The LGBTQ community in South Korea is facing increased homophobia after a recent outbreak of COVID-19 was linked to gay nightclubs in Seoul. In early May, the government announced that a man who had visited multiple night clubs on May 2 tested positive for the coronavirus. More than 100 cases of the virus has since […]
New Report Shows Gaps in Coverage for Abortions in Employer Insurance Plans
Ten percent of people on employer-sponsored health insurance work at firms that have opted to exclude abortion coverage from its health plans, a Kaiser Family Foundation reported revealed on Tuesday. As the most popular source of health insurance, employer-sponsored plans cover 153 million Americans. For more than 15 million people whose plans do not cover […]
COVID-19 Cases Increase at Women’s Prison in Florida
Confirmed cases of COVID-19 at a Florida women’s prison totaled 73 on Monday, a jump from the previous day’s total of two. Seventy percent of tests administered at Homestead Correctional Institution so far have come back positive and 616 tests are pending results. The spike in confirmed cases comes after weeks of the facility’s shuffling […]
House Democrats Propose $3 Trillion Coronavirus Relief Package
House Democrats and Speaker Nancy Pelosi have released their newest bill to address the coronavirus pandemic, proposing ambitious measures to boost the economy, increase COVID-19 testing, and ensure safe elections this fall. Party leaders expect to vote on the bill, dubbed the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act, on Friday. The 1,815-page […]
South Dakota Sioux Tribes Refuse to Remove Checkpoints Despite Governor’s Threats
The Oglala Sioux and the Cheyenne River Sioux tribes have refused to remove their coronavirus checkpoints on roads passing through their reservations after South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem threatened to take them to federal court if the checkpoints remain in place. The two tribes argue that the checkpoints are the only way to prevent a […]
First ICE Detainee Covid-19 Death Occurred This Week
A 57-year-old man from El Salvador who was being held at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in California died from Covid-19 on Wednesday. This is the first confirmed death from the coronavirus at an ICE detention center. Carlos Escobar-Mejia has been detained at the center since Jan. 10 after having lived in the U.S. for […]
Police Brutality in the Time of Coronavirus
Covid-19 is shining yet another spotlight on American systemic racism as African Americans face higher rates of death from coronavirus, as well as policing in the form of social distancing patrols, which are often racially disparate, inequitable, and aggressive. A majority of businesses have reduced operations or closed, but the NYPD has not slowed operations […]
Universities Face Decision Between Medical Disaster and Financial Ruin This Fall
Amidst great economic and political pressure to reopen in the fall, American colleges and universities must choose between enormous risk and liability if they do open and bankruptcy if they do not. Colleges and universities are among the most vulnerable institutions to disease outbreaks and would serve as efficient grounds the spread of coronavirus as […]
COVID-19 Pandemic Highlights Preexisting and Underlying American Racism and Sexism
As with most issues in the United States, Black Americans and female Americans are the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. On April 6, Louisiana was the first state to release data on Covid-19 broken down by race. Its report showed that while African American’s make up 33% of the state’s population, they accounted for […]
Court of Appeals Lifts Oklahoma Abortion Ban
On March 27th, Oklahoma Kevin Stitt issued an executive order postponing elective procedures and surgeries, including “any type of abortion services… which are not a medical emergency… or otherwise necessary to prevent serious health risks” to the pregnant person. On April 6, Judge Charles Goodwin of Oklahoma’s Western District Court placed a temporary stay on […]
States Tell Workers Return to Work During Pandemic or Lose Unemployment Benefits
Some states, including Iowa and Texas, have begun to reopen their economies amidst the coronavirus pandemic and have warned residents that employees who refuse to return to their jobs will be ineligible for unemployment benefits. These policies force workers to decide between their health and unemployment insurance and could facilitate the spread of COVID-19. Congress […]
COVID-19 Compounds The Struggle of Addiction During Pandemic
The novel coronavirus is creating many complications and hardships to current daily life. One often overlooked challenge faced by families and individuals is struggling with substance abuse and addiction issues. Covid-19 is putting more stress on families and people already dealing with addiction as the taxing physical and emotional burdens of unemployment, isolation, boredom, loneliness, […]
Meatpacking Facilities Forced Open by Trump Executive Order, Endangering Workers
Late on Tuesday, April 28, President Trump issued an executive order forcing meat processing plants to stay open despite the severe public health risk involved in operating as usual under the coronavirus outbreak. In states across the country, meat plants have become hot spots for the virus, with at least 20 known deaths and more […]
Supreme Court Cases May Leave Many Without Insurance Coverage for Birth Control
Next week, the Supreme Court will hear two cases, Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania and Trump v. Pennsylvania, that could significantly limit birth control access in the United States. The Court’s conservative majority may use these cases to allow most employers to claim religious or moral exemptions to providing contraception coverage in their […]
Domestic Violence on the Rise Globally Due to COVID-19 Lockdowns
This week, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), along with their partners Avenir Health, Johns Hopkins University, and Victoria University, published a report predicting a 20 percent rise in the rate of domestic and gender-based violence around the world due to the COVID-19 lockdowns. According to the report, “For every 3 months the lockdown continues, […]
Navajo Nation Has Third Highest Rate of Coronavirus Cases in U.S.
As of Tuesday, the Navajo Nation had the third-highest rate of COVID-19 infections in the country, with 1,873 confirmed cases and 60 confirmed deaths, third only to New York and New Jersey. Tribal officials cite “broken promises” for the disproportionately high rate of cases. “We are United States citizens but we’re not treated like that,” […]
The Hill Op-Ed Piece Calls for FDA to Lift Medication Abortion Regulations
On April 27, The Hill published an opinion piece entitled “The UK Allows Home Use of the Abortion Pill– the US Should Do the Same” by Susan F. Wood, former FDA assistant commissioner for Women’s Health and a professor of health and policy management at George Washington University, and Cynthia A. Pearson, executive director of […]
Women in Academia Struggle in the Wake of COVID-19
Women seem to be submitting comparatively fewer papers for review to academic journals as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Elizabeth Hannon, deputy editor of the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, noted a “negligible number of submissions to the journal from women in the last month.” Anna Watts remarked upon the makeup of […]
Pandemic Will Be First of Many If Climate Change is Not Addressed Immediately
Recent reports by the World Health Organization state that human activity leading to climate change greatly affects the prevalence and spread of infectious diseases like the novel coronavirus that has thrown the world into a state of crisis. As humans continue to degrade the planet’s natural processes and systems life as we know it at […]
Heartburn Drug Being Studied as Treatment for COVID-19
Hospitals in New York have begun testing famotidine, the active drug in the over-the-counter heartburn medication Pepcid, as a possible treatment for COVID-19 with early results anticipated in the next few weeks. “There are many examples in the history of medicine where a drug that was designed for one purpose turns out to have an […]
