Status Updates From Infections and Inequalities...

Infectious disease models need to be dynamic, systemic, and critical to observe the reason they spread. We must be self critical of our own lens to fully understand how diseases stay prevalent. It is to the direct detriment of all of us to ignore poverty as a great risk factor for ID spread. The “two-world myth” does not hold in an ever globalizing world.

How do life conditions influence our choices? Our ability to choose is a basic freedom that shouldn’t be limited. I think of my patients that can’t take work off to come get their medications. Or my patients that refuse tests because they can’t afford it. Poor people are not less compliant in their health. Their chooses are limited by their situation. We must meet them where they are and we’ll all benefit.

“The inequalities of outcome… are biological reflections of social fault lines.” Our patient’s outcome has just as much to do with medicine as their social status. It is up to us to bridge the gap and fight for them so they have access.