How TikTok’s Medical Mythbuster exposes racism in healthcare

Last week, we took a trip to VidCon in Anaheim, California, to meet up with some of the top creators in the industry. Joel Bervell, a fourth-year medical student at Washington State University, rose to fame on TikTok for calling out racial inequities in the healthcare system. One of his first videos, posted early on in the pandemic, taught people that pulse oximeters can overestimate oxygen saturation on people with darker skin—a fact with serious implications for Black COVID patients who weren’t receiving the necessary care. In our conversation, Joel talked about the myths about race that he’s encountered in medical school and how social media can be a powerful educational tool.