Just as politics has destroyed our ability to respond equitably and appropriately to #Covid, politics is keeping Black moms and babies from thriving. If you haven’t read the new @Surgeon_General reports take a look: hhs.gov/sites/default/… A thread…1/7
The health and wellbeing before during and after pregnancy of Black women is not a political issue it is a Public Health issue. Public health promotes and protects the health of people and the communities where they live, learn, work and play. 2/7
And to be clear, POLICY is needed to uphold and move forward the mission of public health but policy is very different than politics. 3/7
Politics have resulted in #ExecutiveOrder13950 censoring me and many others committed to speaking truth to power, watering down the language of 401 years of oppression & refusing to name the root cause of racial inequity…racism 4/7
In @Surgeon_General's report, the words and scholarship of Black scholars are eerily excluded. This is not about shameless self-promotion on my part, its about the continued erasure of Black scholarship and thus the underlying willingness to devalue Black moms and babies. 5/7
This report and its contents are sadly not surprising. However it's still disappointing and furthermore it is EXHAUSTING. Our moms and babies deserve better. So as @doccrearperry said yesterday: "What we building?" Onwards. #CiteBlackWomen 7/7
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So many things on my mind this morning from #COVID to President Obama's "defund the police statement". Will start with this.... 1/ 6
Our frontline healthcare workers are being asked to continue to care for patients even if thy have tested POSITIVE for #COVID as long as they are asymptomatic. HOW IN THE WORLD IS THIS OK? 2/6
I understand that PPE is effective but is PPE being worn in the break rooms? Folks on 12 hour shifts have gotta eat! Are all providers guaranteed a safe and private space to do this? Doubtful. They are also NOT being tested regularly. So, how do they keep their families safe? 3/6
I know that Biden may still win but either way, we have very clearly shown who we are. As @nhannahjones stated this morning “Turns out, this really is the country we thought it was.” 2/9
I hoped the election would offer a definitive indictment of the current administration but did not expect it. I was reminded on Fri. just how bad things are when during a talk I was asked not to say“white privilege, unconscious bias, systemic racism” b/c #ExecutiveOrder13950 3/9
We explore racial concordance in infant mortality. In the US Black infants die at 3 times the rate of white. The reasons are complex and multifactorial as discussed by many scholars like @DrDaraDMendez@maeveellen@mclemoremr@drbdchambers and many many more. 2/12
We know that physician-patient racial concordance confers greater patient satisfaction thanks to seminal work by @LisaCooperMD & others. Also, groundbreaking work by Dr.Alsan tells us that Black men are more likely to access racially concordant care: nber.org/papers/w24787 3/12
We (@EmedinaEduardo@RheaBoydMD) wrote this piece published today in @NEJM. We lay our souls bare. We share our pain and we call for action from our health care system. I am deeply proud of our words. What is most important is that we DO something. nejm.org/doi/full/10.10…
1/5
We(with @katybkoz)called for axe in 2016 after #PhilandoCastile was killed by a police officer. We asked u 2:Learn & accept America's racist roots;Understand how racism has shaped the disparities narrative;Define & name racism;Recognize racism, not race; Center the margins 2/5
Here we are 4 years later demanding much of the same. The choice before the health care system now is to show, not tell, that #BlackLivesMatter.
3/5