ATLANTA - On Thursday, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, declared racism a "serious public health threat," promising new efforts to "address racism as a fundamental driver of racial and ethnic health inequities in the United States."In a statement published on the CDC’s website, Walensky highlighted how communities of color have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. "The impact of COVID-19 are felt, most severely, in communities of color—communities that have experienced disproportionate case counts and deaths, and where the social impact of the pandemic has been most extreme," Walensky said. "Instead, the pandemic illuminated inequities that have existed for.