Cook Center associate director of research Dr. Keisha Bentley-Edwards has been featured in two videos and an article by Duke Global Health Institue (DGHI) where she discusses her recently published co-authored journal article titled Race, Racism, and Covid-19: Lessons Not Learnt.
In the journal article, which was published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), Dr. Bentley-Edwards and colleagues argue that systemic racism and economic inequality are at the root of disparity in Covid-19 outcomes and suggest how to distribute resources more equitably.
Dr. Bentley-Edwards sat down with Duke Global Health Institue (DGHI) to discuss highlights from the article. In her first video, she explores the myth of Black peculiarity which involves the false notion that Black people are more susceptible to disease; this myth was used to rationalize the increased risks experienced by racial minorities during the early phases of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the second video, Dr. Bentley-Edwards addresses systemic drivers of health disparities and how these barriers create inequitable access for racial minorities to access health care and protections from Covid-19.
Dr. Bentley-Edwards co-authored the paper with Duke third-year medical student Olanrewaju Adisa, Kennedy Ruff, associate in research at the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke, Whitney Robinson, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Duke School of Medicine, and Elizabeth McClure, a postdoctoral researcher at the Gillings School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
In addition to her role as associate director of research at the Cook Center, Dr. Bentley-Edwards is a DGHI affiliate and an Associate Professor in Medicine at Duke University.
The full DGHI article, written by DGHI Communications Director Michael Penn, can be accessed here.
