#electionday was a clinic day. I don’t typically discuss politics w/ patients. But on Tuesday, everyone wanted to discuss the election. Palpable anxiety. Leukemia patients should not also be burdened by the threat of fascism. 1/n
I had 6 unread text messages by 7:30am Tuesday morning. One was from a friend in Benin who said (loosely translated) “I hope your election goes well for the world.”
Fanning the flames of racism and legitimizing white supremacy has been bad for the world. 2/n
Other texts were from friends&family w/ some variation of “stay safe today.”
I’ve thought about anti-Black violence more than I’d like to in the past year (& in life). The advice got me thinking: where are the truly “safe” spaces for Black womxn in these United States? 3/n
Been losing people to Covid & Black people being murdered for living, I’ve realized I’m too emotionally exhausted to “play the game.”
In this state-perpetually hypervigilant mourner-the parts of “belonging” requiring inauthenticity, back bending & half truths are impossible. 4/n
Shoutout to Black women! Black women show up & do what’s necessary -often without acknowledgement, rest or even love & appreciation in return. My wish for us is reciprocity.
A Black woman and HBCU grad is the Vice President elect of the United States.
Black women did that! 5/n
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Being sick is bad enough - fatigue, pain, shortness of breath. I imagine that to be a member of the majority caste in this country is to be able to just be sick. To be able to focus energy on getting well and maybe (because medical capitalism) how to pay.
There is so much more on the minds of Black patients - considering if the hospital you go to will treat you well (or at all). To have to, in the midst of the emotional and cytokine storm of infection, muster strength to fight for adequate care. To trade rest for diligence.
Last night while researching frailty scores, I vividly remembered being paged at 2am by the paging operator to call a patients family member while I was working in the ICU (back in the day when I did such things 😅)
Things were calm - and I figured a patient family member paging in the middle of the night was probably important - so I called:
“Is this Dr. Weeks?”
“Yes”
“you may not remember me, but I’m ___ you took care of my dad a few months ago and I wanted to talk about his paperwork.”
Now this was curious. This patient died but my mind is a Rolodex of patients I’ve pronounced so I remembered this family well.
“How can I help you?”
“Well I noticed in the admission note you wrote and the discharge summary you listed “failure to thrive” as the chief concern.”
I try to be thoughtful about what I write/say because words matter. I don’t always get it right, but this is a hill I am willing to die on.
*clears throat*
🗣 We don’t need to fix Black people’s mistrust. We need to fix medicine’s lack of trustworthiness. #COVID19#CovidVaccine
It isn’t enough to “remember Tuskegee.” The Tuskegee Syphilis Study ran from 1932- 1972. There’s segregation and disregard for humanity happening in the here and now.
40+ years after Tuskegee ended & 50+ years after “whites only” signs came down and hospitals are still segregated spaces! There are hospitals where it is rare to find a Black patient or provider.
Transparency involves being honest abt who/what you are.
So it’s probably less benevolence driving the consideration to prioritize minorities & more interest convergence. Minorities r disproportionately impacted by the virus & are a large portion of essential low wage workforce
It is in the interest of Black people to take a vaccine that could curb community spread of a virus that is killing us AND it is in the interest of a country that wants to get back to “normal” to not have a workforce that isn’t sick/vulnerable & overcrowding hospitals.