As more data about the impact of the pandemic becomes available, it is increasingly clear that the coronavirus is affecting the most vulnerable and disadvantaged populations in the U.S. the hardest. As the Director of The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity and the Director of the Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute, Dr. Lisa Cooper and her team work to make health care institutions more equitable, communities more engaged, and health policies and practices more effective to eliminate disparities in health and health care in Baltimore, the United States, and around the world. Dr. Cooper sat down with Dr. Jessica Leighton from our public health team to tell us more about what can be done to reduce the toll of COVID-19 on Black and Latino communities, how the public health community is tackling systemic racism, and how listeners considering joining Black Lives Matter protests in their communities can protest safely.