STAT: Prof. Sprague Martinez Says Long Covid Amplifies Existing Health Inequities
In an article exploring the prevalence and effects of the symptom cluster known as long Covid, STAT looks to Associate Professor Linda Sprague Martinez of Boston University School of Social Work (BUSSW) to understand the societal impact.
Excerpt from “Estimates of long Covid are startlingly high. Here’s how to understand them” by Elizabeth Cooney, originally published by STAT on July 6, 2022:
Long Covid has the potential to widen existing gaps in health, Linda Sprague Martinez of the Boston University School of Social Work said on a video call with reporters, pointing to a map of counties with high case numbers but few long Covid clinics. “We don’t want to wait,” she said. “Getting ahead of it will be really important for us,” she said.
An expert in health equity and community-based participatory research, Prof. Sprague Martinez is a nationally recognized researcher whose work has been featured widely in academic journals and media outlets. She is the director of the health equity core in the long Covid working group at Harvard Medical School’s Massachusetts Consortium on Pathogen Readiness which brings together 17 institutions, including BUSSW, to address the challenges of COVID-19 and prepare for future pandemics.
At Boston University, Prof. Sprague Martinez also serves as assistant director of research at the Center for Antiracist Research, co-director of the Community Engagement Core at the Clinical & Translational Science Institute (CTSI), and faculty affiliate at the Center for Innovation in Social Work & Health (CISWH) at BUSSW.
Read the full STAT article here.