A former employee of the Philadelphia Department of Public Health sued the city, alleging that she was targeted after reporting concerns of racial inequity in the department’s COVID-19 response, hiring, and leadership
Dianna Coleman, who was recently named Block Captain of the Year by the Philadelphia Citizen news website alongside Citizen of the Year and Super Bowl MVP Jalen Hurts, filed the federal complaint in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Tuesday. She accuses the health department of racial discrimination, retaliation, and creating a hostile work environment, and asks for damages in excess of $150,000.
The lawsuit dusts up racial equity criticism of the city’s early COVID-19 testing and vaccination response, which led to the rise of Ala Stanford’s Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium as a way to fill the gap in predominantly Black neighborhoods. Public uproar reached a fever pitch with the Philly Fighting COVID scandal – in which the city handed a large chunk of its early vaccine distribution program to self-described “college kids” with minimal health care qualifications who failed to disclose a for-profit arm…