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Dear sir/Madam,
I am writing to you about the article, "Addressing racial inequities
in medicine," which appeared on pages 348-349 of the 23 April 2021
issue (Vol. 372 Issue 6540) of Science. It was published under
the headings "Insights," "Perspectives" and "Viewpoint",
which may somewhat limit the responsibility of Science magazine
for its content, I suppose. However, I see that you charge submitters
a large processing fee, so you would have approved the contents of this
article, it seems.
The article states:
"Black people comprise 12.5% of the US population, yet they
account for more than 18% of COVID-19 associated deaths."
That is a figure for Black people which is only 1.44 times the figure
for the population as a whole. It is a small discrepancy. The authoresses,
who are Black women, apparently, are hyping up a small problem.
The article also states:
"Although Black and Latinx populations in the US experience
higher rates of infection, hospitalization and deaths compared with
White populations, they have similar case fatality rates, suggesting
that there is no innate vulnerability or susceptibility to COVID-19."
(I have capitalised the word "White", because it was racist
of the authoresses to capitalise the words "Black" and "Latinx",
but not the word "White").
Actually, the above facts suggest more than that. They also suggest
that there are no racial inequities in the medical treatment of Blacks
and Latinx patients for COVID-19, as compared to White patients. That
means that the title, "Addressing racial inequities in medicine,"
is misleading and deceptive.
They go on to state:
"Persistent COVID-19 racial and ethnic inequities are likely
caused by structural racism that results in an increased risk of exposure
and inadequate health care access in communities of color."
The word "persistent" implies a continued problem over a
substantial amount of time -- but the COVID-19 crisis has only been
with us for a relatively short time. The authoresses use the word "likely",
instead of providing evidence. The reason that they find it "likely"
is that they have predetermined that racism is the problem. Mere evidence
is the least of their concerns! We have already seen that Blacks and
Latinx populations have similar case fatality rates to Whites, which
means that any supposed "inadequate health care access in communities
of color" cannot logically be considered relevant to the COVID-19
situation.
There may indeed be an increased risk of exposure for Black and Latinx
populations, but the authoresses link this to the following three factors,
because of greater person-to-person contact and/or less ability to self-isolate:
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an overrepresentation in service-industry jobs;
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shared and congregate housing; and
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the use of public transportation
We have already seen that Black and Latinx populations have no innate
vulnerability or susceptibility to COVID-19, so any increased risk of
exposure must logically be run by ALL populations which are employed
in service-industry jobs, live in shared and congregate housing and/or
use public transportation. So why do these racist
authoresses hate non-Latinx and non-Black people so much that they ignore
them entirely, in their determined drive to construct an image of structural
racism?
After dealing with the COVID-19 issue as outlined above, the authoresses
state:
":... there is ... and urgent need and opportunity to dismantle
structural racism within the traditional functions of the medical
and scientific community."
However, this article has not succeeded in establishing
that there is structural racism in the medical and scientific community,
so there is no demonstrated need to dismantle it! I agree with their
assertion that race and ethnicity are mere social and political constructs.
In that case, the authoresses should not have used these constructs
when trying to make a case for the medical disadvantagement of certain
races and ethnicities!
I do agree that the COVID-19 crisis provides an OPPORTUNITY for Black
activists to push their racist agenda. Black activists may have real
grievances on some issues, but they have already demonstrated their
opportunistic willingness to go around videoing Black male victims of
police violence, while ignoring White male victims of police violence.
Then their friends in the media show these videos to the unsuspecting
public and create a fake IMAGE of the problem, while ignoring the statistics.
As I pointed out in my article, The "Black
Lives Matter" Movement is Sexist and Racist", Blacks are
only killed by police at TWICE the rate for Whites, whereas males are
killed at TWENTY-TWO TIMES the rate for females! So it is really a Men's
Lives Matter issue, more than a Black Lives Matter issue.
I look forward to Science magazine publishing
an article entitled, "Addressing anti-male gender inequities in
medicine."
See also:
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