It didn't take a pandemic for me to realize how essential women, especially women of color, are to medicine.

Long before March, when the first coronavirus case was confirmed here in my home state of New York, I already knew that physicians were essential & valuable, although

many of us are not treated that way.

In particular, Black women have been critical to medicine women who continue to do the additional work of not only caring for the well & sick, but also advocating both on an individual and community-level for communities that are marginalized

and often disenfranchised.

As we near 2 months of this tragic situation, many of us are tired. We are tired of seeing the same story play out of black and brown communities continuing to face injustice in healthcare and in life, in general. As the founder of an empowerment group

for Black women physicians, I can easily say that we are tired- tired of this injustice not being in the forefront and only a priority for few health institutions and largely due to the voices of physicians of color.

However, I am tired of the continuous stories that discuss

the problem in a myriad of different ways without discussion or demonstration of the solutions that communities and physicians of color have had to create, in the absence of local, state and federal governmental action. Solutions that display the ingenuity of Black women doctors

hysicians who are testing vaccines, setting up their own testing centers in communities of color, or leveraging telemedicine to give healthcare access and keep families out of the emergency room. Why?

We can no longer wait for systemic action to counteract the systemic racism

that has led to disproportionate deaths in the communities that so many of us grew up in, the communities where we work and the communities we love and hold dearly to our heart.

Our people are dying. Our kids, parents, siblings, grandparents, spouses- our communities.

A decade ago, working in Africa, with kids with HIV, I have seen how easy it is for governments to stay silent when we are dying.

So we have work to do but we cannot once again continue to do it in silos. Women cannot burn ourselves out. We must do the work collaboratively.

We must check in on each other and we must lift our voices in unison and often.

We must take care of ourselves, so that we have the strength, creativity and resilience to ensure that the fight to save lives in the war against this virus is equitable and just.