Groups hardest hit by COVID-19 appear least likely to get care for its lingering effects | The Boston Globe

CEID Founding Director Dr. Nahid Bhadelia and Core Faculty Dr. Cassandra Pierre weigh in on the importance of engaging marginalized communities in Long COVID research:

“…The reasons for the apparent disparity are similar to those that led to the high COVID-19 rates in disadvantaged communities, said Dr. Cassandra M. Pierre, an infectious diseases physician at Boston Medical Center: lack of sick pay and long working hours leave little time to seek care, and many don’t have primary care doctors and don’t even know where to turn for help.

Many poor and disadvantaged people have other health conditions that started long before COVID-19, and their symptoms may be blamed on those preexisting illnesses, Pierre said. If someone already suffered from asthma, for example, breathing difficulties may be seen as ‘more of the same,’ Pierre said. ‘They feel like this is normal, this is what people experience.’…”

“…’It has to be in communities,’ agreed Dr. Nahid Bhadelia, a Boston University infectious diseases specialist who is leading the long COVID research effort by the Massachusetts Consortium on Pathogen Readiness. ‘People need to hear it from people they trust.’…”

Read the full article here.