25 Jan AN INVISIBLE HERO OF THE PANDEMIC

An invisible hero of the pandemic, Dr. Eugene Allen, of Dusk to Dawn Urgent Care locations across Southern California, felt the weight of community first hand. In the beginning of the pandemic, fear among local citizens in Los Angeles and Orange County left them at a stand-still. Everyone was anxiously waiting for confirmation from government and city officials on public solutions and next steps for testing.

After the death of a 17-year-old teenager in Lancaster, Dr. Allen decided it was time to launch his efforts forward and expand services across the Los Angeles and Orange County communities. No one knew what they were in for when December 2019 rolled around. The coughs of Covid-19 were just barely wafting through the news media, and beginning to spread with increasing speed. By the end of February 2020, the country began to shut down. As more people became ill, it was abundantly clear that we were sailing in uncharted waters and success in gaining the upper-hand would be based on how resourceful the communities were.

In March of 2020, Dr. Allen became overwhelmed by the growing number of patients visiting his offices for Covid-19 related questions and concerns. This led to the Doctor making the decision to find and locate testing supplies and sourcing tents to house the actual testing facilities. Dr. Allen began pre-screening for Covid-19 testing at 4 of his urgent care locations in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

“Dr. Allen states: My heart was broken when my patients tested positive and now had to be quarantined. They are not able to go out to purchase food or simple things for day-to-day living. Testing positive was not the end for my relationship with my patients, they are family. Right now, they need help with getting food.”

The Doctor boldly proclaimed his position, by putting his money where his heart was, in protecting the community. He was fully committed to doing what he could, in an effort to limit the spread of the Coronavirus for Los Angeles and Orange County residents. Dr. Allen and the Dusk to Dawn Urgent Care Staff worked tirelessly around the clock, testing residents in the cities of Paramount, Montebello, Gardena and Anaheim for weeks. They were successful in testing more than 500 potential COVID-19 patients over a 10-day period, with only two, of all patients tested, returning positive results.

Dr. Allen championed a new program, CoronaVirus Test Los Angeles, in an effort to draw those out of the shadows, who believed they had come in contact with the virus. He created St. Vincent Gene’s – a group of vendors and volunteers, whose purpose is to single-handedly feed thousands of homeless, quarantined families, and provided free Covid-19 testing to those who were uninsured. Dr. Allen himself even took to delivering food to his patients that tested positive for Covid-19 in Los Angeles and Orange County.

Dr. Eugene Allen established the first Dusk to Dawn Urgent Care in Paramount, California in 2003. Their mission is to provide a community-based brand of Urgent Care, with services to include: culturally diverse Doctors, PA’s and Nurse Practitioners. If the pandemic has done anything, it has opened our eyes to a new way of thinking and reacting. Los Angeles communities are looking for fresh solutions to old problems and concerns. They are looking for people who represent them, their needs, and their voices. Dr. Allen is in the trenches, willing to get dirty, putting in the work to get things done. With all that he gives of his time and empathy, reaching into his own pocket in the name of protecting the health of the community, Dr. Eugene Allen truly is an invisible hero of the pandemic.

by Laura Turner