Primary care needs to rise to the challenge of caring for patients during climate disasters

As a primary care physician and climate health research fellow, I’m alarmed by how unprepared I was to counsel and care for my patients during an air quality emergency in New York City earlier this year. In June 2023, air pollution from wildfires raging in Canada moved into regions of the northeastern United States. As a result, communities in New York City were exposed to the worst air quality in the city’s recorded history.1The first day wildfire smoke blanketed New York City, I was seeing patients. Daylight had quickly turned into a dim, hazy, orange glow, and the air inside my clinic began to smell like burning campfire wood. I work at a federally qualified health centre, which is federally funded to provide preventive medical care to underserved communities in the US. Many of my patients have multiple, chronic health conditions that increase their risk of severe health outcomes from…
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