These patients are the store clerks, cab drivers, security guards and janitorial personnel who have to go to work to earn money. They are the patients who cannot easily tune into cable news or search the web to stay informed about the latest information about the Covid-19 crisis. Their very way of life puts them at risk.
As we take extraordinary measures to flatten the Covid curve, these vulnerable, high-risk patients in the black community need to be part of our coordinated national response. We need to ask important questions: How are these patients receiving information and making decisions about their health when there is a lack of trust in the health care system and those that provide it? Do these patients have advance directives; do they speak with their families about end-of-life care?
Do these patients know that their poorly controlled underlying conditions place them at increased risk, and do they believe this to be true? How are they being transported safely to and from work and their dialysis treatments when they are already at risk or immunocompromised? How are we keeping dialysis patients safe when they are already at risk for catheter-related infections, even when medical staff wear the recommended protective equipment -- but more so now that this equipment is hard to come by?
There are further crucial questions. Diet and exercise are important ways to control kidney and heart disease, yet how are patients following the recommended dietary restrictions when grocery shelves are bare and the general population continues to hoard? Many groceries have now shifted to online ordering, a luxury that some, who lack easy access to internet or a credit card, cannot afford. What food remains on the shelf that is SNAP or WIC approved? How do you get exercise outside in a neighborhood that is not safe to walk?
Policymakers need to broaden the scope of federally subsidized programs to address these issuesto support these vulnerable, high-risk patients and to help lower their risks. And they need to make testing available in these communities at great risk, with corresponding federally supported medical care.
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The questions to ask and actions to take to help black Americans fight the virus - CNN
