Since the start of the pandemic, many health experts say smoking and vaping increase the risk of COVID-19. This happens by weakening the function of the lungs making it more susceptible to coronavirus — as well as its overall impacts. Moreover, new data from Stanford University shows that young people who vape are more susceptible to COVID-19 than those who do not. That data—collected from a May 2020 national survey of 13- to 24-year-olds—showed that vapers are five times more likely to get COVID-19. Many cities and states across the US are passing bans on flavored vaping products during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Flavored Vaping Bans Across the Country
Last month the California State Assembly passed a ban on the sale of flavored tobacco products, including e-cigarettes and ...
Harmful biases impact the world of bicycling—professional, recreational, doctor-advised, and as a mode of transportation. That’s why we feel it’s essential to promote the stories of 14 riders who shared with Bicycling Magazine about their experiences being Black in the cycling world. These stories, which demonstrate the systemic barriers facing Black riders, are inspiring to many bicycle riders of color, including Latinos, who also deal with physical and silent barriers when it comes to public space. “With the rise of bicycling during this global health pandemic, this is the moment to educate the casual beach cruisers, fully-kitted weekend warriors, the urban planning students who can’t wait to ride back to campus—all of us—on the systemic oppression of Black ...
This is part of the Salud America! Achieving a Cohesive Culture for Health Equity in Latino and All Communities: A Research Review»
Disparities in Poverty Exist across Geography
Disparities in poverty rates also exist across geography: child poverty rates are highest in rural counties, at 23.2%, compared to large urban metro areas (21.2%), smaller metro areas (20.5%), and suburban counties (14.5%). Race/ethnicity and geography intersect as well. The poverty rate among black and Latino children in suburban counties is higher than it is for white children in rural counties.10
The Latino Poverty Rate in Rural Areas
Most of the U.S. Latino population was concentrated in the Southwest until the 1990s, when Latino immigrants began to migrate to rural areas in the South and Midwestern ...
This is part of the Salud America! Achieving a Cohesive Culture for Health Equity in Latino and All Communities: A Research Review»
Intergroup Contact Theory
At the individual level, the contact hypothesis of social psychology, also called the intergroup contact theory, proposes that members of one group, having incomplete or inaccurate ideas about members of another group, can positively change their beliefs and attitudes toward that group via contact, whether face-to-face or through other interactive methods such as computer-mediated communication.75
Using Intergroup Contact to Address Compassion for Immigrants
Joyce and Harwood75 recruited students from communications classes at a large university in Arizona to participate in an intergroup contact study. Of the 147 participants, ...
This is part of the Salud America! Achieving a Cohesive Culture for Health Equity in Latino and All Communities: A Research Review»
Implicit Bias Is a Key Mechanism People Use to Excuse Discrimination among People of Color, Those in Poverty
Bias is the tendency to favor one group over another. Most people think they harbor no bias toward other people, or they believe they know their biases and don’t act on them. The first type of bias is explicit bias, or overt bias. Explicit bias is a consciously held set of beliefs about a social group. Acting on race or ethnicity-based bias would be conscious, or explicit, racism, which many Americans openly reject, although which still exists in American society. The second type of bias is implicit bias, or unconscious bias. Implicit ...
This is part of the Salud America! Achieving a Cohesive Culture for Health Equity in Latino and All Communities: A Research Review»
Social Media and Social Justice While much has been said about the detrimental effects of social media on relationships, it is also clear that social media can be used to bring people together, and to bring about social change. The #BlackLivesMatter movement began on Twitter in 2016 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. It has reached and engaged millions of people across America, becoming an organization with chapters in more than 30 cities across the United States. The death of Trayvon Martin, and the subsequent deaths of Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, Breonna Taylor, and others at the hands of police, ...
This is part of the Salud America! Achieving a Cohesive Culture for Health Equity in Latino and All Communities: A Research Review»
Moral Disengagement Is a Key Mechanism People Use to Excuse Discrimination among People of Color, Those in Poverty
Moral disengagement is the cognitive process of decoupling one’s internal moral standards from one’s actions, thus allowing oneself to conduct unethical behavior without feelings of guilt or distress.65 In simpler terms, it is the psychological process of rationalizing bad decisions, by convincing oneself that ethical standards do not apply within a particular context or situation. Moral disengagement has been studied in relation to cruelty to animals, support for the death penalty, or in cases where victims are said to have “brought ...
This is part of the Salud America! Achieving a Cohesive Culture for Health Equity in Latino and All Communities: A Research Review»
The Benefits of Peer Modeling
Liebkind and McAlister77 designed an intervention to determine whether moral engagement and tolerance of other groups could be improved through peer modeling based on the extended contact hypothesis, which supposes that positive intergroup attitudes can be promoted via the knowledge that an in-group member has a close relationship with an out-group member. The in-group friendship partner becomes a positive peer model that demonstrates tolerance in interacting with the outgroup, while the outgroup friendship partner becomes a positive example that repudiates the negative beliefs or stereotypes about the outgroup.77 In the ...
Despite the nation's high rates of coronavirus infections, transitions, and deaths, many U.S. schools reopened for the fall semester. Some school districts have chosen to adhere to stricter guidelines through remote learning, while others are implementing in-person teaching with specific safety protocols, and others a hybrid of virtual and in-person. Whatever type of learning, the bottom line is that COVID-19 has not gone away. Outbreaks are happening, and teaching in school only adds to the risk of spreading coronavirus infection, according to Margie Kochsmier, an infection preventionist with FHN Healthcare System in Freeport, Ill. "Anyone—including children—can get COVID-19. Generally, children tend to have more mild symptoms, but it's important to remember that anyone ...
