During this global coronavirus pandemic that has shut down businesses and schools and ushered in social distancing, experts worry more children are suffering from abuse. Researchers say this happens in times of stress. Child abuse rose in the Great Recession. “I believe we’re going to see the number of child abuse cases increase rapidly but child abuse reports are going to decrease exponentially,” Megan Hedges, family advocate for the Child Advocacy Center of Fredrick County, told the Frederick News-Post. “This is going to be detrimental to many of the children in our community because we know the abuse is not stopping, in fact the abuse may be getting worse.”
1. Why Could Child Abuse Rise?
Financial distress, unemployment, domestic violence, and social isolation are big ...
As the coronavirus pandemic sweeps throughout the U.S., one personal and political issue is taking center stage for most: the cost of and access to quality healthcare. Statistically, Latinos and other disadvantaged groups experience some of the worst outcomes of those concerns. Moreover, experts say it will only get worse as this outbreak endures. Earlier this year and prior to the spread of COVID-19, Dr. Mateo Benegas, a health services researcher at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, joined Salud Talks to address these issues and how the healthcare system is serving and not serving all patients equally. Check out this discussion on the Salud Talks Podcast, Episode 26, "Healthcare Access, or Lack Thereof"! WHAT: A #SaludTalks discussion about "Healthcare ...
Fewer than 5% of Latinos participate in federal clinical trials. That gives researchers less chance to find treatments that work for this population. Latinos suffer a heavier burden of coronavirus, obesity, and certain cancers. How are we going to make sure new treatments─such as a COVID-19 vaccine─work as well for Latinos and other people of color? Let’s use #SaludTues on Tuesday, April 28, 2020, to discuss how to ensure diversity and inclusion of people of color in research amid the COVID-19 pandemic! WHAT: #SaludTues Tweetchat: How to Ensure Diversity in Research during Coronavirus
TIME/DATE: 1-2 p.m. ET (Noon-1 p.m. CT), Tuesday, April 28, 2020
WHERE: On Twitter with hashtag #SaludTues
HOST: @SaludAmerica
CO-HOSTS: UnidosUS (@WeAreUnidosUS); League of ...
A soda tax aims to reduce sugary drink consumption and boost public health. In a new twist, Seattle is using soda tax revenues to give emergency $800 grocery vouchers for 6,250 families amid the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, Next City reports. City leaders mailed a $400 voucher in March 2020 for families to buy groceries at Safeway. They will send a second $400 voucher this month. Mayor Jenny Durkan called this rapid-response to coronavirus "remarkable." “As schools and child care facilities close, we need to do everything we can to support families and ensure they can put food on the table,” Durkan said, Next City reports.
Sugary drinks do not contribute to good health, especially among Latinos, according to a Salud America! research review.
Let's examine how soda ...
Recent data suggests that older adults are the most vulnerable to the worst effects of the coronavirus outbreak. Older people and people with severe chronic conditions—such as dementia—should take special precautions because they are at higher risk of developing severe COVID-19 illness, according to the CDC. Worse, it is not just how many years one has lived that determines risk. "It is not chronological age alone that determines how one does in the face of a life-threatening infection such as COVID-19," George Kuchel, a geriatrician and gerontologist at the University of Connecticut, told STAT. "Having multiple chronic diseases and frailty is in many ways as or more important than chronological age. An 80-year-old who is otherwise healthy and not frail might be more ...
San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff announced the addition of Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez, director of Salud America! and the Institute for Health Promotion Research at UT Health San Antonio, to the COVID-19 Health Transition Team, which is working on a plan to slowly reopen the city economy after physical distancing. Nirenberg and Wolff wrote a joint memo that stay-at-home rules have saved lives. Yet they acknowledge physical distancing isn't permanent. "Our community needs a local strategy to reenter into everyday life," Nirenberg and Wolff wrote. "These decisions have critical implications on our community – including our ability to avoid subsequent outbreaks, ensure we protect our ... populations ... and to identify parameters for transitioning ...
The EPA wants to roll back water protections — again. In 2015, the Obama-era administration enacted the Coal Ash Rule, which provided water protections against toxic waste from coal-fired power plants. Now, the current EPA administration is hoping to diminish those protections, and give the plants more time and power to dump waste continually — all of which will impact the surrounding areas' groundwater. Environmental justice leaders say these rollbacks would worsen damage that has been done for years. "Instead of having a single strong national set of public health protections for this polluting industry, we are going to be left with federal regulations that are riddled with loopholes," Tom Cmar, an attorney with the environmental group Earthjustice, told NPR.
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COVID-19 can affect anyone. But, for Latinos, the coronavirus pandemic is worsening health, social, and income inequities, and raising fears of disparities in disease rates, exposure, testing, and prevention. Here is our infographic in English and Spanish on eight of the biggest coronavirus issues facing Latinos:
1. COVID-19 Rates and Latinos
Early reports from hotbed areas, including New York City and Oregon, show higher COVID-19 incidence and death rates among Latinos. In other cities, African Americans show higher rates. RATES
2. COVID-19 Testing and Latinos
People with health insurance get tested for COVID-19 more frequently than those who don’t, even if tests are free, according to researchers. 19% of Latinos are uninsured. This is the worst coverage rate ...
As American markets reel from the COVID-19 pandemic, people of color and other groups facing systemic injustice are experiencing the harshest consequences of this financial disaster. Update 5/7/20: More than 33.5 million people have filed for unemployment in the past four weeks since the spread of the current novel coronavirus hit the U.S. Worse, the Latino community is and will continue to face some of the harshest economic—as well as health—burdens from this disease. "We know that when the economy goes into decline, people of color always bear the brunt," Teresa Candori, communications director for the National Urban League, told USA Today. "We will be fighting to make sure the most vulnerable communities are not an afterthought."
Latinos and Coronavirus Job Loss by the ...
