The rapid spread of COVID-19, or the novel coronavirus, has ravaged communities in the U.S. and across the world. In major cities such as New Orleans, Chicago, and Milwaukee, a majority of the new cases have been African American patients. Internet conspiracies and a historic mistrust of the medical field has only made many not go to the hospital. One journalist is looking to change the way black people stay informed about the virus outbreak.
Veteran journalist Patrice Peck has introduced a new newsletter dedicated to giving the black community important and up-to-date coronavirus news. Peck says they will be sending out about three emails every
week containing a variety of news stories and opinion essays related to the coronavirus pandemic pertaining to the black community who are disproportionately suffering from the virus compared to other races in the United States.“As a black woman and freelance journalist passionate about writing stories for us, I’ve been desperately brainstorming constructive
ways to lend my writing skills to help suppress the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and pandemic,” Peck wrote in the newsletter’s first story. “At the same time, for a *long* time, I’ve been wanting to write more original stories independent from any publication, for my own audience, and to start a newsletter as a way of practicing that. So I decided to combine all of these ideas and dedicate my newsletter SpeakPatrice to highlighting coronavirus news for black folks, both stories written by other journalists and by me, Patrice Peck.”She took to Twitter to make a formal announcement with information on how to sign up.