CDC to Declare Racism a Public Health Crisis, Launching New Centers to Research Health Gaps and Police Violence

The Anti-Racism in Public Health Act of 2025 is setting up two major new research programs inside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Essentially, this bill is a federal mandate to officially recognize and study racism and police violence as core public health issues, not just social problems.

The New Center: Connecting Racism and Health

First, the bill creates the National Center on Antiracism and Health within the CDC. Think of this as a specialized research hub dedicated to figuring out exactly how structural racism hurts people’s physical and mental health. The bill defines "antiracism" as policies designed to achieve racial equity—meaning fairness across racial groups.

This new Center isn't just going to write reports; it has a clear mission to act. It must research things like implicit bias and the health impacts of systems like housing discrimination or poverty (the social determinants of health) when shaped by racism. For the average person, this means federal research dollars will finally be spent trying to prove what many communities already know: that navigating systemic racism takes a real toll on your body and mind.

Crucially, the Center must establish at least three Regional Centers of Excellence located within racial and ethnic minority communities. This is a big deal because it means research and solutions are supposed to be developed in the communities most affected, rather than just being dictated from Washington, D.C.

Data Dive: What’s the Real Cost of Inequality?

The Center is tasked with creating a massive, public data clearinghouse. This data has to be comprehensive and broken down by race, ethnicity, gender identity, income, and disability status. If you’ve ever tried to find reliable, detailed statistics on health disparities in your area, this new mandate (Section 3) aims to make that data collection standard and public.

For state and local health departments, this means new opportunities. The Center is authorized to give out noncompetitive grants to state and Tribal agencies specifically to help them collect and report this detailed data. This could be a game-changer for local health initiatives that have struggled to secure funding to tackle localized health gaps.

Researching Police Violence as an Injury

The second major part of this bill (Section 4) establishes a dedicated program within the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control to focus on the public health effects of police violence. This treats police use of force, brutality, and misconduct not just as a criminal justice issue, but as a major cause of death, injury, trauma, and poor mental health—a public health crisis.

This program must research and develop public health approaches to prevent deaths and injuries from police interactions. It also mandates that the CDC coordinate with the Department of Justice to standardize and collect comprehensive data on police violence and misconduct. For law enforcement agencies, this means increasing scrutiny and standardized reporting requirements, as the CDC will be collecting this data, analyzing it, and reporting findings to Congress annually.

For communities often affected by police interactions, this means the federal government is dedicating resources to finding alternatives to police response and measuring the trauma caused by these interactions. The goal is to shift the conversation from solely punishment to prevention, using public health tools.

The Fine Print: Where Things Get Interesting

While the overall goal is beneficial—addressing major health inequities with dedicated research—there are areas that will require careful watching. The bill’s definitions of "antiracism" rely on concepts like "antiracist ideas" and actions that "create or keep racial equity." Because these terms are broad (Section 2), the directors appointed to run these new centers will have significant power in deciding the scope of research and which policies are considered "antiracist." This broad authority means the implementation could be subject to political interpretation down the line.

Furthermore, the mandate for research on structural racism includes studying the health effects of things like "White supremacy" and "implicit bias." While critical to understanding the issue, introducing these social concepts into federally mandated public health metrics means the research will be wading into politically sensitive territory. The success of this bill hinges on the CDC maintaining rigorous scientific standards while navigating these complex, often charged, subjects to deliver evidence-based solutions.