groundbreaking. She was the first African American woman elected president of the AMA.
Dr. Harris learned early in life that when there’ s a crisis it must be met with action. Otherwise, inertia sets in. Regarding the battle against COVID, she urged the attendees to attack distrust when it came to skepticism about a positive outcome. Scientists early on had the proper data and saw the pandemic’ s disproportionate impact on people of color. Early identification and action was critical, she noted.
She reminded the audience of the fundamental importance of education. Students from disadvantaged communities need to avoid stigma associated with blame and shame for what they lacked by comparison with their affluent counterparts. As leaders, we all must continue to fight for equitable opportunities in essential professions and break the barrier of opportunity built around historic privilege. Long-existing biases certainly existed prior to COVID, she acknowledged.
Many of the well-care strategies recommended for the wealthy don’ t work for low-income people of color. One solution she offered was to center care on the specific needs of individuals and families and to meet people where they are. She also encouraged the use of technology to bring underfunded health mandates into underserved communities as an opportunity to level the playing field.
There is a need today to examine what is racism. In doing so, there is the opportunity to hold leaders accountable who think that they understand the issue but don’ t want to engage in a serious discussion about it. But fighting racism in health care includes the effort to protect patient access to quality care. Examining incidents of police brutality is also a matter of public health.
The pandemic has shifted such issues into a new phase of community protection and provides the opportunity to have a whole new set of conversations based on ensuring that people color will be included in the broader well care narrative. Testing, early diagnosis, overcoming skepticism and building trust is not a one size fits all construct. Educate people to see the long-term benefits of community wide vaccine adoption and people will have greater trust in health care institutions.
CDU College of Medicine | PG. 6