2020 has been a wild ride so far. We had WWIII scares, the start of an environmental apocalypse in Australia and racial injustice protests across the United States. While the aforementioned events are important, today I want to focus on the COVID-19 pandemic. As I am writing this, John Hopkins University reports there have been over 9 million cases and over 470,000 people have died worldwide. Needless to say, this event will be covered extensively in future history books.

While some people are taking this time for self-reflection and improvement, I am more concerned about what the United States can learn from this pandemic. Whenever there is a major disease ravenging the nation, there is something the U.S. learns to hopefully improve already existing structures. 

Take the HIV/AIDS epidemic and how it changed various medical practices. According to the World Health Organization, around 75 million people have been infected with the virus and 32 million have died as a result. Furthermore, the HIV/AIDS epidemic led to demonization of the LGBTQ+ community. Many people saw this disease as a punishment from God, leading to social scorn and lack of health care options, allowing the disease to decimate their community. 

However, the epidemic did shape health care and sexual practices. Safe sex options like condoms became more mainstream, and health care workers started to wear gloves and other protective gear when interacting with patients. So, what else can we learn from COVID-19?

One thing I hope we address is how unequal access to health care permeates throughout the country. According to the CDC, communities being hit the hardest from COVID-19 are African Americans, Latin Americans and Native Americans. While some would argue that these groups are not practicing social distancing and wearing face masks, there isn’t any data that suggests this. In actuality, most of the people at the anti-lockdown protest were white and didn’t follow CDC protocol. 

Health care disparities were already known, but they are now more apparent because of the coronavirus. According to the American Medical Association, the reason these communities lack health care options is because of lower household income. With the rising cost of health insurance, it makes it difficult for these people to receive the care they need. In addition, communities in rural areas may not have physicians or specialists nearby, making it difficult to access the care they need.

Speaking of health care, I hope the pandemic brings awareness to how expensive our health care system is. According to NBC News, there was an increase in the percentage of people uninsured in 2018, estimating around an additional 1.9 million people. The article states this may have occurred because a then Republican-led Congress removed fines for not having health insurance. Considering the rising cost of health care, it is understandable why some would forgo it.

Besides health care being expensive, having health care tied to your employment is not the best idea. Due to the pandemic, many people have been laid off from their jobs, meaning some people don’t have health insurance anymore. Needless to say, being in a pandemic is the worst time to not have health care. While businesses providing health care as an employee benefit is not a bad thing, the whole system needs to be examined and reorganized to prepare for future health crises.

The last thing I hope we learn from the pandemic is the impact of implicit racial biases in medical practices. The Association of American Medical Colleges references a study conducted in 2016 where nearly half of the medical students questioned falsely believed that Black people were more resistant to pain than white people.

This has led to doctors being less likely to prescribe appropriate pain medications to Black patients. Not to say that all doctors are racist, but some might have implicit racial biases. Since minority communities are being hit the hardest, now is the time to address our unconscious biases and help treat these disenfranchised groups of people.

That being said, it’s all easier said than done. We can’t just overhaul our healthcare system overnight and expect all doctors to address any biases they have. This will take years, even decades, to fix. But considering how the pandemic brought light to these issues, I hope they are resolved in the future.