Thursday, January 9

HEALTH & WELLNESS

How Racism Hinders Care And Costs Lives Of African Americans In US Health System
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HEALTH & WELLNESS

How Racism Hinders Care And Costs Lives Of African Americans In US Health System

As the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the U.S., the virus hit African Americans disproportionately hard. African Americans are still contracting the illness – and dying from it – at rates twice as high as would be expected based on their share of the population. In Michigan, African Americans are only 14% of the population, but account for one-third of the state’s COVID-19 cases and 40% of its deaths. In some states the disparities are even more stark. Wisconsin and Missouri have infection and mortality rates three or more times greater than expected based on their share of the population. Speculation has suggested these disproportions are due to several factors: African Americans are more likely to live in poor neighborhoods, work at riskier occupations, and have more underlying health...
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COVID-19 is laying waste to many US recycling programs
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COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

COVID-19 is laying waste to many US recycling programs

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the U.S. recycling industry. Waste sources, quantities and destinations are all in flux, and shutdowns have devastated an industry that was already struggling. Many items designated as reusable, communal or secondhand have been temporarily barred to minimize person-to-person exposure. This is producing higher volumes of waste. Grocers, whether by state decree or on their own, have brought back single-use plastic bags. Even IKEA has suspended use of its signature yellow reusable in-store bags. Plastic industry lobbyists have also pushed to eliminate plastic bag bans altogether, claiming that reusable bags pose a public health risk. As researchers interested in industrial ecology and new schemes for polymer recycling, we are concerned about challenges f...
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Being Black in the U.S. Makes People More Vulnerable to Chronic Stress and COVID-19 and Other Diseases
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COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

Being Black in the U.S. Makes People More Vulnerable to Chronic Stress and COVID-19 and Other Diseases

Racism is a chronic, uncontrollable, and unpredictable stress that can wreak havoc on the mind and body. The COVID-19 pandemic and the deaths of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery are two major catastrophes that shine a light on longstanding social inequities and injustices toward African Americans. Emerging research in the field of social genomics demonstrates how social stress, such as racism and discrimination, can shift the body’s biological resources toward a state that increases risk for disease. For example, our research group has found that racial discrimination may be affecting the way genes are expressed, leading to increased levels of dangerous stress hormones. These differences were found even when social determinant factors such as poverty and other forms of stress were accounte...
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Coronavirus deaths and those of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery have something in common: Racism
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COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

Coronavirus deaths and those of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery have something in common: Racism

The COVID-19 pandemic and the deaths of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery are two major catastrophes that shine a light on longstanding social inequities and injustices toward African Americans. Emerging research in the field of social genomics demonstrates how social stress, such as racism and discrimination, can shift the body’s biological resources toward a state that increases risk for disease. For example, our research group has found that racial discrimination may be impacting the way genes are expressed, leading to increased levels of dangerous stress hormones. These differences were found even when social determinant factors such as poverty and other forms of stress were accounted for. Hence, racial discrimination experiences may also explain why African Americans continue to remain...
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During COVID-19 A Community Rallies to Change Prison Rules
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COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

During COVID-19 A Community Rallies to Change Prison Rules

Here at the Washington State Reformatory in Monroe, four living units—each housing roughly 200 prisoners—share one recreation yard. And around this time of year, I could watch as teams gathered almost daily to compete on the soccer field or practice around the baseball diamond, as countless residents strolled the quarter-mile track, which surrounds both. Outside the track, some played horseshoes, bocce, handball, basketball, and used the array of pullup and dip bars, while others sat at cement tables slapping cards and banging dominoes. Needless to say, our yard isn’t small. All this changed in early April, after news that the first cases of COVID-19 inside a state prison had been confirmed at Monroe Correctional Complex, where the reformatory is. Courageous fellow residents, refusing to...
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Clap all you like now, but workers with meaningful jobs deserve to be valued in a post-coronavirus economy too
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COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

Clap all you like now, but workers with meaningful jobs deserve to be valued in a post-coronavirus economy too

The coronavirus recession has laid bare how illogically the U.S. labor market values work that matters. In the United States, as elsewhere, citizens have been extolling the role of essential workers – such as nurses, grocery suppliers and delivery drivers – by, for example, rewarding them with nightly claps. Yet many of these employees receive low pay and few protections, suggesting a different appreciation of their worth in the market. But in highlighting this disconnect, perhaps the crisis has also provided an opportunity to reimagine an economy that values jobs for something more than just wealth creation: meaningfulness. A moral market? Meaningfulness has to do with how much one’s work matters in a moral sense, which is not always signified by how much money a job pays. It often rela...
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Obamacare’s insurance safety net protects many of the millions losing their employer-provided health insurance – but not all
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HEALTH & WELLNESS, Journalism

Obamacare’s insurance safety net protects many of the millions losing their employer-provided health insurance – but not all

The loss of 31 million jobs due to coronvirus has an added downside: 27 million have lost job-based health insurance. The worst may still lie ahead. One study estimated that 25 to 43 million people could lose coverage from their employer. The situation for many Americans feels dramatic. Fortunately, the limited U.S. safety net will be able to cushion some of the fallout for almost 80% through programs like Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Affordable Care Act marketplaces. And, of course, all preexisting conditions are still required to be covered by all insurers. Yet millions will be left without coverage. As a professor of public policy, I believe there are four things you need to consider if you’ve been laid off, or if you didn’t have health insurance before th...
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Coronavirus tests are pretty accurate, but far from perfect
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COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

Coronavirus tests are pretty accurate, but far from perfect

Widespread testing for the SARS-CoV-2 virus is important to both slow the virus and gain information about how widespread it is in the U.S. But a second aspect of testing has gotten less attention: accuracy. It’s surprisingly hard to determine how accurate a coronavirus test is, identify the cause of any inaccuracies and understand how inaccuracies affect the data public health officials use to make decisions. There are two main types of test in use. The first is a reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction test, or RT-PCR. This is the most common diagnostic test used to identify people currently infected with SARS-CoV-2. It works by detecting viral RNA in a person’s cells – most often collected from their nose. The second test being used is called a serological or antibody test. T...
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Black Americans are bearing the brunt of coronavirus recession – this should come as no surprise
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HEALTH & WELLNESS, Journalism

Black Americans are bearing the brunt of coronavirus recession – this should come as no surprise

As the COVID-19 pandemic worsened in April, many Americans were shocked by the extent that black Americans were being disproportionately impacted: higher infection rates, more deaths and greater job loss. But many black Americans were not surprised. This is not new. The same dynamic has been going on at times of crisis for decades and generations. As a labor economist and former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor under the Clinton administration, I know that history has shown that black Americans consistently bear the brunt of recessions and natural disasters. Economic history repeating itself Prior to this pandemic, the worst economic downturns in post-World War II America were the 1981-82 recession and the Great Recession that followed the 2007-2008 financial crisis. Duri...
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VIDEO: What does lockdown mean for the world’s poor?
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COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS, VIDEO REELS

VIDEO: What does lockdown mean for the world’s poor?

Severe restrictions on travel and economic activity have been imposed in many parts of the world. For the poor, recessions have always meant starvation, lack of medical support for diseases including HIV treatment programmes, and in particular the deaths of infants and children vulnerable to malnutrition and childhood disease. What do the restrictions mean for these people? That’s the question a new 30 minute documentary seeks to answer – by asking the people who are most affected. The documentary is the result of a collaboration between the Institute for the Future of Knowledge at the University of Johannesburg, and the not for profit organisation Picturing Health. It features interviews with market traders, community workers, and ordinary people in Uganda, Malawi, Zambia, and India. Exp...
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