On September 28, 2020, leading scholars and activists will discuss the additional challenges and risks Romani people are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic during a webinar, “Responses to COVID-19 at Local, National, and International Levels.” The event will be held from 10 to 11:30 a.m. EDT (4 to 5:30 p.m. CEST). Please check this page for updates on speakers and how to view the webinar. This event is the third…
Save the Date: Structural Inequalities as Risk Factors during Pandemic Webinar
On September 14, 2020, leading scholars and activists will discuss the additional challenges and risks Romani people are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic during a webinar, “Structural Inequalities as Risk Factors during Pandemic.” The event will be held from 10 to 11:30 a.m. EDT (4 to 5:30 p.m. CEST). Please check this page for updates on speakers and how to view the webinar. This event is the third in the…
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Save the Date: Anti-Romani Racism During COVID-19 Pandemic Webinar
On September 2, 2020, leading scholars and activists will discuss the additional challenges and risks Romani people are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic during a webinar, “Anti-Romani Racism During COVID-19 Pandemic.” The event will be held from 10 to 11:30 a.m. EDT (4 to 5:30 p.m. CEST). Please check this page for updates on speakers and how to view the webinar. This event is the second in the four-part webinar…
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Webinar: Resurgence of Scapegoating Romani People in Times of Pandemics
On August 5, 2020, leading scholars and activists will discuss the additional challenges and risks Romani people are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic during a webinar, “Resurgence of Scapegoating Romani People in Times of Pandemics.” The event will be held from 10 to 11:30 a.m. EDT (4 to 5:30 p.m. CEST). To register, click here. Speakers The webinar will be streamed…
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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.…
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…
Work-in-Progress Series: Alex de Waal
On Tuesday, May 26, the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University will host the next event in its Work-in-Progress Series. During this event, Alex de Waal, Executive Director of the World Peace Foundation and Research Professor at The Fletcher School at Tufts University, will present “African Perspectives on COVID-19 and Its Impacts.” During his presentation, de Waal will discuss the following: Africa enters the COVID-19 crisis…
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…
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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Radcliffe Event: Health, Inequity, and COVID-19
International experience in recent months has powerfully illustrated that the COVID-19 virus has particularly harmful and disproportionate effects on already vulnerable populations. Mary Bassett and Khalil Gibran Muhammad will discuss inequity and public health in the time of COVID-19, exploring how the virus encounters existing inequalities, replicates these inequalities, and, in many cases, amplifies them. PARTICIPANTS: Mary T. Bassett ’74, director of the François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Center for Health and Human…
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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…
Responding to the Domestic Violence Crisis of COVID-19
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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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…
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…
Work-in-Progress Series: Maggie Sullivan and Jill Roncarati
**Note (4/2/20): To view the presentation from this Work-in-Progress event, click here** On Thursday, April 2, the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University will host the next event in its Work-in-Progress Series. During this event, Maggie Sullivan, FNP-BC, DrPH (Research Fellow at the FXB Center and Director and Founder of the Oasis Clinic at Boston Healthcare for the Homeless) and Jill Roncarati, ScD, PA-C (Research Fellow,…
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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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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,…
Op-Ed: Andrew Cuomo, Stop a Coronavirus Disaster: Release People From Prison
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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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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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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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…