On Pause: How a Group of Medical Students Engaged with Their Community During the COVID-19 Pandemic

During academic clinical suspensions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of medical students in Washington, D.C. collaborated with a local federally qualified health center to launch a free COVID-19 testing site to increase access to testing in the community. The patients who accessed the testing site were predominantly Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino, some of whom were uninsured or without access to testing or a timely physician's referral. In this article, medical students reflect on their experiences at this testing site and provide commentary on how existing racial and socioeconomic health disparities have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. While under the extremely unusual circumstance of a suspension from their clinical rotations, medical students elaborate on the lessons learned from this experience and the continued work required to engage deeply in the issues of equality and racial justice now and in the future.