FXB Center for Health & Human Rights

January 11, 2022January 11, 2022

FXB Health and Human Rights Fellow Submits Testimony in Support of Rent Control

Today, FXB Health and Human Rights Fellow Dr. Jourdyn Lawrence submitted written testimony in support of Massachusetts Legislature bills H.1378/S.886 (An Act Enabling Local Options for Tenant Protections) and H.1440/S.889 (An Act Relative to the Stabilization of Rents and Evictions in Towns and Cities Facing Distress in the Housing Market). The bills aim to establish rent control and increase tenant protections. Lawrence, a social epidemiologist, shared recent research and her…

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December 29, 2021December 29, 2021

FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University Joins Project N95 and Boston University To Distribute 20,000 Masks to Massachusetts Community Groups Amid Surging COVID-19 Cases

In response to surging COVID-19 cases in Massachusetts, the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights joined national non-profit Project N95 and the Boston University School of Public Health to distribute 20,000 protective masks to high-need areas in the state. The community sites receiving the masks include: La Colaborativa of Chelsea, People Incorporated in Fall River, YWCA Southeastern MA – New Bedford, YMCA Southcoast Swansea – Fall River, SEIU509 and…

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December 7, 2021December 7, 2021

New Article Highlights Global Injustices Against Migrant Children

In a new article published in partnership with the University of Oxford, the FXB Center’s Director of Research Prof. Jaqueline Bhabha and FXB Health and Human Rights Fellow Dr. Vasileia Digidiki draw attention to global injustices against the best interests of migrant children. In their original post, the co-authors state: In today’s world, “migration” and “global justice” rarely go hand in hand. Though the COVID 19 pandemic temporarily equalized access…

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November 30, 2021December 7, 2021

New Study Examines Variation in COVID-19 Mortality in the US by Race and Ethnicity and Educational Attainment

In a recently released study in JAMA Network Open, Dr. Mary T. Bassett and Dr. Justin Feldman examine “Variation in COVID-19 Mortality in the US by Race and Ethnicity and Educational Attainment.” In the cross-sectional study of 219.1 million adults aged 25 years or older, most racial and ethnic minority populations had higher age-adjusted mortality rates than non-Hispanic White populations, including when comparing within levels of educational attainment. If all…

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November 29, 2021November 29, 2021

FXB Health and Human Rights Fellow Joins Coalition to End Racism in Clinical Algorithms

Dr. Marie Plaisime is among 12 members of the newly-formed Coalition to End Racism in Clinical Algorithms. Read the original press release from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene: The Health Department today announced the formation of the Coalition to End Racism in Clinical Algorithms (CERCA). Flowing from the Board of Health’s landmark resolution declaring racism a public health crisis, CERCA was formed to end the inclusion of…

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November 16, 2021November 19, 2021

FXB Center Doctoral Student Cohort Member Submits Testimony in Support of Ending Solitary Confinement

Photo of Jasmine Graves and Massachusetts State House

Today, FXB Center for Health and Human Rights doctoral cohort member Jasmine D. Graves submitted written testimony in support of Massachusetts Legislature bills S.1578 and H.2504, which would provide criminal justice reform protections to all prisoners in segregated confinement in Massachusetts. Graves, a public health researcher and social impact strategist, shared her expertise and research on harms of segregated and restrictive housing in correctional settings. Read her submitted testimony: Dear…

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November 3, 2021November 3, 2021

FXB Center Joins Public Health & Human Rights for Mass and Cass Coalition; Calls on Boston Mayor Elect to Implement Health-Centered Approach

Graphic containing text of the six policy recommendations from the coalition

Today, as part of the new Public Health & Human Rights for Mass and Cass Coalition, the FXB Center called on Boston Mayor-Elect Michelle Wu to implement a health-centered approach to the intersecting crises at Melnea Cass Boulevard and Massachusetts Avenue. The area, more commonly known as “Mass. and Cass,” is home to unhoused individuals in need of public health supports and housing. The coalition recommends a six-point plan: Protect…

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October 26, 2021October 26, 2021

FXB Center Health and Human Rights Fellow Submits Testimony to Boston City Council

Today, FXB Health and Human Rights Fellow Dr. Jourdyn Lawrence submitted written testimony to the Boston City Council Committee on Civil Rights in support of Docket #0734: Order for a Hearing Regarding Reparations and Their Impact on the Civil Rights of Black Bostonians. In her testimony, Dr. Lawrence shared her expertise and research on reparations and racial inequities. Read her submitted testimony: Dear Members of the Boston City Council Committee…

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October 25, 2021October 25, 2021

FXB Center Health and Human Rights Fellow Testifies Before Massachusetts Racial Inequities in Maternal Health Commission

Today, FXB Health and Human Rights Fellow Dr. Brittney Butler testified before the Massachusetts Legislature’s Racial Inequities in Maternal Health Commission. The hearing was a listening session on maternal health efforts and experiences in the Metro West and Central Massachusetts regions. In her testimony, Dr. Butler shared her expertise and research on maternal mortality and morbidity. Read her remarks as prepared for delivery: Dear Members of the Racial Inequities in Maternal…

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September 29, 2021October 21, 2021

FXB Center Director to Serve As New York State Health Commissioner; Dr. Natalia Linos Named Acting Director

Headshots of Dr. Mary T. Bassett and Dr. Natalia Linos

Today, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul appointed FXB Center for Health and Human Rights Director Dr. Mary T. Bassett as Commissioner of the New York State Department of Health. Dr. Bassett joined the FXB Center in 2018, following four years of service as New York City’s health commissioner. During her time at the FXB Center, Dr. Bassett strengthened the Center’s focus on structural racism both domestically and abroad, including…

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September 21, 2021September 29, 2021

FXB Center Announces New Initiative For Racial Justice

The FXB Center today announced a new fellowship program for racial justice in partnership with the JPB Foundation, featuring five new fellows with diverse backgrounds in health and human rights. The announcement came during the virtual symposium “Anti-Racism in Public Health Policies, Practice and Research,” hosted by the FXB Center to launch its new racial justice initiative, which includes research and a series of conversations on racism as a determinant…

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September 10, 2021September 10, 2021

FXB Center Launches New Video Series Featuring Leading Health and Human Rights Experts

A new online video series from the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University highlights eight leading experts whose work and research focuses on a multitude of structural and societal factors that affect health outcomes. “The Intersection” series features interviews with these experts on how the COVID-19 pandemic has realigned health and human rights priorities and focuses on important policies to advance in the next year. “The…

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July 29, 2021July 30, 2021

FXB Center Welcomes New Fellows and Staff, Announces Promotions

Coffee mug and employee ID card on desk. Employee ID card reads "welcome aboard:

The FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard is pleased to announce several new hires and promotions. Learn more about our new fellows and staff members: Dr. Brittney N. Butler (she/her) is a social epidemiologist whose primary research seeks document and combat anti-Black racism as a fundamental cause of racial disparities in maternal morbidity and mortality for Black women. Dr. Butler holds a dual academic appointment as an…

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June 18, 2021

Commentary: It’s Time For Boston To Pay Reparations

In recognition of Juneteenth, FXB Center Research Associate Matlin Gilman and FXB Center Director Dr. Mary T. Bassett co-authored an opinion piece highlighting the need for the City of Boston to provide reparations to Black Boston residents. In a commentary published today in Cognoscenti, the authors write: “As we celebrate, we also commit ourselves to an ongoing racial reckoning, a reckoning that must include reparations for nearly 250 years of…

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May 12, 2021July 29, 2021

Harvard Chan Perspectives: Why a national ban on menthol cigarettes is the right choice

Following the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) recent announcement that it will take steps to ban menthol cigarettes, FXB Center Director Dr. Mary T. Bassett was interviewed for a Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health article. In the article, Bassett — a former smoker herself — describes how the tobacco industry intentionally marketed menthol cigarettes to the Black community, resulting in 45,000 deaths a year. Bassett shared her…

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April 20, 2021July 29, 2021

Statement from FXB Center Director Dr. Mary T. Bassett About Derek Chauvin Verdict

BOSTON, MA – In response to former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin being found guilty of murdering George Floyd, FXB Center Director Dr. Mary T. Bassett issued the following statement: “Today’s verdict is an important step for individual accountability and justice. But we are not going to end police violence in court rooms, case by case. The problem of police violence is systemic and radical change to our policies and…

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April 12, 2021July 29, 2021

Press Release: New Report Examines Challenges of Migrants In West And Central Africa; Identifies Solutions To Protect Migrants

BOSTON, MA – The François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University (FXB Center) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) today released “See Migration Like Water: An Analysis of IOM Flow Monitoring Survey Data on Migration Flows in West and Central Africa,” a detailed analysis of migration flows and migrant vulnerability on routes within and from West and Central Africa. The West and Central Africa region…

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April 7, 2021April 20, 2021

FXB Center Statement on International Roma Day U.S. House and Senate Resolutions

Graphic recognizing the 50th anniversary for the World Roma Congress

BOSTON, MA – On March 18, 2021, resolutions to celebrate the heritage of Romani Americans were introduced in the House and Senate. The Roma Program at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights welcomes this initiative, which represents a symbol of hope in the recognition of the history, realities, and rights of often marginalized Romani Americans and other Roma people across the world. We are grateful for the tremendous efforts of…

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January 8, 2021January 8, 2021

ACLU: 50 Years Into the War on Drugs, Biden-Harris Can Fix the Harm It Created

Image with following text "The need for an equitable and structural response to the overdose crisis is more urgent and critical than ever"

Note: This blog first appeared on the ACLU website on January 6, 2021. The blog mentions From the War on Drugs to Harm Reduction: Imagining A Just Overdose Crisis Response, a new report from the FXB Center, Open Society Foundations and Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. By Udi Ofer, Director, Justice Division, ACLU An earlier version of this blog appeared in The Hill. This year marks 50 years since President Richard…

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December 16, 2020January 8, 2021

Press Release: National Public Health Experts Urge Biden-Harris Transition Team to End War on Drugs and Lead Coordinated Public Health Response to the Opioid Overdose Crisis

The François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University today urged the Biden-Harris transition team to implement drug policy reforms to curb overdose deaths and address long-standing harms stemming from the multigenerational “War on Drugs” campaign. In collaboration with the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and Open Society Foundations, the FXB Center sent the Biden-Harris transition team a new report, titled From the War on Drugs to…

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December 10, 2020

Let’s Recover Better By Standing for Human Rights

Human Rights Day is an opportunity to reaffirm the importance of human rights in re-building the world we want, the need for global solidarity as well as our interconnectedness and shared humanity. Commemorated annually by the United Nations, this year’s Human Rights Day theme relates to the COVID-19 pandemic and focuses on the need to build back better by ensuring human rights are central to recovery efforts, tackling entrenched, systematic…

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November 30, 2020

New Study on Romani American Experience Shines Light on Persistent Inequities and Discrimination

The François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University today released a new study that draws attention to the inequities the Roma diaspora faces in the United States. Published in collaboration with the advocacy nonprofit Voice of Roma, the study, titled Romani Realities in the United States: Breaking the Silence, Challenging the Stereotypes, includes insight from 363 questionnaires with Romani Americans, touching on socioeconomic conditions, stigma, discrimination,…

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November 20, 2020

New Essay Draws Important Parallels Between Public Health and Atrocity Prevention, Systems Designed to Protect From Harm

Cover of Politorbis magazine, #68, issue on Preventing Atrocities

FXB Center for Health and Human Rights Senior Fellow and Harvard T.H. Chan Professor Jennifer Leaning recently compared approaches to prevention and early warning in public health to those for mass atrocity. Her essay, “Prevention in Public Health and Atrocity: A Comparative Approach to Early Warning for Early Action,” appears in the latest issue of Politorbis, an official publication of the Swiss Foreign Ministry. As Leaning posits, “An understanding of…

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October 15, 2020January 7, 2021

At the Intersection of Human Migration and Climate Change: New Article Puts Out Call to Action

Image of person holding sign that reads, "There is no Planet B"

In a new article published in Current Environmental Health Reports this week, faculty and fellows from the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University examine the complexities at the intersection of human migration and climate change. As powerfully argued by Drs. Satchit Balsari, Caleb Dresser and Jennifer Leaning in “Climate Change, Migration and Civil Strife,” migration must be anticipated as a certainty, and thereby planned for and supported.…

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October 6, 2020

Op-Ed: It Is Time Reparations Are Paid for Roma Slavery

Dr. Margareta Matache, director of the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights’ Roma Program, makes the case for justice, reparations and anti-racist policies following 500 years of enslavement and economic exploitation of the Romani people. Read her full op-ed in Al Jazeera.

September 11, 2020

New Article – Every Body Counts: Measuring Mortality From the COVID-19 Pandemic

A new article, published today in the Annals of Internal Medicine, examines how relying solely on death certificate data can result in an underestimate of COVID-19 mortality rates, making it difficult to assess the true toll of the pandemic. The article’s authors, FXB Center Fellow Mathew Kiang, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Professors Rafael Irizarry and Caroline Buckee, and FXB Center Fellow Dr. Satchit Balsari, propose ways to…

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September 3, 2020September 3, 2020

Study Finds Rate of COVID-19 in Massachusetts Jails and Prisons Is Three Times the General Rate in the State

A recent epidemiological study finds that the rate of COVID-19 for incarcerated individuals in Massachusetts is almost three times that of the state’s general population and five times that of the U.S. general population. As shown in Figure B (caption below), the study also finds that higher rates of decarceration are linked to lower rates of COVID-19. Dr. Monik C. Jiménez, Tori L. Cowger, Dr. Lisa E. Simon, Maya Behn,…

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August 19, 2020

FXB Center Remembers Elaine Wolfensohn

The FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University is sad to announce the passing of Elaine Wolfensohn, who represented her husband Jim Wolfensohn on the FXB Center’s Advisory Committee. For over forty years, Mrs. Wolfensohn was involved in the field of education and arts education while raising her family. Her work in Australia and the United States included teaching in private schools, creating teen tutoring programs in…

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August 10, 2020

Study Finds CDC Population Weighting Distorts Racial/Ethnic Inequities in U.S. COVID-19 Deaths

Table. Percentage Distribution by Race/Ethnicity for COVID-19 Deaths, CDC-NCHS–Weighted Population, and US Census Population and Absolute and Relative Differences Using Data as of May 13, 2020 more detail on content in text

A new research letter in JAMA Network Open argues that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) underestimates the excess burden of COVID-19 deaths among Black, Latinx, and Asian communities by comparing the percentage of U.S. COVID-19 deaths by race/ethnicity with a weighted distribution of U.S. racial/ethnic populations rather than with corresponding U.S. Census data—a distortion that has the potential to affect resource allocation. FXB Center for Health…

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June 30, 2020June 30, 2020

Mental Health and COVID-19 Focus of Health and Human Rights Journal’s Largest Issue

The June issue of the Health and Human Rights Journal (HHRJ) is especially timely with a special section on mental health and human rights. It was published shortly after the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres urged the international community to do much more to protect all those facing mounting mental health pressures as a result of COVID-19, and the World Health Organization published guidelines for communities to support people experiencing mental distress.…

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June 24, 2020June 23, 2020

New Study Calls Attention to Inequities in Police Violence in U.S. Metropolitan Areas

An article, authored by FXB Center Doctoral Student Cohort Members Gabriel L. Schwartz and Jaquelyn L. Jahn, reveals the stark inequities in fatal police violence between Black and White populations in U.S. metropolitan areas. The article, published in PLOS ONE, estimates rates of fatal police violence for every metropolitan area in the country, as well as racial inequities in those rates. The authors analyzed the most recent, complete data—from 2013…

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June 23, 2020June 23, 2020

COVID-19 Health Justice Advisory Committee Joint Statement Issues Juneteenth Statement

The following statement was issued by the Poor People’s Campaign COVID-19 Health Justice Advisory Committee on June 19, 2020. FXB Center Director Dr. Mary T. Bassett, Executive Director Natalia Linos and Director of Communications Veronica Lewin serve on the committee. Learn more about the committee here. Watch committee members read the statement here. “The United States is facing an important moment in its history. We have entered the sixth month…

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June 16, 2020August 21, 2020

Working Paper, The Unequal Toll of Covid-19 Mortality by Age in the United States: Quantifying Racial/Ethnic Disparities

FXB Center for Health and Human Rights Director Dr. Mary T. Bassett is the lead author of a new working paper exploring racial/ethnic differences in age-specific Covid-19 mortality rates in the U.S. The Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies Working Paper Series published the paper this week. Dr. Bassett collaborated with Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Professor Nancy Krieger and Research Scientist Dr. Jarvis Chen in this…

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May 29, 2020June 15, 2020

Harvard University Centers Condemn Recent Police Violence in the United States

The following is a joint statement from the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University, Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School, the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice at Harvard Law School, and the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics. Note: please see below for a list of additional co-signers. “We…

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May 22, 2020May 22, 2020

Study: Structural Racism, Historical Redlining, and Preterm Birth in New York City

A new study published this week in the American Journal of Public Health explores the long-term impact of historical redlining on preterm births in New York City. The study, conducted by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Professor Nancy Krieger, Pamela D. Waterman and FXB Center for Health and Human Rights Director Mary T. Bassett, and NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene epidemiologists, found a higher proportion…

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May 21, 2020

FXB Center Leadership Calls for Protections for McDonald’s Employees

In solidarity with workers, FXB Center for Health and Human Rights Director Dr. Mary T. Bassett and Executive Director Natalia Linos co-signed an open letter urging McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski to adequately protect the safety of employees and consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the letter, the experts point to “a pattern of severe shortcomings by McDonald’s,” including failure to provide adequate PPE and to inform workers when they are…

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May 7, 2020

Coordinated and Evidence-Based Easing of Social Distancing Restrictions That Centers Equity and Justice is the Only Way to Save Lives and Protect the Poor During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The following statement was issued by the Poor People’s Campaign Health Justice Advisory Committee on May 3, 2020. FXB Center Director Dr. Mary T. Bassett, Executive Director Natalia Linos and Director of Communications Veronica Lewin serve on the committee. Learn more about the committee here. Point 1: Social distancing measures are working to mitigate the spread of the virus despite the uncoordinated federal response that has led to the current…

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April 30, 2020May 1, 2020

Standing Up Against Anti-Romani Racism During A Pandemic

By Drs. Aluízio de Azevedo Silva Júnior and Margareta (Magda) Matache Across the world, a violent and disturbing trend of anti-Romani racist acts by the police, policy makers, media, and others is putting Romani families and communities at risk during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are also attacked when we speak out against this injustice. For example, an op-ed addressing anti-Romani racism published by Libertatea, a well-known Romanian newspaper, was swiftly…

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April 24, 2020May 7, 2020

Opinion: The Urgent Need to Transfer Vulnerable Migrants from Europe’s Largest Migrant Hotspot

In a recent opinion piece, François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights’ Director of Research Professor Jacqueline Bhabha and Instructor Vasileia Digidiki discuss the current COVID-19 situation in Greece, the migrant hotspot Greek islands, and what the European Union should be doing to address the crisis. In it, the authors write: “Without effective and coordinated action, the pandemic will immobilize the Union’s most precarious and embattled member. This would…

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April 20, 2020April 20, 2020

Responding to the Domestic Violence Crisis of COVID-19

Photo of outstretched hands, one with a red dot

By Roshni Chakraborty Worldwide, countries have imposed lockdowns and issued stay-at-home orders to mitigate the community transmission of COVID-19. For many, however, staying at home poses a greater threat to their health than leaving. Activists and governments around the world have reported an alarming spike in domestic violence since social distancing measures were adopted. The United Nations has called for a domestic violence “ceasefire,” raising its concerns about a “horrifying…

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April 16, 2020

New Data Visualization Tool Can Help Officials Assess COVID-19 Vulnerability in Their Communities

The COVID-19 epidemic in the United States is already exposing a disastrous convergence of demographic and socioeconomic inequities that make some communities more vulnerable than others. Hotspots of COVID-19 are emerging in urban cities, from New York City, to Detroit, Milwaukee to New Orleans, and Chicago, with the greatest harm concentrated in neighborhoods that are home to Black and Hispanic populations. While social determinants influencing the impact of COVID-19 on…

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April 9, 2020April 9, 2020

FXB Center Leadership Joins Poor People’s Campaign COVID-19 Health Justice Advisory Committee; Calls for Equitable U.S. Response

The following is an April 8, 2020 press release issued by the Poor People’s Campaign. Learn more about the Campaign here. Poor People’s Campaign new advisory committee says prevention efforts, treatment must be equitable The Poor People’s Campaign’s new COVID-19 advisory committee is demanding that hospitals and health departments begin reporting coronavirus cases by poverty and income; race and ethnicity and other relevant demographics including geography to ensure that prevention…

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April 7, 2020April 8, 2020

International Roma Day: The History of the FXB Center’s Roma Program

This year marks the eighth anniversary of the Roma Program at Harvard University. Conceived and built by the François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard, the Program has become a leading focal point for Roma scholarship, convening and advocacy in North America and beyond. A key aspect of this, by tradition, is the Roma Program’s annual international conference to mark April 8, International Roma Day. This…

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April 1, 2020April 1, 2020

Dr. Mary T. Bassett’s Statement on COVID-19 for the Poor People’s Campaign

At the request of the Poor People’s Campaign, Dr. Mary T. Bassett, Director of the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University, released the following statement on the health equity impact of COVID-19: The United States was woefully unprepared for the COVID-19 pandemic, and now has the worst COVID-19 outbreak in the world. This was preventable. Knowing the inadequacies of our country’s health care and social…

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March 31, 2020April 2, 2020

FXB Center Director, More than 80 Public Health and Medicine Experts Call on Governor Baker to Stem the Spread of COVID-19 in Prisons, Jails, and Juvenile Detention Centers

Today, leading public health and medicine experts called on Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker to take immediate action to protect the health of those who live and work in detention facilities. The letter, signed by Dr. Mary T. Bassett, Director of François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University, and more than 80 faculty members from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School,…

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March 30, 2020

Op-Ed: Andrew Cuomo, Stop a Coronavirus Disaster: Release People From Prison

Harvard FXB Director Dr. Mary T. Bassett

In a New York Times op-ed published today, François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights Director Dr. Mary T. Bassett, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez and Ford Foundation President Darren Walker call on New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo to release people from prison to protect both people currently incarcerated and the staff who work in these facilities. In it, the authors write, “Given the conditions in which incarcerated…

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March 30, 2020

COVID-19: Finding Comfort in Respecting Rights and Protecting the Most Vulnerable

Natalia Linos, executive director of the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, penned an op-ed that was recently published on the Health and Human Rights Journal’s blog. In it, Linos writes, “poverty, homelessness, human rights abuses, racism, and violence are not inevitable consequences of COVID-19. If they occur, it is because they reflect a moral failure in the way we have organized our societies.” Later in the piece,…

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March 24, 2020

Letter: Aggregated mobility data could help fight COVID-19

Dr. Satchit Balsari, fellow at the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, recently co-authored a letter in Science magazine advocating for the use of aggregated mobility data to measure the effectiveness of COVID-19 response efforts such as social distancing. In the letter, the authors write: “The research and public health response communities can and should use population mobility data collected by private companies, with appropriate legal, organizational, and computational safeguards…

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March 20, 2020March 20, 2020

COVID-19: Observations from Spain

Dr. Sergio Aguayo, journalist and fellow at the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, recently penned a column about how countries should respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the column, Dr. Aguayo writes about his experience in Spain during the beginning of the country’s response, and calls on the Mexican government to implement appropriate measures to curb the spread of the virus. Read the Viviendo España column here…

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March 10, 2020March 10, 2020

New Research on Socially Assigned Race and Health Inequity, and on Mass Incarceration and Preterm Birth

The 2019-20 Doctoral Student Cohort of the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University continues to produce research on important social issues. Is Socially Assigned Race a Useful Category for Monitoring Racial Inequity in Health? A new International Journal for Equity in Health review examines the usefulness of socially assigned race, or the perception of one’s race by others, in monitoring and evaluating racial/ethnic inequities. Authored by…

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