By Maya Pottiger, Word In Black People aren’t rubber bands. Even as kids attend school in-person full-time again and life slowly returns to normal, they aren’t going to snap back to who they were and how they felt before the COVID-19 pandemic. It had a deep and lasting impact on everyone, especially Black families and […]
Category: Coronavirus
Posted inCoronavirus
Hospitalizations signal rising COVID-19 risk for US seniors
By Carla K. Johnson and Laura Ungar, The Associated Press Coronavirus-related hospital admissions are climbing again in the United States, with older adults a growing share of U.S. deaths and less than half of nursing home residents up to date on COVID-19 vaccinations. These alarming signs portend a difficult winter for seniors, which worries 81-year-old […]
Posted inCoronavirus
This device used to diagnose COVID-19 doesn’t always work on Black folks
By Alexa Spencer, Word In Black As the Black community grapples with the ongoing impact of COVID-19, research shows that the faultiness of pulse oximeters on dark-skinned people contributed to poor outcomes during the pandemic. When clipped onto a patient’s finger, pulse oximeters send a beam of light through the skin to calculate oxygen levels. […]
Posted inCoronavirus
COVID’s lingering impact prompts Real ID deadline extension
By Jim Salter, The Associated Press The deadline for obtaining the Real ID needed to board a domestic flight has been pushed back again, with the Department of Homeland Security citing the lingering impact of the COVID-19 pandemic for the slower-than-expected rollout. The deadline to have a Real ID had been May 3, 2023, but […]
Posted inCoronavirus
After a year, omicron variant still driving COVID-19 surges and worries
By Laura Ungar, The Associated Press A year after omicron began its assault on humanity, the ever-morphing coronavirus mutant drove COVID-19 case counts higher in many places just as Americans gathered for Thanksgiving. It was a prelude to a wave that experts expect to soon wash over the U.S. Phoenix-area emergency physician Dr. Nicholas Vasquez […]
Posted inCoronavirus
Treating COVID-19 ‘long haulers’ is rife with guesswork
By Blake Farmer, Word In Black Medical equipment is still strewn around the house of Rick Lucas, 62, nearly two years after he came home from the hospital. He picks up a spirometer, a device that measures lung capacity, and takes a deep breath — though not as deep as he’d like. Still, Lucas has […]
Posted inBUSINESS
Millions of women left the labor market during COVID-19. What are they doing now?
By Megan Sayles, AFRO Business Writer, Report for America Corps Member, msayles@afro.com In March 2020, Chantal Potter was seven months pregnant with her first child. At the time, she was a project manager leading a team focussing on a Department of Defense (DOD) contract at the Defense Health Agency (DHA). When she gave birth to […]
Posted inWashington D.C. News
D.C. Health opens special vaccination clinics through mid-November for students ahead of deadline
By Deborah Bailey, Contributing Editor, dbaileyafro.com In anticipation of a Covid-19 surge this coming winter, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Advisory Committee recommended Oct. 11 adding most COVID-19 vaccines to the recommended vaccination schedule for children and adults in the United States. The action by the CDC’s independent vaccine advisers came a […]
Posted inNational News
Massive learning setbacks show COVID’s sweeping toll on kids
By Bianca Vázquez Toness and Sharon Lurye, AP Education Writers The COVID-19 pandemic devastated poor children’s well-being, not just by closing their schools, but also by taking away their parents’ jobs, sickening their families and teachers, and adding chaos and fear to their daily lives. The scale of the disruption to American kids’ education is […]
Posted inBUSINESS
Hands off the houses: can we stop speculative land grabs?
By Corey McDonald, Shelterforce What began in earnest during the 2008 financial crisis has been exacerbated by COVID-19: large companies, often backed by powerful private equity firms, swept into the single- and multi-family housing market hoping for a big return on their investment. More than a decade later, they’re not only reaping the rewards — […]
Posted inHealth
US government to end free at home COVID-19 test program this week
By Raquel Rogers, Houston Defender Network The federal government is ending its free at-home Covid-19 test program this week, citing a lack of funding and efforts to preserve supply ahead of an anticipated fall surge in cases, a White House official told CNN on Sunday. Both the White House and the website where people can […]
Posted inCoronavirus
CDC challenges continue: fighting a pandemic requires public trust
By Fatiha Belfakir, Special to the AFRO, fbelfakir@afro.com The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently revealed new changes of its operations and the COVID-19 quarantine protocol. This sparked a debate among both the American public and health professionals, exposing a dire need to rebuild a fundamental trust between the people and public health […]