More than 100 major medical centers that treat America’s most vulnerable patients — communities of color who have been disproportionately harmed by Covid-19 — are nervously preparing for a second wave. A surge of Covid-19 this fall and winter could be catastrophic for the U.S., but it’s not just more sick people that doctors worry about: The hospitals that treat lower-income patients could be forced to shut down or cut crucial services.

“We would absolutely be at risk of closing,” one New Jersey doctor said. “It would be a public health disaster for this community.”