DISCUSSION
A dearth of research exists on the effects of a disaster for communities disproportionately affected by health and health care disparities. Few published studies assess a disaster’s effect on chronic disease mortality and morbidity among medically underserved populations. Contrasting sharply with these glaring deficits apparent in the literature are countless articles in the lay press that have more than adequately addressed the issue of underlying health disparities in the wake of a disaster. For example, a seminal article was featured in the Washington Post just two weeks after Hurricane Katrina. The article, “At Risk Before the Storm Struck: Prior Health Disparities Due to Race, Poverty Multiply Death, Disease,” stressed that many of the disaster-affected areas had “a bunch of people who have less than optimal healthcare to begin with, and they have a large number of these diseases that people who get less than optimal healthcare end up getting” that in turn “left this high-risk group in greater peril than those with better health and access to care.”72
The lay press has been at the forefront of this major public health issue, with thousands of newsprint articles discussing this issue now in circulation, while disaster epidemiology and health and health care disparities research have largely been out of touch, as seen by the paucity of peer-reviewed literature. Although it is difficult to say why, we could only speculate that the media’s ability to identify this issue as “newsworthy” suggests that it is much more conscientious and responsive to issues faced by its audience. People will continue to suffer from the effects of disasters. As a result, public health professionals must become more deliberate at accomplishing research directives that tackle real-world issues.