By Barbara O’Brien
Read the full article from Buffalo News, here.
At least 20% of federal American Rescue Plan money must be used in the next three years to deal with learning loss by students due to the Covid-19 pandemic. That amounts to $63 million in Erie and Niagara counties, and for many school districts, summer school will be one of their tools.
By Michael D. Shear and Noah Weiland
Read the full article from The New York Times, here.
Faced with a steep decline in vaccination rates, President Biden said on Tuesday that his administration would send people door to door, set up clinics at workplaces and urge employers to offer paid time off as part of a renewed push to reach tens of millions of unvaccinated Americans.
But top health experts say that it is simply not enough, and that the president needs to take the potentially unpopular step of encouraging states, employers and colleges and universities to require vaccinations to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
By Carmen Sesin
Read the full article from NBCNews, here.
Latinos have been lagging in inoculation rates compared to whites. As of June 14th, 36 percent of Latinos had received at least one vaccine dose compared to 45 percent of whites, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. According to an analysis by the foundation, equity in vaccination rates has been improving since March 1st.
By Reuters
Read the full article from NBCNews, here.
Now, some patients eligible for second doses — recommended for three weeks after the first for both vaccines Venezuela is administering, Russia’s Sputnik V and China’s Sinopharm — are being turned away due to a lack of supply despite having appointments, according to Jamie Lorenzo, director of the Doctors United for Venezuela advocacy group.
By Conor Murray
Read the full article from NBCNews, here.
Zinnah is one of many health care professionals who celebrated on Twitter a return to more normal hospital business after more than a year of being overwhelmed with Covid-19 cases.
By Ibram X. Kendi
Read the full article from The Atlantic here.
“More than a year into a pandemic that has killed at least 574,978 Americans and infected 32.3 million as of Thursday, we still have only partial visibility into precisely who coronavirus patients really are. Data inequality, and all its shadows, is the norm. No one knows how many Black Americans died from COVID-19. No one knows exactly how many Native Americans were hospitalized. No one knows precisely how many white Americans were tested for the coronavirus. No one knows precisely how many Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders were terrorized by other Americans.”
By Grace Blakeley
Read the full article from Tribune, here.
Across the West, governments are plotting pandemic recoveries which will enrich asset-owners and squeeze workers – it’s time to build coalitions that can fight back against the next phase of capitalist inequality.
By Justine Coleman
Read the full article from The Hill, here.
Johns Hopkins data typically show a dip in coronavirus deaths on Saturdays and Sundays amid different reporting patterns of state and county COVID-19 statistics, a situation that may have been exacerbated by the Easter holiday.
By Luke Savage
Read the full article from Jacobin, here.
The pandemic has been taking the existing injustices of capitalism and exaggerating them to the point of cartoonishness. A case in point is a recent study that finds Wall Street bonuses have grown by more than 1,200% since the 1980s — while the federal minimum wage hasn’t been raised in over a decade.
By Kendra Pierre-Louis
Read the full article from Slate, here.
Shame is a form of punishment that derives its power from depriving you of your reputation within the society. When people make blanket proclamations that we should not shame others, what they are criticizing, in a very real way, is the ability to make and enforce social norms. Many of those articles that warn against shame, do so partly because COVID-19 is a systemic issue, but that ignores that even in the presence of clear rules and support, it still requires a bit of social cohesion. And as one popular meme points out: Wearing a mask is a lot like wearing pants. The reason many of us don’t stroll through town naked is not because we fear arrest but because we fear shame. It’s worth noting that early research suggests that collectivist cultures—which tend to employ shame more—better contained COVID early on in their outbreaks.