The Teacher Uprising, 2010–2021

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Shelton
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
The United States ◽  
School Nurses ◽  
Racial Justice ◽  
Teacher Union ◽  
Education Spending ◽  
Bargaining Process ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Public Health Crisis ◽  
Big City

When Chicago teachers went on strike in 2012, they highlighted an emergent militance among teachers in the United States. Led by the Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators (CORE), the Chicago Teacher Union (CTU) in the 2010s sought to use the collective bargaining process not only to fight for better salaries and working conditions, but also to dramatically improve the lives of their students through racial justice initiatives and more services such as school nurses and social workers. Other big city unions, some in dialogue with the CTU through the United Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators (UCORE), embarked on similar campaigns. Elsewhere, teachers staged state-wide walkouts. In February 2018, teachers in all of West Virginia’s fifty-five counties went on strike to protest stagnant pay and escalating healthcare costs. Their efforts, which forced a Republican legislature to substantially increase education spending, inspired similar red-state walkouts in the months that followed. Strikes in Oklahoma and Arizona also won major funding hikes, for example. Then, in early 2019, militant teachers walked out in Los Angeles, Oakland, and Denver, and in the fall, the CTU was on strike again, this time with even broader demands than in 2012. Another year of militance might have occurred in 2020, but the global COVID-19 pandemic forced school districts and unions to focus on the immediate public health crisis. Unions pivoted to demanding that districts maintain protocols to ensure teachers, students, and their families were kept safe from the virus.

scholarly journals A Report from the NIMBioS/DySoC Investigative Workshop on the Mathematics of Gun Violence

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shelby Scott
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Gun Violence ◽  
Biological Synthesis ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Public Concern ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
University Of Tennessee ◽  
Public Health Crisis ◽  
The University

Gun violence is a central public concern in the United States, annually leading to the deaths of 36,000 individuals and the non-fatal injuries of 85,000 others. It has been called an epidemic and a public health crisis. In May of 2019, a diverse group of researchers participated in a workshop at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. This workshop was sponsored by the Center for the Dynamics of Social Complexity (DySoC) and the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS). The objectives of this workshop were to review the existing approaches on the mathematics and modeling of gun violence, identify and prioritize areas in the field that require further research, develop cross-disciplinary collaborations to gain new perspectives, and suggest research and data collection that could assist evidence-based policy recommendations. The purpose of this report is to present some of the responses to the mentioned objectives and to suggest areas of future research .

scholarly journals Opioid abuse in children: an emerging public health crisis in the United States!

2017 ◽  
Vol 82 (4) ◽  
pp. 562-563 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veerajalandhar Allareddy ◽  
Sankeerth Rampa ◽  
Veerasathpurush Allareddy
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Opioid Abuse ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Public Health Crisis

scholarly journals Public health strategies to combat opioid epidemic in the United States: A systematic review

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (Supplement_3) ◽  
Author(s):  
F Balidemaj
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
The United States ◽  
Opioid Abuse ◽  
Opioid Epidemic ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Public Health Crisis ◽  
Opioid Crisis ◽  
Public Health Strategies

Abstract Background The opioid epidemic in the United States is a national public health crisis. Driven by an increase in availability of pharmaceutical opioids and by an increase in their consumption, specifically, for pain treatment, more so in the past twenty years, it has led to an economic cost of prescription opioid abuse, overdose, and dependence in the United States estimated to be 78.5 billion USD. The purpose of this systematic review was to identify and evaluate public health strategies that contribute towards combatting the opioid crisis. Methods Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) checklist, a search was conducted of the PubMed database for articles in English language that analyzed the most effective ways to regulate health markets to decrease the opioid crisis in the United States. Results The initial search yielded 2397 titles, of which 15 full-text articles were ultimately selected for inclusion in this systematic review. The review identified four categories in overcoming this epidemic nationwide, including required improvement in patient utilization of and access to safe and effective treatment options for opioid abuse and overdose, addressing the stigma correlated with opioid use, considering appropriate use of abuse deterrent formulations (ADF) along with patient education, and improving prescribing practices via utilization of drug monitoring programs, CDC opioid prescribing guidelines and provider continuing education. Conclusions Attempts to combat the opioid epidemic have been made, and the state and federal governments have only recently started to understand the magnitude of the seriousness of this public health crisis. While the methods with promising improvement of the situation have been identified, implementing them has shown to be a challenge. Continued application is needed, while considering possible new steps that could help reinforce their utilization further. Key messages Attempts to combat the opioid epidemic have been made, and the state and federal governments have only recently started to understand the magnitude of the seriousness of this public health crisis. The methods with promising improvement of the opioid crisis situation have been identified, however utilizing and implementing the existing public health strategies has shown to be a challenge.

scholarly journals Perceived vulnerability to COVID-19 infection from event attendance: Results from Louisiana, USA, two weeks preceding the national emergency declaration

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ran Li ◽  
Bingcheng Yang ◽  
Jerrod Penn ◽  
Bailey Houghtaling ◽  
Juan Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
National Health ◽  
National Level ◽  
Income Group ◽  
The United States ◽  
State University ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
National Crisis ◽  
Public Health Crisis ◽  
Louisiana State University

AbstractIn response to the mounting threat of COVID-19, we added questions to an ongoing food preference study held at Louisiana State University from March 3-12 of 2020. We asked 356 participants: (1) In your opinion, how likely is it that the spread of COVID-19 (the coronavirus) will cause a public health crisis in the United States? (2) How concerned are you that you will contract COVID-19 by attending events on campus? Participants’ estimates of an impending national health crisis increased significantly during the study’s second week (March 9-12) while concern about personally contracting COVID-19 from attending campus events increased only marginally during the study’s final days. We find those expressing a higher likelihood of an impending national crisis were more concerned about contracting COVID-19 by attending campus events, suggesting a possible transmission from perceptions of national-level events to perceived personal vulnerability via local exposure. However, about 30% of participants perceived that COVID-19 would likely cause a public health crisis yet did not express concern about contracting COVID-19 from event attendance. These participants were significantly more likely to be younger students who agreed to participate in response to recruitment using same day flyer distribution. Women expressed a higher likelihood of an emerging national health crisis, although they were not more concerned than men that attending campus events would result in virus contraction. Other groups (e.g., white, students younger than 25, highest income group) displayed similar concern about a national-level crisis, yet were significantly less concerned about contracting COVID-19 from attending campus events than others. Also, participants randomly assigned to information emphasizing the national impacts of food waste expressed significantly greater concern of contracting COVID-19 by attending campus events. These results provide some initial insight about how people perceived national and personal risks in the early stages of the COVID-19 crisis in Louisiana.

Differences in Mortality Rates of Gunshot Victims: The Influence of Neighborhood Social Processes

2021 ◽  
pp. 108876792110471
Author(s):  
Lauren A. Magee
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Public Health Approach ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Community Factors ◽  
Public Health Crisis ◽  
Firearm Violence ◽  
Geographic Differences ◽  
Physical Features

Firearm violence is considered a public health crisis in the United States. Firearm violence spatially concentrates within neighborhoods and is associated with community factors; however, little is understood about the geographic differences in gunshot wound mortality and associated neighborhood social processes. Applying a public health approach through the Haddon’s Matrix, the results demonstrate systematic differences in social and physical features associated with gunshot mortality. These findings have important implications to improve neighborhood physical and social conditions, police transporting gunshot victims, and police-public health partnerships to improve data collection on nonfatal shootings and shots fired.

WHITE RESPONSE TO BLACK DEATH

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Hannah Walker ◽  
Loren Collingwood ◽  
Tehama Lopez Bunyasi
Keyword(s):  
Public Discourse ◽  
The United States ◽  
Gun Control ◽  
Black Death ◽  
White People ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Health Crisis ◽  
Racial Biases ◽  
Levels Of Support

Abstract In the United States, Blacks overwhelmingly bear the brunt of gun violence. While Blacks are more likely to favor gun restrictions than are Whites, the influence of Black gun death on Whites’ attitudes about gun control has not been investigated. We advance a theory to explain White response to Black firearm fatalities: Black gun death is explicitly and implicitly racialized in the public discourse and imagination. The roots of the gun control debate are themselves likewise racialized, and portrayals of Black gun death has the potential to tap latent racial biases among Whites. As a consequence, exposure to routinized Black gun death either fails to move White opinion, or moves Whites to greater support for gun rights. The influence of race on White public opinion is particularly concerning in an era when health officials consider gun death a public health crisis. First, we evaluate this theory with a regression discontinuity (RDD) analysis of the effects of a highly salient gun death of a young Black boy in Chicago on Whites’ opinions about gun control. Relative to White people interviewed before the death, White people interviewed after the death record greater opposition to gun control. Second, we fielded a survey experiment, exposing respondents to the reported gun homicide of either Black or White thirteen-year-old boys. Relative to a control, respondents in the Black death condition are unmoved, whereas respondents in the White death condition report greater levels of support for gun control. Implications are discussed.

scholarly journals Declaring Racism a Public Health Crisis in the United States: Cure, Poison, or Both?

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lilliann Paine ◽  
Patanjali de la Rocha ◽  
Antonia P. Eyssallenne ◽  
Courtni Alexis Andrews ◽  
Leanne Loo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Structural Change ◽  
Health Equity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Systematic Change ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Public Health Crisis ◽  
Diversity And Inclusion ◽  
Community Organizers

Declaring racism a public health crisis has the potential to shepherd meaningful anti-racism policy forward and bridge long standing divisions between policy-makers, community organizers, healers, and public health practitioners. At their best, the declarations are a first step to address long standing inaction in the face of need. At their worst, the declarations poison or sedate grassroots momentum toward anti-racism structural change by delivering politicians unearned publicity and slowing progress on health equity. Declaring racism as a public health crisis is a tool that must be used with clarity and caution in order to maximize impact. Key to holding public institutions accountable for creating declarations is the direct involvement of Black and Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) led groups and organizers. Sharing power, centering their voices and working in tandem, these collaborations ensure that declarations push for change from the lens of those most impacted and authentically engage with the demands of communities and their legacies. Superficial diversity and inclusion efforts that bring BIPOC people and organizers into the conversation and then fail to implement their ideas repeat historical patterns of harm, stall momentum for structural change at best, and poison the strategy at worst. In this paper we will examine three declarations in the United States and analyze them utilizing evaluative criteria aligned with health equity and anti-racism practices. Finally, we offer recommendations to inform anti-racist public health work for meaningful systematic change toward decentralization and empowerment of communities in their health futures.

scholarly journals Creating Community During COVID-19: A Virtual Art Gallery to Address Social Isolation During a Pandemic

2021 ◽  
pp. 152483992110646
Author(s):  
Sara E. Baumann ◽  
Jessica G. Burke
Keyword(s):  
Social Isolation ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public University ◽  
Positive Health ◽  
Art Gallery ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Public Health Crisis ◽  
Health And Well Being

The COVID-19 pandemic, a public health crisis, significantly impacted millions of people around the world. “Creating Community During COVID-19” is a community-engaged virtual art gallery that explores resilience, social cohesion, and creativity during the onset of the pandemic in the United States. It aimed to address social isolation and encourage inclusion at a large public university in the early days of the pandemic. The community was invited to submit artworks that reflected how they are staying connected during the pandemic. The artworks were then qualitatively analyzed and highlighted three key themes: (1) reflecting (turning inward), (2) advocating (turning outward), and (3) engaging (coming together). This arts-based project demonstrates promise as a creative approach for promoting social cohesion and positive health and well-being, especially in times of uncertainty.

scholarly journals The People's Vaccine: Intellectual Property, Access to Essential Medicines, and the Coronavirus COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Rimmer
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Intellectual Property ◽  
The United States ◽  
Open Science ◽  
Essential Medicines ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Compulsory Licensing ◽  
Public Health Crisis ◽  
Access To Essential Medicines

This paper explores intellectual property and access to essential medicines in the context of the coronavirus COVID-19 public health crisis. It considers policy solutions to counteract vaccine nationalism and profiteering by pharmaceutical companies and vaccine developers. This paper considers the campaign for the development of a People's Vaccine led by the People’s Vaccine Alliance, UNAIDS, Oxfam and Public Citizen. The WHO has established the ACT Accelerator in order to boost research, development, and deployment of COVID-19 technologies. However, the operation of COVAX thus far has been falling short of its original ambitions. The Medicines Patent Pool has expanded its jurisdiction to include the sharing of intellectual property related to COVID-19. Meanwhile, Costa Rica has proposed a COVID-19 Technology Access Pool – an idea for a new institutional structure which has been taken up by the WHO. In the context of the coronavirus public health crisis, there has also been discussion of the use of compulsory licensing and crown use to counteract profiteering and anti-competitive behavior. There has been a push by Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) and others for the public licensing of COVID-19 technologies developed with government funding. The Open COVID Pledge has been taken by a number of intellectual property owners. In response to the assertion of proprietary rights in respect of COVID-19 technologies, the open movement has championed the development of Open Science models of science. India and South Africa have put forward a waiver proposal in the TRIPS Council to enable countries to take action in respect of COVID-19 without fear of retribution under trade laws. While the United States has been willing to support a TRIPS Waiver for vaccines, there remain a number of opponents to a TRIPS Waiver – including the European Union, Germany, Japan, and Switzerland. This paper makes the case that international intellectual property law should accommodate a People's Vaccine.

scholarly journals Racial disparities in COVID-19 impacts in Michigan, USA

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaston D Anderson-Carpenter ◽  
Zachary Neal
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Racial Disparities ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
The United States ◽  
Behavioral Changes ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Public Health Crisis ◽  
Initial Wave ◽  
Blacks And Whites ◽  
Multiple Domains

Several racial disparities have been observed in the impacts of COVID-19 in the United States. In this paper, we used a representative sample of adults in Michigan to examine differences in COVID-19 impacts on Blacks and Whites in four domains: direct, perceived, political, and behavioral. We found that in the initial wave of the outbreak in May 2020, Blacks were more likely to be diagnosed or know someone who was diagnosed, or more likely to lose their job compared to Whites. Additionally, Blacks differed significantly from Whites in their assessment of COVID-19’s threat to public health and the economy, the adequacy of government responses to COVID-19, and the appropriateness of behavioral changes to mitigate COVID-19’s spread. Although in many cases these views of COVID-19 were also associated with political ideology, this association was significantly stronger for Whites than Blacks. We conclude by discussing the implications of an ongoing and highly politicized public health crisis that has racially disparate impacts in multiple domains.

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