Opinion: Race doesn’t affect the onset or progression of disease — racial bias does
Confounding race with genetics causes doctors to miss treatable ailments.
Race has no biological basis and no effect on the onset or progression of disease.
Being Black doesn’t put you at a greater risk for sickle cell disease; having ancestry from a place with high rates of malaria does. You can have white skin and still have sickle cell disease, especially if you have Mediterranean ancestry. When race is used as a crude proxy, we miss the real risk — we underdiagnose and misdiagnose. We increase medical costs and preventable diseases.
