I chose this section because these statistics really show the disparity that exists when it comes to medicine and how bias can affect it. You have this majority who are more likely to contract this disease and are much more likely to die from it, yet the minority are used to test the treatment. It doesn’t make sense, and the difference is too wide for it to be a case of normal probability.

Like Dr. Coney states in the article, it’s important to become aware of existing biases, racial or otherwise, and work to reduce them as much as possible. This is the only way we can truly design systems for equity and inclusion. As a Black woman, reading and hearing about the disparities in health care that exist both for Black people and women of all races legitimately scares me sometimes. I’ve seen videos about people bringing awareness to incidents like symptoms being relegated as “normal” for Black people when they’d raise flags when found in a White person or pain for cis-gendered women being minimized by doctors while it’s taken much more seriously for cis-gendered men. This article is primarily about racial bias in clinical trials, but it makes it clear that bias is found all over the healthcare field, whether in the clinic, medical school, or a lab.

The article overall really resonated with me. I find it very valuable when people write and publish about bias-caused disparities in their fields, particularly when it affects nearly every person in the country. This topic is important and awareness is the first step to solving the problem.