Matifadza Hlatshwayo Davis, MD, MPH, ID alumae ’18, is a clinical instructor in infectious diseases at Washington University School of Medicine and the John Cochran VA Medical Center in St. Louis, as well as an infectious diseases physician and researcher. Dr. Davis discusses how there are alarmingly few vaccine volunteers from the communities who have been most affected by COVID-19, Blacks, Latinos, and Indigenous people. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, these populations are five times as likely to be hospitalized due to COVID-19 compared to white patients. Black people account for almost one-quarter of COVID-19-related deaths in this country, even though they make up only 13 percent of the overall population.
Dr. Davis further describes how the COVID-19 crisis has unveiled the deeper problem in systemic health inequity.
This op-ed, recently appeared in News Week Magazine and is reprinted by permission of the author.