FARMINGTON TODAY
MEDICAL MUSINGS
WHITE COATS FOR BLACK LIVES Med Students Take Stand By Bruce Deckert Today Magazine Editor-in-Chief
REMEMBER the classic story about a coat of many colors and a bunch of brothers? Across the country, medical students who wear a coat of one particular color are rallying to support people of another color — based on the foundational premise that persons of all races are brothers and sisters. White Coats For Black Lives, a national medical-student organization, seeks to advance the cause of racial equity, guided by these defining statements: • Mission — “To dismantle racism in medicine and promote the health, well-being and self-determination of people of color” • Vision — “To safeguard the lives and well-being of our patients through the elimination of racism” In Farmington, the UConn Health chapter of White Coats For Black Lives wants to build on the movement’s momentum of the past year. In June 2020 — less than two weeks after the horrifying and shell-shocking death of George Floyd on
Medical students protest at UConn Health’s first White Coats For Black Lives rally on June 1, 2020 — five days later, 30-plus WC4BL supporters marched to the State Capitol
Courtesy Photo
Memorial Day — a group of more than 30 UConn medical and dental students, alumni and faculty staged a protest demonstration in Hartford. They marched from Pope Park to the State Capitol, carrying signs that communicated support for racial justice. Annie Abbate and Kodi Baldino, fourth-year students at UConn’s School of Medicine, are the chapter’s main organizers.
This year, they hope to propel those principles further in the medical realm. “We believe that the most essential issue related to racial equity in 2021 is the racial disparity in COVID outcomes,” says Abbate. Baldino notes that COVID-related racial disparities stem from “underlying sources of inequity, and it will take a collaborative continued on page 17
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