Saturday, December 21

Tag: fighting

More Questions Answered – Will New Vaccines Be Better At Fighting Coronavirus Variants?
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COVID-19

More Questions Answered – Will New Vaccines Be Better At Fighting Coronavirus Variants?

The first three coronavirus vaccines earned Emergency Use Authorization more than a year ago. To date, no other vaccines have been put into use in the U.S – but that will soon change. More than 40 vaccines are undergoing clinical trials in the U.S., employing a number of different approaches to protecting people from the coronavirus. Vaibhav Upadhyay and Krishna Mallela have been studying the coronavirus spike protein since the outbreak of the pandemic and are developing COVID-19 therapeutics. Together, they explain what vaccines are in development and why some of the vaccines should be better than what’s available now. 1. Why are companies working on new vaccines? A major reason why new vaccines are important – and why the world is still dealing with COVID-19 – is the continued emergence ...
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Young Voters Are Fighting Back Against Voter Suppression
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Journalism, POLITICS

Young Voters Are Fighting Back Against Voter Suppression

Politics In November 2020, young voters exercised their electoral power by turning out in record numbers to help Democrats win the White House and other key races. In 2021, however, an onslaught of voter suppression measures being enacted in statehouses could have an outsized impact on those young people, according to voting rights advocates. “We’ve seen some pretty concerted efforts to push back against that new engagement from young voters,” says attorney Sean Morales-Doyle, acting director for Voting Rights and Elections at the Brennan Center for Justice. The Brennan Center has reported that so far this year at least 18 states have enacted 30 laws to make it harder to vote, and more than 400 bills with provisions that restrict voting access have been introduced in state legislatures....
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For 25 Years The Internet Archive Has Been Fighting To Keep What’s On The Web From Disappearing – And You Can Help
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TECHNOLOGY

For 25 Years The Internet Archive Has Been Fighting To Keep What’s On The Web From Disappearing – And You Can Help

Kayla Harris, University of Dayton; Christina Beis, University of Dayton, and Stephanie Shreffler, University of Dayton This year the Internet Archive turns 25. It’s best known for its pioneering role in archiving the internet through the Wayback Machine, which allows users to see how websites looked in the past. Increasingly, much of daily life is conducted online. School, work, communication with friends and family, as well as news and images, are accessed through a variety of websites. Information that once was printed, physically mailed or kept in photo albums and notebooks may now be available only online. The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed even more interactions to the web. You may not realize portions of the internet are constantly disappearing. As librarians and archivists, we str...
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The US Again Gets To Choose How It Stops Fighting In Afghanistan
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IN OTHER NEWS, POLITICS

The US Again Gets To Choose How It Stops Fighting In Afghanistan

Thomas Alan Schwartz, Vanderbilt University As headlines proclaim the “end” of “America’s longest war,” President Joe Biden’s withdrawal of the remaining U.S. military personnel from Afghanistan is being covered by some in the news media as though it means the end of the conflict – or even means peace – in Afghanistan. It most certainly does not. For one thing, the war is not actually ending, even if the U.S. participation in it is dwindling. Afghan government forces, armed and equipped with U.S. supplies – at least for the moment – will continue to fight the Taliban. Disengagement from an armed conflict is common U.S. practice in recent decades – since the 1970s, the country’s military has simply left Vietnam, Iraq and now Afghanistan. But for much of the country’s history, Americans w...
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Why Fighting Everyday Sexism Enriches Men Too – And Why Women Need Male Allies In The Workplace
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SOCIETY

Why Fighting Everyday Sexism Enriches Men Too – And Why Women Need Male Allies In The Workplace

Meg Warren, Western Washington University Women and groups advocating for gender equality are increasingly urging men to become allies in the fight. Research has shown that in the absence of male support, women have to shoulder the burden of battling routine workplace sexism such as misogynist humor and microaggressions on their own. This can lead to a sense of isolation, stress and exhaustion. But what difference can one un-sexist man make? My colleagues and I had a hunch that the actions of individual male allies – even through simple acts such as highlighting the strengths of female colleagues or checking in on their well-being – might serve as a counterweight to the negative effects of everyday sexism. But not only that, we decided to study how that might impact men as well. How to...
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Trump’s Wealth May Be The Best Medicine In Fighting COVID-19
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COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

Trump’s Wealth May Be The Best Medicine In Fighting COVID-19

With President Donald Trump testing positive for coronavirus, speculation has begun regarding possible outcomes. The reality is, it’s impossible to say for certain what will happen to an individual once they’ve contracted COVID. Some people might have no symptoms at all, while others might have far worse outcomes. It’s one of the many mysteries of the virus that scientists worldwide are working around the clock to untangle. When it comes to risk, we do know some things, but many remain uncertain. We can change some things, and some we’re stuck with. It’s now common knowledge that age is the most important factor driving the risk of worse outcomes from COVID. Being male, living with obesity, being from a non-White ethnic group and having long-term conditions—such as diabetes and heart dise...
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A Researcher Reflects On Progress Fighting Hepatitis C – And A Path Forward
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TECHNOLOGY

A Researcher Reflects On Progress Fighting Hepatitis C – And A Path Forward

When I began my medical career in Hong Kong in the early 1980s, I chose to focus on hepatitis B, in part because it was very common and because the hepatitis C virus had not yet been discovered. I witnessed the devastation that this virus caused – cirrhosis, liver failure and liver cancer – and the lack of treatments we could offer to patients. Back then, scientists knew there was another type of hepatitis, but no one could identify it, so we called it non-A, non-B hepatitis. I would never have imagined that during the course of my career I would witness the discovery of what came to be known as hep C and the development of a cure for nearly all patients with chronic hepatitis C in 2014. Underscoring the importance of these discoveries for global human health, this year’s Nobel Prize in ...
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Drug Users Fighting Back Against America’s War on Drugs
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IMPACT

Drug Users Fighting Back Against America’s War on Drugs

People addicted to opioids and other substances are organizing a national movement to demand a say in drug-policy reform. Like so many activists, Jess Tilley discovered grassroots organizing through personal hardship. In 1997, she was living in Northampton, Massachusetts, regularly injecting heroin. A limited access to clean needles led her to reuse dulled equipment, and she developed an abscess. Through friends, Tilley learned of a program where users could get free new syringes — no questions asked. At Tapestry Needle Exchange, she also discovered a community of people eager to improve their lives and the lives of others addicted to drugs. “We started talking about the mistreatment we received in emergency rooms,” Jess remembers. “I told them, ‘We need to advocate for ourselves. They ...
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IN OTHER NEWS

This Chef Is Fighting Gentrification With Hot Chicken

Tunde Wey’s dinner series-slash-public art project raised $50,000 to address Nashville’s affordable housing crisis. During the third full week of August, residents of Nashville, Tennessee, gathered to eat chicken tossed in palm oil-fried pepper sauce, yam pottage, jollof rice, fried sweet plantains, and efo riro, or stewed spinach. The cuisine was native to Nigeria, chef Tunde Wey’s home country, and served at Westwood Baptist Church, a place that has been a fixture in the community for nearly a century. On the website for H*t Chicken Sh*t, “a dinner series to end gentrification,” people were asked to pledge money or property for chicken—$100 for one piece, $50,000 for a half-bird and sides. People with access to wealth or disposable incomes were encouraged to contribute. Over the ...
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Pillars of Black Media, Once Vibrant, Now Fighting for Survival
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SOCIAL JUSTICE

Pillars of Black Media, Once Vibrant, Now Fighting for Survival

For the black community in Chicago and elsewhere, Johnson Publishing Company represented a certain kind of hope.The company’s magazines, most notably Ebony and Jet, gained prominence during the struggle for civil rights — Jet published graphic photos of the murdered black teenager Emmett Till that helped intensify the movement — and made it their mission to chronicle African-American life.At a time when much of the media was ignoring black people, or showing them primarily in the context of poverty or crime, Ebony and Jet celebrated their success, featuring stars like Muhammad Ali and Aretha Franklin on their covers. When Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, the first print publication he granted an interview to was Ebony.So when Johnson Publishing, which is based in Chicago, announ...
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