DESCRIPTION:
Kenneth Nave, MD, Physician in Primary Care and Internal Medicine and someone infected with the COVID-19 virus.
The Reverend Doctor Melissa Sexton is a post-doctoral fellow in the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at the Morehouse School of Medicine and an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church. Dr. Sexton is completing a practicum with the Interfaith Health Program as part of her fellowship; as part of that work, she is interviewing those with particular insights into the religious and spiritual dimensions of the COVID-19 outbreak and our responses to it.
The interview begins with Dr. Nave recounting his long-standing affiliation with the Satcher family. He then goes on to discuss the health disparities that are a key factor in the poor health outcomes that Black Americans face, not only in relation to COVID-19 but on other health conditions as well. He frames the illnesses that Black and Latinx Americans often experience in light of both biomedical and social-structural factors. Challenging the claim that there was no way to foresee and prepare for this outbreak, Dr. Nave argues instead that the severity of the outbreak has been a result of a failure to respond when the dangers in front of us were already known. He notes how both physicians and theologians are needed to speak out forcefully and the ways in which they are doing so.
Dr. Nave frames one of the impacts of social distancing as the growth in “virtual” interactions that rely on technology. Believing that human beings are made for interaction and relationship, he worries about this outcome of the outbreak even as he recognizes the importance of infection control at this point in time. Dr. Nave and Dr. Sexton then discuss the importance and limitations of testing.
The interview ends with Dr. Nave discussing his own experience with COVID infection. Dr. Nave was part of a clinical training group of 30 people. One person attended the group with symptoms and they tested positive for the virus. Over 80% of those in the group were infected. He discusses the things we still do not know about this virus and wonders about the numbers of Americans infected.