About. Dr. Blackstock i formed the organization in response to Racial Health inequities that i have seen practicing over 10 years in the Emergency Department. We have some very concerning statistics. Life men have the shortest expectancy, black women have the highest Maternal Mortality rate, and i wanted to work with health and related organizations around these Racial Health inequities. Host how do you propose to go about doing that . What is your organization doing . Dr. Blackstock i partner with these organizations and i do talk, training, consulting. The training is about racism in health care, unconscious bias in health care, to make clinicians and organizations more aware of how we are trying to be wonderful physicians and clinicians to people and sometimes our biases influence the way we care for people and we have data that shows that. Working with organizations to ensure they are meeting their Health Equity goals, ensuring that all patients have the Optimal Health outcomes as much as possible. A former guest is associate professor of emergency medicine at the nyu medical school. Mentioned you formed the organization to end a half years ago before the pandemic. Inequities, the pandemic must be really revealing much more of that to you. Dr. Blackstock absolutely. Obviously these were concerns that i had before the pandemic. A number of people, epidemiologists and researchers in the Health Equity space that were very concerned about these Health Inequities even before the pandemic. The pandemic has exposed and amplified the numbers. Thinking about what we have seen so far, we are four months in , andave seen black, latinx indigenous communities disproportionately impacted not only in infection rates but who is hospitalized and dies from coronavirus. Host could the exposure and amplification of those inequities particularly among minority communities in some way be a good thing in terms of evolving solutions down the road in terms of legislation, healthcare legislation in particular . Dr. Blackstock i dont know if i would say its a good thing, it is definitely bringing more attention to the issue of Health Inequities. Inhink that, i testified front of the u. S. House of representatives subcommittee on the coronavirus. We had a committee in early june on Racial Health disparities, and they were very interested in developing legislation to address the inequities we are seeing. I was happy to testify there to talk about the importance of having the fr legislation around these disparities. We know we are going to be in this pandemic for much longer than we expected. For theseect is communities that have already been devastated to be devastated even further if we dont have legislation passed to mitigate the impact of the virus. This our guest is talking morning about the effect of covid19, the pandemic on minority communities. We welcome your calls and comments. The numbers are 202 7488000 for those of you in eastern and central time zones. In the mountain and pacific regions, 202 7488000 202 7488001. Give us an idea of what your daytoday work life is like. Dr. Blackstock i still work clinically. I have been seeing patients in urgent care since january. It is interesting because i thought as i transitioned out of the Emergency Department to urgent care it would be simple, we would see then the pandemic happened and i started seeing patients that are essentially the walking wounded of the pandemic. I have many patients that were sick enough for me to send them to the Emergency Department. What i did notice over those first few weeks in new york city as the pandemic hit was my patient population, which was typically very racially and socioeconomically diverse, shifted over a matter of weeks to mostly black and latinx patients. Most of them had been working continuously, they did not have the luxury of working from home. Workers andrvice were exposed and put at risk to being infected with the virus. Many also took Public Transportation and lived in overcrowded housing, which we know are risk factors to being infected. I had the opportunity to hear from hundreds of coronavirus patients up until this point. Here in new york city our numbers are doing much better so we are seeing much less patients who are infected. I will say the experience was quite scary. Host in new york city and across the country in terms of minority communities, you address the underlying issues. Is it more because those communities are more susceptible . You mentioned the transportation issues in new york, susceptible to an impact from covid19 . Or because they are lacking in adequate resources and access to primary health care, for example. The reason we are seeing these disproportionate rates is multifactorial. Before the pandemic, this is all due to structural racism. We have communities with high rates of uninsurance and no access to quality care. We know that there are certain social determinants of health. Education,ployment, all have a direct impact and influence on the health of individuals and communities. Even before the pandemic of these communities carried the highest burden of diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, and asthma which we came to find out where risk factors for doing very poorly when infected with coronavirus. Add onto that the other factors like job exposure, overcrowding and housing, transportation, and it is almost a perfect storm to make these communities even thicker. Host looking hopefully a year or more down the road when the pandemic subsides, what do you hope your organization, advancing Health Equity, can take forward . What ideas are you trying to take forward for minority communities . Dr. Blackstock in the shortterm, we are pressing for i took this to the subcommittee in the house, but targeted testing and Contact Tracing in black, latin at and indigenous communities. I think outreach will be very critical as we go on with the pandemic. Education about how the coronavirus is transmitted. Isknow the messenger important in terms of relating these messages to communities. In the long term we need to think about investing in the communities in the areas i mentioned in terms of employment in terms of having sick leave or personal protective equipment on the job, having access to homeownership. We know homeownership is important to developing wealth and wealth is key in addressing some of the issues that we are seeing in terms of Racial Health and equity. For we are calling for is federal, state, and local governments to invest in black and other minority communities, because i think we will see in the future this pandemic continues and progresses and there will be further devastation if we dont make social change. Passing 3 million cases yesterday, a graphic in the washington post. New coronavirus cases and death. Yesterday, 62,751 with total cases over 3 million and the deaths yesterday alone at 897. The death toll has risen above 130,000. Were you surprised at all by the spike we have seen in cases and states that have no, i wasnt s. We knew at the very beginning, although there were not stringent federal guidelines about reopening that you needed to see a certain number of cases , or seen a downward trend over the course of 14 days. Many of those states that reopened did not have that. Trendinges were even upwards as they reopened. What we see now could have been easily predicted. When you dont have the virus contained or under control and you are not using basic Public Health measures and decide to bars, restaurants, clubs, you are going to see what we are seeing now. Host we have calls waiting period we will go to we have calls waiting period. Caller i just wanted to say that right now, as everything is going on, as everybody says minority communities, i think all communities are minorities due to the fact that sometimes people get confused about who to blame. To run a state, and it is complicated to run a country. Haveieve the president we right now is doing his best. God bless america and may god bless the united states. Host any thoughts . Caller i respectfully disagree guest i respectfully disagree. , and there seeing now case numbers we have had compared to other countries, europe, asia, even caribbean countries, i think what we are seeing is a clear lack of effective federal leadership. Also, of a Clear Strategy containing this virus. We know there are basic Public Health measures that mitigate the spread of this virus. Is as if we have 50 Different Countries in the united states. Everyone is doing their own thing. If we had a uniform strategy, we would have had more success. Host we talked about perspective protective equipment. Healthcare workers again short on equipment, Health Care Workers on the front lines of the corona part the coronavirus pandemic are facing a shortage of masks and gowns. Why has this continue to be such a problem . Caller guest in the beginning, we had a shortage. And a lot of it was due to supply chain issues, but also due to the fact that the federal government did not take the lead that we ensure we have large amounts of equipment. We need to have a uniform strategy and the federal government needs to be involved in that. Also, the issue is that we had this shortage and then we started having reopening. Reopening happened and we are seeing surges in the south and west. Those hospitals do not have enough ppe. We are seeing Outpatient Clinics and offices open as well, those clinicians and staff also need ppe. It is as if we have a larger demand for equipment now than we had previously, but we had no National Strategy to obtain large amounts. Host lets hear from sherry in dallas, texas. Know, sincented to the coronavirus [indiscernible] [indiscernible] host dr. Blackstock, were you able to hear her . Caller no, i was not. Host it was muddy on my end too. We apologize. We go to john in chantilly, virginia. Caller thanks for taking my call. Dr. , thank you for your service. For your, thank you service. I am a little disappointment at the gentleman who called and said community. Black people in this country have been suffering for a long time. They have a lot of existence. The problem is, we have a telling usis what needs to be done. That does not mean that wearing a mask, it is not that you get medication it is you are protecting yourself and others. Convince someone who is ignorant who goes to the people and knowingly doesnt know what is going to come up . A lot of young people listen to the president then they think if youu are not a coward are not wearing a mask. I would never let my doctor do surgery without a mask. I would tell him, you are not going to do it. I just came back from new zealand and i can tell you one thing, i am surprised how people are responsible. [indiscernible] guest thank you. Zealand zealand, new has done a tremendous job containing the virus. I think they should be an example for this country. In other thing you mentioned terms of this administration, really needs to follow the advice of Public Health experts. They are experts for a reason. They know what works. We know universal masking, washing hands, and physical distancing all the work. We saw that here in new york city. We had some really scary numbers. We had preventable deaths. We saw what happens when we shut it down. We saw our numbers go down dramatically. Pointhe callers that we need to listen to experts. Host he was critical of the president , can ask you about a tweet from the president. The 1000th time, the cases is show so many because we havent done nearly as well is because our testing is bigger and better. Did 20 million instead, cases would be half and not reported. The president saying the cases are higher because we are testing more. Guest that is something he keeps saying that is quite inaccurate. We know the Positivity Rate has been increasing. Hospitalizations, especially in those states are increasing. That tells us that people are getting sick. Sick enough to be hospitalized. We know that there is a lag of 35 weeks of cases being detected. What we will see as over the next few weeks we will start seeing not only the hospitalization rates go up, but also the death rate. Other countries that are testing more than other countries are testing more than we are and not having the same Positivity Rate. There is something happening here and we know it is because there is no National Strategy. Host our guests Uche Blackstock , a contributor to medical news. , anher recent inevitable outcome of reopening too quickly. That is on yahoo money. Clyde l from van nuys, california. Good morning. Caller good morning. The effects of this disease, the virus, i would think that the scientists today, when the minorities died because a lot of them did not have medical coverage. [indiscernible] you know . Even trying to find a cure for the disease. One question, isnt it true that red all diseases blood cells . I am not too familiar with that mechanism. Know that this virus is a novel coronavirus. We are learning a lot about it everyday. Vaccines, the trials are going. Vaccines being45 studied worldwide. We have a little over 20 that are in clinical trials. Number oftremendous researchers working on orrapeutics to mitigate hopefully cure this disease. Host doesnt feel like this has been a crash course in Infectious Diseases for you . [laughter] guest its funny you say that, i was talking to one of my really have we never seen this much infectious disease. The epidemiologists are the cool kids. We are definitely learning a lot as we go. The situation is quickly evolving. Even though to the fact that a few days ago, a few hundred scientists got together and said they were concerned that coronavirus is not only being transmitted through respiratory droplets come about through aerosol. That gives another concern about whether or not the transmission is also significantly airborne as well. Host could that be part of the issue in terms of National Guidance on what to do . This is an evolving disease and it seems every two or three weeks, changes are revised. Seen i think we have other countries handle this virus well. I dont think that is the reason why we are doing so poorly in terms of managing it. I think we need to be flexible. We need to realize there are new discoveries and new evidence weing out day by day and respond appropriately to it to keep everyone safe. Host lets hear from david in mississippi. [indiscernible] hospitals are getting extra money. [indiscernible] i heard one story about 12 went to a hospital to get tested and everyone came back positive. I just heard about a woman who went to go get tested and when she found out she had to wait an hour, she said i will go home. After she got home she gets a phone call saying she tested positive when she never even went in. Dont believe the numbers. Is all made up and editors it is all political. The only state he didnt win was minnesota. Donald trump scott minnesota. Host dr. Blackstone, is it political . Caller no. Guest no. I was here in new york city since march taking care of coronavirus patients. I saw them with my own eyes. I some patients walk in short of breath, fatigued with low oxygen levels, sometimes incompatible with life. I had a considerable number i sent a considerable number of them the volumes of patients we saw was scary. Even as a physician, i was scared to go to work. My patients were and i was scared of getting infected. I was scared of bringing it home to my family. What i saw was real and i had a i have a lot of colleagues that will vouch for that. Host the headline in yahoo about the affect for pregnant women, a warning for expectant mothers, what are the issues facing them, and why are black and Hispanic Women more susceptible . If you weeks ago, the cdc came out and classified pregnant women as a high risk category for coronavirus because they are more likely to be hospitalized. These are pregnant women in general. We are not sure if hospitalization is for pregnancy related or coronavirus, but when we looked at the data, like candace manic women were more likely to be admitted to the intensive care unit and to be intimated intubated. What i deduct from that data is that the same issues are facing Racial Disparity issues. Black and latino people are more likely to be working on the front lines, more likely to live in overcrowded housing. The same reason we are seeing black and latino pregnant women being infected as well. This have to take ob gyns have to take this into consideration in managing patients. Host chesterfield, pennsylvania. We hear from amos. Caller i am calling concerning you are constantly hearing , but infections and deaths what about the recovery rate . You never hear about the recovery rate. You never hear about natural medications. Vitamins and zinc. Guest great question. I always tell my patients and others that you should evidently be taking your vitamins. Zinc is important. Vitamin d is important. Also, take into consideration other Public Health measures i mentioned previously are what is going to keep you safe. If you look into some of the data, there are herbal medications they used on coronavirus patients. There are more holistic ways of treating coronavirus, but they have not undergone any clinical trials. We dont have any evidence on how effective they are. Host one more call from kathy in fremont, california. I work in ark library and i was off for seven weeks. We are back now and doing curbside pickup. They are taking strict precautions but they are not having us do things like testing or temperature checks. When i go to my church, they are limited to 80 people. They take your temperature. When you go to kaiser they do that. Is there a risk for me at work that we are not doing that stuff . Guest temperature checks are not that helpful. Not everyone with coronavirus will have a fever. Temperature checks end up missing a lot of people. To key during this time is have small groups of people indoors, if you have to be indoors, wearing masks, keeping six feet apart while indoors, and spending as much time outside you mentioned you were doing curbside pickup. That sounds relatively safe to be. I would be more concerned about you being in church with 80 other people. That is a large number of people to be indoors with. The that the virus transmissibility of the virus in indoor settings. Is ceor. Uche blackstock of advancing Health Equity and an emergency medical physician. You can read her writing at yahoo medical news. Thanks so much. Guest thank you. Courtcer the supreme handed down two rulingsss involving access to President Trump financials. There will the Manhattan District Attorney cant access can access tax returns. They also rule to send back to lower courts a case for congressional subpoenas. You can read those decisions at cspan. Org. Announcer the house earned Services Committee hears from mark esper and general milley on the Defense Department on civilian law enforcement. Watch live at 1 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan, online at cspan. Org or listen live on the free cspan radio app. Announcer up next, a discussion on u. S. Russia relations with Russian Ambassador on a totally onto and off