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The Abstract
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> By Stephanie DiCapua Getman, Arnold Ventures
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Delving into hobbies is helping a lot of people through this pandemic (if they have the time and resources.) I’ve picked my guitar back up again and am trying to read something not on a screen when possible. I have friends who are forming Zoom book chats, and some of my colleagues have launched a book club, starting with Rebecca Solnit’s “A Paradise Built in Hell.” (Listen to a discussion with the author.) Heavy reading, yes, but her exploration of the aftermath of disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and 9/11 argues that crisis can form more resilient communities built on solidarity and generosity. I know I saw that sentiment firsthand when Houstonians mobilized to help New Orleans residents fleeing Katrina, and when #HoustonStrong became a rallying cry amid the deluge of Hurricane Harvey. Communities are a critical part of disaster response, and so much of the work being done in response to this pandemic is focused on strengthening them through policies that maximize opportunity and minimize injustice. While reviews within the book club are split on Solnit’s take, let’s hope that what’s written about this pandemic reveals that we enacted concrete reforms to help communities better weather the next crisis.
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The Pharmacist Will See You Now
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Safe. More affordable. Easier to access. A new study in JAMA Network Open finds major benefits for women when pharmacists are allowed to prescribe contraception. Lead study author Dr. Maria Rodriguez of Oregon Health & Science University found that pharmacists can reach younger patients, those without a degree, and uninsured patients and provide women with longer prescriptions for hormonal birth control — just as safely as traditional doctor prescriptions.
Why it matters: More than 19 million women of reproductive age in the U.S. live in contraceptive deserts, says Power to Decide, and that lack of options can lead to a cycle of disadvantage. Katy Bacon, our Director of Contraceptive Choice and Access, explains: “If someone is uninsured and living in a contraceptive desert, they might be more likely to have a pharmacy nearby than a doctor.” Pharmacies also have longer hours and don’t require appointments. As one woman in the study reported: “I don’t have health insurance, and this is a lot cheaper than going to a clinic. Doctor’s visit is $300 out of pocket, pharmacist filling prescriptions is $35.”
Bottom line: There is bipartisan support for the “common-sense” policy of allowing birth control access at pharmacies, which can reach women who can’t afford to go to a clinic or are at risk of having a lapse in their birth control. Eleven states including Oregon (the first), California, Maryland, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia have signed on. Says pharmacist Sally Rafie, who prescribes to patients in San Diego: “One day, I would like people to go to the pharmacy for their birth control like they go to the pharmacy for their flu shots.”
Read the story >
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The U.S. has the highest child incarceration rate in the world: More than 800,000 are arrested each year and more than 40,000 are removed from their homes. This over-reliance on incarcerating youth is harmful, especially during a pandemic. It severs them from positive community supports and impedes their development.
We spoke with National Juvenile Defender Center Executive Director Mary Ann Scali and Staff Attorney Sherika Shnider about the challenges children face in America's court system and what needs to be done to make the system more fair and communities safer. “Courts are seeing that young people don’t need to be held in cages, and that they thrive when they’re allowed to stay in their own communities. That gives all of us hope for what could come out of this crisis,” says Scali.
Read the story >
Related: More than 9,000 families in San Diego will have more than $40 million in old juvenile fees discharged, after a unanimous vote by the County Board of Supervisors, following the footsteps of neighboring Riverside County ($4.1 million) and Stanislaus County ($6.9 million).
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We continue our theme from last week of efforts to undermine the will of voters in the midst of a pandemic, this time in Maine. The Republican Party there is busy gathering signatures to kill ranked choice voting (RCV) for the presidential election. Since 2014, voters in Maine have expressed support for RCV and fought back multiple attempts to dismantle it. Sam Mar, our Vice President, breaks down the history here.
Follow him on Twitter (which is where this great timeline was conceived) for more on democracy and voting.
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This New Yorker piece questioning whether the pandemic will cause some soul-searching on mass incarceration. It leads with the story of a Louisiana mother of 12 who was jailed just as the outbreak began after being pulled over on a traffic violation. “For decades, community groups have pointed out the social costs of mass incarceration: its failure to address the root causes of addiction and violence; its steep fiscal price tag; its deepening of racial inequalities. The coronavirus pandemic has exposed another danger of the system: its public-health risks.”
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This deep look from Atavist at the harm reduction movement, told through Joy Fishman’s personal journey from tough love adherent to harm reduction advocate after losing her son to an overdose and later learning her husband had been an inventor of naloxone.
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The Washington Post writing about the final days of a prisoner with COVID-19. “For 22 years, Charles Hobbs tried to overcome the mistakes he made in 1997. But the stigma of a sex offense followed him all his life. Thanks to punitive laws, dizzying registration requirements and an indifferent corrections staff, his mistake would ultimately lead to his death.”
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The 99% Invisible podcast, which tackles the issue of homelessness amid COVID-19 in the episode “Unsheltered in Place.” “For unhoused persons, COVID-19 can feel like one additional thing to be worried about on top of poverty and daily survival, which are always more front-of-mind than the possibility of infection.” It includes emotional interviews with people on the front lines of the crisis and how well communities are handling (or not) vulnerable populations.
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Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics
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By Stuart Buck, Arnold Ventures Vice President of Research
“Blood thinners show promise for boosting the survival chances of the sickest covid patients,” reads a Washington Post headline from May 2020. The basis for this claim was a May 2020 article in which the researchers had analyzed data on 2,773 COVID patients at the Mount Sinai Health System in New York City. The headline claim is that among patients who were on ventilators, mortality was 62.7% for patients with no anti-coagulation drugs but a mere 29.1% for those given anti-coagulants. Sounds like a winner, right?
But there’s a hitch: The overall mortality rate for the two groups was basically equal at 22.8% and 22.5% respectively. How then was it possible to find a mortality benefit for the folks put on ventilators?
Here’s how: Patients who got anti-coagulants were far more likely to be put on a ventilator in the first place (29.8% versus 8.1%)!
Now, there is no data in the study on why doctors chose anti-coagulants for some patients but not others — we don’t know whether the anti-coagulants caused more people to be put on ventilators in the first place, or whether doctors chose to give additional medicines to the healthiest people on ventilators whereas others died too quickly. Either way, there is no basis for saying that anti-coagulants cause better survival.
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Comedian Jo Firestone is helping seniors combat their isolation with an online comedy class. Pull up a chair.
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This 10-year-old has sent art kits to more than 1,500 children in homeless shelters and foster care homes to cheer them up amid the pandemic.
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The New York Times asked 14 writers to talk about how they are finding joy in these turbulent times. (I love the digital presentation on this one.)
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A formerly incarcerated father and his teenage daughter have developed an app that makes it easy (and free) for loved ones to stay in touch with relatives in prison.
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NASA’s powerful new space telescope will be named after Nancy Grace Roman, known as the Mother of Hubble. “I was told, from the beginning, that women could not be scientists.” Read her story.
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Have an evidence-based week,
– Stephanie
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Stephanie DiCapua Getman develops and executes Arnold Ventures' digital communications strategy with a focus on multimedia storytelling and audience engagement and oversees daily editorial operations and design.
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