Oregon Nurse Danaya Hall Knows Why COVID-19 Is Disproportionately Killing Black People

This year, she chartered the first Oregon chapter of the Alliance of Black Nurses. “That was in February,” she recalls, “before the world exploded.”

St. Johns, Portland. (Brian Burk)
By Rachel Monahan

WW presents "Distant Voices," a daily video interview for the era of social distancing. Our reporters are asking Portlanders what they're doing during quarantine.

Danaya Hall knew COVID-19 was a death sentence for Black Americans long before the data showed it.

Hall is a registered nurse in Portland. This year, she chartered the first Oregon chapter of the Alliance of Black Nurses. "That was in February," she recalls, "before the world exploded."

As the disease arrived, Hall feared the worst. She knew that the way the health system was designed, Black people would be at greater risk from a respiratory disease pandemic.

That's proven out, with Black people across the country having nearly twice the risk of requiring intensive care after contracting COVID-19.

In this interview, she talks about the ways in which racism in health care starts with training and ends with patients afraid to tell their doctors their symptoms.

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