scholarly journals Masks, Gloves, and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Rapid Assessment of Public Behaviors in the United States

Epidemiologia ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jagdish Khubchandani ◽  
Diana Saiki ◽  
Jayanthi Kandiah

The COVID-19 outbreak was declared a national emergency in the U.S. in March 2020, and in April 2020, the U.S. government authorities issued recommendations on the use of masks and gloves as protective measures. Despite such recommendations, popular media reports highlighted a lack of compliance. However, no systematic study has examined the use of protective strategies (e.g., wearing a mask) by the American public to prevent the spread of COVID-19 during early stages of the pandemic. The purpose of this study was to conduct a rapid national assessment of public behaviors to prevent COVID-19 spread during the early stages of the pandemic and to assess how these behaviors may have differed based on selected sociodemographic characteristics. A total of 835 adult Americans nationwide took a multi-item survey and were asked about wearing masks, gloves, and their demographic background. The majority of the study participants reported wearing a mask more often during the pandemic (76%), but the majority did not wear gloves more often during the pandemic (30%). Significant differences (p < 0.05) for wearing masks were found based on sex, age, ethnicity, marital status, living arrangements, and employment status. For gloves, significant differences were found based on sex, age, marital status, and employment. While the pandemic continues to unfold and with recent reports of a surge in cases in the U.S., public health practitioners and policymakers must emphasize COVID-19 prevention strategies for the general public and explore pragmatic options to increase compliance of protective behaviors among the general public.

2018 ◽  
pp. 222-245
Author(s):  
Michael Lujan Bevacqua ◽  
Isa Ua Ceallaigh Bowman

In 2009, the U.S. Department of Defense announced its intention to drastically increase their military presence on the island of Guam. Although this “military buildup” was predicted to cause severe damage to the island in environmental, social and economic terms, discourse from island leaders and media reports focused primarily on this increase as being the key to future “sustainability” for the island. This chapter argues that the notion of the military build-up as being “sustainable” was tied to historical militarization and colonization of the indigenous Chamorro people of the western Pacific over centuries, during which the United States has been elevated to the stature of a liberator and socioeconomic savior. This chapter surveys the scholarly literature on the effects of U.S. military "Draft Environmental Impact Statements" on indigenous populations, with particular regard to effects on the indigenous Chamorro people. This chapter also discusses the ways in which demilitarization and decolonization activists from local indigenous Chamorro groups such as Nasion Chamoru used the public comment period for the U.S. military’s plans in order to disrupt the fantasy of the build-up’s sustainability and help the local community develop a more critical position in relation to the military's own stated environmental impacts.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Charles McAndrew ◽  
Nicholas G Reich

During early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, forecasts provided actionable information about disease transmission to public health decision-makers. Between February and May 2020, experts in infectious disease modeling made weekly predictions about the impact of the pandemic in the U.S. We aggregated these predictions into consensus predictions. In March and April 2020, experts predicted that the number of COVID-19 related deaths in the U.S. by the end of 2020 would be in the range of 150,000 to 250,000, with scenarios of near 1m deaths considered plausible. The wide range of possible future outcomes underscored the uncertainty surrounding the outbreak's trajectory. Experts' predictions of measurable short-term outcomes had varying levels of accuracy over the surveys but showed appropriate levels of uncertainty when aggregated. An expert consensus model can provide important insight early on in an emerging global catastrophe.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 478-479
Author(s):  
Jiwon Kim ◽  
Sunshine Rote ◽  
Silvia Mejia-Arango ◽  
Mariana López-Ortega ◽  
Jacqueline Angel ◽  
...  

Abstract This study compares the living arrangements of adults 85 and older in Mexican-origin adults in Mexico and the United States. The study uses 475 Mexican-Americans in five southwestern states (Hispanic Established Population for the Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly, H-EPESE) and 1,710 Mexicans from 32 states in Mexico (Mexican Health and Aging Study, MHAS) to examine living alone vs living with others based on the presence of dementia controlling for demographic, health, and financial correlates. In both countries, more than 20% of respondents living alone have dementia. Dementia is associated with household extension in both countries. Homeownership increases household extension in Mexico but not the U.S. The findings show that individuals with dementia are more likely to live alone in the U.S. than in Mexico. Older individuals with dementia may be at elevated risk of isolation in later life if families or formal organizations cannot provide on-going assistance.


2019 ◽  
pp. 89-101
Author(s):  
Nina Rabin ◽  
Cecilia Menjívar

This chapter considers the experiences of youth with ties to Mexico who are living without their parents in the United States as a result of immigration enforcement. The authors analyze interviews with youth in Southern Arizona, about two thirds of whom were U.S. citizens, while the remainder were undocumented, DACA recipients, or had other forms of legal immigration status. The chapter considers the complex family structures and living arrangements of these youth. Their diverse experiences capture the varied and often heart-wrenching decisions immigrant families make about where young people are most likely to thrive. The youth described their sense of national belonging, their views of the U.S. government, their experiences with the detention and/or deportation of a parent, their language and cultural backgrounds, and their views of how the border shapes their hopes and dreams for the future. Many voiced a precocious sense of responsibility for their parents’ futures as well as an alarming misunderstanding of the viable legal options available to arrange legal residency or status for themselves and their families..


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 478-478
Author(s):  
Sunshine Rote ◽  
Jacqueline Angel ◽  
William Vega

Abstract Due to rapid demographic transitions, the number of people with dementia is rising in the Americas, and is expected to double in the coming decades, increasing from14.8 million in 2030 to over 27 million by 2050. The burden of dementia is especially pronounced for the Mexican-origin population in Mexico and the U.S. For Mexico, financial support for older low-income citizens and medical care are universal rights, but limited fiscal resources and the needs of a large low-income population create inevitable competition for limited resources among the old and the young. Although the United States has a more developed economy and well-developed Social Security and health care financing systems for older adults, Mexican-origin individuals in the U.S. do not necessarily benefit fully from these programs. The institutional and financial problems are compounded in both countries by longer life spans, smaller families, as well as changing gender roles and cultural norms. Such changes affect the Mexican-origin population in particular because of a higher prevalence rates of cognitive impairment than other racial and ethnic groups, and the lower access to resources to provide care. In this GSA Symposium, the authors of four papers deal with the following topics as they relate to dementia care in Mexico and the United States: (1) living alone in late life; (2) living arrangements and dementia care; (3) the role of non-governmental organizations in care; (4) next steps to address dementia care needs in the U.S. and Mexico.


Author(s):  
Rosina Lozano

An American Language is a political history of the Spanish language in the United States. The nation has always been multilingual and the Spanish language in particular has remained as an important political issue into the present. After the U.S.-Mexican War, the Spanish language became a language of politics as Spanish speakers in the U.S. Southwest used it to build territorial and state governments. In the twentieth century, Spanish became a political language where speakers and those opposed to its use clashed over what Spanish's presence in the United States meant. This book recovers this story by using evidence that includes Spanish language newspapers, letters, state and territorial session laws, and federal archives to profile the struggle and resilience of Spanish speakers who advocated for their language rights as U.S. citizens. Comparing Spanish as a language of politics and as a political language across the Southwest and noncontiguous territories provides an opportunity to measure shifts in allegiance to the nation and exposes differing forms of nationalism. Language concessions and continued use of Spanish is a measure of power. Official language recognition by federal or state officials validates Spanish speakers' claims to US citizenship. The long history of policies relating to language in the United States provides a way to measure how U.S. visions of itself have shifted due to continuous migration from Latin America. Spanish-speaking U.S. citizens are crucial arbiters of Spanish language politics and their successes have broader implications on national policy and our understanding of Americans.


2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 41-49
Author(s):  
Orquidea Morales

In 2013, the Walt Disney Company submitted an application to trademark “Día de los muertos” (Day of the Dead) as they prepared to launch a holiday themed movie. Almost immediately after this became public Disney faced such strong criticism and backlash they withdrew their petition. By October of 2017 Disney/Pixar released the animated film Coco. Audiences in Mexico and the U.S. praised it's accurate and authentic representation of the celebration of Day of the Dead. In this essay, I argue that despite its generic framing, Coco mobilizes many elements of horror in its account of Miguel's trespassing into the forbidden space of the dead and his transformation into a liminal figure, both dead and alive. Specifically, with its horror so deftly deployed through tropes and images of borders, whether between life and death or the United States and Mexico, Coco falls within a new genre, the border horror film.


2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 130-134

This section, updated regularly on the blog Palestine Square, covers popular conversations related to the Palestinians and the Arab-Israeli conflict during the quarter 16 November 2017 to 15 February 2018: #JerusalemIstheCapitalofPalestine went viral after U.S. president Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and announced his intention to move the U.S. embassy there from Tel Aviv. The arrest of Palestinian teenager Ahed Tamimi for slapping an Israeli soldier also prompted a viral campaign under the hashtag #FreeAhed. A smaller campaign protested the exclusion of Palestinian human rights from the agenda of the annual Creating Change conference organized by the US-based National LGBTQ Task Force in Washington. And, UNRWA publicized its emergency funding appeal, following the decision of the United States to slash funding to the organization, with the hashtag #DignityIsPriceless.


Author(s):  
Richard F. Kuisel

There are over 1,000 McDonald's on French soil. Two Disney theme parks have opened near Paris in the last two decades. And American-inspired vocabulary such as “le weekend” has been absorbed into the French language. But as former French president Jacques Chirac put it: “The U.S. finds France unbearably pretentious. And we find the U.S. unbearably hegemonic.” Are the French fascinated or threatened by America? They Americanize yet are notorious for expressions of anti-Americanism. From McDonald's and Coca-Cola to free markets and foreign policy, this book looks closely at the conflicts and contradictions of France's relationship to American politics and culture. The book shows how the French have used America as both yardstick and foil to measure their own distinct national identity. France has charted its own path: it has welcomed America's products but rejected American policies; assailed Americ's “jungle capitalism” while liberalizing its own economy; attacked “Reaganomics” while defending French social security; and protected French cinema, television, food, and language even while ingesting American pop culture. The book examines France's role as an independent ally of the United States, but he also considers the country's failures in influencing the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrations. Whether investigating France's successful information technology sector or its spurning of American expertise during the AIDS epidemic, the book asks if this insistence on a French way represents a growing distance between Europe and the United States or a reaction to American globalization. Exploring cultural trends, values, public opinion, and political reality, this book delves into the complex relationship between two modern nations.


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