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Covid-19 may be compuounded by both Anti-Blackness and preceding disasters

Roberto E. Barrios

In New Orleans, African American communities were not only hit hard by Katrina's floods, but also by violent policing during the catastrophe and a disaster "recovery" effort that was fundamentally Anti-Black (closing of publich housing and the privatization of schools and health care). Recovery efforts were not organized along ideals of racial justice that would have addressed gaps in educational and health care resources. Instead, they were imagined along neoliberal principles that systematically excluded the city's Black population. I am interested in looking into how the Anti-Blackness of Katrina "recovery" set the stage for the virulent way COVID 19 is affecting New Orleans' African American communities.

In the US Virgin Islands, Hurricanes Maria and Irma decimated what were already decrepit public school and public health systems. Public schools and hospitals had not been property repaired and remained under-supported as of early March 2020. In places like the Island of St. Croix, residents reported the hospital having only one physicial on staff, and indicated fear of misdiagnosis and prolonged waiting times kept them from seeking health care there. The clientelle of the public health system is predominantly Afro and Hispanic Caribbean. Meanwhile, US "mainlanders" (who are predominantly white) are reported to seek their healthcare off island, something only those with ample financial resources can do. Infection rates and fatality rates for the USVI seem rather low from official reports, but it is important to find out if this is because testing itself is not readily avialable in the territory.

Disproportionate and violent policing of racial/ethnic minorities has continued and evloved.

Roberto E. Barrios

Media coverage from hard-hit cities suggests there is a disproportionate number of arrests and citations related to enforcement of social distancing among racial minorities.

Also, police response seems to have followed very different patterns in the case of "re-open" protests and anti-police brutality protests.

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Alexi Martin

The data/reports they have collected to support their approach to help disaster include annual reports and newsletters that define the issues they are currently focusing on: what it includes, how one person can help. Their website also includes resources that describe the issue they are tackling their position and what is going on to prevent/cure the problem. Their website has experts, a university that specializes on 'empowering global communities' in order to be able to recoginze their lack of human rights. They also have a blog and first hand video accounts.

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Alexi Martin

Three ways the article is supported is through first hand accounts of diverse residents that have lived in New Orleans- their opinions of how the rebuild process is progressing as well as the lack of a connection between need and aid from the government. The interviews also provide an emotional perspective into the lives of those who experienced the disaster. The article includes direct quotes from federal disaster efforts such as FEMA and HOME, who provided statistics into how many people received trailer homes and money to rebuild their lives. Another way this article was supported was using records of mail, who had lived in New Orleans before the hurricane and after. This evidence provides an insight into how many people were actually homeless because they had no way of getting federal aid.

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Alexi Martin
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The system was built to serve those who cannot afford mental health care and to those who are not educated on mental health disorders. This system was built was reduce problems such as: senseless violence, broken families, lost productivity, and costly physical illness from mental disorders- the app can help these issues over time. To ultimately build healthier communities, workplaces, homes, personal relationships, preventing these in future generations.

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Alexi Martin

The methods/data used to produce the arguments in the report include general statements about mental health disorders followed by stats and explanations that support the stat and/or deny the increase of mental health illness (those that have been reported). The paper is chunked into portions that explain an illness, a coping mechanism and factors that produce higher rates of mental illness.

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Alexi Martin

"She saw the illness of this group as a "struggle for power" and material resources related to the disaster."

"According to one biochemist, many of the cleanup workers recieved 6-8 times the lethal dose of radiation." "They are alive," he told me.
"They know they didn't die, but they don't know how they survived."

"Citizens, have come to depend on obtainable technologies and legal procedures to gain political regongition and admission to some form of welfare inclusion."

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Alexi Martin

The stakeholders that are described/portrayed in the film was the fate of Japan, the nuclear disasters in th past that shaked Japan, preventing the same thing from happening. The kinds of decisions they had to grapple with before the aftermath is the powerfailure, the lack of generators, and the affect the water had on the plant, and the future of the fuel rods. During the event they had to figure out how to stop the meltdown, how to restore power to the plant, how to help the engineers who had no choice but to be stuck inside, how to save Japan from nuclear fallout,etc. The aftermath was how to get the plant up and running again, the future of nuclear power in Japan, how to clean up and prevent further contamination of the land surrounding the plant. Also the health,safety and preperation of further nuclear power plant endeavors.

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Alexi Martin

" The story does what no theorem can quite do. It may not be  'like the real life' in the superficial sense; but it sets before us an image of what reality may well be like in some central region."

" in many cases, the actors were still engaged in the story, vs a quest for a cure - in imagining alternative outcomes, evaluating the potential meanings of the past and seeking treatments"

"The diverse accounts of the illness in these narratives represnet attentative plots, a telling of the story in different ways each implying a different story of efficacy and a possiblity of an alternative ending of the story."

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Alexi Martin

The authors are Paul Farmer, Bruce Nuzeye, Sara Stulac and Salmaan Keshorjee. Farmer is a doctor and medical anthrapologist and has a human rights based approach to global healthcare. Nizeye is the chief of infrastructure for PIH in Rawanda. Stulac is an associate physician in the division of global health equity. Salmaan researches global health and social medicine at Harvard. They are all collectively professionally equipted in respect to emergency response because they all are familiar with healthcare from their fields.