IT IS GOING TO TAKE MORE THAN PPE

The headline "Two SEPTA Workers Die of Coronavirus" took my breath away, because it was the first local heading foreshadowing which populations were going to be hardest hit here in Philadelphia.  Before becoming one of the privileged ones working from home, my routine commute from Old City to Penn always involved SEPTA. Particularly in the morning the train was packed with people wearing some sort of health care garb or ID, but also people dressed for a myriad of mostly service jobs. In Philadelphia one of the poorest large cities in the US, public transportation and therefore the people who drive, service, clean and police SEPTA are essential to the functioning of the city. They don't have the luxury of working at home. So, theses frontline workers are exposed to thousands of people every day with an increasing percentage of them likely infected with COVID 19. No wonder then, we are seeing an increasing number of frontline workers being diagnosed and succumbing to the virus.

This deadly trend hits communities of color hardest. Recent reports indicate that over a third of the COVID-19 related deaths are among African Americans.   Less than 20 percent of African American and Latin workers have jobs that lend themselves to working at home. Mail carriers, grocery store workers, warehouse workers, janitors, delivery drivers and cooks are just a few of the people who are not working from home, because they can't. The slow response to ensure their safety is now costing lives and is disproportionately impacting communities of color. Stricter and strictly enforces social distancing guidelines along with the availability of appropriate personal protective equipment is essential and will need to be ongoing for at least until we can be sure we are not going to get a second wave of COVID 19 infections in the fall.

And I believe we need a new cultural norm, that emphasizes the need for everyone to wear a face masks when in public. Wearing a mask is an altruistic act because it protects those close to the wearer from droplets that may contain the virus. In many communities of color, one of the biggest inhibitors to this norm taking hold is not the inconvenience of wearing a mask or ignorance about the benefits of wearing a mask. Availability is a problem now, but that is resolving. The real problem is its fear of intimidation or harassment when wearing a face covering. Already there are incidents of profiling being reported on social media.

In short, if we are going to effectively protect those on the frontlines and in communities being hardest hit by COVID 19, it will take public health measures like PPE, testing, contact tracking and vaccines, but also exposing and rooting out discriminatory practices like profiling.

Risa Lavizzo-Mourey MD, MBA
PIK University Professor of Population Health & Health Equity