The painful pandemic lessons Mandy Cohen carries to the CDC

Dr. Mandy Cohen testifying before a congressional committee as a leader of Medicare and Medicaid. More recently, the new director of the CDC headed North Carolina's health department. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — As COVID-19 devastated communities across the nation in spring 2020, a group of Black ministers in this racially divided city made an urgent plea for more testing in their neighborhoods.

Testing at the time "was outside of communities of color," says the Rev. Jordan Boyd, pastor of Rockwell AME Zion Church in Charlotte. For Boyd, pandemic losses were personal: Covid-related complications killed a brother-in-law who worked as a truck driver. "We saw what was happening with our folks."