As a new medical student, I didn't fully grasp the significance of his statement at that moment. But as Covid-19 has spread rapidly, impacting communities across the country and exposing the disparities in our health care system, Dr. Fauci's words have taken on a whole new meaning.
On March 20, 2020, better known to medical students as Match Day, I learned that I had been matched with my top choice residency program. I was going to be an internal medicine physician at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia.
Jefferson was my first choice for several reasons. For starters, it's close to my family in Pennsylvania. It's also a hospital dedicated to medical education, health care innovation and top-quality patient care. Most important to me, though, is Jefferson's embrace of diversity and inclusion, as it serves many low-income and marginalized populations.
Part of the reason Jefferson serves such a diverse community is its location. Its flagship hospital is based in Center City, the major downtown neighborhood and cultural center of Philadelphia. This area is home to thriving African American, Asian, and Latinx communities, as well as a large LGBTQ community.
Several of these communities -- including the Black community -- remain some of the most underserved in the city. And nowhere is that reality more obvious than in health care outcomes. As noted in the 2019 city report "Health of the City," Black men and women in Philadelphia have the lowest life expectancy of any racial group in the city. Black men are also more often affected by heart and kidney disease, and Black children are hospitalized more for asthma attacks.
After I matched, though, I still had several months before I could dive into my new career and help address some of these health care outcomes at Jefferson. But there was a complicating factor -- Covid-19 cases were growing, surpassing 1,000,000 in the US, and just weeks before my graduation.
When I finally arrived at my virtual graduation day, I helped lead my class in reciting the Hippocratic Oath, a code binding medical graduates to the highest standard of medical ethics, and one which marks the official transition to becoming a physician. While graduation was certainly about the many accomplishments we had achieved over the last four years, it also gave me time to reflect on the new challenges -- and opportunities -- of becoming a resident physician in Philadelphia during this pandemic would bring.
I realized that the health care disparities that impact communities of color in Philadelphia were just as apparent -- if not more so -- during Covid-19. As of late June, out of 25,443 positive coronavirus cases in the city, Black residents accounted for just over 46% of the cases -- though they only comprise 40% of the population.
They were also more likely to be hospitalized and encounter severe complications due to Covid-19 than other racial groups. And Black patients account for over half of all coronavirus deaths in Philadelphia, a
