Our Panel presents a research assignment that invites first-year composition students to reframe social issues, including racism and other systems of oppression, as public health issues. Two Hunter College students present their research on police brutality and diagnostic overshadowing as public health issues. Then this panel continues to examine the negative consequences of the COVID 19 Pandemic on many CUNY (QCC) students and their families. The historical disadvantages that plagued many minority and immigrant communities were exacerbated when the COVID 19 Pandemic hit the USA and the State of New York. Finally, we highlight the increased struggle of these families to provide housing, food and transportation for their families.