In the United States, black infants are twice as likely to die as white infants, and more so if they are cared for by white doctors. This is the result of a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on August 17, conducted on thousands of births in Florida.
“The results suggest that when black newborns are cared for by black doctors, their death rate is halved, compared to that of white children,” the study writes.
Multiple reasons
Researchers looked at data for 1.8 million Florida births between 1992 and 2015. When black infants were cared for by white doctors, they were three times more likely to die in hospital than little white children.
Previous studies have shown that black American children suffer a much higher death rate than white children. A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the main US public health agency, had for example shown that this rate is more than twice as high, according to this study cited by the Guardian . There are many reasons for this difference, between racism and socio-economic factors.
List of black doctors
Across the Atlantic, the anger of black people affected by the violence of certain police officers was accompanied by a discussion around health inequalities. Covid-19 kills blacks and blacks four times more than whites and whites.
In France too, debates around racism in the medical profession explode regularly. It is to counter this racism that an active Twitter account on these subjects, called Black Globule, circulated a list of black doctors. A list that has generated many reactions of disapproval, but also messages of support.
Identity madness leads to this: choosing your doctor according to the color of your skin and publishing lists of black doctors. We ask @olivierveran to take up this question to defend the honor of a profession and that of the Republic! pic.twitter.com/bQ9VgZGqg8
- Licra (@_LICRA_) August 2, 2020"Mediterranean syndrome"
In December 2017, a 22-year-old black woman died after several unsuccessful calls to the Samu. A study published the following year had revealed numerous cases of mockery or degrading remarks after a call to the Samu or to the emergency room. "A first name indicating a Muslim faith reduces by 6.5 points the chances of accessing a consultation with a psychiatrist," said a study by the Defender of Rights in October 2019.
These discriminations are perpetuated in particular by what has been called the "Mediterranean syndrome", that is to say the (false) belief within a part of the medical profession that certain people of foreign origin tend to "exaggerate" their symptoms of made of their culture.
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