2020 Regular Session ENROLLED
SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 74
BY SENATORS CARTER, BARROW, BOUDREAUX, BOUIE, FIELDS, HARRIS,
JACKSON, PETERSON, PRICE AND TARVER
A RESOLUTION
To urge and request the Louisiana Department of Health to study the matter of racial
disparities in COVID-19 death rates in this state and to report findings of the study
to the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana.
WHEREAS, the ongoing global outbreak of respiratory disease caused by a novel
coronavirus and named "coronavirus disease 2019", abbreviated as "COVID-19", has been
recognized as a pandemic since March 11, 2020; and
WHEREAS, in Louisiana and throughout the United States, the COVID-19 pandemic
is challenging our society in myriad, unprecedented ways; and
WHEREAS, as of the date of filing of this Resolution, Louisiana has registered
nearly two thousand seven hundred officially reported deaths from COVID-19; and
WHEREAS, Louisiana's per capita rates of COVID-19 infections and deaths have
been, and continue to rank, among the highest of all U.S. states; and
WHEREAS, the tremendous overall loss of life from this sudden epidemic of
infectious disease that Louisiana has endured is a profound tragedy; and
WHEREAS, worsening this tragedy is the vast racial disparity in COVID-19
mortality in this state and across the nation; and
WHEREAS, a report by APM Research Lab entitled "Color of Coronavirus" released
on May 20, 2020, presents evidence of an enormous discrepancy between the death rate of
black Americans and that of the rest of the nation's populace; the report indicates that black
Americans have died of COVID-19 at almost three times the rate of white Americans; and
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WHEREAS, researchers at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center
at New Orleans began examining coronavirus patients at the outset of the pandemic, and
their findings with respect to the disease process and patient physiology published on
May 27, 2020, in the medical journal The Lancet have shed some early light on the precise
medical reasons for African Americans experiencing more severe complications and deaths
related to COVID-19; and
WHEREAS, while Louisiana is deeply beloved to nearly all who call her "home",
she suffers both from persistent social ills borne of a legacy of racial injustice and from
public health outcomes that are consistently among the worst in the United States; and
WHEREAS, the extent to which the problems of institutional racism and health
inequality are intertwined is becoming clearer as research on these subjects mounts; and
WHEREAS, as evidenced in part by the adoption of House Resolution No. 294 and
Senate Resolution No. 240 of the 2019 Regular Session addressing racial disparities in
maternal and child health outcomes and the alarming rate of mortality for African-American
infants and mothers in Louisiana, the legislature was aware prior to COVID-19 of threats to
public health that impact our state's people unequally; and
WHEREAS, the COVID-19 public health emergency is bringing the issue of health
equity into sharp focus; and
WHEREAS, it is vitally important for the legislature, as the policymaking branch of
this state's government, to address health equity in a meaningful way through public policy;
and
WHEREAS, in order to do so, members of the legislature must gain a deeper
understanding of the unique problems that threaten the health, well-being, and very existence
of black lives in Louisiana.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana
does hereby urge and request the Louisiana Department of Health to study the matter of
racial disparities in COVID-19 death rates in this state.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that in conducting the study called for in this
Resolution, the Louisiana Department of Health shall engage and solicit input from the
governor's COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force.
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BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Louisiana Department of Health shall submit
findings from the study called for in this Resolution to each member of the Senate of the
Legislature of Louisiana no later than sixty days prior to the convening of the 2021 Regular
Session of the legislature.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and to each member of the governor's
COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force.
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
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