12月20日，美國黑人女醫生蘇珊·摩爾死於新冠併發症。在這之前，她的一條控訴黑人在美國醫院得不到合適治療的視頻，傳遍了美國網絡。
Susan Moore, an African-American physician who became famous via video for complaining about racist treatment in a hospital after being infected with COVID-19, died from complications on Dec 20.
According to her own story on Facebook, Moore was a physician and she tested positive for COVID-19 on Nov 29. She was sent to Indiana University Health North Hospital, but said she received racist treatment because of the color of her skin.
On her Facebook account, she said she had to beg her physician to give her remdesivir, a drug often used to treat COVID-19; she told the doctor treating her that she was short of breath but the doctor denied that.
When she complained of severe pain in her neck and asked for relief, her physician refused, saying he could not justify giving her more narcotic painkillers.
"I was crushed," she said in the video that lasted almost 8 minutes. "He (the doctor) made me feel like I was a drug addict and he knew I was a physician."
Moore's video has been widely reposted and watched on Facebook, and in a later update she said she got better treatment after having talked with the hospital system's chief medical officer.
She was discharged on Dec 7, yet her blood pressure "plummeted to 80/60 with a heart rate of 132" within 12 hours, and she was sent to a new hospital. She was put on a ventilator later, and had to rely on it to breathe, her son was quoted as saying.
Then she passed away on Dec 20, and her death raised fierce discussion in US public opinion.
"Anyone that is Black and American has grown up hearing (and eventually learning to be factual) you have to be x2 or x3 better to even have a chance of prosperity in this country (I mean if you were raised by Black parents/caregivers)," said Marvin Brown, with 354 "Like"s.
"Dr Moore's death was not merely another statistic when it comes to COVID-19. Her cries for justice were not in vain, and her video sounded an alarm that should not be dismissed as unrelated to the larger conversation of racial health disparities, systemic institutional racism, and community health as it impacts communities of color," The local Indiana United Methodist Conference said in a statement via their Facebook account.
According to a report in November by the Washington Post, Black Americans were 37 percent more likely to die from COVID-19 than whites, after controlling for age, sex and mortality rates over time. Asians were 53 percent more likely to die; Native Americans and Alaskan Natives, 26 percent more likely to die and Hispanics, 16 percent more likely to die.
Situations are getting worse in the US, with new infections exceeding 19 million. In an interview with CNN, Tanna Ingraham, a nurse at Houston-based United Memorial Medical Center, summed up the situation: "It's like hell and back."
No one knows whether things will turn better in the US with vaccines being put into use. And no one knows when the situations for American minorities will be better.
記者：張周項
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