Contributing Writer
UC Riverside School of Medicine
Jennifer is a second year medical student at the UC Riverside School of Medicine. She graduated with an M.S. in Translational Medicine from the University of Helsinki in 2017 and a B.A. in Biochemistry from Smith College in 2014. Her professional interests include global and mental health. She enjoys traveling, reading, and baking during her spare time.
In order to flatten the COVID-19 curve, many people have been practicing social distancing and staying at home to avoid possible exposure to carriers and infected individuals. While these measures are necessary to slow the spread of the virus and keep the number of cases at a manageable level, they have several implications for mental health.
But we should not need to view videos of Black individuals suffering or in pain in order to mobilize. Others, unrecorded and alone, die by the hands of our state. It is time for Americans to turn their gaze away from violent images of Black death and inwards to consider the invisible and not-so-invisible ways we uphold white supremacy every single day.
The histories of Fox Point and Brooklyn reveal how where we call home is deeply intertwined with identity, power and privilege. They tell the story of structural racism — a patterned, “normative, sometimes legalized” process by which communities of color are marginalized. The sequelae of structural racism have dire health implications at the neighborhood-level.
I commented to the resident how satisfied the attending would be with the efficiency of his work. He just laughed and said “look” as he gestured down to his list of patients. I saw the name, and a sense of dread sank in during the rest of the silent walk down the hall.
I packed up my new backpack, laptop, notebooks and pens early in the morning. The anxiety was palpable as my housemates and I dressed up to make our best impressions on our first day of medical school. This was unfamiliar territory. I had become so accustomed to my hectic routine as a college student by day and a nurse in the emergency department (ED) by night, but what would life be like as a “professional” student?
This year, like those before us, we entered our study periods for Step 1 with some trepidation — both about the long hours of studying and the high stakes of the exam. Like those before us, we reassured ourselves that if we put our time in now, we’d be able to move beyond memorizing minutiae to caring for patients in the hospital. And then, unlike those before us, testing centers across the world closed.
Today, my grandparents are older than Saul was when distanced from his family. Now during the coronavirus pandemic, they too are isolated. This time it’s not because they are the fomites, but because I might be. Those big enveloping hugs that grandma lives for and kisses from grandpa will likely become a thing of the past.
Hahnemann’s doors stay closed and our patients are waiting. While Philadelphia has stopped negotiations, we, as students with futures in health care, cannot accept this. We demand that Freedman provide free use of Hahnemann for the duration of the pandemic.
This column is for the non-traditionals, like me. We graduated with a goal, worked with a purpose and returned to school with a dream. I left health care for more health care; I switched stethoscopes on my first day of medical school.
This year, a new threat has emerged. Across the border in Iran, COVID-19 has killed scores of people and infected many more, including a deputy health minister, prompting the Iraqi government to close the frontier. Iraq reported its first cases in recent weeks, with 1,415 current case numbers, as of April 15, 2020.
The nightmare of the COVID-19 pandemic offers a view of what climate change will impose on our future health system and communities if uncontrolled. As future doctors, on the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day we raise our voices in unison to draw attention to the urgency of the climate crisis.
The COVID-19 pandemic has raised many questions about how to constitutionally handle a public health crisis on both the state and national levels. Many wonder if a national lockdown can be put in place — a new dilemma that has little legal precedent to follow.
Columnist
University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
Meghan is a second year medical student in the MD-MPH program at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in Miami, Florida class of 2023. In December of 2018, she graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a Bachelor of Arts in political science and a minor in biological anthropology. She has written for The Denver Post (Denver, Colorado), has been a writer and editor for Washington University Student Life (St. Louis, Missouri), and has been published on KevinMD.com. She enjoys skiing, snowboarding, baking, dancing, and playing piano in her free time. In the future, Meghan would like to incorporate medical journalism into her career as a physician.
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Healthiness
As doctors-in-training, we are not often exposed to the fundamental legal tenants of healthcare and medicine. But law and policy play a significant role in how we will practice -- including but not limited to the role of legal documents such as the Constitution on health policy, the impact of Supreme Court cases on healthcare legislation, and the role of international organizations and governmental decisions in global health. By discussing topics in medical law, public health policy, and the government's role in healthcare, we can better understand the intersection between the duties of physicians on the clinical level and the involvement of medicine on a national level.
