WSSN Stories

BY COURTNEY SHEA

COVID-19 is changing the way we handle everything from work to play to fresh produce and other groceries. With so much uncertainty and anxiety in the air, it’s only natural to wonder whether that perfectly ripe avocado could be a potentially deadly weapon. But what are the actual facts around food safety? Is now a good time to go vegan, and do I really need to be washing my vegetables in soap and water?We consulted the experts. Some useful best practices and myth-busting below. 

Do I need to wash fruit and vegetables with soap?

The debate around giving your fruits and veggies a bubble bath blew up last weekfollowing a viral video in which a family doctor from Michigan said soap and water was a good way to keep veggies COVID-19 free, which sounds like it makes sense (treat your honeydew melon as you would your hands). Since then a whole bunch of experts have refuted this advice, many pointing out that of the 1-million cases of COVID-19 worldwide, not a single one has come from contaminated food. Still not convinced? 

Okay, there is also this from the FDA: “Washing fruits and vegetables with soap, detergent, or commercial produce wash is not recommended.” Jodi Koberinski, a food safety researcher at the University of Waterloo, agrees, noting that dish soap is likely to cause more problems than it solves including nausea, diarrhea, and cramping. “It is not made for and not safe for human consumption,” she explains. 

But what if I rinse everything really well?, you may be thinking. The problem is that fruits and vegetables are porous and may absorb harmful chemicals that won’t come out with even the most rigorous rinse. 

Okay, but isn’t a little diarrhea better than contracting COVID-19? First off, nobody said anything about a little diarrhea — you can get really sick, and so can your kids, if you have them. Secondly, that question is based on exactly the kind of false equivalency we need to be avoiding right now (along with bars, playgrounds, and IRL hangs). “Technically, it may be possible to contract COVID-19 from the surface of a piece of fruit,” says Koberinsk, noting that is not the threat that people should be focused on. And also that there’s no evidence that soap and water kills the COVID-19 virus on fruits and vegetables anyway. (Ditto for lemon juice, baking soda, and bleach — whatever you do, please don’t wash your edibles in Clorox.) 

In other words, contracting COVID-19 through produce isn’t something you need to stress about. So chill out. And then do the same for your produce, washing them in cold (wan-wan) water, which will remove between 90% and 99% of germs and bacteria. For items with tough skin (avocados, potatoes) you can also use a scrub brush. It’s okay to wash that with soap. Same goes for your hands before and after you handle food of any kind. 

Should I quarantine my groceries before I bring them inside? 

This one is a little more straight forward: No, there is absolutely no reason to leave groceries outside or in the garage or the car, despite what you may have read on that fountain of misinformation known as the Internet. “This is absolutely not a good idea,” says Koberinski.And, in fact, the potential risks of ignoring best practices around refrigeration (ie, putting things that need to be in the fridge in the fridge) make this behavior not just excessivebut dangerous. 

“It’s really important to remember basic food safety,” says Koberinski. “Both because best practices haven’t actually changed much. And also because any kind of sickness may weaken the body’s ability to withstand a truly virulent illness.” (Cough, cough, COVID-19.)  

By all means, she says, bring groceries inside when you come home from the store. Place your bags and do your unloading on a surface that you can wipe down — with any alcohol-based cleaning spray — once everything has been put away. 

Should I disinfect all the grocery packaging too? 

Paranoia around packaging spiked last month after a new study showed that the COVID-19 virus can survive longer on certain surfaces (24-hours on cardboard, up to three days on plastic and stainless steel). So you can go to the hypothetical scenario where an infected grocery shopper has contaminated your box of Cheerios, and use this as justification for sanitizing every bit of packaging that passes your threshold. 

Or, you can simplify by washing your hands and surfaces before and after all eating. If that doesn’t feel like enough, Koberinski suggests discarding packages rather than disinfecting. A lot of groceries (like cereal and crackers) have a bag within the box. Others can be stored in homemade jars of Tupperware. That way you’re feeling protected without wasting valuable cleaning products, which is probably the more relevant safety concern, Koberinski says. 

What about using a UV light to kill the virus on groceries? That wouldn’t waste cleaning products. 

UV lights don’t work, either. In short, because the level of UV required to kill COVID-19 is extremely unsafe. 

Is now a good time to go vegetarian? I’ve heard meat holds particular threats.

There are plenty of reasons to consider a plant-based diet, but COVID-19 safety is not one of them. Particular worries around meat may come from the fact that the virus is believed to have originated with animals. But as far as food safety goes, that has zero baring. “Heating meat to the recommended temperature is the recommendation, same as always,” says Koberinski.

What about reheating takeout just to make sure it’s coronavirus-free?

Obviously you want to be careful about all food that is coming into your home, and if you don’t feel secure about food safety practices of a particular restaurant maybe just stick to home cooking, since repeated reheating isn’t safe either. 

Is there a problem with being extra cautious?

If by that you mean upping safety measures, and erring on the side of caution, then no. Obviously people have every reason to feel scared and since the grocery store is pretty much the only place anyone’s allowed to go these days (as infrequently as possible), concerns around food safety are something we’re all talking about. That’s a good thing, and if COVID-19 gets us to think more seriously about food safety in the long term, that’s good too, says Koberinski. At the same time, she says, “We don’t want everyone turning into a cartoon version of a germaphobe or shelling out big bucks for bogus miracle cures.” Safety is important, but so are the facts. 

 

Governor also announces COVID-19 Testing Task Force to boost California’s testing capacity

SACRAMENTO – Governor Gavin Newsom today announced the launch of a new website, covid19supplies.ca.gov, to get critical medical supplies to the front lines of California’s fight against COVID-19. The website will allow individuals and companies to donate, sell or offer to manufacture 13 of the most essential medical supplies, including ventilators, N95 respirators and testing materials. 

Governor Newsom also announced the COVID-19 Testing Task Force, a public-private collaboration that will work with stakeholders across the state to quickly and significantly boost California’s testing capacity. The Task Force plans to scale up testing as demand increases.

“These actions marshal the generosity and innovative spirit of Californians to help us achieve two essential goals: getting more lifesaving supplies into our health care system and increasing our testing capacity,” said Governor Newsom.

Governor Newsom called on companies, organizations and individuals who have medical supplies to contribute, either for donation or purchase, to support California’s response to COVID-19 and visit covid19supplies.ca.gov.

Additionally, three specific collaborations have launched today as part of the testing effort:  

• Collaboration with the University of California, San Diego and University of California, Davis to establish high throughput testing hubs. 
• Collaboration with Stanford Medicine to launch the first serology test invented in California. 
• Collaboration with Abbott Laboratories to deploy the first rapid point-of-care test across 13 health care delivery systems and 75 sites.

The Task Force, co-chaired by California Department of Public Health Assistant Director Charity Dean, M.D., M.P.H. and Blue Shield of California President and CEO Paul Markovich, will ensure the state has sufficient capacity and supplies to administer a significantly greater number of tests.

“The Task Force is connecting with laboratories across California to tap into unique technologies to improve and refine our testing capabilities to ensure we’re meeting the needs of patients across the state,” said Dr. Dean.

The Testing Task Force is focusing on: 

• Ensuring California has lab capacity to rapidly turn around test results and increase capacity strategically to meet demand; 
• Improving the supply chain to ensure that California can both collect samples and evaluate results without delay; 
• Enabling new, high-quality tests to launch in California as soon as possible; 
• Improving our ability to accurately track and evaluate COVID-19 testing capacity, results and reporting; and 
• Building the workforce necessary to meet our testing goals.

“The Task Force will work together with California academic systems, private systems, public health experts and others to ensure we’re creating the most streamlined and effective way to evaluate testing data,” Blue Shield of California President and CEO Paul Markovich said. “This kind of public-private collaboration will allow us to tap into the systems needed to get the results California deserves.”

By McKenzie Jackson | California Black Media

Usually it’s come as you are, but this past Sunday the message to parishioners of African-American churches across the Golden State was tune in online.

Worship houses from Southern California to beyond the Bay Area have been instructed not to hold in-house services for some time due to the novel coronavirus outbreak making its way around the globe.

“We may not be able to touch in the natural but we are connected in the spirit,” the Rev. Jacqueline Thompson, pastor of Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland, told her parishioners via video stream last Sunday. The 100-year-old congregation is one of the oldest Black churches in the Bay Area.

For Clint Thompson of Santa Monica the governor’s shelter in place order meant abandoning his weekly jaunt to West Angeles Church of God in Christ in Los Angeles for Sunday service. The popular South Los Angeles church canceled its service and instead live-streamed Bishop Charles E. Blake’s message online. Thompson, a 37-year-old actor, said he watched the service for his weekly inspiration, but noted that he missed sitting in the pews.

“The service is good and its theatrical,” he said. “The music is good, the praise dancing. It feels like a live music festival.”

Thompson isn’t the lone California worshipper who will be catching the gospel online during this time.

Churchgoers across the state are tuning into worship services online via video streaming on their websites or social media pages in response to government officials across the state requesting that church services not convene anytime in the foreseeable future to slow the rapid spread of the coronavirus and COVID-19, the disease it causes.

Sermons, choir performances, praise and worship, and other church service mainstays go on as usual. But they happen in front of a handful of worshippers, camera crews and technicians responsible for posting the services online — instead of the dozens to hundreds of people who usually pack California Black church benches on Sunday mornings.

The Rev. Kenneth C. Curry, Jr., pastor of Friendship Baptist Church in Yorba Linda, said not preaching in front of hundreds of familiar faces is a strange feeling, but it is an essential one because of the health risks that come with the rapidly spreading respiratory illness. Curry said when Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a health emergency that put restrictions on public gatherings larger than 250 people, his church’s services were immediately cancelled. They began taping them for the internet.

“I’ve preached in small groups, but its hard when you are standing in a sanctuary that you know holds 700 people, and you might be preaching to ten, and you are trying to make it feel like Sunday morning, and you’re far from Sunday morning,” he said. “It’s different, but it’s a service that is needed, so I make it happen for my people to the best of my ability.”

Last Sunday, was men’s Sunday at Allen Temple Baptist in Oakland. The members of the men’s chorus performed on stage in a formation that allowed six feet of social distance among them. Each man had his own mic.

“We’re scared right now, lord. We don’t understand what you are doing and we don’t like it,” Thompson, the pastor at Allen Temple, prayed during her Oakland church’s live stream that was broadcast on Facebook and on the church’s website.

“But remind us that you are gracious. Even in the midst of this, thank you for slowing us down and connecting us with family and what is important in this world,” she added.

The spread of the coronavirus, officially declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, has sickened more than 329,000 people on six continents according to official tallies by governments and health organizations. It has caused the deaths of at least 14,522 people, as of Monday morning.

In the United States, there have been 428 deaths and 33,018 health cases attributed to the illness.

In California, so far, there have been 33 deaths related to COVID-19 and an estimated 1,849 people have tested positive.

The high infection rate of the untreatable virus has changed life across the globe, shuttering businesses, schools, offices, restaurants, sports and entertainment venues and any other places groups of people might gather.

Governments have urged people to stay indoors.

California’s Black churches say they are taking the pandemic seriously by vigorously cleaning their worship houses and closing their doors to the public for regular church activities.

Pastor “J” Edgar Boyd of First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles said in an online statement his church is working on ways for the church body to stay connected through video chats and conference calls.

“Please know that we are praying for the safety, physical wellbeing and spiritual strength for you, your household, and for your entire family,” Boyd wrote.

Curry said no services have taken place at his church since March 15. The church has been streaming its 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. services, and Sunday was the first time they broadcast their Sunday school service, which had about 130 viewers. He said churchgoers watch online messages.

“I don’t care what a church does, even if it is in a minimized form, I think every church has to have some type of online presence,” Curry said.  “They will figure out how to watch it. Even if they have to bring their grandkids over to get them online. They will figure out how to access it.”

The pastor hinted at a question some churches will have: How to deal with deaths in church families? One of Curry’s congregants recently died, and another expected to pass soon.

“We have to find a way to figure out how to celebrate that individual’s life,” he said.

Pastor Touré Roberts of The Potter’s House at One L.A. said in his Sunday morning sermon, that it seems like the world has been flipped on its head during the coronavirus emergency, but he saw a silver lining

“There are sometimes it feels like the world wasn’t turned upside down, but it was turned right-side up,” he said. “People are spending more time with their families. People are texting one another and checking on one another. In the midst of all this craziness, it seems we are getting our priorities straight, and I have just come to suspect that God is somewhere in it.”

At Third Baptist Church in San Francisco, a 168-year old African-American congregation, pastor Amos Brown prayed a solemn prayer for those affected by the Coronavirus crisis.

“We pray for those on hospital bed waiting for healing, waiting for medical supplies desperately needed in this time of a pandemic worldwide,” he said.

By Mark Hedin, Ethnic Media Services

Not only has the corona virus wrought havoc worldwide, it’s also become a new pretext for fraudsters trying to take advantage of people’s trust to steal their money. According to the United States Federal Trade Commission, COVID-19-related crimes are being reported by the thousands, have doubled in just the past week and are growing faster still.

The FTC has received more than 10,000 complaints so far this year, (https://tinyurl.com/FTC-coronavirusreports), with losses approaching $7 million and a median of more than $500. More than half of those reports arrived in just the past 10 days. On March 31, the FTC reported fielding 7,800 complaints this year, “double what they were a week ago.” As of April 2, the number had grown to 9,918.

Complaints describe perpetrators claiming to represent the government or a business, often trying to take advantage of travel and vacation-related reports about cancellations and refunds. Other complaints cited problems with online shopping and mobile texting.

The federal agency is updating the numbers the exponential growth of coronavirus-related complaints at its Explore Data web page (https://tinyurl.com/FTC-complaint-data), and offers information on types of scams and how to avoid them at https://www.ftc.gov/coronavirus/ftc-in-action.

If you have been targeted by a fraudulent operation, please report it to the FTC: FTC.gov/complaint.

As a general rule, don’t click on links in emails that claim to be from the government or a bank, even if they look legitimate, and don’t respond to those emails. The criminals are good at copying the look of those institutions’ correspondence. It’s better to call the government agency or bank directly. But even there, be careful to find out the correct phone number on your own, and don’t trust the number in any unsolicited call or email.

Also, most phone calls trying to defraud people are “robocalls” — calls made by machines — so if you pick up a call and there’s no person on the other end of the line, just hang up. But fraudulent calls are sometimes made by individual people, too.

Because the government has passed legislation offering various kinds of financial relief to consumers, some scammers are trying to take undue advantage of that, also. In one effort to combat this type of crime, the Small Business Administration is asking people to contact them directly, either by phone or at the sba.gov/coronavirus website, to find out what kind of help is legitimately available.

Similarly, be wary of people or callers offering a fast-track to such financial help. And never give your Social Security, tax ID, bank account numbers or any other such highly personal information to someone you don’t know.

Even if you’ve received a check in the mail, proceed with caution. Not all “coronavirus relief” checks can be trusted. The FTC has a blog with advice about how to spot a bogus relief check (https://tinyurl.com/SBA-fake-coronovirus-checks). 

In recent weeks, the FTC has had to notify numerous technology companies such as internet service providers (https://tinyurl.com/FTC-coronavirus-fraud-warning) that they are making it easier for people operating illegal telemarketing and robocalls involved with coronavirus-related scams.

Those companies included: USTelecom; Connexum; VoIPMax; SipJoin Holding, Corp.; SipJoin Holdings Corp.; iFly Communications; Third Rock Telecom; Bluetone Communications, LLC; VoIP Terminator, Inc. — also known as BLMarketing — J2 Web Services, Inc.; Voxbone US LLC; VolPMax; and Comet Media, Inc. 

“It’s never good business for VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocols) providers and others to help telemarketers make illegal robocalls that scam people,” FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection Director Andrew Smith said. “But it’s especially bad when your company is helping telemarketers exploiting fears about the coronavirus to spread disinformation and perpetrate scams.”

The FTC reports that it also is prosecuting another company, Globex Telecom, and software provider James B. Christiano, for this kind of activity The Department of Justice is a prosecuting two VoIP companies for “committing and conspiring to commit wire fraud by knowingly transmitting robocalls that impersonated federal government agencies.”

The FTC and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have warned other companies about selling unapproved products that may be falsely claiming to be helpful in treating or curing COVID-19. 

These include Gaia’s Whole Healing Essentials, LLC; Health Mastery Systems/Pure Plant Essentials; Homeomart Indibuy; Neuro XPF; FullerLifeC60, LLC; Halosense, Inc.; JRB Enterprise Group Inc.; Carahealth; Corona-Cure; Vital Silver; Quinessence Aromatherapy Ltd.; N-ergetics; GuruNanda, LLC; Vivify Holistic Clinic; Herbal Amy LLC and the Jim Bakker Show.

Although the FTC strongly recommends against communicating with ANY unknown person or business, the opposite is true when it comes to notifying friends and family to be careful.

“Share these tips with your co-workers, family and social networks,” the agency says.

SACRAMENTO – The California Department of Public Health today announced the most recent statistics on COVID-19. California now has 10,701 confirmed cases and 237 deaths. As of April 2, local health departments have reported 156 confirmed positive cases in health care workers. For more information on COVID-19 and California’s response visit the California Department of Public Health website.

Testing in California
As of April 2, approximately 94,800 tests had been conducted in California. At least 35,267 results have been received and another 59,500 are pending. These numbers include data California has received from commercial, private and academic labs, including Quest, LabCorp, Kaiser, University of California and Stanford, and the 22 state and county health labs currently testing.

How People Can Protect Themselves
Every person has a role to play. Protecting yourself and your family comes down to common sense: 

• Staying home except for essential needs/activities.
• Practicing social distancing.
• Washing hands with soap and water for a minimum of 20 seconds.
• Avoiding touching eyes, nose or mouth with unwashed hands.
• Covering a cough or sneeze with your sleeve, or disposable tissue. Wash your hands afterward.
• Avoiding close contact with people who are sick.
• Staying away from work, school or other people if you become sick with respiratory symptoms like fever and cough.
• Following guidance from public health officials.

What to Do if You Think You’re Sick
Call ahead: If you are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 (fever, cough or shortness of breath) and may have had contact with a person with COVID-19, or recently traveled to countries with apparent community spread, call your health care provider before seeking medical care so that appropriate precautions can be taken.

More information about what Californians can do to prevent the spread of COVID-19 is available at www.covid19.ca.gov.

California continues to issue guidance on preparing and protecting California from COVID-19. Consolidated guidance is available atwww.cdph.ca.gov/covid19guidance.

By Mark Hedin, Ethnic Media Services

As of April 1, 37.9% of California’s households have filled out their census questionnaires, Ditas Katague, the state’s Complete Count Committee director, reported at a “Census Day” teleconference.

The nationwide response rate was slightly higher, 38.4%, but California’s 40 million population includes 11 million people the Census Bureau considers “hard to count” — more than in all of Georgia, Katague said.

California’s marathon effort to get everybody counted by the Aug. 14 deadline includes immigrants, infants, the elderly, the incarcerated, the homeless, those who speak no English.

Before the deadline, Census Bureau “enumerators” will have visited households that didn’t fill out their census forms online, over the phone or by mail. The enumerators are scheduled to begin their work May 28 and will return several times, if necessary, to try to get the questionnaires completed.

The completion deadline originally was July 31 but was extended by two weeks, to Aug. 15, in response to the CORVID-19 virus outbreak. Other aspects of the Census 2020 timeline also have been adjusted, such as the schedule for training and dispatching enumerators.

“It’s about power, it’s about money, it’s about data,” Katague said. 

Nationwide, about $1.5 trillion every year (https://tinyurl.com/Census-directedUSspending) of federal government spending is allocated based on census data. That data drives federal funding for emergencies like the coronavirus.

“Just know that being counted is very important for emergency response,” Katague said.

Besides all that federal spending, census data determines how many seats a state gets in Congress. 

“Representation, having a voice, being able to be heard, and being sure that the dollars we send to Washington come back to our community,” that’s part of the power aspect, Katague explained. “If California loses a congressional seat to North Carolina or Texas, I can’t even imagine the impact it would have.” 

And health care funding is a particular concern, she added.

California has allocated about $187 million to this year’s census outreach and communications, far more than any other state in the country and multiples of what it spent in 2010. That year, the “great recession” had Sacramento pinching pennies. Ten years earlier, in 2000, California became the first state ever to fund census outreach efforts. 

The state doesn’t do the counting itself, just the outreach, Katague explained.

“So I just appeal to everyone: Can you answer those nine questions?” (https://tinyurl.com/2020census-ninequestions) 

The chance to count everyone won’t come around again until 2030. Meanwhile, for every Californian who doesn’t get counted this year, their community will miss out on about $10,000 annually in federal spending. Those federal tax dollars go to build roads, staff schools, pay for health care and nutritional needs and much more —300-plus federal programs. 

Jun Lim, from Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Los Angeles (AAAJ-LA), also participated in the teleconference. As one of the state’s trusted messengers in its outreach efforts, AAAJ has set up a hotline for anyone with census questions or concerns: (844) 202-0274 (2020API).

Lim cited an ongoing need for culturally competent help in getting the Asian American and Pacific Islander/Native Hawaiian communities counted. That population is deemed “least likely” to respond to the census, she said, despite being the fastest-growing immigrant group in the country. The reasons include wariness of government intentions and a lack of awareness about the role of the census in U.S. government. 

To encourage participation, AAAJ has helped assemble countusin2020.org, where census information is available in dozens of languages, including Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Urdu, Thai, Punjabi, Hmong and many more.

Basim Elkarra, who directs census outreach for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, described the shift away from in-person events, because of the pandemic, to communicating by phone banks, webinars and WhatsApp, distributing in-language flyers at grocery stores, and cultivating in-language speakers to help dispel confusion about the 2020 census.

Elkarra noted that in the Somali and the MENA (Middle Eastern/North African) population, “When someone speaks their language, it builds trust.

People will take our community more seriously when they see the actual numbers.” He cited the dramatic undercount of Armenians in California and in the U.S. overall as a key reason for why they are underrepresented.

The Census Bureau in mid-March began sending out “invitations” to participate to all known household addresses. The invitations direct recipients on how to fill out their nine-question census forms online. But even households that haven’t received an invitation can go online to respond: my2020Census.gov. 

If an online response isn’t an option, people can call (844) 330-2020 to answer the nine questions by phone, fill out the questionnaires that arrive by mail and mail them back, or wait for an enumerator to come knocking.

The panel addressed concerns about how to tell if a person claiming to be an enumerator actually is — identification, a local phone number to check the ID, an official bag and hand-held electronic device with the nine questions — and about privacy of information. Strict confidentiality rules protect the personal information people provide from being disclosed even to other government agencies or landlords.

All the speakers emphasized that for anyone concerned about stay-at-home orders or virus contamination, the best thing to do is to fill out the census form online, at my2020Census.gov.

“My core message is that participating is safe and secure for all Californians,” Katague said.

By Sunita Sohrabji, India West/Ethnic Media Services

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—- The United States, currently leading the world in the number of people infected with coronavirus, is at the crest of fully experiencing the pandemic, a panel of medical experts and community health advocates told reporters March 27.

The U.S. has registered more than 136,000 infections and approximately 2,400 deaths, according to March 26 data from the World Health Organization.

The telebriefing — organized by Ethnic Media Services and sponsored by the Blue Shield of California Foundation — featured two physicians speaking from the front lines of the global health crisis: Tung Nguyen of the University of California, San Francisco, and Daniel Turner-Lloveras of the Harbor UCLA Medical Clinic.

A large percentage of the immigrant community relies on public health facilities, Turner-Lloveras said, but fear to seek care because of the new public charge rule the Trump administration rolled out Feb. 24. The rule says immigrants who seek any form of federal public aid could be denied permanent status in the U.S.

But in a March 13 memo, US Citizenship and Immigration Services stated that seeking treatment for COVID-19 related health issues would not negatively affect any alien as part of a future public charge determination.

In a March 27 alert, the agency further clarified: “The Public Charge rule does not restrict access to testing, screening, or treatment of communicable diseases, including COVID-19. In addition, the rule does not restrict access to vaccines for children or adults to prevent vaccine-preventable diseases.”

The March 27 advisory also stated that there might be an exception  

with regard to the receipt of certain cash and non-cash public benefits. “The rule requires USCIS to consider the receipt of certain cash and non-cash public benefits, including those that may be used to obtain testing or treatment for COVID-19 in a public charge inadmissibility determination, and for purposes of a public benefit condition applicable to certain non-immigrants seeking an extension of stay or change of status,” stated the agency.

The alert can be read here in its entirety: https://www.uscis.gov/greencard/public-charge

About 43% of undocumented immigrants have no health insurance, said Turner-Lloveras. “We cannot contain a virus outbreak by providing care to only some of the population. We cannot successfully contain an outbreak if there are those among us who are afraid to seek care,” he said.

Public health innovator Rishi Manchanda, founder of HealthBegins, said the pandemic disproportionately affects immigrants and people of color. Psychiatrist Sampat Shivangi, currently serving on the Trump administration’s Council for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, spoke about the psychological effect of self-isolation and the possible surge in substance abuse. 

Veteran activist Manju Kulkarni, executive director of the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council (A3PCON), briefed reporters on the rise of hate crimes against the Asian American community in the wake of the pandemic. 

Nguyen said he has “never seen doctors so scared by an infection. We could be looking at a million infections by next week and four million by next month.” 

The virus is deadly: 15 to 45 of every 1,000 infected people will die of a COVID-19 related illness, Nguyen said, noting that the elderly are particularly vulnerable. No vaccine exists for the disease, and the U.S. is still 12-18 months away from developing one. No cure exists, said medical experts on the panel.

“You need to just stay home,” Nguyen stressed. The most effective methods to steer clear of the virus are social isolation and avoiding touching objects and surfaces. For communities of color and immigrants, who tend to live in multigenerational households, it’s imperative that people who must leave the household for work wash up and change clothes afterward, before engaging with their families again. The virus may be in the air for up to three hours. It can live on cardboard for up to 24 hours and on plastic and steel for 72 hours, the UCSF physician said.

New York City is currently experiencing the worst of the pandemic, Turner-Lloveras said, and its overloaded hospitals lack medical supplies to treat all ill patients. California hospitals, which had an extra week to prepare, may be better-equipped to manage the surge. They are trying to triage appropriately, using telemedicine and other resources to avoid a crush of people coming in at once.

Turner-Lloveras has worked in low-income communities in Los Angeles and advocates for hospitals to be “ICE-free zones” that limit immigration agents’ access so they cannot arrest and detain people seeking medical care. He also spoke out against the overcrowding at ICE detention centers that can increase the community spread of the virus.

Manchanda also has worked in South Central Los Angeles’ low-income communities. He told reporters that the pandemic disproportionately affects the economic well-being of people of color and the immigrant community as well as their health. 

“It’s hard to not work for many communities of color. Lower wages and insufficient insurance coverage limits their access to treatment and often forces them to work even while ill, increasing the risk of exposure to the community,” he said. Also, many minorities live in large cities, frequently in public housing, placing them at a greater risk for infection. And members of ethnic communities often work in front-facing jobs, such as grocery-store clerks, and take public transportation to get to jobs, resulting in higher rates of exposure. 

Manchanda added that limited access to testing, language barriers, and underlying illnesses, such as diabetes and heart disease that disproportionately affect certain minorities, put immigrants and minorities at greater risk of infection and death.

The rise of xenophobia against Asian Americans is real, Kulkarni said, citing the case of a child who was punched in the head 20 times at school because a bully thought he was Asian. A3PCON has received 750 reports of COVID-19-related hate crimes in the past month, she said.

By Lou Yeboah

“Lord, teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” Of all that Moses could have asked, he simply asked, “Lord, teach us to number our days.”  Moses understood that his time here on earth was short. Paul said that it is closer than when we first believed. The night is just about to be over and it is day time. Wake up! You can’t continue to live like you have been living. Don’t be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. It would be madness to jeopardize your soul for naught; post to hell without excuse; and place yourself under the possible necessity of being damned. How long have you got left? How many more times will your eyes flicker open in the morning as consciousness comes into focus? How many more breaths are going to flood your lungs with life-giving oxygen? How many more beats of your heart will pump that oxygen to your vital organs, until it stops for good? Do you ever think about these things? I tell you, we should all pray as Moses did, Lord, teach us to number our days, that we may our hearts unto wisdom.”

This message is a reminder, a word of warning or, caution for those who are so busy living from day to day they forget how completely fragile and uncertain life is. Simply stated by James, our lives are only a mist, a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Here today and gone tomorrow; here one minute and gone the next.  Decide today to give yourself over to the will of God, letting each day count for eternity. “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while He is near.”  Proverbs- 1:24-28; 27:1; 29:1 warns us that we are not to wait too late about making our decision of commitment to God and to receive forgiveness for our sins. Don’t take a chance and think that you will have time to get saved or repent later on in life. For Hell is filling up fast with people who thought that they would repent later on in their life. Some of them, like you, had heard the Gospel: were convicted by the Holy Spirit and Word of God; and had expected to get saved “SOMEDAY.” Unfortunately, for them, their “SOMEDAY” never came. According to Christ, it is absolutely imperative and important for us to be transformed if we desire to enter into God’s Kingdom. Decide today to give yourself over to the will of God, letting each day count for eternity. Allow God to have His way with you. “Whereas ye know not what shall be on tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanishes away.  

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” 

Be awed by God’s eternity. Be humbled by life’s brevity.

“This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death… Now choose life…” Deuteronomy 30:15-20.

In celebration of Women’s History Month, Black PR Wire, Inc., in partnership with Women Grow Strong will present a powerful webinar entitled “Sistas Who Succeed.”  This national webinar is free and open to the public and takes place on Monday, March 30, 2020 from 2 – 3 p.m., ET.

“We are very excited to present this dynamic online event,” says Bernadette Morris, president/CEO of Black PR Wire and Women Grow Strong, Inc. “We have an all-star line-up of successful professional women who are ready to impart powerful and meaningful words of wisdom that will help empower and inspire us all.”

The Sistas Who Succeed webinar will feature a candid conversation from business and community leaders who will share their best practices and success stories on building a successful business; overcoming obstacles and more.  The all-star line-up of presenters include (pictured above, left to right):

Cheryl Procter-Rogers, APR, Fellow, PCC, MBA, MA,Senior Consultant and Certified Master Coach for A Step Ahead PR Consulting and Coaching

Aisha Becker-Burrowes, Manager, PR and Strategic Communications, Essence Communications, Inc.*

(*invited)

Dr. Cheryl L. Holder, MD – Program Director, Florida International University College of Medicine; and Associate Professor

Dr. ML Taylor, Author, Speaker, & Purpose Pusher

Althea Harris, President/CEO, Harris Global, Inc. will present and be the session’s moderator.

-more-

Black PR Wire & Women Grow Strong’s “Sistas Who Succeed” FREE Webinar

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The webinar is free and open to the public, but advanced registration is requested.  To sign up, click the evite link. Once registered, you will receive the calendar evite with the GoTo Meeting link and call in number.

As an added bonus, the first 50 registrants for the webinar will receive a 50% discount on all BPRW services in April and May.  And all additional registrants will receive a 20% discount on all BPRW services as well.

Black PR Wire delivers its clients’ press releases, video and audio news releases, electronic video messages and electronic newsletters to key reporters, writers, and influential grassroots, social and civic community leaders throughout the country.  Black PR Wire also provides specialized services including direct media calls and product placement pitching as well as audio, video and e-newsletter development and distribution. The company’s service center has compiled and owns a comprehensive and continuously updated database of Black media and organizations throughout the country and the Caribbean, and has direct contacts with hundreds of Black and minority media outlets, community, social and civic groups and affiliates nationwide. The company’s database holds a comprehensive listing of over 1,200 Black-owned publications and media and includes a comprehensive listing of key Black journalists throughout the United States and the Caribbean.

Women Grow Strong, Inc., (also known as WINGS for Women in Need Growing Strong), is a not-for-profit support group that serves to help develop, build and sustain women’s contribution, purpose and goals in society.

For more information and to register for the “Sistas Who Succeed” Webinar, call 877-BLACKPR or visit www.blackprwire.com.

WHO:  Black PR Wire and Women Grow Strong present “Sistas Who Succeed” Webinar

WHAT:  A candid conversation from business and community leaders who will share their best practices and success stories on building a successful business; overcoming obstacles and more!

WHEN: Monday, March 30, 2020 ? 2 – 3 p.m. ET

COST:  FREE but advanced registration is required

WHERE:  Click on the link to register (via Evite) http://evite.me/UJ9PfGt3ZH

and the GoToMeeting Link and call in number will be sent to you

FOR MORE INFO:  Contact Black PR Wire at 1-877-BLACKPR

In the time of Coronavirus, the State’s diverse communities are told that participation in the U.S. Census is still crucially important, aside from safe and secure

By Pilar Marrero, Ethnic Media Services

The U.S. Census self-response phase went live on March 12, and civil rights leaders of diverse ethnic groups came together to remind their communities of the many legal and privacy protections guaranteed by federal law for people to participate in the decennial count.

They also encouraged them to continue to “self-respond” by phone, online or mail and outlined the steps they will follow to continue to reach out to hard-to-count communities, addressing at the same time the health emergency of the Covid-19 as an additional challenge in Census 2020.

“We encourage our communities to sanitize and self-respond”, said Jeri Green, 2020 Census Senior Advisor for the National Urban League.

The leaders emphasized that most Americans are now able to self-respond to the Census in the privacy of their own homes without having to meet a Census taker or enumerator. For example, people can go to https://2020census.gov/ and answer nine questions (seven for every person in the household other than the one filling out the questionnaire). They can also respond by phone or in printed form.

Several organizations have mounted massive campaigns to help their communities maximize their participation, given that the data collected by the US Census is used in the distribution of resources, funding of services and political representation through drawing of districts for Congress, State Legislatures, etc.   

Beth Lynk, Census counts campaign Director for The Leadership Conference Education Fund said the Census is “one of the most urgent civil rights issues facing the country and right now every person in the US has a chance to ensure a fair and complete count to all communities”.

Knowing that many in their communities have privacy concerns on the use of the data they will be sharing with the Census, the leaders reminded that the information has extraordinary levels of legal protection.

John Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice pointed to the laws that govern the use of the data given to the U.S. Census Bureau as “the strongest privacy protections allowed in the United States”.

Asian Americans are among the communities where there are many undocumented immigrants and mixed-status households, which creates mistrust towards the government and could affect a complete count. Every person living in the United States by April 1 must be counted, and that includes undocumented immigrants.

“The confidentiality provision known as Title 13 prevents the government from using the Census data for any purpose other than the statistical one”, said Yang. “More importantly, the bureau and its employees are not allowed to share the data with any other government agency or officials for any reason”.  

Certain information gathered by the Census cannot be published for 72 years, such as the name of the individual, business or organization, address or telephone number. Another layer of laws prohibits the use of data in any way against the individual who responded.

Yang pointed to their hotline for the Asian and Pacific Islander Community in several languages as a crucial resource to answer questions: 844-2020-API or 844-2020-0204.

Other communities share the same privacy concern. This is a very important issue in black communities, said Green, of the Urban League, whose 90 affiliates are hard at work reassuring their members of the security of the data and the importance of participation.

“We are fighting to ensure that the black population, including immigrants, lose no ground, be it economic, political or in civil rights”, she emphasized. “The stakes are too high, please go to makeblackcount.org to learn more about our efforts”.

Lycia Maddox, Vice President of External Affairs for the National Congress of American Indians (which also includes Alaska Natives) said that the tribal nations across the country present a special challenge due to restrictions they have imposed on access to their lands, due to the Coronavirus.

“These communities often have no access to online and broadband to self-respond, and these new security measures make it impossible for enumerators to visit them and it delays mail delivery”, Maddox said. “We are as we speak working with different networks to come up with plans, and to increase community outreach and advertising”.

Lizette Escobedo, Census Director for the National Association of Latino and Elected Officials (NALEO) invited Latinos to call the bilingual Spanish-English hotline 877 ELCENSO or 877 352-3672 where there will be live paid operator answering questions and watching for reports of potential scammers or disinformation.

The organization has trained 3500 Census Ambassadors to assist the community in 15 states in filling out the Census and has launched two national campaigns, “Hágase contar and Hazme contar” focused on the larger Latino community and children younger than four, which experienced a large undercount in the 2010 Census.

Additional paid media campaigns will remind people that there is absolutely “NO CITIZENSHIP QUESTION” in the Census and addressing “fears of data privacy and cybersecurity”.

An additional ad campaign targeting Latina Millennials who are English-dominant was launched 2 months ago.

“Ensuring an accurate count seems like a heavier lift as every day happens folks have mentioned, we are committed to working with national local and media partners to do what we can to ensure that Latinos are heard, seen and counted this 2020 census”, she added.

 In the face of the Coronavirus pandemic, organizations are revising the way they conduct the outreach to maintain community safety,

“Several grassroots organizations are moving to phone banks and text banks because the table opportunities are very restrictive right now and we want to exercise caution”, said Yang. “We are also leaving drop off literature in supermarkets, community centers, and clinics”.

Ditas Katague, from the California Complete count office, said that the state of California has spent more than all the other states combined to reach out to the hardest to count populations and ensure everyone participates.

“The investment is unprecedented, a total of 172.2 million dollars and is larger than all other states combined, we are on a league of our own”, said Katague. “We have unique challenges, a diverse population, and a large geographic size. We have 120 partners throughout the state and we are coordinating the largest mobilization of partners in our state´s history”.

The leaders reiterated that their overall goal is that every Californian understands that the Census is not only “safe and secure”, and vital for the future of all the communities. “The goal is to ensure that everyone is invited and able to participate in the 2020 Census”, said Beth Lynk of the Leadership Conference.