Panel on Discrimination in Time of COVID Features Dr., Alum, Oprah’s ‘Premier Role Model’  

Each week Professor Bryan Pilkington holds a conversation with leading experts from medicine, nursing, and the health sciences, as well as political theorists, economists, ethicists and philosophers.

Focused on the impact of COVID-19, the topic of conversation this week will be "Discrimination in the Time of COVID," and will feature a panel of multi-disciplinary experts from around the country, including Seton Hall alumnus Dr. Sampson Davis.

Dr. Davis is an E.R physician, inspirational speaker, best-selling author and media personality who has appeared on Oprah, Dr. Oz, The Today Show, The View, CBS This Morning, PBS News Hour, Anderson Cooper 360 and NPR as well as print publications including People, O Magazine, Reader’s Digest, The Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today, Parade and Black Enterprise.

Oprah Winfrey named Dr. Davis "one of the premier role models of the world."

A native of Newark, New Jersey, his most recent book, Living and Dying in Brick City: An E.R. Doctor Returns Home, looks at the healthcare crisis in the inner city from a rare perspective: as a doctor who works on the front line of emergency medical care in the community where he grew up, and as a member of that community who has faced the same challenges as the people he treats every day.

"COVID-19 itself is not discriminatory," said Pilkington. "The virus seeks its next host regardless of race, religion, age, wealth, ethnicity or ability. The disproportionate impact of this virus on minority populations and the poor and disenfranchised is due, in no small part, to systemic inequalities and discriminatory practices with deep roots. Many members of our communities face obstacles in accessing healthcare and other resources which are necessary to live a healthy life— and those obstacles and disparities in access are writ large and as plain as day in the statistics of death."

"This panel, with experts who are engaged in the front-line battle against both COVID-19 and discrimination, will focus on the problems that face us – and solutions," he concluded.

Pilkington, an associate professor in the School of Health and Medical Sciences at Seton Hall University and the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine at Seton Hall University, serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy and the Editorial Advisory Boards of HealthCare Ethics Committee Forum and Christian Bioethics, and is a Junior Scholar at the Paul Ramsey Institute

"Dr. Pilkington’s panels have brought together thought leaders and practitioners from law, medicine, ethics and the social sciences to discuss in real time the impact of this deadly virus and what a viable path forward may look like," said Dean Bonita Stanton of the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine at Seton Hall University. "This is the function of a University and a health care network at its finest: responding interprofessionally in the midst of an unprecedented crisis in a manner designed to enhance the well-being of real people in the real world."

In addition to Dr. Sampson Davis, the panel will include:

1. Lynette Martins, LL.B. (Law), MBE, PGDip (Population Health), Co-chairman of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities Law and Bioethics Affinity Group
2. Ki Joo (KC) Choi, Ph.D., associate professor and chair of the department of religion at Seton Hall University and author of Disciplined by Race: Theological Ethics and the Problem of Asian American Identity (2019), the first major critical and constructive interpretation of Asian American experiences of race by a theological ethicist.
3. Dr. David S. Kountz, M.D., M.B.A., F.A.C.P., Associate Dean of Diversity and Equity at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine at Seton Hall University

The panel will take place on Wednesday, May 20, 2020, at 12:30 p.m.
Call in/video info: Call-in (NY): +1 929 436 2866
Meeting ID: 936 2467 7815
Password: 20192023

Formed with the belief that we arrive at the best answers to challenging ethical questions by practically reasoning together, "Discrimination Intensified: Equity in the Time of COVID," is the eighth installment of this panel program.

Many of these panels have spurred additional student advocacy, including a letter writing campaign led by Clara Chen, a second-year student at the School of Medicine, and plans to address food insecurity heightened by the pandemic.

"This has been a great opportunity for students from the College of Nursing, the School of Health and Medical Sciences and the School of Medicine to come together with these panelists to ask questions and learn more about COVID-19 from a variety of perspectives in a true interprofessional space. I am excited that students, have access to these resources and opportunities to integrate what they have learned in their various programs with current events," said Kelly Freeman, the director of Student Life at the Interprofessional Health Sciences Campus at Seton Hall. Freeman has been instrumental in the production of the panels to date and is overseeing the students' advocacy efforts. 

Previous panels have covered:

• Ethics and Questions of Risk in Healthcare: An Interprofessional Discussion
• Today and Tomorrow: Prioritizing the Present in the Time of COVID Sports and Recreation in the Time of COVID
• Intentions and the Limits of Aid: Best Practices in the Fight against COVID
• Pregnancy and Covid-19: Keeping Mothers Babies Well
• Lattes and Letters – a student advocacy session
• Vulnerability and Dependence in the Time of COVID

Categories: Health and Medicine