Guests
Giving thanks for vaccines, investments in American people, and those fighting gerrymandering
“Unfurrow your brow.” My mom’s frequent admonition to her easily impassioned daughter. I need a lot of reminding. I feel like I’ve been furrowing my forehead nonstop for almost two years straight. But on Turkey Day, I will take a moment, if not the whole day, to unknit that brow and give thanks for small […]
Giving thanks to America’s medical community for life-saving vaccines
If we were not still in the grip of a deadly pandemic, with the seven-day average U.S. death toll from the coronavirus hovering just over 1,100 a day, I probably would not have thought of giving thanks this year for the medical researchers who have given this country protection against many life-threatening illnesses. Back in […]
Pfizer’s vaccine for children: A pediatrician explains how it was tested for safety and efficacy
By Debbie-Ann Shirley, University of Virginia Editor’s note: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have granted approval to Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11. Elementary school children in the United States will soon have one more layer of protection to keep them safe from COVID-19. […]
Commentary: Racial discrimination is linked to suicidal thoughts in Black adults and children
By Janelle R. Goodwill of the University of Chicago for The Conversation Frederick Douglass is regarded as one of the most prominent abolitionists the world has ever seen. Alongside his extraordinary contributions as an influential speaker, writer and human rights advocate, Douglass – who was born into slavery and gained freedom in September 1838 – also wrote […]
Flu season paired with COVID-19 increases threat of a ‘twindemic’
By Mark S. Roberts and Richard K. Zimmerman of the University of Pittsburgh for The Conversation As winter looms and hospitals across the U.S. continue to be deluged with severe cases of COVID-19, flu season presents a particularly ominous threat this year. We are researchers with expertise in vaccination policy and mathematical modeling of infectious disease. Our […]
The U.S. government’s treatment of Haitian asylum seekers reeks of hypocrisy
After horrific photos emerged of men falling from airplanes and babies in great peril at the Kabul Airport weeks ago, I noticed a dramatic uptick in my various news feeds of the phrase “moral obligation.” Across all mediums, I heard righteous call for the United States and nations around the globe to remember promises made […]
Hey, GOP: There’s a museum up in Montgomery y’all really ought to see
MONTGOMERY — You walk out of the fierce summer sun into a shadowy forest of rectangular steel columns, row upon row of them, six or seven feet tall, covered in rust the color of dried blood. It takes a minute to adjust to the dim light. Then you begin to see the names inscribed on […]
Louisiana children threatened but don’t find a protector in Landry | Tammy C. Barney
The COVID-19 numbers are rising again, but this time our children are bearing the brunt of the coronavirus. At Children’s Hospital New Orleans, 1,000 children were seen in the emergency room in one week; 132 were COVID positive. Eighteen children have been hospitalized with COVID-19, nine are under the age of 2. Six are in […]
Getting vaccinated against COVID-19 doesn’t mean you lack faith | Christopher Sylvain
Your vaccine hesitant friends and associates are caught in a whirlpool of information and misinformation swirling around them. Thinking about the virus and thinking about the vaccines all day makes them feel bad. When things feel bad, people of faith are taught to run to faith — and God will solve every problem. The music, […]
Scientists understood physics of climate change in the 1800s – thanks to a woman named Eunice Foote | Sylvia G. Dee
Long before the current political divide over climate change, and even before the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865), an American scientist named Eunice Foote documented the underlying cause of today’s climate change crisis. The year was 1856. Foote’s brief scientific paper was the first to describe the extraordinary power of carbon dioxide gas to absorb heat […]
My daughter is enrolled in Pfizer’s vaccine trial because I don’t trust COVID | Taylor Hirth
On a sunny Wednesday a little over a month ago, my 7-year-old daughter bravely held my hand as we walked into Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City to participate in a pediatric vaccine trial. After a numbing agent, a blood draw and a nasal swab, she was finally injected with either a placebo or the […]
Extreme weather causes homelessness and threatens people experiencing homelessness | Clarence J. Adams Sr.
As we witness a staggering increase in extreme weather caused by the climate crisis, a community we so often forget about is disproportionately suffering from its vast impacts: the homeless. During temperature extremes, severe weather and flooding, the majority of us have homes in which to shelter. But many have nowhere to turn. The National […]