Image credit: Laura Herberg / WDET
Dr. Paul Kilgore of Wayne State University and Henry Ford Health System says that masking and distancing will continue to shape life for the foreseeable future.
Earlier this week, the United States reached a sobering new marker in our pandemic reality: COVID-19 has now killed 500,000 people in this country half a million lives lost. As news about how this virus has ravaged every inch of this nation has continued to pour out over the last year, it’s easy to become numb or desensitized as a way of coping with this relentless despair. But it’s important to remember that those 500,000 people were parents, friends, sons, daughters, co-workers, relatives, community members.
Image credit: Pat Batcheller
Wayne State University’s Dr. Paul Kilgore discusses the latest developments around COVID-19 and what Michiganders can do to remain vigilant in slowing the spread of the virus.
Many people are hopeful that the COVID vaccine is a light at the end of a nearly year-long tunnel that has taken Americans very far away from what life was like pre-pandemic. But now, as Michigan and other states are struggling to get the vaccine distributed, there’s an even bigger obstacle: The emergence of several new variants of the coronavirus.
“The virus is actually changing its genetic code. It’s changing over time. All viruses do that, and we expected it from the beginning.” Dr. Paul Kilgore, Associate Professor and Director of Research at Wayne State University College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
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I am very familiar with and have dedicated a good portion of my career to combating health disparities. The statistics remain appalling and unacceptable. When you also take into consideration atrocities like the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, we have a lot to overcome in convincing many Blacks to trust the government. I understand the feeling.
However, I feel confident in recommending the vaccine specifically to African Americans, for several reasons. The two vaccines currently available had good representation of African Americans in their clinical trials. African Americans, including one of the lead scientists for vaccine development at the National Institutes of Health, were intimately involved in the their development;. And African Americans were included on the FDA panels that recommended their approval for emergency use authorization.