First Post: Racism and COVID-19
This was an email sent to my colleagues at work by me.
A fellow friend who is a med school applicant with me shared this. I think it is worthwhile to read that we in the healthcare system do not have it all figured out. From a general public health perspective, it seems valid. But in the bigger picture, we see how this method of isolating individuals is targeted racism.
Why are not affluent areas in NM being tracked? Whites and the wealthy? Why are these not isolated too?
Taking children away and selective testing will affect long-term relationships with these women who are Native American. And these are already a double vulnerable population. How will they perceive future medical care? Will their children follow through on wellness visits, milestones (so many to keep track), vaccines, and more? And when we see that rates of preventable diseases skyrocket in Native American populations, will we blame them again for isolation or ourselves for poorly treating them? Without understanding the conditioned response we created, the mistrust towards the healthcare system is the result. This fragile relationship we have tried to weave keeps getting broken by repetitive negligence.
Before we dive in, here is some context. In psychology (MCAT 101 here), there are two types of classical conditioning. One which is unconditioned such as feeling hungry smelling mom’s cooking. And then a conditioned response to an associated behavior that comes with a stimulus which usually isn’t associated normally. Like the bell ringing and the dog salivating anticipating food in Pavlov’s study.
Phobias and fears are a conditioned response. They also play roles in human conflict theory (competition, social class wars, etc.). Although there are so many more theories that are involved than just these, conditioning plays a role in how we react to future stimulus.
We have conditioned these indigenous groups time and time again to fear the healthcare system. In turn, they understand healthcare system as negligent and inadequate. Subsequently, we point the finger and assume they ignore our advice because they want to contain their own society and cannot follow our subset of rules. In reality, the indigenous people’s valid response was ignored because for a majority of us, our care does not come with racial bias. But we are too privileged to acknowledge this accountability error as a society who created this condition in the first place.
So remember, next time you see the doctor--you do not have to think how their judgement of you will affect your care. They will not judge your social economic status as much as a POC. They will not assume if you say no to drinking that you’re lying. And they will not use your zip code against you. What was briefly expressed above is the tip of the iceberg on why POC do not trust healthcare providers. We have to remember that whatever we did to them, if it happened to us the response would be the same: mistrust. There is no extinction of the fear anytime soon I feel, but awareness of the wrong doing is the first step for us to ensure we do not let these women down again.
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