Governments, Advocates Race For Ways To Protect Victims Of Domestic Abuse Amid Stay-At-Home Orders
“It’s almost like a petri dish for violence to increase within families,” says Barbara Paradiso, director of the Center on Domestic Violence at the University of Colorado Denver. In other public health news: the voice behind the hotlines, the environmental impact of the outbreak, a changing world view, how LGBTQ youth are impacted, and more.
The Wall Street Journal:
As Coronavirus Piles Pressure On Families, Domestic Violence Concerns Surge
Authorities and women’s groups are racing to find ways to protect women against domestic abuse as the coronavirus pandemic confines families to their homes. In much of Europe, officials are quickly deploying new programs, as a surge in abuse reports around a region that has been locked down for weeks presages what could be a similar increase in the U.S. In some parts of the U.S., women’s groups say they have already seen an increase in domestic violence calls, as stress, isolation and the financial pressure of lost jobs and income threaten to take a heavy toll on some women and children. (Bisserbe and Lmobardi, 4/5)
ABC News:
Answering The Call: Working A Coronavirus Hotline
In a time of so much uncertainty, no one has all the answers, but COVID-19 hotlines across the country have assembled to try to answer some of the thousands of questions Americans are pondering right now. While hotlines cannot provide clinical advice as a doctor can, the staff can still answer questions regarding novel coronavirus testing, symptoms and prevention. (Krall, 4/6)
The Wall Street Journal:
How Environmental Movement Plans To Leverage The Coronavirus Pandemic
One hopeful development arising from the coronavirus pandemic: Global air quality is improving dramatically as the outbreak sends many countries into lockdown, climate scientists say. The improvement comes as demand for fossil fuels plummeted with flights grounded, factories and offices closed and people confined to their homes. (McFarlane, 4/6)
The Wall Street Journal:
Coronavirus Lockdowns Clear The Air, But The Green Effect Could Be Fleeting
The Los Angeles smog has lifted, water in Venice’s canals has cleared and China’s factory emissions have fallen so dramatically the change can be seen from space. International travel restrictions and city lockdowns designed to slow the spread of coronavirus have led to swift and sometimes surprising environmental benefits. The long-term implications are unclear but many climate scientists now expect greenhouse gas emissions to fall for the first time since the financial crisis more than a decade ago, when they dropped by 7%. (Condie, 4/5)
The Associated Press:
After Virus, How Will Americans' View Of The World Change?
A thick thread of the American experience has always been to hold the rest of the world at arm’s length, whether in economics, technology or cultural exchange. The truth is, this nation has always been a bit of an island, a place where multilingualism, or even holding a passport, is less common than in many other lands. Now, the notion of a virus that came from a distant “elsewhere” stands to carve deeper grooves into that landscape. (Anthony, 4/6)
The New York Times:
Periods Don’t Stop For Pandemics, So She Brings Pads To Women In Need
Dana Marlowe was preparing her family’s home for quarantine, stocking up on food and school supplies, when she received an unexpected phone call: Would she trade a box of tampons for 36 homemade matzo balls? Her friend making the request was desperate. She had scoured all the pharmacies in her neighborhood for tampons and pads, but the shelves were picked clean. For Marlowe, who runs the nonprofit I Support the Girls, which collects donations of feminine hygiene products and bras for shelters, prisons and people in need, the plea set off alarm bells. (Goldberg, 4/5)
NBC News:
Coronavirus Pandemic A Perfect Storm For LGBTQ Homeless Youth
Finding a secure place to live has not been easy for Nez Marquez, 23, who has experienced homelessness for the past five years. Born in Mexico and raised in New York, he left home at 18 because his family did not accept his gender identity and sexual orientation, he said. Marquez is staying at Sylvia's Place, an emergency shelter for LGBTQ young adults on the bottom floor of a Manhattan church. (Kuhr, 4/5)
NBC News:
'Awful And Beautiful': Saying Goodbye To Coronavirus Victims Without A Funeral
Lorena Borjas dedicated her life to helping others as an activist for the transgender community in New York City, bailing people out of jail, fighting against transphobia and championing the rights of human trafficking victims. But when she died this week from COVID-19, the people who loved her the most could not come together to mourn her. (Lozano, 4/5)
Boston Globe:
A Scramble To Continue Care For People With Addiction Amid Deep Fears For The Most Vulnerable
Such encounters, now permitted under regulations newly loosened for the coronavirus crisis, have become routine for Taylor, as the pandemic transforms addiction care in ways never seen before. In a matter of days — in some cases literally overnight — services for people with addiction in Massachusetts have morphed from office visits to phone calls, from meeting rooms to laptops, from drop-in centers to street outreach. (Freyer, 4/3)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Farmworkers At Risk For Coronavirus Also Don't Have Access To Doctors
While picking strawberries in Florida the past few weeks, migrant worker Angelica Martinez often crouched only 3 feet away from her co-workers, shuffling along the narrow rows of plants. That’s half the minimum distance experts say people should keep from one another to avoid catching or passing on the coronavirus. But on the farm, Martinez said, the virus gripping the nation did not prompt improvements in basic worker protection. No one trained them to fight the virus’ spread, she said, and her employer never offered health insurance or paid sick leave. (Perez, 4/5)
Kaiser Health News:
‘Staying Away From Grandma’ Isn’t An Option In Multigenerational Homes
The Walker family never thought having an age range of 3 to 96 under the same roof would be risky. That was before the coronavirus pandemic. Wilma Walker’s now nonagenarian mom moved into her daughter and son-in-law’s home about 15 years ago. Their party of three turned into a household of six when the Walkers’ now 30-year-old daughter, Andre’a Walker-Nimrod, moved back in with her young son and a daughter on the way. (Anthony, 4/6)
The New York Times:
The Coronavirus Inflicts Its Own Kind Of Terror
The coronavirus has created its own form of terror. It has upended daily life, paralyzed the economy and divided people one from another. It has engendered fear of the stranger, of the unknown and unseen. It has emptied streets, restaurants and cafes. It has instilled a nearly universal agoraphobia. It has stopped air travel and closed borders. It has sown death in the thousands and filled hospitals with wartime surges, turning them into triage wards. People gird for the grocery store in mask and gloves, as if they were going into battle. (Erlanger, 4/6)
The New York Times:
Coronavirus Scammers: Another Thing To Fear
The white banner with images of red crosses had been hastily erected in front of two pop-up tents at a convenience store parking lot in central Louisville, Ky. “Covid-19 testing here,” it read. A clutch of workers in white hazmat suits swabbed the mouths of drivers, who had each forked over $240 to learn whether they had been infected with the coronavirus. “I have managed hospitals for years,” a man in charge told journalists and skeptical community activists at the scene on Wednesday. “We are doing things the right way.” (LaFraniere and Hamby, 4/5)
