Some black Americans have hinted at or in some cases, such as Rev. Jesse Jackson, have come out and said deceased Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, did not receive the same kind of attention as white Ebola patients.
USA Today reports that Jackson compared Duncan’s care to what American-born Ebola patients have received at other U.S. hospitals.
“It seems the way we treated the Americans in Georgia and Nebraska is different than the way we treated a victim here in Dallas,” Jackson said.
Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas countered quickly with this statement:
“He was treated the way any other patient would have been treated, regardless of nationality or ability to pay for care. We have a long history of treating a multi-cultural community in this area. ”
Well, you can believe Jackson’s comments also caught the attention of folks on the political right and Project 21′s black conservatives in particular. They swiftly struck back with the below statement sent to EURweb:
Washington, DC/Harrisburg, PA – Project 21‘s Archbishop Council Nedd II of the Episcopal Missionary Church has the following response to Jesse Jackson’s effort to inject race into the discussion about the treatment of Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan:
For Jesse Jackson to suggest that Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan might not have gotten the best treatment because of his race is wholly unnecessary and extremely unhelpful. With the nation potentially on the verge of a national health crisis, injecting race into this very emotional issue can only hurt when our nation needs to be unified.
In 2009, I was one of the first people in America to suffer from H1N1 swine flu, having contracted it during a visit to Spain. My doctor initially refused to believe I had swine flu because no one else in Pennsylvania had it at the time, but it was later confirmed when those around me were later diagnosed with it. Doctors in Dallas were obviously not expecting an Ebola patient to show up at their door, but once Duncan was properly diagnosed and quarantined he reportedly received the best care possible. Even Jackson admitted that fact. My misdiagnosis was not rooted in race, and I can’t believe Thomas Eric Duncan’s was either.
On missionary work in Middle East and Africa, I have seen the devastation that untreated disease can cause. I understand the mental and physical toll that may befall the American people if we were to suffer from an outbreak of a contagious and very deadly virus. We need to be ready to work together and not distrust each other.
There was no need for Jesse Jackson to insert himself into the Ebola crisis in the first place. It further cements his reputation as a media-craving race hustler, and it diminishes any good work he has done in the past for civil rights. It’s time for Jackson to retire from public life.
