June 25, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 117 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session

[Page H2427]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                RECOGNIZING THE BLACK DOCTORS CONSORTIUM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Pennsylvania (Ms. Scanlon) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to share with you the 
inspiring story of a Philadelphia doctor who has gone above and beyond 
the call of duty in this extraordinary time to combat the 
disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black and Brown communities in 
my district and across the country.
  As evidence mounted that Black Americans were suffering both from 
greater exposure to COVID-19 and from less access to testing, Dr. Ala 
Stanford, a board certified surgeon, was done waiting. She took the 
community into her own hands, as so many Black women have done when our 
institutions have failed them, and she recruited a group of Black 
healthcare workers to form the Black Doctors Consortium.
  Staffed by Black doctors, med students, and nurses on their days off, 
the Black Doctors Consortium has spent the past few months using their 
own resources to test thousands of patients in church parking lots, 
union halls, and rec centers, going into our communities to deliver 
testing services where they are most needed.
  The group recently received a $1 million grant to expand and plans to 
start testing 250 to 350 people a day.
  Looking ahead, the Black Doctors Consortium plans to use their 
successful community-based approach to distribute COVID vaccines once 
they become available.
  Dr. Stanford represents the very best of who we are and the 
leadership we so desperately need in times of crisis.
  I thank Dr. Stanford and her entire group for their courage and 
commitment to addressing inequality with direct action.

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