In this article, “Black Lives in a Pandemic: Implications of Systemic Injustice for End‐of‐Life Care,” the author makes the argument that if George Floyd were not murdered, but died of COVID-19, the cause of death would still be structural racism. Elbaum highlights the idea of human life and what it means to die for both white and black people living in the United States. He explores the concept of palliative care and how it is rooted in racism and injustice. The article shows the barriers between African Americans and palliative care. He relates these ideas to the pandemic and shows why black people are dying of COVID-19 at a disproportionate rate to whites. The reasons include the high number of black people that have essential jobs during the pandemic. Also, black communities statistically have a lower average life expectancy. When the pandemic hit, many states implemented the rationing of medical resources. The framework for this prioritizes patients with a higher survival outlook. The framework rejected the disparities of life expectancy in different racial groups. A black person is more likely to be refused medical care for COVID-19 because they have a shorter life expectancy than a white person. The rationing of medical resources, in essence, sacrifices black people to save the lives of the white and the more privileged. He uses all these facts as evidence for the idea that black people are not just dying of COVID-19, but of structural racism.
