ONYX Magazine celebrates the accomplishments and contributions of African-Americans and those of the African diaspora.
Thank you immensely to Cancer Today Magazine
(cancertodaymagazine.com) for featuring me in a triumphant section that illuminates both the survival and current pursuits of cancer survivors. You can view “In the Moment” on page 64.
For those outside of the editorial realm, magazines work three months in advance, so when I was sent the questions below with a request for photography, it was July 2019, and I was onboard the “Africa Mercy” in Tenerife, Spain. A crew member captured the breathtaking photos that were used for publication.
On October 5, 2019, I flew from from Senegal to Paris to Texas.
The language of leave is: Medical LOA (Leave of Absence). Continue Reading »
The multi-week project titled Surveillance Program Assessing Risk Knowledge of Coronavirus (SPARK-C), randomly selects 750 county residents. Allegedly, they represent the county’s diversity with respect to age, gender and ethnicity, race and other demographic and geographic focus of diversity.
“The surveillance may allow the county to identify ‘clusters’ of the virus, and could identify people who are infected but do not know it,” Gimenez said. “Having that information will allow us to get ahead of what’s happening on COVID-19 and guide us as to how to best to use our resources to stop the spread of this virus.”
Blacks mistrust research
Surveillance, clusters and identify are three words not embraced by Blacks who already mistrust medical research. The National Institute of Health cites the latter as an important barrier to research participation and recommends that researchers incorporate strategies to reduce mistrust and increase participation among Blacks.
SPARKS-C partners exemplify no such strategies. Numerous South Florida residents who are asymptomatic have desired testing, but do not meet existing criteria. COVID-19 testing at drive-thru sites have been limited to people over age 65, first responders, those with compromised immune systems and people who presented with coronavirus symptoms.
This County study does not broadly change that. You cannot volunteer to be tested; you must be randomly invited via an auto-generated phone message from Gimenez. Those selected are then screened by University of Miami Miller School of Medicine public health students.
The study’s process sounds straightforward, but in a county whose population is 2.8 million and comprised of 17 percent Blacks, random selection of 750 persons over four to six weeks continues to leave a multitude out of the testing loop.
Civil Rights attorneys chime in
The SPARK-C partnership includes two veteran researchers, Erin Kobetz, PhD, MPH and Alberto Caban Martinez, PhD, DO, MPH. Both are veteran UM Miller researchers who could have played a more unique role in the study by encouraging Gimenez to extend a message to Blacks: inclusion in SPARKS-C is not calculated or subjective, nor is exclusion biased. There is no Black representation in the core partnership —academic, private or public—for this vital project.
“We are deeply concerned that African American communities are being hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, and that racial bias may be impacting the access they receive to testing and healthcare,” said Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
“Equal access to healthcare is a critical civil rights issue, and during this novel pandemic, the public deserves nothing less than full transparency from this Administration and state public health officials. To fully confront this pandemic, we must ensure that communities of color receive equitable health care and treatment during this crisis. Comprehensive and publicly-available racial data is a necessary weapon in the fight to confront COVID-19.”
The Miami Times reported on September 28, 2018 that the National Institute of Health had funded UM with $60 million to gather participants in a nationwide data collection platform of health records. Recognizing that research barriers with Black populations, the university was advised:
“There is a fear and mistrust that the Black community has with any type of health care provider and especially when they are taking something from them,” said Dr. Nannette Funderburk, board member at the Greensboro Medical Society, which is America’s oldest Black doctors organization founded in 1927.
“UM must get around this distrust if only to reach its goal of gathering a diverse group of participants in South Florida in a massive medical research study called “All of Us,” added Funderberk.
Little Haiti connection
During Friday’s virtual dialogue, Kobetz declared, “There are 8 to 9 positive results for every one1 reported to the Dept. of Health. We are looking at who’s infected and what we can collectively do about it. The surveillance will allow the county to estimate the burden of the disease, including individuals who are asymptomatic.”
According to Gimenez, the study seeks to examine government order and how the outcome will impact daily decisions moving forward.
Why a rapid blood test?
The Food and Drug Administration has cautioned that serology tests “should not be used as the sole basis to diagnose or exclude [coronavirus] infection or to inform infection status.”
SPARK-C is using a new, point-of-care test that confirms current or past exposure to COVID-19. Manufactured by BioMedomics, a clinical diagnostics company, the test has not been reviewed by the FDA but is permitted for distribution and use under the public health emergency guidance issued by FDA on March 16, 2020.
Disaster Management Group is a key partner and South Florida-based test distributor. The company is charging the county $17 per test for 20,000 tests and has agreed to kick in an additional 2,000 tests for free.
In a March 20 interview with BioWorld, Matt Wideman, director of DMG stated, “…The project called for the distribution of 50,000 DMGtest units for first responders and the homeless as well as a random statistical set analysis.”
Gimenez indicated that criteria for a separate study for first responders is still being developed.
Methodology linked to HIV/AIDS
The HIV rate in Miami is nearly four times the national average with 54 new diagnoses of the virus for every 100,000 people — making it the highest HIV rate in the country. According to testingmiami.org, Blacks comprise 41 percent of the County’s HIV cases and 50 percent of persons with AIDS.
The County’s decision to use a rapid blood test may be related to prior research by Kobetz that employed quick methods. A 2009 abstract published by the American Public Health Association, stated that during her scientific focus of Haitian women and cancer, Kobetz followed advisement of, “community leaders who encouraged use of rapid assessment surveys, which are short, five to 10 minute interviews, typically administered in community venues that enable a crude assessment of a community’s health behavior practices. Rapid assessment surveys were initially developed by the US Department of Health and Human Services to examine the HIV-associated risk behaviors in US cities disproportionately affected by AIDS-related mortality.”
Colorado blazed the trail
According to Gimenez, Miami-Dade County is, “the largest by far that’s taken this endeavor on.” But Telluride, Colorado did it first. In an effort to determine how widespread COVID-19 was in their community, the county embarked free COVID-19 testing for all of its 8,200 residents. No one was randomly selected.
Dubbed an “experiment,” the county also did not pay for the project. Two biomedical company executives, who are Telluride home owners, funded the efforts. The following was reported March 19 by Allison Sherry of CPR News.
“This is a mental health issue. People are isolated, people are scared … What they need is information and transparency. This is about empowering people,” said Lou Reese, co-CEO of United Biomedical/c19, which is performing the blood tests.
The end result for Telluride’s San Miguel County offered “uncertainty.” Of the almost 1,000 people tested for COVID-19, thus far, eight tested positive and another 23 have either indeterminate or borderline results.
Penny Dickerson is a journalist joining The Miami Times following an Africa sojourn and 10-year freelance career in newspaper and magazine. She earned her MFA in creative writing from Lesley University, and B.A. in Journalism from Temple University.
Photo: Olean McCaskill in her celebrated soul-food eatery, Olean’s.TALLAHASSEE, Fla.–The roots of soul food run deep within the annals of African American living. The South reigns as king of soul food cuisine. Its origins can be traced back to slavery when plantation owners allowed enslaved Africans to cook and eat only what’s known as the hog’s undesirable leftovers: the ears, feet, tail, stomach and the intestinal tract known as chitterlings or in the Southern vernacular, simply “chitlins.”
BY PENNY DICKERSON
Judson Allen died of a heart attack earlier this year ( May 2018). May he rest in peace.
Judson Todd Allen is a winner who loves to lose.
He has won a battle with weight, losing more than 135 pounds. 
He auditioned for the “Next Food Network Star’’ four times before joining the 2012 cast. He again, lost but recalibrated. Continue Reading »
BY PENNY DICKERSON
FLORIDA COURIER
From the podium as notable speakers to moderating panels, African-Americans were at the forefront of Health Journalism 2019 held May 2-5 at the Hilton Baltimore Conference Center.
Presented by the Association for Health Care Journalists and Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism, the 2019 convening of journalists and stakeholders reigns as a record-setter for the organization with 800 registered attendees.
The annual conference serves as a comprehensive gathering for industry professionals to access cutting edge trends ranging from opioid epidemics, gun violence in public health, autism and mental health, pharmacology, women’s health, cancer and more.
The conference included multiple panel discussions, training workshops, field trips, exhibits and a plethora of information available to aid journalists in their role of providing accurate health care news to a global audience.
Corporate and medical sponsors surpassed the dozens along with endowing foundations, including The Leona M. Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, which funded fellows including Florida Courier writer Penny Dickerson who was awarded an ethnic media fellowship.
Johns Hopkins University (JHU) served as the conference host, which kicked off on May 2 with an official welcome session featuring Dr. Otis Brawley.
A renowned cancer screening and prevention expert, Brawley joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in January where he leads broad interdisciplinary research of cancer health disparities at JHU’s Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.
Brawley works to close racial, economic, and social disparities in the prevention, detection, and treatment of cancer in the United States and worldwide.
“We have to get back to prevention,” stated Brawley, who previously served as chief medical and scientific officer for the American Cancer Society.
“When I talk about disparities, I’m talking about Massachusetts vs. Mississippi – less about White vs. Black than expansion of Medicaid vs. non-expansion.”
The former professor of oncology and hematology at the Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University in Atlanta led a captive audience through expert commentary and trending statistics:
It is estimated that 607,000 Americans will die of cancer this year.
If all Americans had the cancer death rate of college-educated Americans, the number would be 455,000.
Nearly one-fourth of cancer deaths (152,000) would not occur if all Americans had the access and utilization of preventive and therapeutic interventions enjoyed by the college educated.
“There are more trends in cancer than there are in fashion. Every couple of years, we have a new trend, a lot of them overhyped.” said Brawley. “As we get excited about the potential for new cancer treatments, we must also remember to balance realistic expectations and limitations.”
Dr. Darrell J. Gaskin, a JHU Bloomberg School of Public Health professor, led all-Black panel of experts in a discussion on health disparities and African-American women who remain a persistent problem even after years of research and numerous programs created to close the health gap.
“At the Center for Health Disparities, our focus is on not just on talking about the fact that there are disparities by race, ethnicity, and geography, but looking at ways to minimize those disparities,” said Gaskin.
Joining Gaskins was Linda Goler Blount, M.P.H., president and CEO of the Black Women’s Health Imperative; and Tanjala S. Purnell, Ph.D., M.P.H. an associate professor of surgery, epidemiology, and health behavior and society at JHU.
“Health disparities are not just a medical problem, not just a public health problem. They affect all of us and it will take all of our knowledge and expertise to address them,” Purnell said.
The panel was moderated by AHCJ board member Marlene K. Harris-Taylor, a reporter and producer at a Cleveland TV station.
“Journalists are failing at diversity — in the sources and experts it calls upon to help the public (both) understand and digest the news of the day,” stated Alexandria Neason, staff writer and senior doctoral fellow at the Columbia Journalism Review.
That quote introduced a workshop session on “Diverse Sources” designed to provide reporters strategies and tips on how to find diverse expert sources in science and health care with the ultimate goal of changing the health narrative to reflect more diverse voices in health news. The latter is deemed good journalism.
“There’s a greater urgency for us to think outside the box. From a place that is both pedestrian and philosophical, we are not diversifying our sources,” stated Gray. “It becomes a way of ‘othering’ people… treating them like they are so weird, like you don’t quite know the question to frame or where to go. Just ask somebody!”
The latter is likely simplistic ease for a journalist of Gray’s stature, who is also programs and instruction director for New York University Urban Journalism Workshop. Gray seized a teachable moment by offering a nugget from her own professional mode.
“I tend to report from the ground up, so rather than going to the physicians first, I might go to a grassroots organization and say, ‘I’d like to find some recently released/formerly incarcerated folks.’ I want to know if they have a re-entry plan,” explained Gray. “That was part of what the Affordable Care Act provided for people who are coming out of prison. So, that’s where I start.”
Penny Dickerson 