Danielle Verghese

#WhiteCoatsForBlackLives I’m so grateful to every single person who joined today. We came together from medical school, anesthesiology, OB/GYN, urology, family medicine, and internal medicine to remember #GeorgeFloyd. It’s time to break the culture of silence. #MedTwitter

Philadelphia healthcare providers, you can sign up on serv.pa.gov/agreement.php to join the Philadelphia Medical Reserve Corps. #AfghanLivesMatter #AfghanRefugees #medtwitter #Philadelphia

This is not a far-off crisis, and we must be more than spectators. Whether you donate to relief efforts in Afghanistan or call your local politicians to advocate on behalf of the Afghan refugees, you CAN make a difference.

All were polite and courteous, despite the inhumanity to which they had been subjected, despite having every right to feel like the world had turned its back on them.

I’m not sure how much we were able to contribute. Some parents cracked a weary smile as they watched a group of young doctors scramble to keep up in a game of handball with their kids. Some brightened up when they heard, “Salaam aleikum.”

We practiced shaky phrases in Pashto, hoping that a “Welcome” and “Good luck to you” in a familiar tongue might help signal some of the warmth we wanted to convey. As some of the first people they would meet in America, we wanted them to know they were received with open arms.

As we headed to the Philadelphia Airport this past Sunday, we struggled to imagine how we could help in one of the greatest humanitarian crises of our time. The toys and snacks we had gathered seemed just as inadequate as the point of care medical interventions we could provide.

Bullets don’t treat mental illness #wherethetasersat

"For extraordinary diseases, with extraordinary measures and extraordinary means, there are ways to treat illness. If you are Rohingya, there is nothing." theintima.org/vicious-by-tim… #RohingyaGenocide

We have a long, long way to go. But preventing voter intimidation? That’s one jawn we can be proud of #BadThingsHappenInPhiladelphia

In Philadelphia, we see how “law and order” politics have pitted law enforcement against Communities of Color. We encounter the ramifications of institutionalized racism, both imperceptible and all-too-real, in our daily practice. We check our privilege.

In Philadelphia, we don’t stigmatize patients who battle addiction. We uplift and empower. We recognize that our patients are casualties of an epidemic unleashed by a system that prioritizes profit margins over human lives. We pick up the pieces. #BadThingsHappenInPhiladelphia

Oh and in Philadelphia, we try every trick in the book to connect our patients to basic medications. For preventable diseases. Because insulin is not, in fact, “like water.” Because a month of insulin costs more than a year of taxes for a billionaire #PresidentialDebate2020

Erected by the Commonweatlh of Pennsylvania in honor of Her Colored Soldiers #BadThingsHappenInPhiladelphia

Bad things happen in Philadelphia #PresidentialDebate #vote

-Wildflowers cascading down from train tracks -Rust-winged hawk looking sovereign on an iron crossbeam -A man sitting on warehouse steps, tie finally loosened from his uniform shirt, playing saxophone for no one in particular Vibrancy on a gray ride through North Philly #mindful

I also realized I have the privilege of shrugging it off. I’m a brown woman in medicine. People see me and assume I’m a doctor. I benefit from bias all the time. But this same bias makes it harder for Black and Latinx women in medicine to be recognized for their training.