Before COVID-19, families with SNAP federal food aid could not use their electronic benefits transfer (EBT) cards to buy groceries online. They had to go to into stores and risk infection. The good news is 37 states now have a SNAP online food purchasing programs. The bad news is that those online purchasing programs could “expose [SNAP] participants to increased data collection and surveillance, a flood of intrusive and manipulative online marketing techniques, and pervasive promotion of unhealthy foods,” according to the Center for Digital Democracy. The Center’s new report explains how federal and state policies fail to protect consumers against unhealthy food marketing, threatening the health of SNAP families. The report also recommends regulatory safeguards, industry ...
For years, one disadvantaged community of color, the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, have been fighting a battle for their land against big oil. The Dakota Access Pipeline is the center of that battle. The tribe urges—along with numerous environmental activists—for courts to halt its use. More than just an infringement on that territory, this issue raises numerous environmental concerns. Despite some wins against Energy Transfer LP, the pipeline’s operators, courts are still allowing for the pipeline to remain operational during the suit’s proceedings. Worse, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread throughout the country, scientists and researchers are discovering more about how harmful environmental exposures, such as noxious fumes from oil, can impact those infected by ...
Good vision and eye health are vital to many aspects of health. Yet Latinos and other people of color have higher rates of vision loss, diabetic eye disease, and cataracts than their white peers, according to recent eye research. To celebrate Healthy Vision Month in July, let’s use #SaludTues on Tuesday, July 28, 2020, to tweet about the latest on eye health disparities. We also will tweet about how to prevent vision loss and chronic diseases like diabetes, and how taking care of your health can also help create better vision! WHAT: #SaludTues Tweetchat, “Healthy Vision Month: Eye Health Is My Health”
TIME/DATE: 1-2 p.m. ET (Noon-1 p.m. CT), Tuesday, July 28, 2020
WHERE: On Twitter with hashtag #SaludTues
HOST: @SaludAmerica
CO-HOSTS: National Eye Institute ...
Submit a comment to support strong limits on added sugars and no sugary drinks for toddlers in the scientific report that will help shape the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. A federal committee released the scientific report on July 15, 2020, after spending months reviewing data and over 55,000 public comments—including some from Salud America! members. USDA and HHS will use the scientific report and comments to draft the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. You can comment on the report through Aug. 13, 2020. Marion Nestle, a nutrition researcher, told CNN that the report has "stronger recommendations" than past guidelines. This includes no sugary drinks for children up to age 2. "At the outset, I was concerned that the committee members might be ...
By Harmenia "Mimi" Frazier White
Breast Cancer Survivor My journey began in 2015 when I was diagnosed with stage 3b invasive breast cancer. For years prior to the diagnosis, I was misdiagnosed and told that I had fibrocystic breast disease. If I didn't finally want to know what was going on with my body, I wouldn't be here today. Once I was diagnosed, I went into chemotherapy for 5 months and got married right after I finished. In July 2016 I got a double mastectomy and lymph node removal next, followed by 3 months of radiation. The next year, I had to get a salpingo oophorectomy (removal of the ovaries and fallopian tubes). At this point, cancer had taken nearly everything from me. Luckily, it didn't take my spirit or my strong will to live. I fought hard to maintain this ...
For years, political analysts and partisan think tanks have continued to focus on one group of Americans in order to win elections: Latinos. About 2 million Latinos are expected to vote during the 2020 presidential election, accounting for the largest non-white demographic group in history. They are just over 13% of the electorate this year, according to new data from the Pew Research Center. Expert says, with those demographics, 2020 presents a historic opportunity for Latinos to make their mark on national politics and factor in on who takes office in the White House.
What's the History of Latino Voting in the Presidential Election?
Historically, relatively few registered Latinos voted in presidential elections. When it comes to party, democrats have maintained a significant ...
For months now, health leaders have asked Americans to flatten the COVID-19 curve by behaving as if they have been exposed─stay home, stop hanging out with friends and family, avoid public places like gyms and bars, and wear a mask when around others. This individual behavior is needed to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. But, at the same time, public health departments must do their part, too. They are responsible for “contact tracing”─contacting people who have tested positive for COVID-19 and those in close contact with them to give them critical information to slow disease spread: understand the possibility that they could spread the infection to others even if they themselves do not feel ill;
understand what they should do to monitor themselves for ...
Recent data goes to proves alarming facts health experts and racial justice advocates warned of since the spread of COVID-19: Minority groups are experiencing the pandemic’s worst outcomes. Latinos, Blacks, and other communities of color are three times more likely to contract coronavirus than white Americans, according to a new report from the New York Times—obtained through a lawsuit against the centers of disease control. Worse, members of those groups are twice as likely to die. “Systemic racism doesn’t just evidence itself in the criminal justice system,” Quinton Lucas, the third Black mayor of Kansas City, told the Times. “It’s something that we’re seeing taking lives in not just urban America, but rural America, and all types of parts where, frankly, people ...
Millions of frontline workers continue to commute through the COVID-19 crisis and millions more will start back as businesses reopen. An estimated 2.8 million American workers in essential industries commute to work on transit. However, amid the economic fallout of COVID-19, many transit agencies have or anticipate having to cut service, which could hurt low-income and Latino communities who rely most on public transportation and don’t have the option to work from home, particularly in cities where transit is already infrequent and unreliable. Cuts to transit service could also hurt the millions of families who have lost jobs or lost hours and are considering selling a vehicle to save money. As local, state, and federal leaders discuss recovery plans, they need to consider ...
