Solidarity groups on Facebook are proving more supportive than many doctors projecting racism against women of color in the United States against a backdrop of long Covid.
-
A young woman wears a face mask as protection against coronavirus on January 26, 2020 (Getty Images)
The weight of inequality in the healthcare system falls heavily on black women. As many revolutionary thinkers throughout history, including Frantz Fanon, have said, whites have long permeated black psyches through the projection of racist and dehumanizing perceptions. This left the black community with a legacy of trauma that lives on to this day. This is a dysfunctional loop of self-gaslighting, self-objectification, slow suffering that reduces life expectancy and quality.
Black communities in the United States, especially black women who face the weight of inequality, have been neglected in healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic. Chimére L. Smith, 40, had a “long” COVID-19 case. She thought the virus would pass through her body in two weeks, but she continues to experience severe symptoms such as extreme fatigue, diarrhea, dry mouth, brain fog, and a sore throat. I noticed that.
READ NEXT: Black Women in U.S. Health Care – Underpaid, Unprotected: A Study
She had previously speculated that her symptoms were due to a sinus infection, but the worsening symptoms seemed to represent a deeper reality she knew nothing about. Only a month after learning that she was with me, she learned that she had lost about 14 kg, could not work or drive, had spinal pain and had completely lost the sight in her left eye. Smith even considered suicide.
Smith visited the hospital dozens of times, desperately begging for help, but as many black women in the United States can attest, doctors shrugged off the burdensome case. due to virus. Many visits to the doctor were in vain, and many did not reach resolution or serious diagnosis.
“I made notes of my symptoms and shared these symptoms with these doctors, but they didn’t listen to me. They didn’t listen to me.” “They treated me as if I was a child and I didn’t know my own body,” Smith said.
“I couldn’t eat and I wanted to die. I could barely drink. I couldn’t think. Everything I knew about my life in the first few months was destroyed.” .”
Smith was unable to turn to doctors or other experts for help, but stumbled upon a Facebook group. The group, named the BIPOC Women Long Covid ‘Long Hauler’ Support Group, includes hundreds of “people of color” women who have experienced long Covid.
Since joining the group in May 2021, Smith has expressed that she feels strong enough to advocate for not only her own health care, but that of black women who have been experiencing Covid for a long time. did.
According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the long-term effects of Covid vary from person to person. Some experience fatigue, other cognitive impairment, and others experience tissue damage and even organ damage.
As with certain diseases and viruses, the black community bears the brunt. Researchers expect black life expectancy to drop significantly over the next five years as a result. Facebook groups were born as a response to this reality.Members want to find solidarity, understand and understand the disease, and get the help they seek.
Margot Gage Witvliet, Ph.D., social epidemiologist and assistant professor at Lamar University, creator of Facebook’s support group, has been through Covid for a long time in March 2020 and shares her experience in a TED Talk. She said her symptoms were the worst compared to her husband and her two children, she was experiencing breathing difficulties and seizures. She still suffers from chronic pain, fatigue and neurological problems.
Despite all of this, Witvliet reported that doctors ignored her symptoms and “childized” her. When her virus caused her blood sugar to spike, one doctor simply told her to stop eating her fried foods. When she was taken to the hospital for her seizures, one doctor asked her if she was on her medication.
Read more: Black patients are more likely to have negative descriptors than whites: study
“I wasn’t treated with dignity,” she said, and on one occasion her husband, who is white, accompanied her to an appointment where he attracted attention. I am a health professional with a sense of humor, not a child.”
After knowing many women who experienced such discrimination, she created a Facebook group to bring women of color together.
“I really wanted to use the fact that I was a professor and a social epidemiologist to help these women in distress,” said Witvliet. “That’s what this group has done. And I’ve met some truly amazing women, and we have lasting friendships in this group.
Despite many shocking testimonies, Witvliet has revealed that Covid researchers may not understand what women of color are suffering from. different subgroups. And I think it’s kind of like the elephant in the room that isn’t discussed,” she said.
Smith will testify about her illness at a congressional hearing in April 2021, calling on the government to address health care inequalities.
“Many of us have lost health care due to the prolonged COVID-19 outbreak and the fact that we are no longer working,” Smith said. “Social Security decisions and actual approvals from the federal government require faster turnaround times. That long Covid is a condition, it’s a medical diagnosis.”
