needed. In a text message to The State, Templeton said she didn’t think the office was effective enough because it was “siloed away from the different public health concerns’’ at DHEC.
So she reorganized DHEC’s approach to minority health by spreading office duties throughout the agency, Templeton said Friday.
“It was a separate office away from infant mortality, away from arthritis, away from diabetes, away from cancer, oral health, heart disease,’’ Templeton said, noting that she sought advice from African American leaders — including McLawhorn — before making changes. “We moved the resources into the actual public health programs to make the focus on minority health more impactful.’’
Templeton said she did not cut the jobs of people in the Office of Minority Health. She said she consulted McLawhorn before changes were made, but they disagreed on an issue regarding how to fund certain minority health efforts. In a text message Saturday, she said the reorganization helped South Carolina. Several years after the changes, the state had the lowest infant mortality rate in state history, Templeton said..
McLawhorn said he remembers speaking with Templeton after he heard changes were planned for the Office of Minority Health, but was reassured Templeton would keep the effort alive. He said DHEC’s efforts have not been satisfactory.
Jackson, the senator from Richland County, said the Legislature may be partially to blame for changes at the Office of Minority Health for “not insisting it remains a vital part of what DHEC’s mission is all about.’’
Meanwhile, DHEC says it has done plenty to warn and educate African Americans about the dangers of the coronavirus, regardless of what has happened to its minority health office. In an email Friday, the agency listed more than a dozen ways it is working to improve minority health.
The Bureau of Health Improvement and Equity works internally and externally to identify economic, racial and geographic disparities in public health. The department also said it has a public outreach manager in its infectious disease division who is leading the agency’s “COVID-19 minority health efforts.’’
At the same time, DHEC assured African American leaders during a meeting Friday in Columbia that it is seeking more testing for coronavirus in the black community.
“We are trying to reach out in every way possible,’’ DHEC’s Warren Bolton said during a conference call with reporters Thursday. “We are building new partnerships every day. We understand how critical this need is to reach out and bridge this gap.’’
Among other things, DHEC had a telebriefing with African American churches in mid-April and was scheduled to have another telebriefing Friday with more than 250 faith leaders, Bolton said.
The agency also is working with environmental justice advocates to raise awareness, has briefed some members of the Legislative Black Caucus and has been in touch with various state housing authorities, he said. The department also has done minority health public service announcements and conducted outreach with sororities and fraternities, the agency said.
During a telemeeting with Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin and others Friday, top health and environmental officials at DHEC said the agency still is committed to helping black people through the COVID 19 crisis and over the long term.
“We recognize the critical need to address these inequities,’’ Bell said. “And we are making a concerted effort to communicate prevention messages surrounding the COVID 19 experience to better reach communities of color about the risk and things they can do to prevent from being at increased risk from exposure.’’
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the title of legislator John Scott. Scott is a state senator.
This story was originally published April 26, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
