ATLANTA (AP) — Four historically Black medical schools are getting $6 million to expand coronavirus vaccination efforts in minority communities.
Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's philanthropy announced the gifts Tuesday, giving $2.1 million to Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, $1.6 million to Charles R. Drew University of Medicine in Los Angeles, $1.6 million to Howard University College of Medicine in Washington [D.C.] and $869,000 to Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee...
….Each of the schools will ... buy additional mobile vaccination units to expand current community outreach efforts. The vehicle is key because it helps provide refrigeration for vaccines, said Morehouse School of Medicine President and Dean Valerie Montgomery Rice.
The AP article via Medscape reports concerns allayed about historical medical mistreatment of minority communities — a recent Census Bureau survey found African Americans now planning on vaccination at nearly the rate of the overall population. Access is a huge obstacle, for which increased mobile vaccine clinics and staff from trusted community institutions are hoped to become a remedy.
Bloomberg's Greenwood Initiative [is] named for the African American neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that was the site of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. The initiative seeks to build generational wealth for Black families and increase investment in Black communities and institutions.
Howard University, April 13:
The first investment of the initiative made last September during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, was a $100 million gift to the nation’s four historically Black medical schools, of which Howard University received $32.8 million, the largest donation to the College of Medicine in its history. The $100 million gift helps ease the debt burden of approximately 800 Black medical students. Studies have shown that Black patients have better health outcomes when cared for by Black doctors but Black medical students face a disproportionate financial burden to become doctors. Both gifts address the significant economic impact of persisting health disparities within the Black community and the importance of access to trusted healthcare providers and institutions…
...This grant will help address the disproportionate health and economic impacts of COVID-19 on the Black community. Black individuals are less likely to have the ability to work from home and make up almost 17% of all front-line-industry workers. This increases the risk of exposure for Black Americans who are three times more likely than white individuals to contract COVID-19, and twice as likely to die from it. Black people are also less likely to have paid sick days leaving many who have recovered from COVID-19 with stalled income and the additional burden of medical bills. This is exacerbated by the fact that 12.3% of Black workers are uninsured vs. 7.5% of white workers making it more likely that Black workers will be burdened with costly medical bills if they get sick, and 73% of Black Americans say they do not have substantial financial reserves to cover sizeable emergency expenses.
Between February and April of 2020, the number of Black self-employed businesses owners declined by 41% compared to 17% of white self-employed businesses owners. April - May of last year, 36% of Black households were experiencing food insecurity vs. 18% of white households, and according to the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Black unemployment rate is at 10%, almost two times higher than the white unemployment rate.
The COVID-19 vaccines can help improve the negative health impacts and resulting financial strain COVID-19 has on the Black community, but outreach is key. There is a clear disparity between white vaccination rates and Black vaccination rates across the U.S...
Various articles underline that health and quality healthcare are basic in upward mobility across generations, and in eliminating a massive spectrum of disparities along racist and ethnic lines. And recent Amanpour & Company broadcasts have featured world figures emphasizing the public health fact, over and over, that we are none of us safe until all of us are safe, so nations (and individuals) with means have the obligation to step up, and help get it done.