A Top Immunologist on Why Coronavirus Is Killing More African-Americans
Head of Nashville’s Meharry Medical College discusses Covid-19’s outsize toll on people of color, why a vaccine might be far offLauren Weber
The Wall Street Journal
James Hildreth has been waging battle against viruses for four decades—first as a Rhodes scholar earning his Ph.D. in immunology, then as a researcher and physician working to bring better medical care to the fight against AIDS, particularly for African-Americans.
Today, Dr. Hildreth is bringing his expertise to bear on Covid-19 as president and chief executive of Nashville, Tenn.’s Meharry Medical College, one of the nation’s largest historically black medical schools.
As more data reveals the disproportionate rate at which African-Americans are being infected with and dying from the novel coronavirus, Dr. Hildreth sees opportunities missed and warnings ignored. In Nashville, he is trying to mitigate the virus’s toll by operating a testing site at Meharry, explaining the science behind the virus at Mayor John Cooper’s briefings and designing experiments to test drug treatments for Covid-19.
Read the full article on The Wall Street Journal's website.
