Blog - In the pandemic, racism in medicine jeopardizes patient safety (29 March 2022)

Summary

Since the Covid-19 pandemic began, a disproportionate number of BAME patients have reported not having their Long-Covid symptoms taking seriously. In this blog, Sheeva Azma looks at the impact of racial profiling on patient safety in the US, highlighting how health inequalities have worsened during the pandemic.

She interviews Chimére Smith, who developed Long Covid after catching the virus in March 2020 and was left unable to work. Smith talks about the importance of representation in medicine, sharing how black doctors listened to her and took her seriously, when every white doctor she had seen dismissed her symptoms.