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Coronavirus vaccine trials are underway and the presidents of two prominent HBCUs are urging you to participate. In a letter published in The Advocate , the presidents of Dillard and Xavier University — Walter M. Kimbrough and C. Reynold Verret, respectively — explain that they are already participating in the Ochsner Health System’s current vaccine trial. During the study, they have each been injected with the experimental vaccine and are “monitoring and reporting any symptoms and side effects.” Currently, they are both well. Given the devastation of COVID-19 on the Black community, Kimbrough and Verret urge students, faculty, staff, and other HBCU institutions to volunteer in one of the many trials in order for the vaccines to be understood among a diverse group. In short, they want the medicine to work for Black people just as well as it will for others. “Today, there are many regulations in place to assure the ethical execution of medical studies, including oversight by human...
By this point, the economic effects of the coronavirus aren’t news. If anything, there’s been so much coverage surrounding the topic that it’s hard to ascertain the right thing to do. From job loss to quarantine retail therapy, you may feel like your financial life has been in a tailspin since March. So we put together this post offering several simple steps to help you navigate the coronavirus outbreak and the havoc it may have wreaked on your personal finances. 1. Cut spending When lockdown first went into effect, many of us thought we’d be spending dramatically less — after all, quarantine means we can’t blow our paychecks (or blow off steam) at the local bar or take a luxurious vacation. And while certain types of spending are down, others have risen — including money spent on video streaming, food delivery, gaming, and alcohol, according to a New York Times analysis of data from Earnest Research . If you find yourself with less disposable income these days, it’s important to...
We’ve all felt the impact of COVID-19 on our personal lives, both financially and emotionally. But for small business owners, the pandemic packs an extra punch. According to a survey performed by the National Federation of Independent Business , about half of small business owners said they’d be unable to continue operations for more than two months without help. Impacted entrepreneurs are experiencing slower sales, supply chain disruptions and, of course, concerns about employees contracting the illness — and that’s all on top of figuring out how to keep their doors open. Fortunately, there are steps small business owners can take to help their companies come out of this quarantine on the right side of the proverbial dirt. Just as you use masks and hand sanitizer to help you survive the pandemic personally, here are some tools to help your business make it out alive, too. 1. Apply for emergency funding The coronavirus has led to unprecedented economic pressures — which is part of...
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Minority Health (OMH) is partnering with the Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) to fight the coronavirus in minority communities. According to a press release , HHS has granted MSM $40 million for The National Infrastructure for Mitigating the Impact of COVID-19, a three-year initiative designed as a response to racial inequities in healthcare. The aim is to work with community-based organizations to deliver information, healthcare, testing, and other resources to residents in communities “hardest hit by the pandemic.” Additionally, new joint efforts by both institutions will strengthen the strategies by which this data is passed. “Underlying social determinants of health and disparate burdens of chronic medical conditions are contributing to worse COVID-19-related outcomes in minority and socially vulnerable communities, and this partnership with Morehouse School of Medicine is essential to improving our overall...
This past Saturday (May 16), platinum-selling rapper Ludacris queued up Instagram Live for Verzuz , a digital celebration of Black music and artists commissioned by producers Swizz Beatz and Timbaland. While he “battled” St. Louis’ own Nelly, the Atlanta star highlighted his latest business venture, KidNation . The kid-centric “fun, safe, and educational media platform” aims to ensure the safety of children when schools reopen by encouraging hygiene. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ludacris (@ludacris) Through five simple steps—wet, lather, scrub, rinse, and dry—and “Stay Clean,” a kid-friendly campaign, Luda and KidNation encourage handwashing as a primary defense against COVID-19. “Make sure you wash your hands, it’s the best way to avoid getting sick,” the visual PSA starts. The three-minute music video is complete with animations, a hip hop beat, and energetic, young rappers and dancers. Most adorably, the lyrics double as tips not only for handwashing but also for...
On Feb. 14, 2020, Africa recorded its first confirmed COVID-19 case in Egypt. According to the World Health Organization (WHO ), the virus reached the continent via travelers from Asia, Europe, and the U.S. As of last week, WHO reports that cases in Africa have risen to over 30,000 with nearly 1,400 deaths. While some doctors saw Africa as nothing more than a testing lab for COVID-19 vaccines, citizens of Africa have honed their intelligence and innovation to create inventions that aid in the reduction of the virus within their continent. Check out these three Africa-based inventions that are contributing to COVID-19 solutions. RESPIRE-19 Portable Ventilator According to Face2Face Africa , Usman Dalhatu, a 20-year-old mechanical engineer student at Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria, invented and built a local ventilator. With the help of his partners, Dr. Yunusa Muhammad Garba of the Human Anatomy Department, Gombe State University, and Aliyu Hassan, a graduate of Mechatronics...
It’s no secret that COVID-19 has been disproportionately impacting the Black community. However, pediatric surgeon, Ala Stanford, not only began to worry about the death toll of African Americans in the Philadelphia area, according to NPR , but she took action. “In Philadelphia, African Americans represent 44 percent of the population, but at last check, 52 percent of the deaths, for me, that was unacceptable,” Stanford told NPR. As a native of North Philly, Dr. Stanford heads a medical consulting firm and private practice in Jenkintown, PA. She is also on staff at Abington-Jefferson Health. Dr. Stanford’s worries grew as the death toll continued to rise, and the myth that Black people were resistant to the COVID-19 virus continued to circulate throughout the Black community. She posted a video in an attempt to debunk the myth where she explains how the historical mistrust of the medical field should not deter Black communities from practicing safety guidelines such as proper...
