public health crisis
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Oregon COVID-19 Relief Funds Reserved for Underserved Black People in Jeopardy Due to Lawsuits
After the first round of Paycheck Protection Program loans meant to help small businesses survive shutdowns due to the pandemic went out last year, report after report after report documented how Black businesses were being ignored. The state of Oregon has been trying to do something to ensure that racism doesn’t play a part in…
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‘That Was Easy! I Barely Felt It’: Kamala Harris Receives 1st Dose of COVID-19 Vaccine
It’s been just over two weeks since the first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine were administered in the U.S. Since then, public officials have been getting their doses and publicizing the events in order to build America’s confidence in the safety and efficacy of the vaccine. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris did her part when she…
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Trump Signs COVID Relief Bill, Says $2,000 Stimulus Checks Are Still Up for Congressional Vote
On Sunday night, President Donald Trump signed legislation for $900 billion in COVID relief funding along with $1.4 trillion in government spending, which averted a government shutdown that was scheduled to arrive on Tuesday. The COVID relief bill—which was approved by both the House and Senate on Dec. 21, but Trump refused to sign it…
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Senate Leaders Say $600 Stimulus Checks Are ‘Just a First Step’ as Millions of Americans Shout GTFOH
Welp, it finally happened. After months of contentious negotiations between groups of people who have plenty of money who make decisions that greatly affect people who don’t, Senate officials announced the bipartisan $900 billion coronavirus stimulus package—one that will provide most Americans with $600 to help make ends meet as the pandemic rages on. As…
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First COVID-19 Vaccine Administered in the U.S. Goes to a Black Nurse; Officials Hope It’s ‘the Beginning of the End’ of the Pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic has made 2020 one long year. Seriously, it feels like ages since media outlets first started reporting on the spread of the virus, and people in the U.S. and much of the world had no idea what impact it would have on our daily lives. Now, as we’re nearing the end of 2020—and…
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Louisville Mayor Declares Racism a Public Health Crisis
Since Breonna Taylor’s death, Louisville has become one of the focal points in the nation’s ongoing reckoning with its internalized racism, and as a result, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer has declared racism a public health crisis. WLKY reports that Fischer signed the executive order on Tuesday, which comes following months of consistent protests in the…
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Durham, Washington, D.C., Become Latest Cities to Call for Reparations for Black Residents
Despite its long history as part of abolitionist discourse, reparations for African Americans have, for many years, been considered a “fringe” idea in mainstream politics. But in 2020, more places across the country are considering what reparations would look like on the local, state and federal level, as the need to redress hundreds of years…
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Minneapolis Names Racism a Public Health Emergency: ‘Antiracism Must Be Centered in All That We Do’
Almost two months following the death of George Floyd, whose killing at the hands of Minneapolis police galvanized a nationwide uprising, the Minneapolis City Council passed a resolution recognizing racism as a public health crisis. Passed on Friday, the city council’s resolution names racism as a public health emergency and cites various national and local…
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Pennsylvania County Declares Racism a Public Health Crisis
The COVID-19 pandemic has fully illuminated the effect that decades of ingrained, systemic racism has had on the black community. The pandemic has had a disproportionate effect on black people on the economic front, in the severity of the virus’s symptoms, and in the racial disparity of its treatment. In Pittsburgh, an effort is underway…
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Milwaukee County Declares Racism a Public Health Crisis. Will More Cities Follow Suit?
In what’s being touted as an important first step in addressing decades of race-based inequality, Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele signed a resolution Monday declaring racism a public health crisis. “Everybody has been reading and hearing about the same set of statistics in Milwaukee for decades,” Abele said at yesterday’s signing, according to the Milwaukee…