Socioeconomic and Racial-Ethnic Disparities Appearing in COVID Rates and Fatalities

Earlier in the course, we had a special unit on health disparities. Early on in the COVID outbreak, there seemed to be relatively little coverage of health disparities, other than that people relatively well-off economically would likely have jobs that could be done via computer at home, whereas people of more modest means would either get laid off or have to go to work in potentially hazardous conditions (e.g., supermarket workers).

Now that more statistics have been amassed, however, it is becoming clear that health disparities are again with us. Disparities don't exist everywhere, but they do in a lot of places. Following are several articles I've collected, to facilitate discussion of the topic.

• The Guardian (UK)
• Kaiser Health News
• NBC News
• The Hill (Capitol Hill, Washington DC)
• NBC Miami
• MSNBC (video)
• 538 (site for quantitative analysis of politics, policy, and sports)

Medical Training and Doctors' Interactions with Patients and Their Families

For the next two weeks, we're going to be focusing on how doctors (and health professionals generally) are trained and how they interact with patients and their families. Some of the opening chapters of Jerome Groopman's book How Doctors Think will be our main reading. Diagnosing illness, in good part, requires doctors to ask the right questions and really listen to patients. Naturally, patients who potentially have a serious illness -- and their families -- will be very concerned and anxious. How health professionals, patients, and their families can speak to each other in ways that leave everyone as calm and satisfied as possible is therefore very important. As we get into this material in (virtual) lecture and the reading, students are invited to share their opinions and questions in the comments area.