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James Webb is Just the Tip of the Iceberg in Space Exploration

The successful launch of the James Webb telescope in December reinvigorated excitement over the seemingly endless opportunities to expand our understanding of the universe. According to scientists, the next great endeavor is building a base on the moon.

That goal is part of the mission behind the Artemis 1 moon rocket, whose launch was again delayed due to Hurricane Ida now battering Florida’s coast.

“The mission is to make sure that traveling to the moon for humans for many days is safe,” said Alexandra de Castro, science and technology communicator at PASQAL, which designs quantum computing programs.

When it does launch Artemis 1 will carry human-size dummies fixed with detectors to determine the amount of radiation humans might be exposed to over longer periods of time on the moon. According to de Castro, Artemis Two’s launch — scheduled for May 2024 — will take four astronauts including possibly the first female astronaut to walk on the moon.

Castro spoke during a briefing organized by Ethnic Media Services looking at what lies ahead in space exploration.

“China and Russia are also collaborating on a lunar base,” noted de Castro, hinting at the potential for a new space race like the one that defined much of the Cold War following the Soviet Union’s launch of the Sputnik rocket in 1957.

In more recent years Russia had been collaborating with NASA on the International Space Station and was working with both NASA and the European Space Agency on the Gateway project, which aims to establish an orbital station around the moon. Food and other supplies were to be transported to the station using Russian-made modules that would ferry back and forth from Earth.

But Russia severed all cooperation immediately following its invasion of Ukraine, and has since turned to its ally in Beijing, de Castro stressed.

The last manned mission to the moon was Apollo 17 in 1972. The journey back then took 12 days and was fraught with potential danger given how little scientists understood about the risks of space travel.

“We now have a lot of information from the 20 years of experience with the International Space Station,” de Castro said, adding this next phase in humanity’s reach for the stars holds tremendous possibility in fields that extend well beyond space: from health care to communications, transportation, and climate change.

And then there is the question of extraterrestrial life.

Marcio Melendez is with the Space Telescope Science Institute (STSci) in Baltimore, Maryland and was part of the team that worked on Webb’s mirrors. “Three years ago, we only knew of one exoplanet,” planets orbiting stars outside our own solar system. “Now we have 5,000 exoplanets and many of them are earth-like.”

American astronomer Edwin Hubble’s discovery of the Andromeda Galaxy in 1924 dramatically reshaped our understanding of the universe, proving its expanse far beyond our own Milky Way. NASA has since placed over 90 telescopes into orbit hoping to further deepen our view of the cosmos.

That effort has led to the discovery of billions of stars and galaxies and has brought humanity closer than at any other point in history to answer some of our most perplexing and profound questions: where do we come from, how was the universe formed, and is there life outside our solar system?

“We need to think big and there is nothing bigger than the James Webb,” said Melendez. “Think about a telescope that is so sensitive that you can see the heat signature of a bumblebee on the moon.”

That sensitivity is due in part to Webb’s infrared optical technology, which must remain at an otherworldly temperature of below 7 kelvin, or roughly negative 500° Fahrenheit. Maintaining such frigid conditions — even in the vacuum of deep space — requires a massive, origami like sun visor that shields the telescope from the warming rays of the sun.

“Virtually every single image that we take with James Webb is a deep field,” meaning an image that peers into the blackness of space, explained Melendez. Each image, he adds, contains “hundreds of galaxies in the background,” making Webb something akin to a “time machine,” able to see light that has traveled billions of years stretching to the origins of the universe.

The telescope is also able to detect how planets and stars form and how galaxies interact.

“Webb is able to characterize the abundance of different molecules in the atmospheres of exoplanets,” which can help determine the presence of life, said STSci’s Nicole Arulanantham. “Now whether that life is intelligent, we don’t know.”

Arulanantham’s main area of research is the formation of stars and planets. With the Hubble Space Telescope, she and her team have been looking at how young stars use ultraviolet light in the process of planet formation. “This tells us how quickly the stars are growing,” she said.

With Webb, she and her team will now be able to determine the role that water plays in that process, explaining that molecules like hydrogen cyanide, an important carrier of hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen, essential to forming life on earth, can be seen with the telescope.

For de Castro, one of the greatest achievements in space exploration is right here on earth. The Artemis Accords are a series of bi-lateral agreements between nations participating in the Artemis program, bringing together scientists from around the globe as part of an effort to return humans to the moon.

“This is how science is done today,” she said. “It teaches us how to deal with one another.”

Originally published here

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Over $1 Billion Lost in Cryptocurrency Scams Since 2021

Young people and minorities are among those reporting the biggest losses

The promise of hefty returns is what initially drew Jeffrey Vaulx, a second-grade special ed teacher in Memphis, Tennessee to go in on a cryptocurrency investment opportunity introduced to him by a Facebook friend. 

Vaulx would soon discover that he had been taken by a scheme that data from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) shows is part of a billion-dollar industry in the United States.

Vaulx set up an account on a website that he says, “looked legitimate.” He then transferred $500 cash to his friend, who was supposed to purchase the cryptocurrency – a form of unregulated digital money where transactions are verified through digital ledgers. His investment quickly grew to $8000, though to access that newfound wealth Vaulx learned that he would have to pay an additional fee of $500.

That’s when he says the red flags began to appear. “I went back to my friend’s website and saw it was all a hoax,” he recalled. “Fraud was in the back of my head.”

Vaulx was among a panel of speakers during a September 9 media briefing organized by Ethnic Media Services and the FTC.

Experts at the FTC stress that most cryptocurrency scams start with an unsolicited message, either through text, email, or social media. “Social media and crypto is a very combustible combination,” said Cristina Miranda, consumer education specialist at the FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection.

“Just know that a lot of these scams start off with tips or secrets on online message boards,” Miranda added. “There’s not going to be a whole lot of detail about what you’re investing in, because scammers are always trying to get you to be emotionally invested.”

According to the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network, an online resource for tracking scams, from January 2021 through June 2022 cryptocurrency scams have cost consumers over $1.3 billion. Nearly half of those victimized say the scam began with an ad, post, or message on social media.

The largest share of the losses, about $785 million, involved bogus investment opportunities, followed by romance scams at $220 million, business imposters at $121 million, and government imposters at $56 million.

Top cryptocurrency scams reported by loss. Source: FTC

Miranda explained that romance scams or online dating scams involve charming the intended target before offering help with cryptocurrency investing. That’s when the request for money typically comes in.

In the case of fraudulent business scams, victims will often receive unexpected texts or security alerts popping up on their screens claiming to be from well-known companies like Amazon or Microsoft.

“If you click on any link, you will be connected to a scammer who tells you about fraud on your (cryptocurrency) account and that your money is at risk,” said Miranda.

Other scams attempt to impersonate government agencies, warning potential victims that their accounts or benefits will be frozen as part of some investigation.

Young people aged 18-35 and minority populations are among the groups that have reported the highest losses. These groups, Miranda explained, typically exist “outside the traditional financial ecosystem, they typically are unbanked and most open to using these emerging payment technologies.” 

The unregulated nature of cryptocurrency — which exists outside traditional financial systems — has made it both more attractive to smalltime investors and opened the door to a ballooning scam industry.

And because transactions happen digitally, with no middleman involved, getting money back for victims has proven to be difficult, said Elizabeth Kwok, assistant director of litigation technology and analysis for the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

Kwok added that because cryptocurrency is not backed by any government there is significant volatility in the market. “There is nobody overlooking the system… If there’s a run on a particular exchange, no entity is going to step in and make sure that consumers can get their money back.”

Since 2021, Bitcoin — the largest cryptocurrency by valuation — has fallen from a high of $60,000 per coin to as low as $22,000. The entire crypto market has dropped from a valuation of over $3 trillion to just over $1 trillion today.

Kwok noted the Biden administration is working to impose some regulation over the crypto market. “They are aiming for a more coordinated regulatory environment,” she said, pointing to an executive order from the president in March that directs federal agencies to implement policies and regulations for assets including cryptocurrencies.

The IRS currently taxes crypto assets as physical property like a car, and if they are used as an investment, the Securities and Exchange Commission gets involved, Kwok said.

“Education is really the first line of defense when it comes to avoiding problems in the marketplace,” said Rosario Mendez, senior attorney with the FTC Division of Consumer and Business Education.

As part of that effort Mendez urged people to come forward and report scams in their communities. “It’s really important,” she said, “so we can do something about it and alert others about these problems.”

“There are real people out there being hurt by this,” Mendez concluded.

Where to Report Scams

Victims can report scams directly to the FTC through its website in English and Spanish, as well as through the website of the regulatory agency Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the US Securities and Exchange Commission

More resources are available at ftc.gov/cryptocurrency and in Spanish at ftc.gov/criptomonedas.

If you or someone you know is the victim of a cryptocurrency scam, you should also report it to the cryptocurrency exchange involved. The FTC also recommends sending complaints to your state attorney general.

Originally published here

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Loss of 1.7 Million Immigrants Fuels U.S. Labor Shortages and Inflation

Close to 15% of job openings that employ immigrant or foreign-born workers in the U.S. are still vacant, while the legal immigration system is in dire straits. From meat packing to home building to STEM professionals to nurses, the post-pandemic economy is reeling from a labor force decimated by restrictive immigration policies, which worsened under Donald Trump’s administration.

The Halting of Immigration

“From the middle of 2019 until the end of 2021, there has been essentially zero net immigration to the U.S,” said Giovanni Peri, Ph.D. Professor of Economics and Founder and Director of the UC Davis Global Migration Center, citing US Bureau census data.

“Although in late 2021 and early 2022 these numbers started growing again, the fact that the inflow of immigrants stopped made the country lose more than 1.7 million (immigrants),” added Peri, noting that 900,000 of them would have been college educated who work in the STEM sector – doctors, computer scientists, biomedical engineers, bio experts — and 800,000 would have been non-college educated concentrated in sectors such as food, hospitality, elderly and child care. “We are talking about the 1.1% of the US labor force,” Peri added.

Peri spoke during a media briefing on 8/26/22 hosted by Ethnic Media Services that sounded the alarm over how the lack of immigrants is hurting the economy. Meanwhile, public discussion focuses on an estimated 2 million border crossings for the fiscal year.

Immigration Shortfall

The halting of immigration coincides with more and more US citizens opting to work from home in online jobs, and people in their 50s and 60s opting for early retirement. When companies are struggling to hire people, wages go up and the rising cost of labor translates into inflation, Peri explained.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in July 2022, there were 10 million unfilled jobs in the US. Before COVID, in a similar period, that figure was 6 million.

Experts agree that there should be a government effort to make the H1B visa program (sponsored by employers) stronger and more inclusive for all sectors, while addressing the monstrous backlog in green cards and asylum claims.

Backlogs and Delays in the Immigration Processes

“In the past six or seven years we have seen tremendous delays in the immigration processes across the country, both in the courts and also through the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS),” said Gregory Z. Chen, Senior Director of Government Relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Chen noted that when President Barack Obama left office, there were about 500,000 immigration cases in the backlog compared to 1.4 million cases during the Trump administration.

“As of today we have about 1.6 million cases that are waiting to be heard, (each one) typically takes four to six years now,” Chen said. “Many businesses can’t wait to be operational.”

Meanwhile, the Automated Export System (AES), the agency in charge of processing work permits, has increased its processing times from 180 days to up to seven months.

These backlogs can be fixed through a comprehensive immigration reform. Although almost 70% of Americans are in favor of it, there has been no appetite in a polarized Congress to ease restrictions for even legal immigrants.

Chen highlighted how President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act -recently signed into law- originally included provisions to legalize unauthorized immigrants, a provision that had to be abandoned to gain bipartisan support.

“The concern about the benefits immigration provides to the country and the economy has been subsumed by the idea that it’s related to border national security issues,” said Chen, who doesn’t see a major immigration reform bill happening even in 2023.

Shortage of Nursing Professionals

For Julie Collins, perfusionist and Program Director Department of Cardiopulmonary Sciences in the College of Health Sciences at Rush University, one field where the absence of immigrants is acutely felt is medical care.

Working on the COVID floor of her hospital for two years, Collins saw firsthand the impact of the critical shortage of nursing professionals.

“I was helping to cover shifts and I saw how burnt out nurses were becoming taking care of patients in COVID units,” she said. “As COVID began slowing down, nurses sought early retirement, some of them changed professions, and some even died of COVID. This left us with fewer nurses to fill the open positions in our units.”

Although COVID floors have been essentially shut down, hospitals are short staffed and one-on-one patient care is over, she said. “Oftentimes nurses are caring for multiple patients, which is increasing their chances of creating errors and causing emotional distress,”

There are close to 194,000 open positions for nurses, and not enough US nurses to fill them. Since the 80s, when hospitals were understaffed, nurses from other countries have filled these roles. But today, annually, H1B visas are limited to 140,000 and family-sponsored visas are limited to 226,000.

“I am seeing how tired and exhausted the nurses are and how frustrated they feel like their voices aren’t being heard,” Collins said. "If hospitals come up with a system so that they could keep bringing in (immigrant) nurses, they wouldn’t have problems filling their open positions,” she concluded.

Originally published here

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California to Launch New Anti-Hate Initiative With a Focus on Healing

Hate crimes and hate-related incidents have been on the rise in recent years, prompting fear and anger across communities. But according to experts and civil rights advocates more public engagement — not increased policing — is key to addressing the issue.

And, they say, raising public awareness is a critical step toward individual and communal healing.

“Hate doesn’t happen in a vacuum,” says Becky L. Monroe with the California Civil Rights Department. “If we’re truly going to address hate incidents and hate crimes, we have to enforce all of our civil rights protections.”

Monroe, among a panel of speakers during a media briefing hosted by Ethnic Media Services, referenced her former mentor at the Department of Justice, Ron Wakabayashi, whose family was among some 120,000 Japanese Americans sent to concentration camps during WWII.

“He used to say: ‘There is a reason for hope, and that reason is actually in all the people who are targeted for hate.’ Many communities who had every reason to give up on this country refused to give up on the idea of making this a more just place for all.”

In response to the rise in hate crimes and hate incidents, California’s Civil Rights Department is launching the California vs Hate initiative, a resource line and network to support victims, and to increase awareness around what is a hate crime and how to report them when they occur.

California state and federal law define a hate crime as a criminal act targeting individuals on the basis of gender, race, nationality, religion or political affiliation.

A hate incident, on the other hand, is an action that, while motivated by hate, may not cross the line into criminality. Common examples include racist name calling or displaying hateful messaging targeting protected groups.

Monroe says that while hate incidents may not technically be criminal acts, they can have a “devastating impact on the person and the community” being targeted.

And while there is ample data available on hate crimes, experts say the numbers are likely far from accurate.

“There is no question when you look at the data that hate crimes are on the rise, but they are also underreported,” Monroe explained. The FBI counts just over 8,000 hate crimes per year, notes Monroe, but the real number could be closer to 250,000.

Data showing reported hate crimes by city in 2020 and 2021 (Source: 2020s – Dawn of a Decade of Rising Hate)

The disparity is explained in part by the fact that many victims often do not see law enforcement as a safe or reliable option when it comes to reporting hate crimes. For Monroe, focusing on community-centered strategies will “help us to connect individuals with culturally competent resources and support.”

Another factor has to do with state and local law enforcement agencies, which are not mandated to provide data on hate crimes to the FBI. In fact, 85% of law enforcement agencies serving jurisdictions with over 100,000 people in California routinely report zero hate crimes in their area.

Nationwide, the majority of hate crimes continue to be perpetrated by white men, while the majority of victims are African American. But in recent years there has been a spike in hate crimes targeting Asian Americans, Latinos, Muslims, and Jews.

According to Stop AAPI Hate data, there have been 11,000 incidents of hate targeting the AAPI community since 2020. The majority have taken place in public spaces and have targeted largely women and elders.

Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Filipinos and Vietnamese Americans are among the groups most targeted, with 63% of cases involving verbal harassment, 16% physical assault, and 11% civil rights violations.

Anti-Asian hate crimes by city. (Source: 2020s – Dawn of a Decade of Rising Hate)

Stop AAPI Hate Director and Co-Founder Manjusha Kulkarni says the drivers behind these incidents vary, and so “a one-size fits all solution doesn’t work.” She added, “Policing is not going to be the answer. We need a comprehensive civil rights infrastructure all across the country.”

Stop AAPI Hate is currently pushing two bills — SB 1161 and AB 2549 — in the California State Legislature to work with state officials in three core areas: civil rights, community safety, and educational equity.

Brian Levin with the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State-San Bernadino says rhetoric from elected officials and media has helped fuel the uptick in hate crimes and hate incidents across the country.

“Anti-Latino hate crimes in 2018 were the highest in a decade because of the craven discussion on TV,” noted Levin, adding that hate crimes targeting the LGBTQ community doubled in Los Angeles and rose 40% nationwide in that same year, with attacks becoming “more vicious and more violent.”

And while Levin agrees that non-carceral solutions are an important tool in addressing the rise in hate, he also notes that the Justice Department currently prosecutes fewer than 20% of referrals. 

Hate crimes in major U.S. cities by bias target. (Source: 2020s – Dawn of a Decade of Rising Hate)

For Sassana Yee, whose grandmother died after being brutally beaten in San Francisco in 2019, healing has meant building cross-cultural connections between communities that often exist side by side.

“Her death has sparked in me an awareness to reach across cultural lines and develop friendships,” said Yee, who advocates for what she calls transformational justice.

As part of her work, Yee led a month-long road trip around the country with 10 high schoolers: half African American and half Chinese American.

“We went to 16 cities to learn about each other’s culture, history, and contributions to the U.S,” she said. “We got to understand who we are as individuals and as a collective.”

Last May, the legislature approved renaming the playground where Sassana’s grandmother, Yik Oi Huang, was attacked as Yik Oi Huang Peace and Friendship Park. “A black elder in the community suggested this name,” noted Yee, “which is a very potent symbolic gesture of solidarity.”

Originally published here

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Rise in Interracial Marriage a Counter-Narrative to Hate and Division

She identifies as African American, Mexican, and Puerto Rican. He is Korean American but didn’t speak English until he was school-age. They met and got married in Los Angeles and had four children who they are “raising intentionally” in a multicultural, multiracial, and multilingual home.

At a time of increased political polarization and racial tension, Sonia and Richard Kang’s story offers an alternative narrative that is increasingly becoming the norm in the United States.

“I met Richard and we have children who are multiracial and I’m thinking: how are we going to make this better for them,” said Sonia, whose father is African American and whose mother is Mexican.

“Growing up I just always knew I didn’t fit in very well,” she recalled of her upbringing in the 80s in Hawaii and LA, a time when blond hair, blue eyes, and big waves were the standard. “I was darker skinned and had tight curly hair. I had the surname Smith in a predominantly Latino area in school but spoke Spanish. So I always stuck out.”

It was the same for Richard, Sonia’s husband. “I could tell there was something different about our family,” he says of his childhood growing up as a Korean speaker in a predominantly white neighborhood.

Data from the 2020 census shows that “mixed race” is the fastest-growing category under racial identity, and according to the Pew Research Center, about 17% of new marriages are interracial couples. All of that comes as cities nationwide saw a significant surge in racially motivated attacks during the Covid 19 pandemic, rattling communities and contributing to growing tensions.

According to Justin Gest, associate professor at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, the rise in interracial marriages offers a counter to the increasing “separation, polarization and some of the violence that we’re seeing in our country.”

Gest, author of the 2022 book “Majority Minority,” which looks at societies where dominant religious or racial groups lost their numerical advantage, says families like the Kangs are a “powerful way for people to overcome the divisive politics that take place in societies undergoing a lot of demographic change.”

That includes the US, where demographers predict that by 2045 non-Hispanic whites will no longer be the majority.

“When people are intermarrying, it basically disarms the politics of polarization and division,” Gest notes. “These relationships blur those boundaries. They don’t allow politicians and others to use fear mongering to divide us.”

Interracial marriages were prohibited in the US until the 1967 Supreme Court decision Loving vs. Virginia. Between 2010 and 2020, the number of interracial unions jumped threefold, according to census data. The most common unions are white and Asian, and white and Latino, with only 20% of all interracial couples being between two nonwhite partners. California is the leader when it comes to the number of interracial marriages, with Hawaii a close second.

And according to Allison Skinner-Dorkenoo, assistant professor of Behavioral and Brain Sciences & Social Psychology at the University of Georgia, there has been a “great increase” in media representation of interracial couples, which correlates with data showing 94% of Americans approving of such unions.

But, Skinner-Dorkenoo adds, there is still a lingering bias toward same race marriages in many families, including Richard’s.

“I was going to marry Sonia no matter what,” he says, describing his parents’ initial rejection of his soon-to-be wife. It was only after his father fell ill, and then after his parents met their grandchildren, “that they really opened their hearts to us.”

The couple decided early on to raise their children in a multi-lingual house. “We’ve called it ‘culture proofing our home,’ to safeguard their identity,” Sonia said. “We made sure that we brought in products, books, and movies, all that look like our family in an authentic way.”

Sonia, president of the non-profit Multicultural Families of Southern California, created a children’s clothing business named Mixed-Up Clothing, with the intention to use fashion as a vehicle to talk about issues of culture, diversity, and inclusion.

“I knew there was something in clothing that brings in this sense of self, and I wanted to duplicate that feeling,” she said. “The fact that folks are getting it and taking the time to see that there’s beauty in diversity has really helped to steer the conversation.”

Originally published here

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Now is Not the Time to Drop Our Guard on Covid, Experts Say

Health experts say that even as more people are vaccinated and boosted, the coronavirus is here to stay. And they warn that future variants will likely keep medical practitioners and researchers on their toes as they work to keep both infections and the severity of infections down. 

Their message to the public is, don’t let your guard down. 

“COVID is going to be with us for the foreseeable future,” said Dr. William Schaffner, professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. “We’re struggling to figure out how we can keep this virus down and minimize its damage, and still at the same time enjoy a reasonably normal life.”

Schaffner was among a panel of speakers for a July 29 media briefing organized by Ethnic Media Services on the latest Covid variant, and the mounting questions around the pandemic and vaccine efficacy. 

COVID 19 cases, deaths, and hospitalizations are once again on the rise in the US. More than two-thirds of Americans have tested positive for COVID, including President Joe Biden, who again tested positive for the second time in a case of Covid rebound. The BA5 subvariant of Omicron is now responsible for more than 78% of infections in the country, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 

But public health experts say the figures could represent a severe undercount, with many people failing to report positive results from at-home tests. 

Shaffner stressed that updated vaccines will continue to be an essential part of the broader strategy. “We need more durable, long-term protection against a broader array of different variants, the ones we know and the ones we don’t know yet,” he said. “We would like vaccines that abort and prevent the actual infection at the surface of the mucous membranes, not just vaccines that protect against serious disease.”Dr. William Schaffner, professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine

Nasal vaccines, which can be administered via a spray or dropper, are gaining more attention among clinical researchers and could offer another route to increasing vaccination rates. The NovaVax vaccine, recently authorized by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was licensed for an initial two-dose series, but not yet for a booster. 

But Dr. Ben Neuman, professor of biology and chief virologist of the Global Health Research Complex at Texas A&M University, has his doubts.

“NovaVax vaccine is fine, but it’s about two years too late,” he said, adding the drug does not replicate the virus as effectively as other vaccines. “NovaVax has this very delicate spike protein that is transported and protected very carefully; a little bit survives to go into your body… With the mRNA vaccine, you get perfect pristine spikes exactly the way nature intended.”

Neuman noted that to date there have been 15 mutations of the Omicron variant, including the newer BA.5 and BA2.75 subvariants, for which the current vaccines appear less effective.

“We are still vaccinating against the 2019 virus and it is now late 2022,” he said. “We have a problem.”

Nearly a third of Americans remain unvaccinated, while a majority of Covid-related deaths are occurring among people 65 and over, including those who have been vaccinated. 

Speakers stressed that masks continue to play a critical role in slowing the spread of the virus, particularly for those who are at high risk because of age or underlying conditions. 

Currently no state mandates mask wearing in public, though several states still require mask wearing in high risk settings, including hospitals and long-term care facilities. 

In April, a federal judge struck down the Biden administration’s mask requirement for public transit, airlines and transportation hubs. The Justice Department is expected to appeal the ruling. Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, associate dean for Regional Campuses at the University of California, San Francisco

Meanwhile, one-third of Americans have managed to avoid being infected by the virus altogether. According to Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, associate dean for Regional Campuses at the University of California, San Francisco, four factors help explain this trend. 

Some people may be genetically disposed to having higher resistance to the virus, said Chin-Hong, something doctors saw during the early years of the HIV/AIDS crisis. These individuals  could play a role in future research on therapeutics for Covid, Chin-Hong noted. 

Behavior could be another factor, “as some people in the same household may be taking more precautions” in terms of wearing a mask or having close contact with other people. The timing of vaccines also plays a role, as the risks of infection have fluctuated over time during the pandemic. 

Finally, says Chin-Hong, some people may have been infected and just did not realize it, either because they were asymptomatic or because they were never tested.  

Chin-Hong believes that wastewater inspections can help to clarify the picture around actual infection rates. Unlike relying on tests and self-reporting, wastewater can help researchers understand the extent to which the virus is spreading within a community. 

“For example in California, the level of wastewater virus is very similar to (reported Covid levels) in January, when more people were getting tested,” explained Chin-Hong. Based on this data, current case rates would be far higher than the 130,000 daily infections now being reported.

A summer surge of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), which can cause Covid-like symptoms, could also explain why a lot of people have received negative results on their home testing kits, said Shaffner.

“The rapid tests are also less apt to give you a positive result in this BA5 era… that is why the CDC keeps focusing on hospitalizations, because they remind us that there is this important public health problem.”

Therapeutics such as PAXLOVID have proven to be effective in preventing more severe diseases, mostly among older adults. And there is a monoclonal antibody that can be given to some people who are resistant to PAXLOVID. But experts insist that vaccines remain the most essential tool to fight the virus.

“We now we have too many deaths, like 430 a day,” says Chin-Hong. “We have to manage (the virus) and we have the tools to do that right now,” he concluded.

Originally published here

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A Tale of Three Cities – How Bakersfield, Columbus, and Houston Tackled Homelessness

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, around half a million individuals nationwide are currently experiencing homelessness. Yet three cities have been able to make dramatic gains in tackling the problem with important lessons for the rest of the country. 

Among these lessons: housing and homelessness are community issues requiring community solutions. 

In March, 2020 the city of Bakersfield, California achieved “functional zero” chronic homelessness, while Houston, Texas placed more than 25,000 people in permanent housing, resulting in a 64% decrease in homelessness. And in 2018, Columbus, Ohio had successfully housed 70% of its homeless population. 

During a July 22nd Ethnic Media Services briefing, front-line workers in all three cities explained the strategies that led to their success.

With that new mindset, organizations, government agencies, landlords, and homeless residents were able to partner to create support services and permanent housing for the community, Scott explained. 

Work began with a comprehensive register of every person in the county experiencing homelessness, with names listed under the following categories: chronically homeless, veterans, youth, elderly, and families. 

“We with the different organizations and go one by one to each person, to find out what the service provider is providing, what their status is, and what are the barriers,” Scott said. 

Housing vouchers, low-income units, landlords working with housing locators, and the ‘Milestone project’ – which is refurbishing motels and turning them into permanent housing units – are all part of the strategy. 

“Some of our continued challenges are the lack of affordable housing: we have a 2% vacancy rate, and we identified 1,603 unduplicated homeless individuals in our 2022 headcount,” she continued. “It is also a struggle finding landlords and property owners who are willing to rent to our clients who have little to no income.”

Evictions are another challenge. In Columbus, Ohio, addressing the homeless crisis meant “getting ahead” of eviction filings. 

“We are bringing more landlords on board, not to sell them on the tenants themselves, but on the support services that we have in place to keep people housed,” said Marcus J. Salter, housing stability specialist at the Community Mediation Services of Central Ohio. 

His agency is one of several that form the Homeless Prevention Network, a collaboration of housing providers and mental health agencies created after the pandemic to connect homeless residents to support services.

“I’ve heard landlords say, ‘We had a tenant here, a situation happened, and we didn’t know who to contact.’ We can make those support services more accessible,” said Salter.  

Currently, the Homeless Prevention Network is working to reduce demand at the city’s five single adult centers and two family shelters, all of which are filled to capacity, by moving people into more permanent housing. 

According to Scott, the network “diverted 311 people away from entering shelters” between January and March of this year, with a total of “2,035 long-term homeless residents served by permanent supportive housing.”

Houston took a similar approach, moving 25,000 people from the streets and into permanent housing over the past decade. Back in 2012, the nation’s fourth most populous city had the sixth largest homeless population in the country, with service providers operating in silos. 

“We were not looking at our data to make sure that the decisions we were making were in line with what the community needed. And our recidivism was very high,” said Ana Rausch, vice president of program operations at the Houston Coalition for the Homeless, an umbrella organization that brings together more than 100 nonprofits and local government agencies. 

“Our partners and funders all came together to identify the common goals for the homeless response system.”

The results: since 2011, the city has seen a 63% decrease in overall homelessness, a 69% decrease in chronic homelessness, and an 82% decline in family homelessness. Veteran homelessness ended in 2015, and in the current year, of the 3,124 individuals experiencing homelessness, 1,622 are now residing in a shelter. 

And according to Rausch, 95% of individuals supported stay housed.

“We use the Housing First model: we take someone from the streets and we put them into a place and then once they feel safe, having a roof over their head and food in their belly, then they can begin to focus on the issues that might have led to them becoming homeless,” she noted. 

Harris County, where Houston is located, also managed to decommission 57 homeless encampments, thanks in part to additional COVID resources from the federal government, with individuals being moved into permanent housing. Matthew Lewis, director of communications at California Yimby

“We had a lot of market-rate units,” said Rausch, “but it’s gotten to the point where there’s really not many vacancies left.”

California now holds the dubious distinction of having the nation’s highest homeless population, tallied at an eye-popping 60,000 people. 

“And that’s not because they’re mentally ill, on drugs, or because they’re criminals,” said Matthew Lewis, director of communications at California Yimby, a statewide housing policy organization. “It’s because they lost their homes.”

YIMBY is the acronym for Yes In My Backyard and refers to those who support greater housing developments in their own neighborhoods.

Despite California’s continued economic growth – if it were a nation, California would rank as the world’s fifth largest economy – zoning law restrictions and a legacy of redlining, which prohibited minorities including Asians, Latinos and African Americans from purchasing homes in certain neighborhoods, are impeding the construction of affordable, multifamily housing. 

California Yimby works at the state level to try to reform the legislative framework around housing, which, according to Lewis, stands in the way of serious attempts to address the homeless challenge.

“The legacy of segregation lives on in these neighborhoods and our cities have made it virtually impossible to add housing at all ends of the income spectrum,” he said. “We’re trying to reverse those historic mistakes.”

Originally published here

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Corporate Profiteering Driving Inflation, Threatening Most Vulnerable

Corporations are reporting record profits while inflation rates are running at the fastest pace in decades. Small businesses and low-income workers, meanwhile, are bearing the brunt of the crisis even as access to safety net programs becomes increasingly tenuous.

That was the assessment of a group of economists who joined Ethnic Media Services for a media briefing to discuss what many see as a looming recession. 

“CEOs are telling their investors that the current inflationary environment has created opportunities to extract more and more from consumers by raising prices,” explained Dr. Rakeen Mabud, chief economist at the left-leaning Groundwork Collaborative. “These mega-corporations are able to get away with aggressive and extractive pricing because they dominate the market and know more than the consumers.”

Mabud gave two examples of this kind of “profiteering” by mega-corporations. 

The first involved the CFO of Constellation Brands, parent company of Modelo and Corona beers, who during an earnings call instructed shareholders not to “leave any pricing on the table” in these “times of economic downturn.” The message: keep prices high now matter the impact on consumers. Dr. Rakeen Mabud, chief economist at the left-leaning Groundwork Collaborative

Mabud also pointed to Visa MasterCard, the duopoly that controls over 70% of the credit card market, which alerted credit card users that the company would be raising transaction fees despite inflationary profits. 

“This hits small businesses because they can’t set prices the way big companies can. They have to sort of swallow those costs and pass them off to their consumers,” Mabud said. “Small businesses can’t compete with the Walmart down the street.”

A June analysis from the Roosevelt Institute found that corporations hit record high profits in 2021, charging consumers 72% more than their input costs compared to 56% pre-pandemic. 

And according to an April report from the Economic Policy Institute, nearly 54% of recent inflationary pressure can be attributed to corporate profits, compared to 11.4% during the last inflationary period between 1979 to 2019. Less than 8% of current inflation can be attributed to rising labor costs.

Concentration and consolidation in specific industries – including shipping, which raked in $53 billion in profits last year – have also rattled global supply chains and contributed to rising costs. 

To discourage profiteering, Mabud explained, Congress should reinstate a historic tax on excess profits, and the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) should aggressively crack down on monopoly power.  

‘Not prepared for the next crisis’

Economists argue the Fed needs to raise interest rates and stop wage growth to tamp down inflation, essentially putting the economy into a deep freeze until prices begin to settle. 

But during the briefing, analysts warned that artificially pushing the economy into a recession — defined as two straight quarters of negative growth — could be catastrophic for black workers and other marginalized groups with high unemployment rates.

“Wages are not driving inflation and workers at the bottom of the pay scale have not benefited from the job growth,” said Chad Stone, chief economist at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.  

According to June’s job report the unemployment rate remains at 3.6%, suggesting a recession may in fact not be in the offing, though Black and Latino unemployment rates (6.8% and 4.3%, respectively) are high when compared to whites.

“If a recession comes, it’ll be relatively shallow,” Stone said. “Still, we have demographic groups that get hurt even by a short, shallow recession… We don’t have targeted safety net programs that can help the most vulnerable folks and we are scrambling to get any kind of additional policy.”

Stone explained that the last recession in April and May of 2020 — at the height of the Covid 19 pandemic — lasted only two months thanks in part to the American Rescue Plan implemented by President Joe Biden, which “gave juice to the recovery.”Alix Gould-Werth, director of family economic security policy at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth

Still, even during that short two-month period, the impact on women, people of color, the LGBTQ community and the undocumented was demonstrably more pronounced than on the nation at large. 

“Our unemployment insurance system is broken. We are relying on band-aids,” said Alix Gould-Werth, director of family economic security policy at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. “We don’t have enough money to pay for benefits, so we are not prepared for the next crisis.” 

On average, unemployment benefits replace only 40% of a worker’s wages. 

Gould-Werth called the current unemployment system “weak,” noting programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Social Security, Disability Insurance (DI), and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) are very limited in their number and availability. 

“Many or all of them are only available to specific subpopulations – like people with disabilities or older adults – and they tend to have onerous eligibility criteria,” she added. 

The panel agreed on the need for a better understanding of the impacts of economic fluctuations beyond Wall Street, on the lives of ordinary people and communities, and how corporate and government decision making can either help or harm conditions. 

“When we do well, the economy does well,” said Mabud from Groundwork Collaborative. “We need to prioritize the real experience of everyday people living in this country.”

Originally published here

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‘Hay política en la comida’: chefs, investigadores y escritores opinan sobre la creciente popularidad de la comida étnica

Cuando la chef Silvana Salcido Esparza comenzó a ayudar a su padre inmigrante mexicano en la panadería familiar, pronto se dio cuenta de que no solo vendería pan. A los 10 años notó que los clientes que acudían a su tiendita en el Valle de San Joaquín, Merced, California, también necesitaban su ayuda para traducir formularios y completar solicitudes de trabajo.

“Nuestra pequeña tienda se convirtió en el centro de nuestra cultura”, dijo. Hija de un predicador, Salcido Esparza solía ir a predicar a los campamentos de migrantes los sábados, mientras que entre semana se dedicaba a vender pan en la camioneta de su padre donde el intercambio de alimentos se daba genuinamente entre los campesinos que desde hace siglos están alimentando al mundo.

“La panadería de mi tío se utilizó para el inicio de la UFW (United Farm Workers)”, recordó. “Mi abuelo llegó a principios de 1900 a Santa Bárbara, trayendo algunos chiles y pimientos de Durango, plantando algunas semillas y comiéndose el resto porque como migrantes se trasladaban de un lugar a otro. Así fue como se desarrolló la salsa roja en Estados Unidos”.

Salcido Esparza habló sobre el legado de su familia y los ‘regalos’ que México le ha dado al mundo -maíz, masa, tomates, chiles, frijoles, cacao, carnitas- durante una rueda de prensa organizada por Ethnic Media Services y Feet in 2 World. Pero su mensaje fue más allá de la exquisita cocina mexicana. Dijo que “hay mucha política en la comida”.La chef Silvana Salcido Esparza, aclamada a nivel nacional y autoproclamada “Chingona”, ha dedicado su carrera culinaria al avance y la promoción de la cocina y la cultura mexicanas.

“Me han amenazado antes como chef, diciéndome: cállate y cocina. Básicamente (me han ordenado) ser la mujercita en la cocina y estar callada. “Solo aliméntanos de cosas buenas”. Pero Salcido Esparza, quien se autodenomina una “guerrera cultural”, nunca se calló. Hace 20 años, creó la empresa Barrio Cafe en Arizona, donde su cocina única quiere elevar la cultura mexicana.

“La comida mexicana en Estados Unidos no es realmente comida mexicana. Es más alimento de necesidad. Es una salsa roja y queso amarillo en todo… La gente todavía come sus tacos crujientes y va a Taco Bell (pensando que es) la comida mexicana número uno de Estados Unidos. Pero es la discriminación y el capitalismo lo que nos ha dado esos alimentos”.

Afirma que la “supremacía blanca” se ha apoderado de la cocina étnica, “blanqueando” las comidas que traen los oaxaqueños a Los Ángeles, o de Puebla a Nueva York, “porque son populares y ricas”.

“Una cosa que decimos en mi cultura es que quieren el taco pero no quieren al taquero… Creo que es una responsabilidad de la comunidad en general, especialmente de la comunidad étnica, saber dónde se gasta su dinero”.

¿Qué es tradicional?

El debate sobre lo que es tradicional y/o auténtico en nuestra comida, cobra relevancia al mirar las mesas de picnic durante las celebraciones del 4 de julio: los postres tailandeses o los dulces indios se sirven junto con el pastel americano y cada comunidad inmigrante ha traído un sabor de su hogar al tejido de este país.

“Los alimentos de los inmigrantes se convirtieron no solo en parte del ambiente y el tapiz de los EE. UU., sino que también se adaptan y cambian para satisfacer diferentes gustos”, dijo Quincy Surasmith, editor gerente de Feet in 2 Worlds y productor de los podcasts: ¿Una vida mejor? y Americana Asiática. Puso los ejemplos del Chop Suey que se sirve en los restaurantes chino-americanos, a pesar de no ser un plato tradicional en China; el California roll que no es japonés, pero que fue inventado a principios de los 70 por los estadounidenses de origen japonés en Los Ángeles, o el cangrejo de río vietnamita creado por las comunidades estadounidenses de origen vietnamita en la costa del Golfo.

“Todo es real y todo es auténtico, lo auténtico es diferente a lo tradicional. Tratamos de empaquetarlo porque queremos proteger nuestras propias historias y cultura”, dijo Surasmith, quien alentó a las personas a pensar en quién hace la comida y para quién está hecha.

“¿Quién se beneficia de hacer ese tipo de comida, quién tiene éxito y recibe premios?… ¿Quién hace versiones caras de nuestra comida y quién hace versiones baratas? ¿Qué alimentos desaparecen cuando cambian las tendencias?”, cuestionó. A medida que las comunidades de inmigrantes se mudaron, también cambió el abastecimiento de alimentos e incluso la legislación de importación y licencias de alimentos en los EE. UU. tiene una fuerte influencia en la forma en que comemos, señaló.

Para Kayla Stewert, galardonada escritora gastronómica y de viajes, actual columnista de The Bittman Project, la comida “puede ser algo tan alegre y maravilloso”, y también una oportunidad para hablar sobre los “problemas muy reales” que aún existen en nuestro país: historia y política, raza, género y derechos de la mujer.

“Muchas personas asumen que la comida afroamericana son macarrones con queso, col rizada y pollo frito, pero de ninguna manera son los únicos alimentos que comemos”, dijo Stewert, nativa de Houston con raíces familiares en Louisiana y Mississippi. “Muchas veces esos platos en particular se usan como formas de insultarnos o transmitir estereotipos que han existido durante siglos en este país”.

El pastel de camote, la okra y los frijoles caritas, explicó Stewert, son platos que fueron traídos por esclavos de África o por estadounidenses negros a través de sus conexiones con los pueblos indígenas. La barbacoa tejana tiene sus raíces en la comida sureña y Nueva Orleans es el hogar de la cocina criolla y cajún, “que simplemente no existiría sin los negros”.

“(Los chefs negros) han sido oprimidos en la industria de restaurantes y alimentos, y sus ideas no han recibido todo el crédito. Los chefs blancos son los que cocinan comida negra y los que reciben premios y luego se les dice que ellos son los que están detrás de esta cocina”.

Hizo hincapié en la importancia de permitir que las personas de color puedan explorar su cocina “de la manera que quieran” porque incluso los restaurantes familiares auténticos, “van a aprender cosas nuevas y adaptarse con los nuevos ingredientes a los que han estado expuestos”. Confesó que estaba muy en contra de la cocina fusión hasta que se dio cuenta de que “la mayoría de las cocinas son fusión”.

John Rudolph, fundador y director de Feet in 2 Worlds, dijo que aún si los alimentos son capaces de “cerrar brechas culinarias entre culturas”, ese no es el caso para las brechas políticas.

“No creo que se pueda crear una especie de nueva cocina estadounidense. Hay varias influencias para contrarrestar la tendencia al fascismo en nuestro país, y creo que es un momento de transición, de reflexión, y de agitación. Estas conversaciones son buenas”, concluyó.

Originalmente publicado aquí

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Monkeypox Can Be Contained: Experts Urge Testing And Vaccination

Although the monkeypox virus does not spread as widely and rapidly as COVID-19, medical experts stress that the only way to avoid a new epidemic is through an early response from health authorities and the public. Key steps are getting tested, vaccinated, and sharing information through public health campaigns.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 4,000 cases of monkeypox have been detected in 44 countries around the world, including 200 in 25 states in the U.S. California, New York, Florida, and Illinois are the most affected. No one has died of monkeypox in the country, according to the CDC, but in Africa, the virus has claimed the lives of 73 people.

The virus’ most recognizable symptom is a rash that can look like pimples or blisters that appear on the face, inside the mouth, appendages, and the genital area. Other symptoms include fever, headache, muscle aches and backaches, and swollen lymph nodes.

“98% of the cases have occurred in men and that’s a striking epidemiologic feature,” said Dr. William Schaffner, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, during a media briefing (Watch complete coverage) hosted by Ethnic Media Services on June 24th.

The virus was spread initially among gay and bisexual men at gay pride events in Europe, particularly in the Canary Islands, Berlin, and France. “At the moment it is a viral infection rather confined to a distinctive group of people (who) should be very careful about their current sexual practices, avoiding anonymous sex, and being personally clean, inspecting themselves and their partners to see whether they have lesions,” said Schaffner.

“This is a virus which is spread through close personal contact, usually skin to skin contact among humans”, explained Shaffner. “It can be spread via droplet transmission, if people are very close within three feet, usually over a long period of time, or through contaminated towels and perhaps bedding or sex toys… The incubation period could take up to two weeks.”

Even though it found an epidemiological opportunity to spread among men who have sex with men, “monkeypox is not a gay disease,” stressed Dr. Gregg Gonsalves, Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the Yale Institute for Global Health and Co-Director of the Global Health Justice Partnership.

Gonsalves, an expert on gay men’s health, warned that “stigmatization and discrimination” will make it harder to confine and contain the virus. “If you clamp down on LGBTQ Pride parades across the world over the next few months or use police or other law enforcement, you’re likely to drive people away from care and away from public health officials who don’t want to let it spread.”

The new CDC guidance on monkeypox, includes key information on symptoms, vaccines, prevention, contact tracing, and resources for health care providers and the general public as well.

“In the US context many of the people who are in charge of our public health institutions right now are old HIV doctors… so there’s been ongoing communication between the LGBT and HIV community and the federal and state governments, unlike what we saw 40 years ago with AIDS in the very beginning,” said Gonsalvez.

From Wild Animals

The monkeypox is a member of the larger family of orthopox viruses, which include the mousepox, the camelpox, the cowpox, and the smallpox already eradicated from the face of the earth, explained Ben Neuman, Professor of Biology and Chief Virologist of the Global Health Research Complex at Texas A&M.

It was first identified in primate species in Nigeria, West Africa, a strain that produces milder infections in comparison with a second major strain detected in Central Africa, which is more severe. “The virus has been associated with two kinds of wild animals: the Congo rope squirrel, and the Gambian giant pouched rat,” Neuman added. “As with other viruses that come from rodents, you tend to see increases when there has been a particularly rainy year.”

Given its characteristics of transmission, Neuman warned that monkeypox “could spread easily inside a crowded dance club or at a concert or any other venue where you have lots of people together and they’re having a good time… It’s not something that is scary right now, but could get out of hand.”

Other places where there is close physical contact are homeless shelters, refugee camps, gyms, and health clubs.

The only thing that is keeping that virus from getting out to the rest of the world, Neuman argued, is the “relative geographic and economic isolation of the area... I do not believe that we can count on that as an effective stop-gap in the future.”

The virus has been growing in places with less access to testing and fewer hospitals that can actually confirm the numbers, which are almost certainly underreported. The recommendation from experts is to get tested through a PCR, a similar test to the one used to diagnose COVID. The CDC is working on expanding the number of locations where testing can take place.

There is also a vaccine available for the prevention of monkeypox in people ages 18 and older – the Jynneos vaccine – approved in 2019 by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It requires two doses, four weeks apart, but doctors noted that the supply worldwide is not robust. The medication tecovirimat (TPOXX) has also proven to have some effect in protecting people.

“(In the US) we spend 3 cents on every health care dollar on public health. It’s a people problem and an infrastructure problem. Hopefully, with COVID, monkeypox, and HIV, we would learn the lesson of making a real investment and avoiding this blooming cycle,” he concluded.

Originally published here

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Parents And Children In Mental Health Crises Need To Know – Recovery Is Possible

Miami, Fl. – Estephania Plascencia struggled with chronic depression and anxiety from when she was in grade school until her mid-20s when she finally sought help. The anxiety attacks had become so frequent, that she hardly left her bed. A friend convinced her to see a therapist and she started learning healthy coping strategies and taking medication.

Today, Plascencia is the Youth Program Coordinator at the Miami-Dade chapter of the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI), a peer based organization of people with lived experience that offers free education classes and support groups for individuals with mental health conditions and their family members.

“NAMI helped me realize I was not alone. They became part of my support network and family…They provided the validation and understanding that allowed me to work with other people in their recovery journeys.”

Plascencia spoke at a virtual media briefing hosted by the NAMI’s Miami-Dade chapter as part of a month-long campaign to raise awareness of the nationwide increase in mental illness among children and youth – declared a national emergency by the American Pediatrics Association. She speaks to packed auditoriums of middle and high school students and has found that sharing her story “is the strongest tool to fight against the stigma” that attaches to mental illness.

Post-pandemic kids are curious, Plascencia said. “Frequently they ask how to find mental help when parents don’t believe them and misread their symptoms as laziness or scold them for missing school or not finding a job.”

Eddy Molin, a psychiatric nurse at the Jackson Health System Miami, says he sees “parents being tough on their kids aiming for their success, but not acknowledging that they are experiencing a crisis.”

Over the last two months, Molin has noticed a rise in admissions among children with anxiety and disruptive behavior. He believes the mass shootings – especially those at school settings – have unsettled kids already struggling with isolation. He encouraged parents to be “compassionate and empathetic, to pay attention to symptoms such as withdrawal, a decline in personal hygiene, longer times in bed and disengagement from life, even with the things they used to love such as playing video games.”

“When you have a support system that is there for you, recovery is attainable,” Molin stressed. “Sometimes it’s important to be on medication, but sometimes that may be tiring, too. Show love. Love is the key.”

Joshua Ho learned this advice the hard way. For 14 years he worked six days a week as a dean of discipline at a middle school in North Miami. He was used to taking care of his immigrant students who faced “tragic incidents” within their families or countries of origin. “I thought I knew what mental health was about,” said Ho, an immigrant from Korea who today is the Program Director for Miami-Dade County Asian American Advisory Board.

But he was oblivious to the fact that his eldest son was struggling. When the son began having stomach aches, headaches, lack of energy and a constant need to sleep, Ho became angry. “As a typical Asian parent, my expectations for my son were very high…Why isn’t he doing what he’s supposed to do?” Ho recalls.

He sent his son to a church youth pastor and made an appointment with an acupuncturist, Nothing worked. Finally, his son talked with a counselor and Ho learned he was suffering from mental illness. Now 20, his son is on the path of recovery.

“There is no book about how to be a right parent,” Ho said. “But yelling and screaming doesn’t help. Conversation does.”

For Susan Racher, Board President of NAMI Miami-Dade, “We have to start with education – knowing that you have a right to get help and knowing where to find health.” That’s what inspired NAMI’s monthlong public education campaign that has included public events, workshops, advertising, billboards. “Mental health conditions are more common than any other but unfortunately, care and mental health literacy are elusive in many communities,” she said.

Official data show that one in six youth have current diagnoses of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, anxiety, behavior problems or depression, but only half received mental health treatment in the prior year.

Beth Jarosz, Acting Director for KidsData at the Population Reference Bureau, noted that the US suicide rate for 15-to-19-year-olds is nearly 60% higher in 2020 than it was in 2007. More worrying, she said, is that in Florida the suicide rate for 10-to-14-year-olds in 2020 is more than triple the rate in 2007. By contrast, rates in California are frozen at about 33% and rates in New York barely changed.

“Even though youth suicide rates are highest for whites and Asian and Pacific Islander Americans, rates for black youth are rising fast,” she said. “They have doubled in the past two decades.”

Jarosz said that the groups most at risk for mental health disorders are indigenous youth, youth who face an adverse childhood experience like suicide or substance abuse problems in their family, LGBTQ youth, and youth who experience homelessness or are in the foster care system.

From her path to recovery, Plascencia learned that mental illnesses are treatable and that’s the main message she wants to stress. “There’s help and definitely you don’t have to bear it alone.”

Originally published here

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Will the U.S. Shift its Narrative on a Changing Latin America?

For decades Latin America has been on the periphery of U.S. foreign policy thinking. But major transformations including new migration patterns, climate change, and broad-based social movements are already having consequences across the continent.  

That context formed the backdrop for last week’s Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, notable mainly for the absence of key countries including Mexico, Cuba, and Venezuela, as well as Central American nations Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.

The outcome of the Summit was the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection, a pact signed by 20 countries that aims to expand legal pathways for migrants and refugees and provide new funding to assist countries that host them.

According to Ariel Ruiz Soto, policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, the declaration rests on three main pillars: assisting communities that are receiving and working with migrants; providing legal pathways and protection for migrants directly (by granting asylum or Temporary Protected Status); and making border management more humane.

Ruiz Soto was among a panel of speakers during a June 10 media briefing hosted by Ethnic Media Services looking at the stakes for the U.S. in a changing Latin America.

“Recent years have shown that migrant controls have become more violent across the region,” Ruiz Soto noted, adding that similar crackdowns are happening along borders across Latin America, even as the demographic makeup of the migrant flow appears to be shifting.

Between October 2021 and April 2022, there were 1.3 million encounters with migrants by U.S. immigration authorities, Ruiz Soto explained. Some 61% of those encounters involved migrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, meaning that the remaining 39% involved individuals mainly from South America and Asia.

“We are now seeing similar rates of deportation from Mexico,” Ruiz Soto said, noting, however, that Mexico’s treatment of migrants can vary depending on their country of origin. “Haitians, Cubans, and Venezuelans are among the least likely to gain asylum in Mexico.”

That means migrants from these countries are increasingly likely to travel in caravans for the added security that comes with being in larger groups, said Ruiz Soto.

Neither Cuba nor Venezuela were invited to participate in the Summit, with U.S. organizers citing authoritarian conditions in these countries as the reason. That prompted leaders from Mexico and a handful of other countries to withdraw from the event.

“To see Lopez Obrador stand up on this is good,” said Ted Lewis, co-director of the non-profit Global Exchange, noting Mexico’s absence is a reassertion of that country’s “traditional foreign policy independence” from the United States.

At the same time, Lewis says Mexico’s current policy on migration appears to be a capitulation to pressure from the United States, which continues to view Mexico and the rest of Latin America through the narrow lens of “communism and the drug war.”

It’s a perspective shared across the otherwise highly partisan political divide in the United States, according to Lewis. Washington’s approach to Latin America has been very bipartisan, he said, “in a bad way.”

And, according to Lewis, the U.S.’s inability to recognize the changes happening in the region precludes the Biden administration from being able to achieve its goals. “They won’t be able to pull off the changes that are needed because they’re trapped politically.”

According to Manuel Ortiz Escámez, publisher of the Spanish-language news site Peninsula 360, some of Latin America’s most significant changes are being driven by grassroots social movements in countries across the region, including Colombia, which could be on the verge of electing its first-ever left-wing president in June.

“I have seen a transformation in the country from hope to peace to the return of violence,” said Ortiz Escámez, who has covered Colombia for more than a decade. “But I have also seen the creation of new social movements, new platforms, and new alliances where different sectors that usually fight separately have come together.”

Those alliances, says Ortiz Escámez, “will continue to drive social change regardless of who is in office.”

Still, where many see only challenges, Christine Folch of Duke University sees opportunity. Folch studies water and energy politics and says Latin America offers of a vision of what “a post fossil fuel world looks like in terms of our economics and politics.”

Drawing comparisons with the U.S., where 2/3 of energy comes from fossil fuels, in Latin America that same percentage comes from renewables, including wind and water.

“This raises an opportunity for engagement from the U.S.,” said Folch, pointing to the rapid growth in wind farms as well as the Itaipu Dam along the border of Paraguay and Brazil. Itaipu is among the world’s largest dams, producing enough electricity to power a third of California.

According to Folch, the legal structure established to share power generated by the dam between Brazil and Paraguay became the basis for the formation of the South American trading bloc Mercosur.

That cross-national arrangement, she says, can be the basis for similar structures across a region grappling with the increasingly severe impacts of climate change.

“Much of the focus at the Summit of the Americas is on migration, corruption, and organized crime,” Folch said, with little attention paid to Latin America’s potential role as a “leader in climate change, energy transitions, and green growth.”

Originally published here

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Across the US, Activists Fill In for a ‘Failed’ Disaster Relief System

June 1 marked the official start of wildfire and hurricane season in the United States. With the severity of natural disasters increasing every year due to climate change, non-profit organizations have been working to pressure elected leaders to address what they say is the nation’s failed disaster relief system.

Under the banner of Organizing Resilience, activists from Florida, Oregon, California, Louisiana, and Texas, are demanding action on long-term climate resilient infrastructure that supports thriving economies.

During a June 3 briefing hosted by Ethnic Media Services, speakers shared ways local communities have responded to disasters in the absence of government support in meeting immediate needs.

“FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) doesn’t show up until about two weeks after a storm,” said Ashley Shelton, CEO of the Power Coalition for Equity and Justice in Louisiana. “It creates this gap where folks are desperate, they’re reeling and hurting.”

Last year, Hurricane Ida hit Louisiana and killed more than 100 people. Under mutual aid agreements, Shelton’s organization managed to get about $200,000 on the ground within that first week after the storm to cover expenses like hotels, food, and bills.

“We did a lot of work this legislative session to pass legislation around insurance companies, making sure that we’re holding them accountable to their clients… Lots of provisions weren’t clear in their policies, like they didn’t cover wind or had this cap for natural disasters,” Shelton said.

Even critical documentation could be destroyed in a disaster, so people need to request these documents from their mortgage and insurance companies, requiring long processes.

In conversations at both the federal and the state level, Shelton and her team are pushing the idea of giving tax credits to victims: $500 for the first three months after a disaster is declared for people living in the area. 

They are also holding workshops across Louisiana to talk about what resources are available and how to hold government accountable.

“We had to submit forms (to FEMA) like a week and a half after the storm, but if the grid is down, there’s no electricity and no internet, how is anybody supposed to do that?” Shelton noted.

Disaster preparedness for non-English speakers

Activists insisted there is not enough information available on how to be prepared before a disaster strikes or about what steps to take in the event of a disaster in languages other than English.

“Spanish resources weren’t available” during wildfire season last year, one of the worst on record for the West Coast, said Daysi Bedolla Sotelo, organizing director at Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN), a labor union representing farmworkers in Oregon. 

“Our folks can sign up to emergency alerts, but they’re not getting it in the language that they are needing it. And not just Spanish, but also indigenous languages. There’s a lot of other dialects that are also spoken,” she added.

Farmworkers in Oregon and elsewhere in the country work under taxing conditions made more difficult by increasing heat and extended periods of toxic smoke from nearby wildfires. Thanks to Bedolla’s organization, OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) recently passed smoke and heat rules to protect farmworkers this coming season.

“We do outreach wherever we find our community members and farm workers. We do have a rapid response component, teach them how to look for those resources, what documents they should have, how to prepare an emergency backpack…we are definitely way more prepared and ready than we were two years ago when the first wildfire hit us,” Bedolla explained.

Still, despite these measures, undocumented people—who make up a significant share of the nation’s farmworkers—don’t qualify for relief. Which is why last season the state and three sister organizations had to set up an emergency fund as farmers were too scared to go to government agencies to ask for help.

“They don’t know what the repercussions are going to be,” Bedolla said.

Addressing disaster-related trauma

Natural disasters also have an impact on survivors’ mental health. According to Chrishelle Palay, executive director of the HOME Coalition in Houston, 2021’s winter storm, Yuri—which brought unprecedented freezing conditions to Texas and a monumental power grid failure—left the community suffering from PTSD.

“We were left in freezing conditions and darkness for four days and in some areas actually for weeks,” Palay recalled. “After the temperatures increased and the plumbing pipes warmed up, another disaster struck when the pipes burst and we were left with no running water.”

Palay said that Texans living along the Gulf Coast are concerned not just about the power grid but also about deteriorating conditions made worse by these extreme events.

“Harvey happened almost five years ago, and unfortunately low-income communities of color are continuing to live in leaky roofs and homes with the moldy ceilings and walls,” she said. “We’re worried about the continued exacerbation of issues that already existed.”

Her coalition has been working with city and county leaders in Houston to address the need for more resources among community members.

Housing access and affordability

Housing access and affordability remain a key concern for many activists, who say low-income residents in states like Florida—where costs have been rising precipitously—are being forced to move to regions more vulnerable to climate-driven disasters.

“A lot of folks are experiencing housing insecurity, not knowing where they’re going to live next,” said MacKenzie Marcelin, climate justice manager at Florida Rising. “Entering this hurricane season, it’s a grave concern.”

Marcelin and his peers have been coordinating a “Justice on Every Block campaign,” pressing for increased accountability and oversight for landlords across the state, ensuring they comply with local safety ordinances and implement housing anti-discrimination policies.

“We’re also pushing for 90-day eviction notices for pregnant women and tenants with children,” said Marcelin. “We believe that housing is a right, so we’re trying to pass a bill to protect tenants and make sure they have just as many rights as these developers.”

Originally published here

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Cross-Racial Solidarity Against Racist Violence: The Legacy of Vincent Chin

Forty years ago, on the eve of his wedding, a young Chinese American named Vincent Chin was fatally beaten with a baseball bat on the streets of Detroit by two white men shouting anti-Asian slurs. The miscarriage of justice that followed – neither assailant served a day in jail for the crime – marked the birth of the modern-day Asian American civil rights movement.

What made Chin’s killing even more egregious, said Helen Zia, author and veteran activist for AAPI and LGBTQ communities who worked in Detroit at the time of Chin’s murder, was that “there was no question in anybody’s minds, had the killers been black or Asian, had they not been white, they would have gone to prison for a very long time. So the sense of injustice was great.”

Zia spoke at an Ethnic Media Services briefing on May 27th to highlight plans for a special 40th anniversary commemoration of Chin’s death in Detroit (June 16-19) and efforts to build stronger cross-racial solidarity to confront today’s surge in racist violence.On June 19, 1982 Vincent Chin was beaten in a racially-motivated attack in Detroit, Michigan. The perpetrators, both of whom were white, were released on probation.

Noting the parallels between 1982 and 2022, Zia recalled that Chin’s murder occurred amidst mounting public fears that manufacturing jobs were relocating to Asia even as inflation, fueled by an oil crisis, had already hit 20%. Meanwhile the Reagan administration was dismantling social safety programs such as unemployment benefits, food stamps, and mental health services – policies whose impacts are still being felt today.

“There were people in the C-suites, the heads of the auto industries, people in the halls of Congress saying we are at war because Japan makes fuel efficient cars,” said Zia, ignoring the fact that German cars were even more fuel efficient. “It was a scapegoat to blame some external force for the difficulties that were happening internally in America.”

That has happened repeatedly in American history, Zia noted, pointing to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 that banned Chinese laborers from immigrating to the U.S., and the Trump administration’s national security program that focused counterintelligence resources on fighting “Chinese espionage.”

Then, as now, Asian Americans came together with Black Americans, Arab Americans, and people from all walks of life, social classes, and faiths to denounce racist violence, Zia said, despite concentrated efforts to keep people divided, including misinformation implying that much of the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes are committed by Blacks. 

‘Replacement theory’ drives racist-fueled attacks

Zia noted that the majority of assailants against Asians are white and that Black leaders – from Jesse Jackson to Stacey Abrams to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar – have denounced Asian violence, even as Asians have mobilized to support the Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of George’s Floyd murder.

“A study done by the University of Michigan that came out in the summer of 2021 shows that 75% of the attackers of Asian Americans are white,” said John C. Yang, president and CEO, Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC).

https://www.youtube.com/embed/IYRIV-WatSE?feature=oembedAuthor and activist Helen Zia discusses America’s history of scapegoating Asian Americans in times of economic and social crisis.

“This hate is based on the ‘replacement theory’ in which extremists argue that all of our communities of color are seeking to replace white Christian males with guns,” Yang noted. “There’s a great deal of despair, but we’ll do all we can to help dismantle it.”

Yang spoke of the strong support he personally received from Black, Latino and Native American civil rights leaders following incidents such as the mass shooting of Asian beauticians in Atlanta last year.  “There is an allyship I found among my communities of color,” he added.

Lisa Cylar Barrett, director of Policy at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, singled out “a running narrative” that holds that if one group gets ahead automatically, another group is left out or falls behind. The narrative is perpetuated by “a white power structure that seeks to maintain control and is fearful of the growing communities of color in this country.”

“We’ve had folks in political offices and media stations, corporate representatives creating an environment where misinformation and disinformation has become normalized,” Barrett said. “And we have to do more to push back against that narrative with stories that really help folks see the humanity in one another.”

Poor data on hate crimes

Michael German, a fellow with the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty & National Security Program who formerly investigated white supremacists for the FBI, argues that until there is more accurate official data on hate crimes, “people won’t understand that white racism is much more common in our society, that it in many ways is foundational in our society.” 

Right now, he called official data on hate crimes “so poor.”

Despite passage of the Hate Crime Statistics Act in 1990, requiring the Department of Justice to collect “accurate data,” the DOJ’s policy has been to defer the investigation of hate crimes to state and local law enforcement, though only about 15% of police departments acknowledge such crimes occur within their jurisdiction, German pointed out.

While the Bureau of Justice’s National Crime Victimization Survey reports an average of 230,000 violent hate crimes a year, the DOJ prosecutes just 25 defendants a year.

“There were always racist dog whistles that politicians would use to try to get votes,” German said. “But what’s occurring now is that they are actually openly supporting these causes, appearing at campaign events with members of right-wing militant groups.”

Speakers noted that the Biden-Harris administration has issued a directive to federal agencies to look at how they can “make racial equity real.” The Justice Department, meanwhile, is expected to release several new initiatives in the coming week aimed at addressing the recent rise in hate crimes that are mostly targeting Black and AAPI communities.

These efforts need to permeate down to other elected officials in legislatures and school boards, and to the community, the speakers agreed.

Zia also pointed to states like Illinois and New Jersey that passed bills to create curriculums for K-12 that acknowledge the real history of Asian Americans. At least nine other states are discussing similar initiatives.

Events commemorating Vincent Chin

Vincent Chin’s legacy will be honored through a series of live streaming events at Vincentchin.org. The site includes a guide translated into several Asian languages that tell the stories of cross-racial solidarity and understanding among communities and the history of civil rights in America.

Alongside other Asian-American organizations, AAJC is leading the “Unity March” on June 25, a multicultural event where Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Pacific Islander, LGBTQ+, Muslim, Sikh Arab, and Jewish people will come together in Washington D.C. to demand cultural equity and racial justice.

Originally published here

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Millions of Kids Would Lose Health Care if Covid-19 Emergency Coverage Ends

Some 40 million children currently enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) nationwide are at risk of losing their health insurance once the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) expires. Declared in early 2020, the PHE provides a federal guarantee of continuous Medicaid coverage during the pandemic.

Initially set to expire on July 15, the Biden administration last week extended the declaration to October 15.

According to the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), of the 5.7 million children covered by Medi-Cal (California’s Medicaid health care program) in the state, between 800,000 to 1.2 million kids will lose their coverage once the PHE expires. States, meanwhile, will have to once again verify eligibility for those enrolled in Medicaid, including kids.

“This will disproportionately impact children of color, who are more likely to rely on Medicaid for coverage,” said Mayra Alvarez, president of The Children’s Partnership, during a May 20 briefing hosted by Ethnic Media Services.

“Seventy five percent of the more than five million kids covered are kids of color who will miss out on critical preventive and primary care services that are especially important for our youngest children.”

Under the PHE, families could stay enrolled in health care coverage through Medicaid without additional administrative renewals or having to prove their eligibility. Free COVID testing and treatments, vaccinations, telehealth access and other public programs were also available.

“Children still need to catch up on their well child visits that were not only missed during this pandemic, but that are particularly important during the first few years of a child’s life when 90% of her brain development occurs,” said Alvarez.

For Georgina Maldonado, Executive Director of the Community Health Initiative of Orange County, these changes have helped address longstanding systemic barriers “we have been fighting historically as a community.”

“If this is working, why bring back the barriers that have prevented us from obtaining healthcare coverage?” Maldonado said.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has launched a multibillion-dollar initiative to prioritize child and youth mental health, including early care and learning investments. Thanks to grassroots organizations like Maldonado’s, undocumented children are now eligible for full scope Medi-Cal, which includes health, dental and vision care. Despite these efforts, less than half of uninsured children who are eligible for Medicaid are enrolled in the program.

That is why the Children’s Partnership has been working with Assembly member Blanca Rubio (D-Baldwin Park) on AB 2402, which would guarantee multi-year continuous Medi-Cal coverage for kids aged 0-to-5 years. The Senate has included the bill in their list of budget priorities now under negotiation with the Assembly.

“The opposition to the bill comes from people who believe poverty is a personal responsibility, and that there should be steps for people to prove their eligibility for these programs,” added Alvarez. “Some people are concerned with the cost of programs more broadly.”

At the federal level, the expiration of the PHE will mean 80 million people—including 37 million children—will need to have their eligibility verified, said Joan Alker, healthcare research professor and executive director at the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families.

“Families could lose coverage as they’re not going to be eligible if their income has gone up a little bit. Adults may be eligible for subsidized marketplace coverage and children may be eligible for CHIP,” explained Alker. “In some states like California, Medicaid and CHIP are all in one program now. But in Texas, Georgia and Florida, they’re not.”

States will have 12 months to verify eligibility once the PHE expires. States can also reject the extra funding, while Congress could act to lift the Medicaid continuous coverage protection on a certain date. The Biden administration said it would give states 60 days advance notice if they plan to lift the PHE.

“It’s not that easy to enroll in Marketplace coverage, particularly for families with limited English proficiency. I worry greatly that these are the kinds of families that we’re going to lose during this process. We’re going to need a lot of community support to educate folks and help them through this transition,” said Alker.

Update contact info

Healthcare advocates are encouraging families to take a simple step: update their contact information.

“It is critical because the counties who are beneficiaries (of the Medicaid program) usually contact families every year through this renewal redetermination process,” explained Yingjia Huang, assistant deputy director at the DHCS.

In April, the department rolled out an initiative called ‘DHCS coverage ambassadors’ to encourage community-based organizations and advocates to spread the word through social media messages, flyers, and direct calls in 90 languages to encourage families to update their addresses and phone numbers. Huang urged families to reach out to their counties via phone or by visiting https://www.mybenefitscalwin.org or https://www.coveredca.com

Originally published here

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Experts Await Data on Moderna’s Vaccine for Kids; Criticize Lifting of Mask Mandates

The medical community is celebrating drug maker Moderna’s recent announcement that it is seeking FDA approval for its Covid-19 vaccination for younger kids, though experts add they are “anxiously” awaiting further data on its efficacy and safety.

“We have seen that our youngest patients are getting sick and hospitalized with COVID… even previously healthy kids can develop complications,” said Pediatric Pulmonologist Dr. Manisha Newaskar with Stanford Children’s Health during an April 29 press briefing hosted by Ethnic Media Services.

“The data still needs full review, but we have to educate our families and encourage them to get their young ones vaccinated,” Newaskar added.

The vaccine will require two doses one month apart and is expected to be authorized by the FDA in June. Parents have been hesitant about shots for their kids in part due to the risk of myocarditis—an inflammation of the muscles around the heart—though experts note the risk decreases for younger patients.

“Schools may have a role to play in getting the vaccine out there,” said Dr. Ben Neuman, professor of Biology and chief virologist with the Global Health Research Complex, Texas A&M University.

“There are 500 deaths per year from bacterial meningitis, and that is one of the things that schools would normally require vaccination against,” explained Dr. Neuman. “COVID-19 is around 350 deaths in the same age group in roughly the span of a year. This needs to be one of the vaccines to make school work.”

Moderna previously requested FDA authorization for its vaccine for kids ages 6 to 11 and ages 12 to 17. It expects to submit data on the efficacy of these vaccines by May 9.

The news comes as Moderna also announced progress on a “bivalent” vaccine that would provide immunity to the original Covid-19 strain along with newer variants.

“Each year we update our influenza vaccine and it’s now a quadrivalent vaccine. It has four different antigens in it. So, the thinking among vaccine scientists is to do something quite similar with COVID,” explained Dr. William Schaffner, professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

“Expanding the antigens in the vaccines, we get broader coverage against this array of variants going forward,” Schaffner noted.  Dr. William Schaffner, professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine

The speed at which variants of the Covid-19 virus are appearing, along with their relative transmissibility, calls for the development of multivariant vaccines, speakers said. The BA2 Omicron variant, which emerged in late November in the United States, is almost gone but has been replaced by a subvariant that is even more contagious: the BA.2.12.1

“We need to advocate the FDA to update the vaccines more quickly considering that we’re just tweaking the spike protein a little bit,” said Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, co-founder of the World Health Network and chief of the COVID Task Force at the New England Complex Systems Institute. “We should be able to do a phase two (of approval), and then allow these brand-new phases to adapt the vaccines pretty quickly…”

Experts also weighed in on the removal of mask mandates on public transportation which several U.S transit systems, including airlines, have already adopted.

“We don’t just stop wearing helmets, unbuckle our seatbelts, and allow drunk driving because hospital beds are not full. I think the CDC is forgetting prevention (strategies) in trying to push for a return to normal,” added Dr. Feigl-Ding, who highlighted the fact that even for people who are boosted, the protection against hospitalization and death is 90-95%, but the protection against infection is only about 45%.

We don’t just stop wearing helmets, unbuckle our seatbelts, and allow drunk driving because hospital beds are not full.

“Adults now are going out to gatherings, parties, bars, restaurants, nightclubs… so the likelihood of transmission is higher,” continued Dr. Feigl-Ding, “and someone may have immunocompromised children at home or family members who could actually have a severe outcome (from infection).”

Dr. Schaffner agreed that the ending of the mask mandate might increase the vulnerability of already fragile people and suggested that people consider their personal circumstances when deciding to leave the mask at home. “Are you older? Do you have an underlying illness, heart disease or lung disease? Are you immune-compromised? Are you a person that’s providing care for someone? Continue to be very careful.”

The speakers emphasized that vaccination is safe and that boosters are essential to strengthen immunity against COVID-19 and its long-term effects such as headaches, fatigue, sleep disturbance, stomach aches, chest tightness, and loss of appetite among others.

Originally published here

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COVID-19 Pandemic Worsens the Mental Health of Minority Children

A recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that surveyed more than 7,000 high school students, revealed that 55.1% described suffering emotional abuse, 44.2% reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness and 9% attempted suicide. More young women and LGBTQ+ youth saw a rise in suicidal behavior, more Asian kids confronted racism and hate, more Black youth and Native Americans experienced hunger and economic devastation and along with Latinos, suffered mental stress due to the pandemic.

A panel of experts convened by Ethnic Media Services explained that to avert a “pandemic” of future adults with serious emotional and mental disorders, it’s important to foster a positive ethnic racial identity. They argue that civic engagement in particular, can be a mental health intervention: building opportunities for young people to speak truth to power and connect with their communities is key for their development.

Angela Vasquez, MSW, policy director for mental health at The Children’s Partnership:

“Nearly 50% of youth who are severely impaired with a major depressive episode did not receive treatment… Black and Latino children were about 14% less likely than white youth to receive treatment for their depression… Suicide is the second leading cause of death for Native youth, so nearly three and a half times higher than the national average. And high school girls across all races and ethnicities made plans to attempt suicide more than boys.”

“Over half of Latina girls are worried about a friend or family member being deported. Nearly a quarter have been harassed because of their family name, or country of origin. Since the pandemic started, Asian youth have been experiencing harassment and bullying.”

“Family separation harms children’s mental and physical health; children of undocumented parents are at risk of behavioral problems. Having parents taken away undermines family economic security. The climate of fear further restricts children, access to education, public benefits, and other services.”

“Direct and vicarious exposure to police violence, including immigration enforcement are contributors to toxic stress…There is a large growing campaign for police free schools.”

Dr. Ilan Shapiro, Pediatrician, chief medical affairs officer of Altamed federally qualified health centers, Los Angeles

“As a pediatrician, they never tell you about all the tools that you need to bring on board for a pandemic, especially on the suffering of a community that has lost so much from life complications. And it’s not just the Latino Hispanic community… We need to make sure that we create structural changes.”

“There’s something called the Internet that most of my patients don’t have… There was a year that they were at home doing nothing, eating whatever, they were feeling depressed, anxious without moving, the (pandemic) ramifications were horrible.”

“At least 50% of the patients that I take care of, were directly touched by COVID-19: they were sick, they had a family member that was close to them that actually died, or they were harmed because of the pandemic.”

“We need to translate medical terms to an actionable language that our community can actually do something with… It’s up to us to make sure that we create open conversations and resources with media with healthcare providers.”

Dr. Myo Thwin Myint, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Tulane University School of Medicine, He serves on the American Academy of Child and Adolescent (AACAP) Training and Education Committee New Orleans, Louisiana:

“Disparity exists in terms of racial minoritized groups, as well as a gender and sexual minoritized groups. Particularly our LGBTQ and trans kids suffer disproportionately from the mental health challenges because of the unjust societal challenges. Across the country, many state legislatures are discussing passing laws that add additional stress to get appropriate care.”

“Our Surgeon General has put out a general mental health advisory and (recognized that) a crisis is happening. It was really good to see that there’s recognition from the federal government and we hope that what follows will be an investment in our youth’s mental health.”

“We should being able to go out to the youth where the challenges are happening rather than waiting in our clinic and ivory towers where we know there are systemic challenges such as transportation. We need to be thinking very creatively how we are going to be providing care.”

Sydney McKinney, PhD, Executive Director of the National Black Women’s Justice Institute based in Brooklyn:

“Addressing the mental health and wellness of black women and girls is really vital to reducing their risk of coming into contact with the juvenile legal and the criminal legal system… Among black teenage girls, suicide death rates increased from 2001 to 2017 by 182%.”

“Nearly 2 million young people are arrested by police every year. And data show that 75% of those have experienced traumatic victimization in their lifetime… Black girls account for 43% of girls who are in youth detention which is more than any other racial group.”

“The pandemic has exacerbated the mental health needs of black girls and gender expansive youth who are directly impacted by the foster care, the child welfare system and the juvenile legal system.” “Media can elevate and bring attention to mental health and wellness programs and services that are culturally affirming and gender-responsive. So much of what people know is clinical modalities, which many of the folks in our communities are reluctant to engage in for very well-founded reasons.”

Originally published here