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More than 1.5 million children around the world are estimated to have lost at least one parent, custodial grandparent, or grandparent who lived with them due to death related to COVID-19 during the first 14 months of the pandemic, according to a study published in The Lancet. “Studies like this play a crucial role in illuminating the COVID-19 pandemic’s long-lasting consequences for families and the future mental health and wellbeing of children across the globe,” said NIDA Director Nora D. Volkow, M.D. “Though the trauma a child experiences after the loss of a parent or caregiver can be devastating, there are evidence-based interventions that can prevent further adverse consequences, such as substance use, and we must ensure that children have access to these interventions.”
n 2020, there were 30 named storms, of which 14 became hurricanes, including seven major hurricanes last year. Major hurricanes are known to carry winds of 111 mph and higher. The season was so active we ran out of the alphabetical list of names and had to borrow some from the Greek alphabet. This year, however, the Greek alphabet will no longer be used partly due to difficulty translating in different languages. Instead, any extra storms will be named through a supplemental names list from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Several factors contributed to NOAA’s prediction for an above-normal hurricane season. Among them: predicted warmer-than-average temperatures in the Tropical Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea; weaker tropical Atlantic trade winds; and an enhanced west African monsoon.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans have been exposed to a wide range of misinformation about masks and social distancing, treatments, and vaccines. As of late May, 67% of unvaccinated adults exit disclaimer icon had heard at least one COVID-19 vaccine myth and either believed it to be true or were not sure of its veracity. Health misinformation has already caused significant harm exit disclaimer icon, dividing families and communities and undermining vaccination efforts. An analysis of millions of social media posts exit disclaimer icon found that false news stories were 70 percent more likely to be shared than true stories. And a recent study exit disclaimer icon showed that even brief exposure to misinformation made people less likely to want a COVID-19 vaccine.
Rose Madeline Mula Writes: Why does my computer crash only when I’m behind deadline on an important project and not when I’m playing solitaire — especially since I spend much more time playing games than working. And can wine connoisseurs really detect undertones of leather, tea, oak, and dozens of other essences and aromas? When they describe a certain vintage as having “a good nose” or “legs,” are they putting me on? And when they toss out adjectives like “assertive,” “attractive,” “graceful,” and “elegant,” are they really describing the wine or the waitress pouring it? If haste makes waste, how come he who hesitates is lost? And why should we keep our noses to the grindstone if all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy? No wonder I’m an insomniac. How can I get to sleep when I keep trying to solve life’s little puzzles—like… How come the label on my sleeping pills warns, “May cause drowsiness”? Isn’t that the point?
Aduhelm, a new Alzheimer’s drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration last month, could be prescribed to 1 million to 2 million patients a year, even if conservative criteria were used, according to Biogen and Eisai, the companies behind the drug. The total annual price tag would come to $56 billion if the average list price, $56,000, is applied to the lower end of the companies’ estimate. That’s a huge sum by any measure — more than the annual budget for the National Institutes of Health (almost $43 billion this year). Yet there’s considerable uncertainty about Aduhelm’s clinical benefits, fueling controversy over its approval. The FDA has acknowledged it’s not clear whether the medication will actually slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease or by how much.
Carol Christ: When I joined the faculty, only 3% of the faculty were women. When I joined the English department, there were 84 faculty in the English department — it was much bigger then than it is now — and there were four women. I was the fourth woman. And I remember whenever I went to an office, people didn’t believe I was a faculty member. Carol Clover: Or, when I went to Harvard, people always thought that I was a secretary in my office. They would just walk in and say, “Would you please type this for me and have it for tomorrow?” Anne Brice: What would you say? Carol Clover: It would be a nice conversation. They were usually apologetic. It was just the way things were."
For over fifty years, Lynn Hershman Leeson has created an innovative and prescient body of work that mines the intersections of technology and the self. Known for her groundbreaking contributions to media art, Hershman Leeson has consistently worked with the latest technologies, from Artificial Intelligence to DNA programming, often anticipating the impact of technological developments on society. As the artist posited in 1998, “Imagine a world in which there is a blurring between the soul and the chip, a world in which artificially implanted DNA is genetically bred to create an enlightened and self-replicating intelligent machine, which perhaps uses a human body as a vehicle for mobility.”
US economic activity contracted sharply during 2020 as COVID-19 spread and government introduced policies aimed at curbing the virus. Understanding the impact of the pandemic on economic activity as well as the effectiveness and economic impact of health and containment policies has been a major challenge faced by policymakers. The fundamental issue is that economic activity, COVID-19's spread, and health and containment policies are interconnected — they simultaneously influence each other. In a recent working paper, we develop a methodology to investigate the causal linkages among COVID-19's spread, health and containment policies, and economic activity.1 In this two-part essay, we present a nontechnical summary of our approach and main findings. In particular, Part I explains our methods and summarizes how COVID-19 has affected economic activity and government policies. Part II describes the effects of government policies on COVID-19's spread and economic activity.
H. Con. Res. 39 — Rep. Karen Bass: A bill to remove administrative barriers to participation of Indian tribes in federal child welfare programs, and increase federal funding for tribal child welfare programs; Rep. Jackie Speier: A concurrent resolution expressing the sense of Congress that Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 applies to the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA), and the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) should work to prevent discrimination on the basis of sex in its programs and activities; Rep. Brad Wenstrup: — A bill to improve the employer-provided child care tax credit; Rep. Julia Brownley: A bill to increase the frequency that the Advisory Committee on Women Veterans shall submit a report to the secretary of Veterans Affairs; Rep. Ann Kuster: — A bill to reauthorize grants for the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network.
"Overall, one-in-four 2020 voters (25%) had not voted in 2016. About a quarter of these (6% of all 2020 voters) showed up two years later – in 2018 – to cast ballots in the highest-turnout midterm election in decades. Those who voted in 2018 but not in 2016 backed Biden over Trump in the 2020 election by about two-to-one (62% to 36%). Both Trump and Biden were able to bring new voters into the political process in 2020. The 19% of 2020 voters who did not vote in 2016 or 2018 split roughly evenly between the two candidates (49% Biden vs. 47% Trump). However, as with voters overall, there was a substantial age divide within this group. Among those under age 30 who voted in 2020 but not in either of the two previous elections, Biden led 59% to 33%, while Trump won among new or irregular voters ages 30 and older by 55% to 42%. Younger voters also made up an outsize share of these voters: Those under age 30 made up 38% of new or irregular 2020 voters, though they represented just 15% of all 2020 voters."
This book packs a lot of punch into 145 pages. The eleven 2019/20 Presidential debates allowed more women than ever before to stand up and be heard...Along the way the women were often attacked, though not so viciously as when they ran for President. Trump called Warren ‘Pocahontas’. The press said Klobuchar was a mean boss. Williamson was dismissed as an aging hippie. Some of the women handled these attacks better than others – but that’s true of men as well. Above all, they had to deal with the issue of “electability” – could a woman, any woman, beat Trump. All told stories from their lives to illustrate their themes. None were rags-to-riches stories. Nor did they go into politics the old-fashioned way, by inheriting an office from a male relative. They worked their way up the political ladder, though some had doors opened for them while others had to pound on those doors. In her final chapter Gutgold asks “Did Six Women Running for President 2020 Change the Rhetoric of Women and Presidential Politics?” To find out her answer, you’ll have to read the book.
"The fresco depicts in colorful detail a past, present, and future that the artist believed were shared across North America, calling for cultural solidarity and exchange during a time of global conflict. Completed with support from local artists and assistants, with scenes of the Bay Area as a backdrop, the mural celebrates the creative spirit through portraits of artists, artisans, architects, and inventors who use art and technology as tools to shape society." After the fair, Pan American Unity — measuring twenty-two by seventy-four feet and weighing over sixty thousand pounds — was moved to the campus of City College of San Francisco (CCSF). This was possible because Rivera painted this fresco not on a wall, but on ten steel-framed cement panels. More than half a century later, an international team of experts has spent years planning another move. In partnership with CCSF, SFMOMA presents Rivera’s Pan American Unity in the museum’s free-to-the-public Roberts Family Gallery on Floor 1. On view until 2023, the mural will then return to CCSF to be installed in a new performing arts center.
The Department of Justice announced today that the Western Union Remission Fund began its third distribution of approximately $66 million in funds forfeited to the United States from the Western Union Company (Western Union) to approximately 6,000 victims located in the United States and abroad... According to court documents, in the scheme, fraudsters targeted consumers, including seniors, through multiple scams. Three specific scams directed towards seniors included the so-called grandparent scam, where the fraudster would pose as the victim’s relative in purported need of immediate money to avoid personal harm; lottery or sweepstakes scams, where the fraudster would tell the victim that he or she had won a large cash prize but had to pay fees, such as taxes, to claim the prize; and romance scams, where the fraudster would pose as an online love interest and request funds for a visit or for another purpose. In each of these scams, the fraudsters convinced their victims to send money through Western Union.
Science was one of those domains where women were struggling to be heard, and Eunice Foote is among the pioneers whose work paved the way toward acceptance. A column in the September 1856 issue of Scientific American, titled “Scientific Ladies — Experiments with Condensed Gases,” began, “Some have not only entertained, but expressed the mean idea, that women do not possess the strength of mind necessary for scientific investigation.” The writer went on to describe Foote’s experiments as evidence to the contrary, concluding: "The columns of the Scientific American have been oftentimes graced with articles on scientific subjects, by ladies, which would do honor to men of the highest scientific reputation; and the experiments of Mrs. Foot afford abundant evidence of the ability of woman to investigate any subject with originality and precision."
Some Bills Introduced: A bill to ensure the safety of cosmetics; banning the use of intentionally added perfluoroalkyl or polyfluoroalkyl substances in cosmetics; expanding the membership of the Advisory Committee on Minority Veterans to include veterans who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, gender diverse, gender non-conforming, intersex, or queer; mammography screening for veterans who served in locations associated with toxic exposure; providing coverage for custom fabricated breast prostheses following a mastectomy; A bill to improve social security benefits for widows and widowers in two-income households
Weekly Legislative Update
June 21, 2021
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The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration amended safety regulations in 2019. Stakeholders told us the changes could improve safety without presenting significant challenges. However, several operators said they would need to modify or replace pipelines to accommodate certain inspection tools. The agency hasn't developed measures to assess whether the changes improve safety. We recommended doing so. GAO-21-493 Published: Jun 22, 2021. Publicly Released: Jun 22, 2021.
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Documents ... show that in December 2020 and early January 2021, President Trump, his Chief of Staff, and outside allies repeatedly put pressure on senior DOJ officials to challenge the results of the presidential election and advance unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud, with the apparent goal of keeping President Trump in power despite losing the 2020 election.
Julia Sneden wrote: As the Boomers moved into adulthood, they proved themselves able to make huge changes in laws and customs. They have immeasurably furthered tolerance among people of different races and religions. The causes they embraced have brought about new attitudes toward same-sex relationships, single parenting, women in the work force, the environment, and physical fitness. New marketing strategies were developed to entice Boomers. (Remember when you could buy shoes without a company's logo on it, or a shirt without the designer's name on the pocket?)
A federal jury in Connecticut convicted a Russian national on Tuesday for operating a “crypting” service used to conceal “Kelihos” malware from antivirus software, enabling hackers to systematically infect victim computers around the world with malicious software, including ransomware. “By operating a website that was intended to hide malware from antivirus programs, Koshkin provided a critical service that enabled other cyber criminals to infect thousands of computers around the world,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Leonard C. Boyle for the District of Connecticut. “We will investigate and prosecute the individuals who aid and abet cyber criminals as vigorously as we do the ones who actually hit the ‘send’ button on viruses and other malicious software.”
The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law and the Bipartisan Policy Center today published a report on the state of the election official profession and the toll of the unprecedented attacks on these officials’ authority, credibility, and personal safety that surged in the run-up to the 2020 election and have not stopped. The report features a survey finding that one in three election officials report feeling unsafe because of their job, and one in six reported having been threatened due to their job. The authors provide solutions for the various problems facing election officials, with calls to action for local, state, and federal governments as well as social media companies and other institutions.
Jo Freeman writes: If you enjoyed listening to Elizabeth Warren during the 2019/20 Presidential debates or if you applauded her on the campaign trail, you will love this book. It’s one very long campaign speech. In six chapters she entertains readers with stories of her youth, her family, her dog, her plans, her policy proposals, and a few insights... Not until the final chapter on being “A Woman” does she begin to tie her experiences together. She ran into a lot of glass ceilings and broke some of them, but never escaped the “discrimination that lasts a lifetime.” She talks about care giving and abortion, as well as the consequences of unequal pay and limited job opportunities for women... As her final story, Warren writes about a little girl she met on the selfie line in St. Paul Minnesota, in 2019. That girl told her “You better win... I’ve been waiting for a girl president since.... since... since kindergarten.”
GAO: "The US Postal Service's financial viability has been on our High Risk List since 2009. Declining mail volumes and increased costs have made it harder for USPS to cover all its costs. USPS cites quality customer service as important to sustaining its business. We looked at USPS's process for addressing residential customer complaints. In fiscal year 2020, USPS received 10.7 million complaints, with 69% of those related to missing or delayed packages. USPS started using a new software system in 2019 to track complaints and customer service issues. The system collects more detailed data and may help identify the causes of some problems."
Results from a Phase 3 clinical trial enrolling 29,960 adult volunteers in the United States and Mexico show that the investigational vaccine known as NVX-CoV2373 demonstrated 90.4% efficacy in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 disease. The candidate showed 100% protection against moderate and severe disease. In people at high risk of developing complications from COVID-19 (people 65 years or older and people under age 65 with certain comorbidities or with likely regular exposure to COVID-19), the vaccine showed 91.0% efficacy in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 disease.
Republican political leaders are blaming Democratic President Joe Biden for accelerating inflation. But Jerome Powell, chairman of the US Federal Reserve Board, was appointed by Republican President Donald Trump — and the Fed says inflation will not be a long-term problem. Those numbers suggest that inflationary pressures are modest. Other dynamics, however, are unprecedented, reflecting deeper changes in the economy that may have accelerated with the pandemic. But at UC Berkeley, high-level economists are offering some calming advice: A measure of inflation is inevitable as the US economy comes back online, but it will likely be modest. And it will almost certainly blow over as the economy stabilizes.
"The question of what would happen when a new, expensive prescription drug comes to market for a disease like Alzheimer’s that afflicts millions of people has loomed large in discussions over drug prices in the U.S.— and now we’re about to find out. After a nearly 20-year dry spell in new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just approved a new Alzheimer’s medication, Aduhelm (aducanumab), developed by Biogen, with an expected annual price tag of $56,000. While the scientific community debates the evidence of the effectiveness of this new drug, the FDA’s decision raises hope for Alzheimer’s patients and their families, along with serious cost concerns for patients and payers, particularly Medicare."
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