The events of the past week– and the past few hundred years– have brought up a lot of sadness, anger, and reckoning in our country. There are so many ways that our culture has failed black people– failed to keep black people safe, healthy, and alive. This inadequacy is manifested many ways– some are obvious and violent, but others are more subtle.
Patient Worthy is a space for rare disease stories and news, and we, like many people and institutions around the country, are still figuring out our role in this: when is it our responsibility to speak out, and when is it our responsibility to let other voices be heard. While our country is grappling with this, we want to draw attention to something that falls within our realm: our healthcare system needs to take better care of black people. Perhaps, it’s not a coincidence that the response we’re seeing now is happening during Coronavirus– a pandemic that has devastated the health and financial security of many people, but affected black people at a disproportionate rate.
Below, we have a few articles worth reading if you want to learn more about how we need the healthcare system to improve for black people. We haven’t covered all of it– this is just the tip of the iceberg, but it’s somewhere to start. We’ve listed instances where we’ve covered rare disease, but don’t limit yourself to us.
