This is a tragic story. A 30-year-old woman, the first in her family to go to college, felt sick and sought testing in Brooklyn. Both times she was rejected. The hospital gave her Tylenol and sent her home. She died of COVID-19.
Rana Zoe Mungin was a black woman. Was she brushed off because of her race?
She must have been a remarkable young woman. She was a graduate of Wellesley College, where admission is highly selective, and UMass at Amherst.
The president of Wellesley, who is also black and is a physician, said that the death of Ms. Mungin highlights racial disparities in access to care.
Rana Zoe Mungin, a graduate of both Wellesley College and UMass Amherst, died Monday from complications associated with COVID-19. On two occasions prior to her death, her family said, Mungin went to a hospital seeking a coronavirus test but was unable to get one.
As the first member of her family to attend college, Rana Zoe Mungin quickly stood out for her work on race and class.
At Wellesley College, where she majored in psychology, she wrote about her family, and her upbringing in Brooklyn. At UMass Amherst, where she later studied creative writing, those at the school said her work added to the national discourse about institutional racism within MFA programs.
And so when Mungin, 30, died Monday from COVID-19 complications — after, her family said, she was twice denied coronavirus tests during trips to a Brooklyn hospital — some who knew her saw a tragic irony: The very biases that Mungin, who was Black, sought to bring attention to in her work ultimately played a role in her death, they say.
The circumstances surrounding her death have left those who knew her reeling. Though her sister believes the doctors and nurses who eventually treated Mungin did the best they could with the resources they had, she is also left to wonder whether earlier testing would’ve resulted in earlier treatment — and a different outcome.
“I felt like she had no fighting chance,” said Mia Mungin, who works as a registered nurse in Brooklyn, in an interview Thursday.
“Rana Zoe’s battle with coronavirus unfortunately sheds light on the systems of racial, gendered, and class bias — entrenched power dynamics — that she sought to expose and change in her work,” read a statement this week released by the English department at UMass Amherst, where Mungin earned her master of fine arts in creative writing in 2015.
“The dismissal of her symptoms is a register of the long history of economic and racial barriers to healthcare faced by Black women in this country.”
Dr. Paula Johnson, president of Wellesley College and a former chief of the division of women’s health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said that Mungin’s experience highlights the longstanding disparities that exist when it comes to minorities’ ability to access health care — and the manner in which they’re treated once they’re there.
“This is historic — we have data points overall for many years, and I think this pandemic has really brought to light these disparities in the most profound way,” said Johnson, who also is Black. “Here’s a young woman, a teacher, and she can not get the care she needs.”
COVID-19 death rates in communities of color have been vastly higher than overall mortality rates in many cities. Black people in New York have been twice as likely to die as white people; and at one point earlier this month, Black people in Chicago reportedly made up nearly 70 percent of the city’s coronavirus-related deaths, despite making up just 30 percent of the population.
Mungin, who worked as a social studies teacher in Brooklyn, was hospitalized in New York. But in Massachusetts, where data on the race and ethnicity of those who’ve died has been spotty — the ethnicity of half of the state’s 3,562 deaths is unknown — Black and Hispanic people have made up about 22 percent of the deaths for which race and ethnicity is known. That’s about the same percentage the groups represent in the population of Massachusetts.
But Black and Hispanic people also make up a disproportionate share of the confirmed COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in the state — roughly 40 percent of cases and 33 percent of hospitalizations for which race and ethnicity data is available…
According to her sister, Mungin visited Brookdale Hospital in Brooklyn on two separate occasions between March 15 and March 19 with fever, chills, and shortness of breath. On both occasions, Mia Mungin said, her sister was told that the hospital wasn’t conducting COVID-19 testing.
Prior to one visit, her sister said, an EMT suggested Mungin was simply suffering from a panic attack.
“What they did was give her some Tylenol and sent her home,” said Mia Mungin.
On March 20, after her symptoms worsened, Mungin returned to the hospital for a third time, this time by ambulance. The following day, according to her sister, she finally received a test for the virus — which came back positive.
Brookdale Hospital did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
Trump, his administration, and the Republican Party are responsible for her death.
In November, vote Trump and the GOP out of power and keep them out of power for the next hundred years.
The Liar Tweets Tonight
If we had been truly prepared for this crisis, hospitals would not have had to deny anyone a test. Race and gender issues would not have entered into any decisions, if in fact they were in this case. This talented young teacher may have survived with earlier treatment, and she could have resumed her teaching career.
With a test when she first fell ill, she would be alive today.
Yes, that tRUMP and the RePUG-nicans are responsible for Rana’s death.
This situation shows the “SICKNESS” in this country and I don’t just mean Covid-19 … I mean the disgust of DRUMPH and this gang of mobsters and molesters.
V E R O
Vote Every Republican Out
Before They Kill Us All
YES
So agree.
Make a bumper sticker.
If you have symptoms similar to the ones described for the unfortunate young woman, insist on having your oxygen level checked at the ER, or, if possible, purchase a pulse oximeter now so that you can track your levels at home. According to reporting in the New York Times and Washington Post, folks with Covid-19 may have dangerously low oxygen levels without being aware of it until it’s too late for them to be saved. Be proactive in monitoring your oxygen or making sure that someone does this for you.
Yes. I have a device provided to me by my alternate medical advisor who is a veterinarian and knows a thing or two about viruses.
This is a tragic case, one among many more unfolding daily.
Oh! How shameful. My deepest condolences to Ms. Mungin’s family.
It’s so important to remember the individuals within the statistics and charts we see all the time.
My condolences to Ms. Mungin’s family.
I.Am.Seething.
I complained of a sinus infection two weeks ago and I was able to get tested for Coronavirus. I was negative. I’m white. I walked into an urgent care in NJ without an appointment. I was able to get tested.
Infuriating.
With Pitchforks?
Sing of song of sick Pence.
I’m not going to lie.
His sycophantic toadiness
just makes me want to cry.
When the country’s opened
with testing not in place,
he and IQ45
from office will be chased.
This is just appalling. I will speak the name of this woman every time I hear our vile President and his Vice talk about what a great job they’ve done on testing.
This is nothing more than a sordid crime against black. It may well explain why we see a higher rate of mortality among people of color.
& yet WH it has been tested at least twice. & ghost veep strolls into Mayo–unmasked–because he knows he doesn’t have the virus, as he is tested “frequently.”
So, apparently, “there are enough tests for everyone.”
Mayors Lori Lightfoot-Chicago & La Toya Cantrell- New Orleans, were recently on a national news show talking about the disparity in the # of cases & deaths in the Black communities vs. white in their cities.
Literally sickening.