"As we have seen with our patients, commercial health insurance is a defective product, like an umbrella that melts in the rain. With skyrocketing premiums, copays, and deductibles, even insured patients are forced to choose between paying for rent and food or the bills for supposedly 'covered' procedures."
"Now that a certain chapter in New Orleans history — or a section within a chapter — has come to a close, it’s a good time to pause and reflect on what we’ve just experienced."
"Who could ever imagine that, in 'The City That Care Forgot,' and that Hurricane Katrina tried to destroy, we have yet another New Normal, which has become my New Abnormal?"
"The COVID-19 pandemic is a tragic reminder of the deadly toll racial injustice takes on families and communities... That is why we need a real and honest conversation about how structural inequity and racism persist – and how they originated."
"I knew what I was getting into when I chose infectious diseases as a specialty. I understood that we combat contagious pathogens, sometimes becoming infected ourselves in the process. What I did not know was that the job called for combating a different kind of epidemic as well."
"As a citizen concerned with the health and liberty of our fellow New Orleanians during this unprecedented time, I was outraged to learn of the City of New Orleans continued expansion of surveillance tactics and tools through unconstitutional police checkpoints and new contracts with surveillance companies. These irresponsible choices divert funds and attention from assisting those most affected by the intersection of COVID-19 and existing structural inequalities."
"It has become clear: we must learn from this moment and work diligently to reshape the future of our society. If we can fight fatigue from the stress of our current situation, it is possible to provide dignity and safety for essential workers now, while making choices that create real and lasting change for those being hit hardest: Black communities."
Ten years after the the devastation of BP's Deepwater Horizon platform, survivor Leo Lindner writes on the loss of his friends, misconceptions of the disaster, and the mistake of putting profits over people.
The community advocacy group Justice & Beyond calls for the release of a cardiologist convicted in a health care fraud case. Orissa Arend writes that Dr. Michael Jones should be released immediately on humanitarian grounds.
"After the March 13 closure of Tulane University’s campus, we instructors spent a week moving classes online, while students returned home and settled. The question for me and my 28 far-flung students was what to do with a locally-focused environmental journalism class? We quickly turned our final writing project towards the historic crisis at hand."
