COVID-19: Widening Health Disparities Among Pediatric Populations

General pediatricians special-ize in preventive medicine-we vaccinate, provide anticipatory guidance, support parenting, perform developmental screen-ing, and connect families with needed services. Our constant goal is to ensure that all children achieve their fullest potential and live healthy, productive lives regardless of income, race, or immigration status. In these un-precedented times, the focus across all medical specialties has shifted from preventive to reac-tive medicine. In the field of pediatrics, we have restructured all of our primary care services to prevent further spread of COVID-19 among our patients and their families. Although children are not sickened by COVID-19 at the same rate as adults, the long-term impact of the pandemic will be all-encompassing and will have detrimental effects on children's health and development, espe-cially for at-risk populations such as immigrant and minority fam-ilies, children with develop-mental delays, and children who live below the poverty line.