The questions to ask and actions to take to help black Americans fight the virus (opinion)
CNNEditor’s Note: Maya Clark-Cutaia, PhD, ACNP-BC, RN, is an assistant professor at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing. The people who need our immediate action are those with chronic conditions, like dialysis patients, who are supported by federally subsidized programs and already make decisions about their health based on their basic needs—for instance, spending money to pay rent or buy food, versus filling prescriptions. As we take extraordinary measures to flatten the Covid curve, these vulnerable, high-risk patients in the black community need to be part of our coordinated national response. We need to ask important questions: How are these patients receiving information and making decisions about their health when there is a lack of trust in the health care system and those that provide it? And they need to make testing available in these communities at great risk, with corresponding federally supported medical care.