Does someone smoke in your apartment complex? You might be inhaling your neighbor's secondhand smoke. Inside multifamily dwellings, secondhand smoke can travel through doorways, halls, windows, ventilation systems, electrical outlets, and gaps around fixtures and pipes. Secondhand smoke, already a cancer-causing killer of millions, also might contribute to the spread of coronavirus. While there is no definitive link as of yet, there is enough scientific understanding of how particles travel to cause concern that smoke from cigarettes, cigars, and other tobacco products could be transferring COVID-19, said Dr. Loren Wold, a researcher at The Ohio State University. “We know that the virus can attach to particles and can travel three, four, or five times farther than they ...
Volunteering for Christmas and New Year’s helps other people and is proven to give the volunteer an emotional boost, too. So why not volunteer your “voice”? Speak up with these seven actions to promote health equity for Latino and all families this holiday season!
1. Share Messages to Slow the Spread of COVID-19
COVID-19 continues to disproportionately impact Latinos. As Latinos, we are resilient. But part of our resiliency requires action to slow the spread of COVID-19! That’s why Salud America! at UT Health San Antonio launched the “Juntos, We Can Stop COVID-19” digital communication campaign in English and Spanish to help Latino families and workers take action to slow the spread of coronavirus. The #JuntosStopCovid campaign features culturally relevant and ...
When schools closed down and switched to online learning at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, some students began falling behind in class. The students most affected? Latino and Black children. Several studies measured testing scores in math and reading for elementary school students in Fall 2020 compared to Fall 2019. A report by the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) found that while some students are improving, Latino and Black students are falling behind their white peers. “While a majority of students did better than expected in reading — scoring at levels similar to typical nonpandemic years — this wasn’t true for Black and Hispanic students and those who attend high-poverty schools,” according to NBC News. The trend is concerning as it highlights the ...
Did you know that 1 of 2 Latino kids have cavities in their teeth? More Latino children and young adults ages 2-19 have cavities (57%) than their Black (48%), Asian (45%), and White (40%) peers. Cavities are not the only dental health disparity facing Latino children, either. They experience high rates of untreated tooth decay, poor rates of dental health care coverage, and more. “While the gaps have narrowed for some indicators, they have widened for many others, and equity in oral health status remains elusive. We can and should do better,” Dr. Scott Tomar of the University of Florida College of Dentistry, who analyzed 2019 CDC data, told Pew Charitable Trusts. To get to the bottom of oral health among Latino children, we first have to understand the disparities, the ...
Since childhood, Christina Duarte has wanted to help people. Helping people is why she became chief of health education and promotion for the Health Department of Laredo, Texas, a predominantly Latino city on the U.S.-Mexico border. When the coronavirus pandemic struck, Duarte immediately looked for ways to help her community, which struggled with disparities in COVID-19 case and death rates. So Duarte shifted the city’s in-person health classes to a virtual platform to help those at home during the height of the coronavirus quarantine. “Our participants continued to ask, ‘are you even going to have classes again? My mental health is at stake,’” she said. “Then the numbers increased. We started working on mental health preparedness here at the health department. ...
The CVS Health Foundation, American Heart Association, Alliance for a Healthier Generation have launched a new initiative to help reduce vaping in schools. The Tobacco-Free Schools Initiative gives schools resources that focus on positive reinforcement for tobacco cessation and prevention, rather than traditional forms of punishment. Addressing the rise in vaping and e-cigarette use for young people is urgent. “Youth vaping is one of the biggest obstacles we face in helping to create the first tobacco-free generation,” said Eileen Howard Boone, SVP of Corporate Social Responsibility and Philanthropy, CVS Health and President, CVS Health Foundation, in a press release. “Coming together with the American Heart Association and Healthier Generation allows us to support ...
Since the start of coronavirus’ spread throughout the country, Latinos have lacked the resources to battle against widespread rates of infection, death. Soon, that community will have a voice on President-Elect Joe Biden’s recently announced COVID-19 Taskforce, which includes two Latinos — Dr. Luciana Borio, former assistant FDA commissioner, and Dr. Robert Rodriguez, a professor of emergency medicine at UCSF School of Medicine. This kind of representation is critical to combat the horrific experiences Latinos and other people of color have experienced during this epidemic, especially as winter arrives, said Dr. Leana Wen, the former Baltimore health commissioner. “[Biden’s] work needs to begin right now. He needs to begin communicating the urgency of actions with the ...
With the election of Joe Biden, we expect to see a lot of national policy and system changes under the new presidential administration next year. But, right now, lots of changes are already happening locally. That’s because, during the election on Nov. 3, 2020, voters in cities and states passed local propositions. These have wide-ranging implications for education, economic recovery, criminal justice reform, and more, especially for Latinos and other communities of color.
Education and the 2020 Election
Childhood education took a high priority in many cities. San Antonio, a predominately Latino city, was one of them. Voters approved a one-eighth-cent sales tax to continue funding Pre-K 4 SA, the city’s full-day public preschool program. “Pre-K 4 SA serves 2,000 ...
Food insecurity and health disparities disproportionately affect lower income communities and communities of color. These disparities are only exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Access to healthy food should be a universal right. It’s clear that we must reevaluate how food retail currently works in our country. We must rebuild a more equitable and just system. We can work together to promote food equity in our communities and across the country. This tweetchat coincides with the new release of a National Research Agenda on healthy food retail, published as a Special Journal Issue. Join #SaludTues at 1 p.m. ET on Nov. 17, 2020, to tweet about the importance of healthy food retail environments for advancing health equity. WHAT: #SaludTuesTweetchat: How a Healthy Food ...
