With black Americans getting the coronavirus at high rates, officials are fighting a legacy of mistrust of doctors going back to the Tuskegee Experiment.
conducted on black Americans in past decades. For many across the country, it is a metaphor for discrimination and racism within the medical system.“You cannot think of a more damning betrayal of a doctor-patient relationship than that,” said Dr. David M. Carlisle, president and chief executive of Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science.
“We can’t talk about the disparity of COVID without talking about the recognition of how those disparities arose and what they reflect,” said Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, California’s surgeon general. “Because it’s not that black people are inherently sicker than others.”Decades of discrimination, reinforced by segregated hospitals and an overall lack of access to adequate medical care, have often worked against establishing even a fragile bond between black patients and often nonblack doctors.
“It’s clear that some of our young people didn’t take this seriously, which included passing on the myth initially that blacks couldn’t catch the coronavirus,” said South L.A. activist Najee Ali. “That myth spread like wildfire on social media, but there was never a concentrated effort from leaders to dispel that myth.”
He also noticed that his patients and other black Angelenos lacked access to healthcare to properly diagnose and treat such chronic illnesses. So Releford founded the Black Barbershop Health Outreach Program, an Inglewood-based organization that offers checkups at barbershops.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
'People are really suffering': Black and Latino communities help their own amid coronavirus crisisAs the coronavirus outbreak continues to take its toll on black and Latino communities, black and Latino churches, advocacy groups and civil rights activists have ramped up efforts to help their own.
Read more »
People with coronavirus are dying 10 years earlier than they would have naturally: StudySTUDY: People with coronavirus are dying 10 years earlier than they would have naturally.
Read more »
Blood thinners could improve survival chances for sickest coronavirus patients, study saysAlthough there’s no scientific evidence, anecdotal reports from doctors have suggested an association between the coronavirus and blood clotting.
Read more »
Germany, on cusp of reopening, scrambles to contain fresh coronavirus outbreaksOut of 200 employees tested at a German meat processing plant, 151 tested positive Thursday for coronavirus, triggering an 'emergency mechanism' to delay the easing of social distancing restrictions.
Read more »
Small towns across the Sierra fear tourists will bring coronavirus with themThe Sierra Nevada towns that dot Alpine County have no hospital. Nor do they have a single doctor's office or clinic.
Read more »
Miriam Margolyes says she ‘wanted Boris Johnson to die’ from coronavirusThe actress shocked viewers with her honest and frank admission when she appeared on The Last Leg Locked Down Under on Friday evening
Read more »