DEAR EDITOR:

We are fighting a global war against COVID-19, but it won’t stay forever.

It recognizes no boundaries. It has no religion or political affiliation. It has no conscience. Its victims are mainly old, weak, poor and uneducated.

Minorities, such as blacks and Hispanics, are at higher risk than the wealthy or educated. Death rates in black neighborhoods are “6 folds higher.” Minority neighborhoods are poor, poorly educated and harbor risk factors like crowding, diabetes, heart diseases, obesity and poor nutrition. Because of lack of education, they are denied luxuries of working from home.

The underlying factor common to poor communities is lack of good education.

Lack of education and poverty are inseparable Siamese twins.

I have conducted two studies, one on victims of violence, the other on breast cancer. I found that young, mostly adult males — victims and perpetrators — were born and raised in predominantly poor, black neighborhoods. Almost without exception, they had poor education. I will never forget a young man who could not read or write, but received a high school diploma. With sad, downcast eyes he said, “They give me diploma just to get rid of me.”

In my study of breast cancer among white and black women, I found poor black women had higher death rates because they sought help late. I choked with emotion when I saw a beautiful lady in her early 60s whose breast was a huge malignant ulcer. She did not see a doctor earlier because she said, “I did not have insurance.” I wanted to cry.

I can relate to the plight of the poor. I was raised in a village in Yemen with no electricity or running water and often not enough food. Most could not read or write. As one of 16 children, I slept on the floor and celebrated when I had something to eat! It was the force of education that pulled me from the swamp of poverty and ignorance, the same force that must save every child.

About 11.5 million U.S. children and 387 million globally live in extreme poverty. Nearly a billion cannot read or write worldwide.

COVID-19 is temporary. Our permanent, greatest global enemy is poverty and illiteracy.

Only worldwide unity and common purpose could defeat this universal enemy. We cannot afford status quo. Global war on poverty, illiteracy, hunger and diseases will be an investment. It will save lives, and dividends will benefit all humanity.

We shall prevail after COVID-19. But poverty, hunger and illiteracy will remain forever if we allow it.

RASHID ABDU, M.D.

Canfiel