News and Noteworthy
Penn doctor spearheads effort to get Black staff vaccinated
According to a new vaccination data tool put together by the Philadelphia Department of Health, white Philadelphians are getting vaccinated at twice the rate of Black residents. As of March 13, 21.9 percent of white citizens in the city had been partially vaccinated, compared to 11.4 percent of Black citizens. And, in case you missed this news: Nearly 87 percent of Rite Aid’s 31,100 Philadelphia vaccine doses administered through Feb. 21 went to white customers, and just 4 percent to Black customers. That’s 21 shots for white people for every one shot given to a Black person. These numbers aren’t all that surprising to Dr. Florencia Greer Polite, associate professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology and chief of the division of general OB/GYN at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine. Click here to learn more.
If Black Lives Really Matter, We Must Invest in Black Neighborhoods
In a video and op-ed in the Washington Post, Eugenia South, MD, an assistant professor of Emergency Medicine and director of the Penn Urban Health Lab, discussed the concept of safe neighborhoods and how gun violence has affected Black people and their neighborhoods disproportionately compared to White people. She explained that in order to establish safety among Black people, there must be investment in these neighborhoods in a variety of ways, including in accessible green spaces like parks. Click here to learn more.
African American Museum in Philadelphia