December 11, 2020
Across more than 200 immigration detention centers in the United States, tens of thousands of adults and children are experiencing heightened risk of COVID-19 infection and outbreak. Overcrowding and subpar hygiene and medical care make infectious disease outbreaks in these facilities common.
Two Cornell researchers are part of a multi-institution team arguing that the solution is the safe release of detainees into their communities.
“The kind of prolonged immigration detention that is the default in the United States – and which has only increased during the past four years – has long been at odds with fundamental rights and public health,” said Ian Kysel, visiting assistant clinical professor at Cornell Law School and co-author of the report. “But the mass detention of immigrants during this pandemic is even more shockingly disproportionate because it puts the entire community – especially detained immigrants and detention facility staff – at much
Rice University
Mel Xiao, a Rice University senior who helps investigate and adjudicate COVID-19 rule violations by other students, doesn’t mind if she’s viewed by her peers as “big brother” on campus.
Xiao is one of 11 students at Rice who served as a judge on the COVID Community Court, or CCC, a student-led judiciary that looks into reports of students neglecting to wear masks or socially distance, or who are hosting visitors in their dorm rooms, which are violations of the university’s Culture of Care Agreement for the 2020-21 academic year. A three-judge panel hears and investigates each low-level COVID-19-related violation and doles out “educational” punishments, such as writing an apology letter or hanging up posters that promote public health measures in their dorm, said Emily Garza, director of student judicial programs at Rice.
When it comes to making COVID-19 pandemic precautions stick, some people seem to prefer a violent shove to a gentle nudge. The day North Carolina added
Here s how the coronavirus vaccine will get to New York
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A nurse prepares a shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Guy s Hospital in London, Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2020, as the U.K. health authorities rolled out a national mass vaccination program. Distribution of the Pfizer vaccine to New York is expected as soon as this weekend. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, Pool)Frank Augstein/AP
WASHINGTON The U.S. Food and Drug Administration could authorize Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for distribution as soon as this week, kicking off the much-anticipated and highly complex process of vaccinating Americans against the devastating coronavirus.