“I can’t breathe.” The last words of an innocent man strangled to death by a knee to the throat are also the last words of a hospital patient whose lungs are insidiously destroyed by an invisible virus. 

It is only human to react to the inhumane treatment of George Floyd, the Minneapolis man who had his life so unfairly taken from him. We feel the entire gamut of emotions, from shock to despair to the rage currently seen on the streets of America. That a police officer, sworn to serve and protect, could treat another man with such disregard shatters our perceptions of humanity and of a free society. 

We have seen the protests and felt a glimmer of hope that, maybe, this will lead to equality for our African American brothers and sisters. At the same time, I am concerned for the physical safety of protesters and police because a few trouble-makers have decided to loot and riot.

Health care leaders: Racism is another pandemic

Then my medical training kicks in and another grave concern comes to my mind, one with not so immediate but similarly dire consequences.

The lack of social distancing at the protests is troublesome. Many of the protesters are not wearing masks. The risk of symptomatic and asymptomatic COVID spread is high, although it will likely be days or weeks until we see the full extent of the damage.

But even more concerning is that many of the protesters are African American, an ethnic group which has already been disproportionately affected by COVID-19. Predominately black communities have higher rates of infection and death from COVID, when compared to predominately white communities.

Ironically, the protest for justice and fairness may worsen a longstanding history of racial health care disparity in this country. African Americans are already more likely to be diagnosed with chronic health conditions like diabetes, hypertension and heart disease. Patients with these ailments have been shown to die from COVID-19 at higher rates. There is also the well documented lack of access to health care for African Americans, including many of those currently protesting, and this is likely to worsen COVID-related health outcomes in the coming weeks.

Doing the right thing is complicated, as protest and pandemic collide

Systemic racism and COVID-19 are both invisible, yet potentially deadly enemies. Both are spread by fellow human beings and their propagation can be subtle and unpredictable. Both tend to discriminate against specific groups, with COVID targeting the elderly and immunocompromised and racism preferring those with more active melanocytes. Both are more likely to kill African Americans.

Where these two plagues differ, however, is in how we choose to confront them. COVID-19 requires us to stay indoors, isolated and absent from a broken society, until a more practical medical solution is found. Systemic racism, on the other hand, will require us to leave our homes and face the very same dysfunctional society by learning to respect our black neighbors, colleagues and friends. Tolerating dark skin simply will not suffice; only accepting it as another variation of normal will.

There will eventually be a vaccine for COVID-19, but the solution for systemic racism will not be so simple. COVID-19 will be defeated by science; racism will be defeated by humanity.

The poor, African Americans face worst of coronavirus

We live in an era where COVID-19 and systemic racism may seem worlds apart, but in fact they work together to antagonize an already troubled society. It is devastating to know that in the coming weeks the number of COVID cases will rise in parallel with the anger of a nation that is so desperately ready for the equality a great civil rights leader dreamed of all those years ago.

Unfortunately, the situation will worsen before it improves, and healing will take time. It is possible that a broken justice system will afford guilty police officers the same respect that science has given COVID-19. A desire to preserve a man-made economy, rather than the men who make it, will lead to a dangerous second wave of a racist and deadly disease.

But the night is darkest before the dawn, and eventually there will be justice for an innocent man and an African American community that has bravely faced these evils for far too long. A counter-attack of collective optimism and faith in humanity can still prevail over fearful uncertainty. For as a wise and influential man once said, “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”