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medpundit |
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Thursday, April 04, 2002kissing cousins did instead (link requires registration) When breast cancer outcomes were compared within the same socioeconomic class, all race distinctions disappeared. Cancer was diagnosed later in women of all races if they were poor. This is important. The nefarious report last week by the Institute of Medicine that racism was the cause of differences in health care needs to be shouted down. There are many people in this country who do not have access to good medical care, and they are from all races. Blaming racism for the disparity does nothing to solve the problem. It only inflames passions and distracts attention from the real cause. The Institute of Medicine could have acted responsibly and given an honest report about the root causes of medical inequality in our country, but they chose instead to let their own prejudices bias their report. This is doubly unfortunate since they are the body that advises Congress in medical matters. As the editorial in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, which published the breast cancer study, so succinctly puts it: “....finding the true reasons for the difference in medical outcome is important if we are to effectively reduce it....Rather than speaking in racial/ethnic terms of black and white populations, it is more appropriate to speak in socio-economic terms of the 'haves' and the 'have nots. This focus would rightfully bring other socio-economically deprived populations that include whites, Hispanics, Native Americans and Asians into the discussion." posted by Sydney on 4/04/2002 07:26:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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