Breaking News
- Palm Springs Approves $27 Million Reparations Deal for Displaced Black and Latino Families
- Weber: ‘Every Vote Counts in California’s Elections’
- L.A. County Commission on HIV’s Black Caucus Hosts World AIDS Day at CDU
- Local Community Groups Plan Thanksgiving Giveaway Events
- Judge Dion Griffith Morrow Passes Away
- Election Controversy Sparks Debate in Pasadena NAACP Leadership Race
- James Lee and his Mobile Station Celebrate 50 Years Serving in the Community
- Mulenga Strengthens Bonds Between Los Angeles and Lusaka through Sister City Committee
- Maggie Hathaway Golf Course Renewal Project Breaks Ground
- Destination Crenshaw Celebrates Paul R. Williams with Stunning Mural by Patrick Henry Johnson
- Community Salutes Dr. George McKenna’s Stellar Achievements at Gala Retirement Celebration
- Davis Honored with Advocacy Award at State NAACP Conference
- OUCH! This One Really Hurts. Vice President Kamala Harris Loses Her Bid to be America’s First Female President
- Heather Hutt and Other Sentinel-endorsed Candidates Win Big in Local Races
- KCAL9/CBS2 Anchor Chauncy Glover Dies at 39
- Quincy Jones, Music Titan Who Worked With Everyone From Frank Sinatra to Michael Jackson, Dies At 91
- Compton-Woodley Airport Centennial Celebrates Black Contributions to Aviation
- A New Vision – Brandon Lamar’s Bid for NAACP Pasadena President
- NAACP California-Hawaii State Convention Highlights Black Voter Engagement, and More
- Vote Early, Vote Now! Empowering California’s Voters in 2024
- KAMALA HARRIS WILL BE AMERICA’S 47th PRESIDENT
- LAWA, L.A. County Bring Jobs to Taste of Soul
- Bakewell Media Sounds for the Soul Stage Totally Rocked Crenshaw Blvd.!
- State of Black Los Angeles Highlights Future of Communities of Color
- USC, Dorsey High, and Price School Band kick-off Taste of Soul
- Taste of Soul Fills Crenshaw Blvd. with Hundreds of Thousands of People
- Darnell Hunt Leads UCLA as Interim Chancellor
- Chrysalis Brings Job Opportunities to Taste of Soul Festival
- Bakewell Media ‘Sounds for the Soul’ Stage Presents Tony! Toni! Toné! Featuring Dwayne Wiggins at Taste of Soul
- It’s Here – the 19th Annual Taste of Soul Family Festival!
- Enjoy Church on the ‘Shaw at Brenda Marsh-Mitchell Gospel Stage
- Kamlager-Dove Secures $1.6 Million for Butterfly’s Haven
- Groundbreaking Reporter Warren Wilson Passes Away
- Brotherhood Crusade Gives Away Bikes to Community Youth
- Eric Benét Headlines KJLH Stage at Taste of Soul
- Jim McDonnell Named Next Chief of Los Angeles Police Department
- Newsom Signs Black Caucus Bills; Advocates Question ‘Reparations’ Description
- L.A. Urban League, NBC4, and Telemundo 52 Present State of Black Los Angeles
- Seventh Annual United Against Hate Week Launches from Watts
- Local Health Providers Offer Free Medical Services at Taste of Soul
- Attorney Fani Willis Addresses L.A. Community Members Supporting Her Race In Georgia
- Marqueece Harris-Dawson Elected as L.A. City Council President
- Q&A on Taste of Soul with Crystal Williams, Community Relations Manager at SoCalGas
- Costco is Coming to South Los Angeles
- Davóne Tines Unpacks the Legacy of Paul Robeson at Zipper Hall
- Black Caucus Members Weigh Next Steps for Reparations in California
- Celebrating Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson at The Ebell of LA
- Black Community Unites to Re-Elect L.A. Mayor Karen Bass
- L.A. Sentinel Visits Western States Carpenters South L.A. Training Center
- Street Named in Honor of Watts Activist `Sweet’ Alice Harris
- Tito Jackson, Member of Jackson 5, Dies at 70
- Councilwoman Heather Hutt Holds Campaign Kick-Off
- Food Bank of Southern California Antes Up Under New CEO
- Kamala Harris Trounces Donald Trump in First Presidential Debate
- Richard Alatorre, Pioneering Chicano Activist, Passes at 81
- Mayor Warren and the Impact of Local Officials
- Harden Becomes No. 2 for All-Time 3-Pointer Makes in Clippers Victory
- Rams, Novavax Protects the Rams House With Vaccination Clinic
- JuJu Watkins Hit 1000 Career Points in Win Against Santa Clara
- Student Athlete of the Week: Anthony Torrence
COVID has waged a war.
As a Black physician, this has been a difficult year for me. I’ve witnessed COVID amass a body count well over half a million, with an unfair number of those being Black people. This virus has uprooted our social lives, spoiled our cherished moments, and it has taken too many of our loved ones.
As a physician, I’ve read the data. Black/African Americans are roughly two times more likely to die from COVID-19 when compared to White Americans. But even more meaningful, I’ve seen this statistic play out repeatedly at my own hospital —as an ever-present reminder of the health inequities rooted in structural racism. This is the familiar scene: a Black grandmother lays in her hospital room alone, and now feels as if she is lifting the weight of her body with every breath [while it was so effortless last week]. Her family visits her one person at-a-time, wearing face masks that only partially hide the tears and sobs. Each person standing at the bedside in disbelief of how the virus had quietly stolen the strength from the matriarch of their family.
As a Black man—a son, grandson, and nephew—I’ve felt the heavy toll of COVID move beyond my professional life. It has invaded my personal life. As if in planned order, my family members were infected with COVID, and I had no means beyond prayer to help them. Inevitably, I’d think about the many hospital patients I’d lost to the pandemic. I braced myself for the possibility of losing a family member. My grandfather ultimately passed from a COVID infection. He was a Black man, a devout Southern Baptist, and a military veteran from Alabama. He was a model of impeccable work ethic, and in the end, a victim of this preventable infection. I sometimes wonder if he would have met this same fate if he were White. And now I wonder if he would have met this same fate if he had been vaccinated.
The COVID vaccine is our best chance to weaponize our own immune systems, so that each of us can fight off COVID. And so that, together, we can keep the infection out of our homes, schools, churches, businesses, and stores. I am well aware of how the actions of the medical field against the Black community have led and continue to lead to distrust. I am also painfully aware of the present-day realities of systemic racism. But right now we are the ones dying. Having been on the frontlines against this virus, I know firsthand about the devastation that COVID is currently inflicting on my Black patients and on my community. The COVID vaccine is one of the safest vaccines ever made and it is effective. This vaccine can stop the chaos and loss of human life, bring our community some much-needed reprieve, and move us towards normalcy. I am confident that if the vaccine was available before my grandpa contracted COVID, he would still be here with us today. My hope is that once we’re all vaccinated, COVID will no longer take our loved ones. We’ll be able to spend time together without fear, we’ll appreciate that we’ve overcome a hard fight, and we will look forward a better future ahead. If we all get the vaccine now we can keep more of our parents and grandparents alive and spare many the pain that I and many of you have gone through.