“This really doesn’t make sense to me,” says Jenny (name changed by request), a rising senior at a Boston exam high school. “There are so many cannabis shops now all over the place. I’m too young for that, but I don’t want it. I don’t want pot or tobacco like my friends. Juul is convenient, affordable, and a better alternative to what my friends are doing. Why is it now being banned?” Jenny, who asked her name to be withheld […]
Since the shutdown of the Sturgis Michigan Abbot Laboratories plant in February 2022, mothers have been scrambling to find baby formula. That story is widely known. But what is less discussed is how acute the loss of formula has been felt by minority and immigrant women who depend so much on baby formula to go back to work. “My client, Mrs. Wong, began to worry (early on) when the cashier at Stop & Shop told her that she could only […]
“It’s so sad. It shouldn’t be like this. We need formula for our kid, and where is this formula going to come from?” This is a lingering question from mother of two, Capri Isidoro, struggling to breast feed her one-month-old daughter. After giving birth, the hospital gave her baby formula without consulting her on any wish to breastfeed first, a common occurrence among minority moms. The baby formula shortage puts Hispanic and Black women at risk the most. The CDC […]
On March 29, 2022, ABCD—Action for Boston Community Development—received the shocking news that the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Office of Population Affairs, was terminating funding of the anti-poverty organization’s Title X Family Planning program as of March 31, 2022. For more than 50 years, in collaboration with a vital community health center network, ABCD has done an exemplary job of delivering critical health services to more than 30,000 low-income residents and communities of color. Where are our […]
In Carolyn Wong and Ziting Kuang’s report Asian Americans and the Covid-19 Pandemic, a Multi-Lingual Survey in Greater Boston in 2020-21, the impact of the pandemic on English-limited and low-income Asian families are mainly reflected in financial losses, unemployment, and food and housing difficulties. In their survey, the population is focused on Chinese American, Vietnamese American, and South Asian ethnicities living in the neighborhoods of Chinatown, Dorchester, Malden, and Quincy. The survey also pays attention to the percentage of low-income […]
When James started taking a more active role in his mother’s health care needs around six years ago, he came to appreciate something he had not understood before. “I didn’t realize without [a family member’s] help that my mom is actually a survivor,” he said. Born in China, James’ mother emigrated to the United States as a young woman and has lived in the Boston area for over 40 years. She has also dealt with mental health issues since she […]
Chinatown continues to be one of Boston’s more vibrant communities. However, behind that curtain, the residents, workers, and businesses breathe the dirtiest air in Massachusetts. Joan didn’t know that Chinatown had the dirtiest air in Massachusetts when she moved here eight years ago. But when her two twin girls were diagnosed with asthma two years ago, she was shocked. She couldn’t understand why. No one in her own family had asthma and no one smoked at home. Then her children’s […]
According to the CDC’s Omicron tracker, the variant has so far caused infections in 23 states, including Massachusetts. The quick emergence has health officials urging residents yet again to get fully vaccinated.
The emergence of the Omicron variant, a new strain of COVID-19, has the world on edge as health care organizations monitor its spread. The Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution (TAG-VE), gathered on Thanksgiving to assess variant B.1.1.529, otherwise known as Omicron. Omicron, which was first confirmed in South Africa on November 24, has increased its spread throughout the country and others, including Denmark, Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Botswana, Israel, the United Kingdom, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, France, and […]
Last month, following FDA approval, the CDC officially endorsed the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5-11, expanding the eligible population and opening doors for families to become fully vaccinated. After the rise of the Delta variant over the summer, cases found in children surged, resulting in hospitalizations, deaths, and longer-term side effects in some patients, even after they were cleared. Various state-sponsored, pharmacy, and healthcare locations throughout the city have responded to the newly appointed eligibility, opening children’s vaccination […]
