bravery on television . I thought of their families and the homes in which we had shared meals . I dwelled on the fact that during the midst of battling this viral storm , they ensured we , as students , were still educated and taken care of . As supermarkets emptied , gas stations drained and ATMs got depleted , I felt a necessity to do what I could . After all , this is why I chose medicine as a career . My family called to urge me not to quarantine alone , as no one knew just how quickly things could turn in the face of the global COVID-19 pandemic . I knew in that moment I had to do what I could because , while I am not yet a physician , I held a duty to use the knowledge I had learned from the frontline heroes I called preceptors .
The headlines raced on at dizzying speeds and the battle for toilet paper at stores only became increasingly harrowing . I realized that as every aspect of our lives changed , the book of my medical career was only beginning and yet , was so heavily influenced by this prologue . As the weeks in quarantine piled on , I found myself writing the story of COVID-19 on blank , mental folios . I began to steal pages from the books of the figures fighting on the frontline . These people had led their students by example , and COVID-19 was no exception . And so , when the opportunity came to involve myself in a summer of research dedicated to taking this virus on , I knew I had to jump .
I began a project with the Envirome Institute in Louisville . It was there I spent hours with other volunteers assembling hundreds on hundreds of test kits that we intended to distribute to health care workers . Grab a bag . Instruction packet . Nasal swab . Urine cup . Lancet . Collection tubes . Band-Aids . Bread-tie shut . File bag number numerically . Distribute . Repeat . We did this until our fingers were numb , but knew we were contributing in some way to those charging COVID-19 head-on . After several weeks , responsibilities progressed and I found myself educating participants in the study on how to collect their samples , eventually assisting with mass data organization for thousands of specimens . We managed to get a considerable number of frontline workers tested ; however , COVID-19 would not be the only defining feature of the year .
As 2020 matured , another pandemic stepped into the spotlight , one that unlike COVID-19 , had been particularly endemic in our country since its inception . An outcry for social justice swept the nation in the names of George Floyd , Ahmaud Arbery , our own Breonna Taylor and David McAtee , in addition to countless other Black individuals taken by police brutality . The streets were filled by passionate souls with masked faces who protested the grotesque mistreatment of people of color by law enforcement and refused to accept the oppressive status quo of the last 400 years . Hate crimes against Asian and Pacific Islander individuals began to unfurl in the name of the coronavirus , ignorantly thrashing blame to them for the global struggle . Individuals of color were bearing burdens of racism beneath the weight of this new pandemic , but those burdens did not start here . Brutality and hate crimes are public health crises . Again , as a rising provider , a choice was to be made : listen , attend rallies and advocate or continue to perpetuate discrimination and prejudice . Accountability was rightfully being demanded for the trespasses of the hierarchies of white supremacy that have always dictatorially driven our country , with medicine as no exception . Medicine , a field that today positions itself to be of care and compassion , roots its understandings from observation and treatment of white bodies and simultaneous exploitation of bodies of color . Coronavirus permeated every facet of our lives yet did so extremely in communities of color . What would the medical community do to ensure the fight against coronavirus was a fight that benefitted everyone ?
It wasn ’ t much longer that year until my clinical rotations began , and I recognized my professional and personal identities were becoming wholly intertwined , carrying with it an obligation of self-reflection and activism . As COVID-19 trucks on , I am reminded of how destructive and unrelenting this pandemic has been on our country , but disproportionately so to communities of color . This inequity is compounded by the country ’ s deep history of social injustice that has systematically marginalized and mistreated people of color . As rising physicians , the call cannot only be to serving with our medical knowledge , but rather to upholding the responsibility of dismantling implicit biases , barriers to care and white supremacy in medicine . If 2020 has taught me anything , it is that the career I have chosen runs deeper than my education ; I must hold myself and others personally accountable for the changes that must be seen in our city and in our world . While evidence-based practice and research are vital to our field , they mean essentially nothing if all patients do not receive equitable benefit . With the knowledge of COVID-19 expanding , it is imperative we keep this in mind .
So now , when I lay my head on my pillow at night , beneath the warmth of my comforter and the view of the streetlights , now gleaming green from the porches of those signifying solidarity , the familiar click of my retainer once again tells me it is the end of a workday . But now it also reminds me of the duty we have tomorrow : to fight not only against the COVID-19 pandemic , but identically against the pandemic of racial injustice . We must dismantle our current models of medicine that do not serve everyone impartially .
And so begins chapter 1 in the book of my career .
FEATURE
Jes Eskridge is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Louisville School of Medicine .
This essay was a submission to the 2021 Richard Spear , MD , Memorial Essay Contest .
SEPTEMBER 2021 21