News & Insights

Across the U.S., an estimated 6.1 million Americans are denied the right to vote due to disenfranchisement laws. As the 2020 General Election approaches, one of the issues getting attention is the restoration of voting rights to people convicted of felonies. Research shows that restoration of civil rights helps support a transition back into the community and that civic participation is linked to lower recidivism rates among those previously incarcerated. While some states are following a recent trend to restore voting rights, others are continuing efforts to disenfranchise voters.   

In this Q&A, Sarah Wetter, staff attorney at the Network’s Western Region Office, discusses some of the key elements in the chapter she co-authored, U.S. Withdrawal From the World Health Organization: Unconstitutional and Unhealthy, for the Report.

In this Q&A, the Network’s Mathew Swinburne discusses some of the key elements in the chapter he authored for the recently released report, Assessing Legal Responses to COVID-19, in which he examines how policies are being changed and leveraged to help address the devastating food insecurity associated with the pandemic.

Although there has been some attention to the mental health impacts of student loan debt, little attention has been directed towards the harm experienced by those with student loan debt who have been defrauded by for-profit colleges. These individuals have massive debt after pursuing an education that does not afford any of the opportunities typically associated with higher education. The harm they experience is not merely economic—it’s a social harm with deeply damaging impacts on mental health.

Millions of Americans are at risk of losing their homes in the wake of the pandemic and renters are particularly vulnerable as they are less likely to have the resources to weather financial losses. On September 1, 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued an unprecedented Agency Order to temporarily halt residential evictions until December 31, 2020. While on its face, the Order is a “win” for public health, legal challenges on statutory and constitutional grounds are almost certain, and implementation will likely present difficulties.

The COVID-19 pandemic affects not only people’s physical but also mental health. Adolescents are at a particularly high risk of experiencing negative mental health effects from the pandemic and related social distancing measures. Impacts are likely to have lasting effects on the nation’s youth for years to come. Taking steps to implement and maintain mental health resources now may be the key to diminishing negative mental health outcomes.

The publication functions as a time capsule documenting the last 29 weeks of COVID in the US, and a tactical manual with tips and tools for public health data-sharing during the pandemic.

The Network is pleased to welcome new National Advisory Board member Adrian E. Dominguez, MS, Director of Informatics and Epidemiology, at the Urban Indian Health Institute, a division of the Seattle Indian Health Board that works with urban American Indian/American Native communities throughout the United States.

In Assessing Legal Responses to COVID-19, 50 top national experts review the U.S. policy response to the crisis. Their research details the widespread failure of the country’s leadership in planning and executing a cohesive, national response, and how the crisis exposed weaknesses in the nation’s health care and public health systems.

By temperament, I’m generally an aggressive interpreter of state public health codes. In normal times, I argue for an expansive interpretation of health officers’ authority to protect the public’s health. But these are not normal times. A non-trivial portion of the public believes the coronavirus is a hoax and mask-wearing mandates are tyrannical. One result of this resistance is that public health officials have been attacked and threatened for issuing or enforcing COVID-19 mask-wearing or stay-at-home orders. Health officers cannot ignore the potential threats to their personal safety. Depending on the local political environment, some caution is called for—caution, not acquiescence.

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased food insecurity across the country and Native American communities are acutely impacted because of poverty and loss of traditional food systems and practices (hunting, gathering, and cultivating culturally relevant and locally available foods). The scope of Native American food insecurity prior to COVID-19, while difficult to quantify, is an important baseline for understanding the challenge facing this community, the resources that are needed and whether current governmental programs are adequately meeting those needs.

The COVID-19 pandemic has further exposed the structural inequalities that Black Americans experience in this country. Black people are more likely to have pre-existing conditions that lead to COVID-19 susceptibility and are more likely to be uninsured or have inadequate insurance coverage compared to white people. These structural inequalities, combined with incidences of medical racism, including reports of Black people being turned away from hospitals, have contributed to the shockingly high rates at which Black people have died from COVID-19.