Science has delivered a lifesaving vaccine against COVID.

Sadly, only 3 million of the 14 million available doses have been given out...Why?

Because knowing the right treatment is just the start of the battle in Healthcare.

Welcome to my world.

A thread. https://twitter.com/uche_blackstock/status/1346123526386933760

2/ What we are experiencing right now is a systemic failure of healthcare in real time.

3/ None of how this pandemic is playing out is particularly surprising to me or my colleagues who work in safety net clinics across the US.

We lived the failed US Healthcare system pre-Pandemic.

4/ The US Healthcare system FAILS when my patients not only can’t afford their medication, they also can’t afford to buy food to eat it with.

5/ It FAILS because most specialists refuse to see my patients because they are on Medicaid.

6/ It FAILS because insurers will pay for my patient’s heart surgery after he has a heart attack but won’t pay me—his family doc—to spend time talking to him about exercise or eating healthy.

7/ They won’t pay me to help PREVENT the heart attack but will pay up after it happens.

Think about that.

8/ It FAILS because my patients have an easier time getting seen in the Emergency Department than getting seen by a primary care doctor.

9/ It FAILS because I have to sit on the phone arguing with insurance for 1.5 hours (literally) to beg for approval for a lifesaving medication or test for my patients.

And still get denied.

10/ We lived in a FAILED Healthcare system before this Pandemic.

And do you know who the US Healthcare system FAILS the most?

Black people.

11/ The system FAILED Black people before and it’s FAILING us now.

Now can we please start turning this ship around and doing right by Black folks?

12/ That means questioning how someone like Dr. Susan Moore can die in our system despite being a physician herself. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/23/us/susan-moore-black-doctor-indiana.html

13/ That means working with Congress and each other to change Healthcare policy on the local, state and federal level to hold Healthcare Institutions accountable for producing inequitable care along racial lines.

14/ It means workplace protections for Black providers, medical students and staff in healthcare to shield them from racism and retaliation from racist patients and employers.

15/ It means coming together and not just TALKING about how racist things are or releasing an empty “company statement of support” and then doing NOTHING to actually change as an institution.

It means rolling up our sleeves and actually creating tangible and lasting change.

16/ We need to address the ubiquitous and devastating ways the US Healthcare system has failed and continues to fail Black people.

But we need more than just talk. We need solutions.

Because we are tired.