Latinos are driving the U.S. economy thanks to a rise in population, workforce participation, entrepreneurship, and economic contributions. But progress is hampered by COVID-19, discrimination, and wage disparities. “There’s no doubt Latinos are slowly being more fully integrated into the US economy. Yet there’s also no doubt there’s a long way to go, especially for first-generation Latino immigrant,” according to Lucy Perez, Bernardo Sichel, Michael Chui, and Ana Paula Calvo of McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm. Let’s explore how Latinos are influencing the economy now and in the future.
Latino Population Growth
Latinos account for over 18.5% of the total U.S. population. As the Latino population has continued to grow rapidly, it has ...
More than 50 million people in the US are under excessive heat warnings, and more than 25 major cities have tied or broken record-high temperatures this year, according to NPR. Heat waves are nothing new, but they are becoming increasingly more common and more severe because of climate change, which is a threat to public health, especially for Latinos. In fact, about 702 heat-related deaths occur each year due to heat stroke and related diseases. “Hot weather is associated with an increase in heat-related illnesses, including cardiovascular and respiratory complications, renal failure, electrolyte imbalance, kidney stones, negative impacts on fetal health, and preterm birth,” the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) stated. “Specifically, death rates are noted ...
Many vaccines, including the current vaccines for COVID-19, come in small bottles with more than one dose inside. These are known as multiple-dose, or “multi-dose” vials, and can be used to vaccinate more than one patient.
Multi-Dose Vials and Infection Control
Multi-dose vials are more likely to become contaminated compared to single-dose vials, and therefore require important injection safety actions. “Multi-dose vials are more likely to get dirty because you’re putting a needle into that bottle many times to pull out each dose for each separate vaccine,” said Dr. Abigail Carlson, an infectious diseases physician with the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), as part of CDC Project Firstline’s Inside Infection Control video series. If the vial gets ...
Sascha Ellington, PhD
Epidemiologist, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) CDC is encouraging people who are pregnant, trying to get pregnant now, or may become pregnant in the future to stay up to date on COVID-19 vaccinations. Latinas have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 with the second-highest rate of cases reaching over 65,000. Learn how COVID-19 vaccinations can provide additional peace of mind for you and your family during pregnancy.
Navigating COVID-19 and Pregnancy
Did you know people who are pregnant or were recently pregnant are more likely to get very sick from COVID-19 than people who are not pregnant? If you become sick with COVID-19 during pregnancy, you are more likely to experience preterm birth and stillbirth and might be at ...
Driving is a daily danger to American life. And it is getting more dangerous. More Americans died in motor vehicle traffic crashes in 2021 than any other year since 2005, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Additionally, pedestrian fatalities are up 13% and bicyclist fatalities are up 5% compared to 2020. These are lower rates than the European Union, which has seen traffic fatalities decrease since 2019. What is happening on American roads? Are drivers becoming worse? Are the sizing size of SUVs and passenger trucks – “megacars” – responsible? What about vehicle and road safety? Let’s explore the facts to find an answer.
Drivers and Traffic Fatalities
U.S. traffic fatality rate rose 10.5% from 2020 to 2021, a year after rising ...
Parents of babies across the US are struggling to feed their children due to a baby-formula shortage. The pain of the shortage is particularly felt among low-income families, such as Blacks and Latinos, who already suffer inequities in maternal and child health. The shortage began during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when America seemingly ran out of everything – from toilet paper to fresh produce. In late February 2022, a baby formula recall, which caused two infant deaths, worsened the shortage. In many states, including Texas and Tennessee, where infants depend on formula for more than half of their diet, formula is sold out in stores. For parents such as Yury Navas, an immigrant Latina mother in Maryland, providing formula for her child is especially ...
Substance abuse in the US is a public health problem that affects many people, including Latinos. Yet, Latinos are less likely than their White peers to get treatment they need. There is a new investigational treatment for substance abuse —the use of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS), a non-invasive procedure that uses magnetic pulses to temporarily stimulate areas of the brain. Fortunately, you can make a difference by representing Latinos in the Stimulus Research Study, a clinical trial at UT Health San Antonio and other sites that will help researchers learn if the use of rTMS can help people reduce or stop their cocaine or methamphetamine use. “The rTMS clinical trial and others like it hope to develop and apply new treatments that work for Latinos ...
The COVID-19 saga continues as the virus continues to mutate, and the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) identify new subvariants of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The CDC is studying a new subvariant, called BA.2.12.1, to determine how it spreads and how well existing treatments and vaccines for COVID-19 work against it. “[BA.2.12.1 and other subvariants of Omicron] are more contagious with more immune escape, and they are driving a lot of the increases in infection that we’re seeing across the nation right now,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, White House Covid-19 response coordinator, according to Vox. Latinos, who are disproportionately affected by COVID-19 hardships, are still struggling to recover from the initial hit of the ...
You may be wearing PPE on your face right now. A mask is a common form of PPE, or “personal protective equipment,” as are respirators, gowns, gloves and eye protection frequently worn by frontline healthcare workers. These all help protect the wearer – you! – from germs that can make people sick. But they have a second important function, too. “So, the unique thing about PPE in healthcare is that it actually serves two purposes, and both of those purposes are really important. One part is to protect you, but the other part is to protect your patient and coworkers from germs that you might be carrying,” said Dr. Abigail Carlson, an infectious diseases physician with the CDC, as part of CDC Project Firstline’s Inside Infection Control video series.
What is PPE and ...
