Virus, Floyd are brutal blow to Black well-being

Doctors have long known that Black people suffer disproportionately.

Before the renewed cries of “Black Lives Matter,” they knew racism has very real, physical effects. They knew about socio-economic challenges that contribute to poor health. And they treated diabetes, hypertension and other chronic diseases that hit their Black patients harder than their white ones.

Then came the coronavirus and George Floyd, a crushing double blow to Black people’s well-being. Doctors and their patients are reeling from the impact.

“We are exhausted and we are not OK,” says Dr. Patrice Harris, who just ended a yearlong term as president of the American Medical Association — only the second Black physician to head the group. She was speaking not so much for herself as for her community.

Police violence is always an injustice, “but its harm is elevated amid the remarkable stress people are facing amid the COVID-19 pandemic,” Harris and AMA Trustee Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld said in a recent online opinion article.

Floyd’s death is the most extreme example of over-policing that has been linked with elevated stress, high blood pressure and other chronic illness that contribute to the high coronavirus death rates in Black people.

As their offices start reopening for regular appointments, doctors are bracing for the fallout: a wave of sicker, shellshocked patients.

Dr. Brittani James is a primary-care doctor. Her clinic’s mostly Black neighborhood was one of the last in Chicago to get a COVID-19 testing site. They opened first in wealthier, whiter areas.

She said it’s heartbreaking to see many patients hit hard by the virus, while others grow sicker from chronic disease.

“As a Black doctor, I feel like I’m failing my patients every day,” she said.

While her clinic has remained open, many patients are too terrified of COVID-19 to come in. That means trying to treat complaints without physical exams or blood tests. She has tried sending patients prescriptions for blood pressure cuffs but some can’t afford the cost. The options are “have their blood pressure uncontrolled or adjust their medications blind.”

For every patient who has called for an appointment, there are 10 others she hasn’t heard from in months.