Massachusetts AG Published Brief Detailing Links Between Environmental Injustice and Disproportionate COVID-19 Infection Rates

MAY 12, 2020

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey published an issue brief, entitled “COVID-19’s Unequal Effects in Massachusetts,” that explores the environmental factors contributing to COVID-19’s disparate impact on communities of color across Massachusetts. The brief is based in part on analysis conducted by the Boston University School of Public Health using data compiled by AG Healey’s office, which found that communities of color are experiencing the highest rates of COVID-19 infection across 38 of the largest cities in the state. The brief explained how regulatory structures and siting processes concentrate environmental harms in communities of color, and drew connections between those impacts and elevated COVID-19 infection rates. The brief concluded by outlining a set of potential remedies—including expanding investments in clean energy jobs, redoubling efforts to halt rollbacks of federal environmental regulations, and reforming permitting and siting processes to fully incorporate environmental justice considerations—and noted that “[m]any of the steps that will make our most vulnerable communities healthier ... will also make us all more climate resilient.”