In the wake of the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, Brian Lucas interviews Dr. Abdul Omari about the public health crisis of racism, which is unfortunately very much tied to our coronavirus response.

The fact is, COVID-19 is disproportionally infecting and killing black Americans.  A report by the CDC attributes this to a variety of factors including living conditions, work circumstances and underlying health conditions including lack of insurance or access to quality care.

This pandemic, just like the issues of police violence, is exposing long standing issues that we’ll unfortunately be dealing with long after we have a vaccine for COVID-19.

To explore this complex topic, Brian Lucas interviews Dr. Abdul Omari. Dr. Omari has a PhD in comparative and international development education from the University of Minnesota.  He is the son of immigrant parents and is a dedicated public servant in Minneapolis.  He served on the Board of Regents of the University of Minnesota for six years and is currently on the U of M Foundation Board of Trustees as well as numerous other boards trying to address critical issues in the state, and promoting leadership development and mentoring.