evidence: Treating racism as a public health issue isn’t a new idea. A handful of local governments declared it a crisis last year, and health professionals have identified racism as a public health issue for well over a decade. [...] The American Public Health Association, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Emergency Physicians are among the organizations calling racism a public health crisis. [...] The county became one of the first local governments to declare racism a public health crisis in April 2019. About a month later, the county passed a resolution pledging to address racial disparities.