Racism, by definition, means prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people groups on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized. Even though many would argue that racism and racist actions have died down, in reality, they have only surged in other areas where it is not as noticeable. An example of this can be shown in the healthcare industry. Although, historically, doctors have taken the Hippocratic Oath that states doctors should “come for the benefit of the sick”; however, not all physicians have treated their patients equally. Due to the death of George Floyd and the rise in the Black Lives Matter movement, there have been more calls to address systemic racism and implicit bias.
Most of this issue is plagued by the system and not by the doctor. The main issue with racism is that because of subconscious prejudices and implicit bias, it affects the way doctors treat their patients and similarly, the way patients see doctors. This is why racism is not an easy issue to tackle; like an onion, it has many complicated layers.
If one looks at the numbers, it is shown that people from minority groups are more likely to die to catch diseases that lead to their death. This may not necessarily be due to their genetic makeup, but because throughout history minority groups have not received the same or any treatment at all in comparison to white people. Studies have shown that when a black and a white person display the same symptoms, the white person is more likely offered the necessary treatment. Another study found that Black patients with heart conditions are less likely to be assigned a specialist or an evaluation. Because of these reasons, Black people have higher death rates in regard to heart conditions.
With the COVID-19 vaccine coming out, many people have become worried over being used as test subjects or as experiments over the new vaccine.Currently, figures by the CDC show that if you’re Black or Latino, you are twice as likely to die from COVID-19 which makes you twice as likely to be the first to get the vaccine. Back in 1932, a study was conducted on Black males as an investigation on Syphilis. The issue was that none of the men were told about the study nor information and facts in order to provide consent. When a treatment surged, they were not offered to the subjects. These men were never given the chance to quit the study which led this study to run for 40 years when in reality it was supposed to run for 6 months. Another example of this would be the research in Guatemala where the Guatemalan militia had been secretly and intentionally injected gonorrhea by American researchers. Currently the fear is that these minority groups will be the first to receive the vaccine and possibly the first to die from it as it will be relatively new and not many side effects are known.
Although racism can be seen among patients, it is also prevalent amongst doctors. More people feel more comfortable being treated by a white, male physician. Countless doctors that come from minority groups experience racism in their day to day lives. More often than not, they are not offered the same opportunities as their white counterparts or are only given the simple cases. Additionally, a lot of physicians are often harassed and patients request a change of doctor when they see a Black doctor attending them.
A lot of institutions and states in the U.S. that have begun processes to fix this. Many medical institutions and associations have started to require implicit bias training as part of their medical certification for their health care workers. California has passed its own legislation where they have made it mandatory to have an implicit bias training for physicians. We hope that these types of measures are taken worldwide. It is only possible to overturn racism if everyone takes this as a shared responsibility. In order to change ingrained cultures, we must work together to have conversations within our families and strangers, speak up for injustices we see, and try to change the culture within our workplaces. Even though right now the attention is focused on the law enforcement side, we should not forget that racism encompasses every area of our lives which includes healthcare. Those physicians and nurses are the ones who are responsible for our well being.
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