This week on WCLK's The Local Take(Saturday mornings at 8:00) I reached out to Morehouse School of Medicine to talk about public health and the role of public health in a pandemic. I spoke with Dr. Stephanie Miles Richardson.
We started our conversation to gain an understanding of what public health does and whether or not it differs from personal health. Dr. Richardson explains that public health when it works well is behind the scences and uses surveillance to look for and document trends that occur in communities.
I ask Dr. Richardson about the health disparities that exist in our community which also make us more likely to have detrimental outcomes from COVID-19. We also discuss the rumor that African-Americans are immune from the coronavirus. Not only are we not immune unfortunately we are more likely to be impacted by the disease in a detrimental manner. We discuss things that can be done to boost your immunity from diet to mental health.
Dr. Richardson shares that the Moreshouse School of Medicine provide guidance on their website for the prevention of COVID-19.
I asked Dr. Richardson how she came to work in public health and she speaks to her start in veterinary medicine, research into pathology and toxicolgy and a desire to help people made public health a perfect place.
For more information on the Morehouse School of Medicine
For more information on Dr. Stephanie Miles Richardson