He serves as president of the National Medical association. Good morning to you. Remind folks what the National Medical association is and who your members are. Guest the National Medical association is the group that represents the 50,000 African American physicians in the country. We are the oldest incorporated since 1895. This is our 125th year. Our role is to ensure there is proper health, equity, and inclusion for African American physicians who were denied access to residency programs and being on staff at hospitals for many years. And also to ensure the African American community is well represented so the health has proper care and you are not excluded. Host some of the data makes it clear there is a disproportionate impact of covid19 diagnoses and deaths in the African American community. What is the latest data saying now about how wide that gap is . Guest it is variable from new york, chicago, milwaukee, new orleans, los angeles. In general, i like to look at it on a National Level because we are the National Medical association. Approximately 30 of all cases in the u. S. Are African Americans and African Americans comprise about 13 of the population. So somewhere around 2. 5 times the incidence of covid19 in the African American community. You are talking about millions of cases and tens of thousands of deaths. You are talking about a lot of excess morbidity and deaths. Host in your view, what is the reason for the gap . Is this more of a problem of Underlying Health conditions disproportionately impacting people of color . Is it more a socioeconomic gap that people of color are more exposed to coronavirus and in places where they are more in danger . Guest i look at what i call a toxic admixture. I look at it as three particular areas, elements that weave a cloth of disparate incidents and outcomes from covid19. The three elements are, first, preexisting conditions. Africanamericans are 40 more likely to 50 more likely to have diabetes, 40 more likely to have hypertension, 30 likely to have obesity. These are all indicators for the cdc of more adverse events and outcomes from covid19. The second, and it is very deep, because these all weave together and are social determinants of health. African americans have 1 10 the net worth of the majority household. Poverty. Statistics show with the cdc data, and that data is sketchy, i might add, that those having covid19 and dying from covid19 are four times more likely to be poor. We have poor housing. When you have a housing situation where there are five people in a twobedroom apartment, if there is a need for selfquarantining, it is very difficult. 40 of the population in the United States that is homeless is African American. That is approximately three times the rate of our representation in the population. Food deserts, Food Insecurity. The percent of African Americans that have Food Insecurity are 22 versus 12 . If you do not have access to healthy food, you are more likely to be obese, have a high sodium diet, and therefore be more at risk for hypertension. All of these things work together. And there are others. We work in jobs 30 of the bus drivers are African Americans, so we are more exposed. Security guards, food Service Workers. The third element is a little more insidious but it is real. And that is race. This country has a 400year history of racism. That has affected the health of African Americans. Racism, to feel racism is stressful. Stress increases cortisol and blood pressure. The general concept of racial profiling. When you go into a hospital, how would you be viewed as a patient . Will you be viewed as someone who needs care, someone who has an illness, someone who has abnormal vital signs or will you be viewed as a person needing something . All mixedse things at highero make us risk for Something Like a pandemic. And it is being shown in the statistics we have. Host dr. Oliver brooks is our guest for this last 30 minutes of washington journal. Asking you to call in. Phone lines set up for the eastern and central time zones, and the mountain or pacific time zones. And the line for medical professionals. Racial and Health Disparities in the pandemic is our topic in this last half hour. We will start in charlotte, North Carolina, on the line for independents. Good morning. Caller good morning. How are you . Host doing well. You are on with dr. Brooks. Caller how are you doing, dr. Brooks . Good morning to cspan viewers. It seemed like they did not want to open the country into it came out that the majority of people affected were African Americans. These crowds demanded the government open the state with guns. Somebody lost the concept of what a pandemic is. It does not discriminate. It would seem like certain people want to use this as a political thing. It is not a racial thing. It does not make sense if we go down the same path and divide everything by color. The country is going through this as a whole and you still have people dividing us up with stuff like this. It does not make any sense. You should not be allowed to carry guns into statehouses. I do not understand that mentality. I dont understand it. Host dr. Brooks . Guest there was an article in the l. A. Times yesterday talking about disparities. When you look at those that are protesting to open up the environment i prefer to use the environment because it is not about money. It is about lives. Are whitee protesters or not inclusive of African Americans or latinx individuals. When you think about that, why is that . We are more likely to be losing our jobs and having issues with unemployment. Black businesses only get 1 of loans in the first year they are in existence versus 7 for a white business. My position is the reopening of the environment needs to be done by scientists and Scientific Data and not politicians. We are dying at 2. 5 times the rate of the Majority Community. When you open it for political reasons, economic reasons, and not health and scientific reasons, it is like an experiment. We have been experimented on. This time we will not be , test subjects. That is why we are not protesting to open up faster. I believe you better get it right as opposed to going fast. Host this is how they put it in the New York Times on the editorial page. The vast majority of protesters as you pointed out are white. He writes this is in stark contrast to the victims of covid19 who are disproportionately black and brown as well as those who have lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic who are also disproportionately black and brown, as well as those who have been or will be forced to work more as a result of reopening. The Service Workers and laborers who are disproportionately black and brown. He writes that it is true not every Racial Disparity speaks to some deeper dynamic of racism but this one does. I do not think you can separate the vehemence of the lockdown protesters from their whiteness and the knowledge that many of the most affected belong to other racial groups. It is not so much that they are showing racial animus but that their conception of what it means to be free is at its root tied tightly to the racial identity. Your thoughts, doctor . Guest interesting. When you hear them protesting they say i want individual , freedom. When you think of the protests of the 1960s, the civil rights we protests, it was we want freedom. Theres a vision of what freedom is. It is different for people oppressed versus people who have privilege. Individual rights versus a collective need and desire for justice. The fundamental position from from from which the different groups are coming is what is defining that. Host dr. Oliver brooks, president of the National Medical association, is our guest. Net. Org if you want to check them out online. Atlanta, georgia, maria, good morning, you are on with dr. Brooks. Go ahead. Caller i am a 68yearold African American female. I am taking medication and hydroxychloroquine, 200 milligrams. I like to know how the environment affects lupus patients. I am not saying difference i notice when i go out. I have a heavy flareup in my nostrils. I would like to know what you think about those two medicines affecting lupus. First of all, use every caution. I do not believe the symptoms you are feeling in your nose are important in terms of evaluating your situation. Aceinhibitors, theres a lot of information about that. The most prominent i saw was in the new england journal. The feeling is ace inhibitors are involved. If you are on an ace inhibitor right now, stay on it. For your hydroxychloroquine, i would say take it. There has been talk about it having some beneficial effect as it relates to the virus, covid19. Candidateses the show more people die from taking it then were saved from the virus. For you with a lupus, definitely take your medication. Say heed all precautions. Host michael, good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. I wanted to address with the doctor, i absolutely agree with affectse reasons why it the Africanamerican Community more. The first one is particularly interesting about the comorbidity. When i used to live in manhattan , the area below 86th street was predominantly white and the areas above were predominately African American. I would run every morning. The majority of the runners were white while central park is surrounded by an equal amount of everybody. When you go into a local store south of 86 street, there was an abundance of Health Drinks and Everything Else like that. North of 86, it was difficult to even find diet soda. The doctor mentioned comorbidity like obesity and diabetes. This is all caused by certain behavior issues. How much of the disparate outcome has to do with personal responsibility and their attitude towards their own health . Host dr. Brooks . Guest interesting question. I would say it all links. Your area above, versus below, 86th street is a small, defined area in manhattan. If you go further up above 110th street, maybe before the gentrification, it is a little different. But in general, this gets back to a couple of areas. Number one, food. Africanamericans are almost twice as likely to be food insecure. You are giving one particular area. That access to healthy food is not as readily available to African Americans. This is a fact. Number two, generally speaking, the more money you have, the better you can eat. People talk about whole foods. But even in general, you need funds. 30 of Public Transportation excuse me 40 is used by people , of color. If you can drive to get your food versus having to take Public Transportation to get food. African americans may live in a more crowded environment where there is not the ability to exercise. With diabetes, they look at exercise, nutrition, and medication. We have an uninsured rate of 11 versus 8 in the African American community. You dont have as much access to medication. You cannot exercise as well. And you dont have access to good food. I shudder when i hear personal responsibility. It is easy to say that when you have a car, money, health insurance. Remove those three things, and you will see theres a major difference in how your personal attitude and activities affect your health. Host speaking of access and new york, one of the issues we started this segment with talking about was access to testing in minority communities. I want to play Governor Andrew Cuomo yesterday announcing the expansion of testing in low income and minority communities in new york. This is what he had to say at his briefing yesterday. [video clip] Governor Cuomo today, we are launching a new initiative to expand access to testing in low income communities and communities of color. We are partnering with northwell health, which is the Largest Health system in new york. They are going to set up 22 additional testing sites at churches in predominantly minority communities. This is a different kind of partnership. It is creative but necessary. We are working with those churches individually and association of churches and northwell. Northwell will provide the testing in churches in lower income communities and communities of color. The churches will help us outreach to the community to get people to come in and explain why it is important people come in and get tested. And northwell will do the testing. We have 24 sites in the new york city area. Some will be opening the week of may 12. Some will be opening the second week of may 19. You see the coverage when we add the network of churches is very broad. Again, focused on these communities that we want to reach out to. Host andrew cuomo yesterday. Dr. Brooks, your thoughts on that announcement . Guest i think it is excellent on a number of levels. What is needed is messaging coming to the African American community that is culturally appropriate. One of the primary areas that is influential in African American communities is the faith community, the churches. Going to the churches to do testing is an excellent idea. But do note, he is saying we are now outreaching to the African American community through churches months into this. We are finally getting some outreach. It has improved. But in the beginning, there was a woefully inadequate amount of testing of African Americans. 75 of cdc data did not even have race and ethnic information. I am happy Governor Cuomo was doing that. It is happening in other states and localities. But it is late and should be sufficient. But right now, we are one million deathsn, 75,000, 80,000 in and this is what we are hearing. Host vincent is on the line for medical professionals. Good morning. Caller good morning. Good morning, dr. Brooks. What is realistic as to when we will have a safe and effective vaccine against covid . What would you say to people who are resistant to vaccines due to our history where blacks have reason to be skeptical regarding our medical system . Guest that thing in my mind that which allows us right now, we have Public Health which is physical distancing, wash your hands, covering your cough. We have treatments, go to the hospital, ventilators, oxygen, medication. And third is vaccines. Right now, there are 106 vaccines in some level of development. The biggest ones lately have been the vaccines you heard about last week. Those are interesting because you can rapidly manufacture them. You can get 100 million doses made. The thing is we dont have the vaccine studies yet. In my estimation, it will take probably a year or more and we dont even know if the vaccines will work. I am cautiously optimistic. I believe it is important to have African Americans involved in Clinical Trials because there is some skepticism in the African American community regarding vaccines. I will say categorically that vaccines are safe and effective. I would say it would be imperative to have African Americans involved in the clinical trial. So when i go to my Africanamerican Community and say, there is a vaccine. It protects against covid19. We are dying at 2. 5 times the rate, this is what we need to do. I can feel comfortable knowing you were involved in the Clinical Trials and it is safe and effective for us. Host dr. Oliver brooks is our guest until the end of our program today. He is president of the National Medical association and also the chief medical officer at Watts Healthcare Corporation. What is that . Guest Watts Healthcare Corporation is a federally qualified health center, which means we get federal funding to care for the uninsured. We are in south los angeles. We do take care of those uninsured. Again, African Americans have a higher rate of uninsured status. For those that are uninsured and cannot get on the exchanges, we thank those that supported the Affordable Care act, obamacare, because the rate of uninsured dropped dramatically with that, and that is excellent. For those uninsured, there are over 1000 federally qualified Health Centers in the network throughout the country where care can be accessed. Host it is wattshealth. Org. If you have a question, you can call in on the phone lines set up originally and the special line for medical professionals. In texas, thanks for waiting