Fauci says the coronavirus is ‘shining a bright light’ on ‘unacceptable’ hea

“As some of you may know, the greater proportion of my professional career has been defined by HIV/AIDS, and if you go back then during that period of time when there was extraordinary stigma — particularly against the gay community — and it was only when the world realized how the gay community responded to this outbreak with incredible courage and dignity and strength and activism, that I think that really changed some of the stigma against the gay community, very much so,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

“I see a similarity here because health disparities have always existed for the African American community,” he said. “But here again, with the crisis, how it’s shining a bright light on how unacceptable that is…” Please click here to read Jake Lahut’s story in Business Insider.

See related press release from SSMMA.

Other related stories include: Black people are overwhelmingly dying from coronavirus in cities across the US, in USA Today; 41% of Illinois Residents Dying from COVID-19 are Black, in WTTW News; Patients dying of COVID-19 are disproportionately black. Chicago’s mayor isn’t surprised, on the PBS News Hour;  Lightfoot declares ‘public health red alarm’ about racial disparity in COVID-19 deaths, in the Sun-Times; Covid-19 is disproportionately taking black lives, in Vox;  Chicago’s coronavirus disparity: Black Chicagoans are dying at nearly six times the rate of white residents, data show, in the Tribune; and Another example of racial inequity in access to health services, in former Park Forest Mayor John Osenburg’s blog, The Outpost Observer.