While African Americans continue to die from coronavirus at disproportionately higher rates than whites, many are questioning why. Experts say it’s due to underlying health conditions Black people are prone to as well as inequalities in healthcare.
A top coronavirus immunologist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently suggested in a series of tweets that doctors are “letting Black patients die” and the pandemic could be “genocide”, the Daily Mail reported.
Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, 34, is described by the NIH as the “lead” member of the U.S. government team trying to find a coronavirus vaccine. She is an immunologist with the Vaccine Research Center, a division of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
On her social media accounts, Dr. Corbett had talked about some of her personal theories about the pandemic and why Black people are affected at much higher rates.
While the doctor didn’t herself say it was genocide, she tweeted, “Some have gone as far to call it genocide. I plead the fifth.”
Dr. Corbett has posted several controversial tweets on her social media account dating back to February.
In one tweet, Corbett suggested that doctors would overlook Black people if ventilators are in short supply. She also suggested the COVID-19 pandemic could be a “genocide” for African Americans.
In one other tweet, she posted: “I tweet for the people who will die when doctors have to choose who gets the last ventilator and ultimately… who lives, The poor. And, while the article doesn’t explicitly say it… the Black.”
When someone replied to that tweet by saying: “It’s so scary to think about. I know when it comes down to it people will be turned away or left to die because they are Black.” Corbett replied: “Yep. Both.”
On April 11, Corbett tweeted: “I am praying that policies reflect this multiple ways,” she wrote about systemic racism. “They must or we will be doomed in the next pandemic(s) too.”
“She further slammed the White House coronavirus task force in February, saying it ‘is largely people (white men) he appointed to their positions as directors of blah blah institute. They are indebted to serve him NOT the people.’ That was an apparent reference to President Trump,” Fox News reported.
In another Twitter thread, Corbett said that “Merit (is) defined by prejudices.” A user responded, “So can we just dismiss anything white men are involved in because they’re intrinsically malevolent?”
Corbett responded: “White men are not to be dismissed. But the systems that they (ancestor or current) curated are.”
When the user asked Corbett if she was advancing an “immoral” notion, she posted: “No. Not at all. Nothing is immoral about dismantling systematic oppression.”
Now the U.S. Department of Health & Human Service has stepped in to investigate her social media accounts over the controversial tweets to see if they violate federal guidelines.
A senior HHS official has told Fox News: “HHS career ethics officials are reviewing the matter.”
Corbett has since switched her account to private.
Written by Ann Brown
Source: moguldom.com
