We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.

—Martin Luther King Jr, from Why We Can’t Wait

The last year and a half made a permanent and unforgettable mark on history. Much like I learned about my grandparents’ experience with the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, my grandchildren will be reading about 2020—the year of the COVID-19 pandemic. And much as I learned about the activism of the 1960s, future generations will learn about the activism during the summer of 2020, when George Perry Floyd Jr died in police custody.

The 2 seemingly disparate events linked only by time—the spring of 2020—are, in reality, inextricably linked. These 2 events highlight why we cannot wait to address persistent, systemic inequities that affect general health and welfare of the country.

The pandemic has laid bare clear disparities in health. A study published last year reported that those with lower education levels and areas with higher percentages of Black residents had higher rates of COVID-19 cases and fatalities. A more recent study with even larger data pools (>4 million cases) reported that socioeconomic status, racial/ethnic minority status, household composition, and environmental factors were significantly associated with both COVID-19 incidence and mortality due to COVID-19. Racial disparities are also evident at every level of the criminal justice system. Mr Floyd had recently lost his job due to the pandemic when he was stopped by police and arrested for allegedly passing a counterfeit $20 bill. He was in a Black, lower-income neighborhood when he had this fateful interaction with the police. We cannot wait for the pandemic to be over or for equality to become the norm.

At a deeper level, questions about how the George Floyds of the world access health care need answering. In “Cancer Disparities and Health Equity: A Policy Statement From the American Society of Clinical Oncology,” the organization recommends equitable access to high-quality care, equitable research, addressing structural barriers, and the need to increase awareness and action. In our specialty area, oncology rehabilitation, we, too, must tackle unfairness in the system. Our role as rehabilitation practitioners has always included advocacy for those in need; we can parlay our expertise in advocacy toward disparities in cancer rehabilitation. It is essential to reveal the barriers and lack of accessibility to rehabilitation services for those with cancer. Even before this, determining what role rehabilitation practitioners may have in preventing cancer needs further study and development. The COVID-19 pandemic and the activism of the summer of 2020 are a message: the time is ripe to do right.

In January 2023, Rehabilitation Oncology will publish a special issue focusing on Disparities in Cancer Rehabilitation, with Lisa Van Hoose, PT, PhD, MPH, leading a team of guest editors curating this issue. We are seeking original research examining gaps in access, quality, and affordability of rehabilitation care as well as what effect disparities have on disability in relation to cancer. Our call for papers is available on our Web site: www.rehabonc.com. Interested authors will need to submit a proposal by March 1, 2022.

All individuals with cancer deserve access to rehabilitation to assist in recovery. We must use our time creatively, now, to address the disparities facing our family, friends, and neighbors.

– Editor, Mary Insana Fisher, PT, PhD