"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."
"The coronavirus has disproportionately claimed African American lives nationwide, unmasking structural racism that continues to deepen disparities in healthcare trends and life outcomes across America."
"Medical experts for the Department of Homeland Security have called the nationwide ICE system 'a frighteningly efficient mechanism for rapid spread of the virus to otherwise remote areas of the country where many detention centers are housed.'"
"She had been taking precautions, I knew of no exposure, and her symptoms were not those we had been warned about... At 7:19 on Saturday night, I received a phone call that made my knees go out from under me."
"The City of New Orleans may help 1031 Canal Street Development LLC, the developers of the ill-fated Hard Rock Hotel, make lemonade out of lemons after the disastrous October 2019 collapse of their unfinished building. The city’s insistence on implosion, which jeopardizes three adjacent buildings, could allow the developers to profit tremendously from the fatal collapse of their hotel."
