The coronavirus doesn’t just ravage the body of those infected; it wreaks havoc on all those in proximity to it. It plays on the minds of those who, while not suffering from the actual disease, are caring for those who are. COVID-19’s alarming infection and death rates bring with it the weight of uncertainty and the fear of unpredictability and the soft whisper of, “God, please don’t let it be me.”
While the coronavirus pandemic is a global crises, in the United States, COVID-19 seems to follow the blood flow of systemic racism; black folks get it worse, we always do.
And while the courageous healthcare workers and professionals at the frontlines of this pandemic have rightly been heralded as heroes, far too often their own struggles have gone unheard—especially those of the brave black men and women who come from our own community.
“It’s a very eerie feeling walking to the hospital. It’s quiet,” Dr. Chinyere Okpaleke, a board-certified family medicine physician in Tampa, Fla., told The Root. “Everybody’s wearing a mask. Everybody’s just really scared.”
-Jay Connor
Read more:
https://www.theroot.com/coronavirus-will-forever-change-bedside-care-black-hea-1842917945
Be the first to comment