Michelle Morse knew she didn’t want to make just another declaration linking racism and health disparities. Morse, who became the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s first chief medical officer in February 2021, had seen governments, health agencies, and elected officials around the country make pronouncement after pronouncement, spurred by the stark disparities in the coronavirus pandemic and police brutality. She studied a number of these declarations and had ideas about how to do more than just name the problems. “I really was excited to get to work taking the declaration to the next level,” she says.
