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  2022-04-12

  Even the Pandemic Didn't Stop STDs From Spreading in the U.S.

  This is a news story from Bloomberg by Madison Muller and Ella Ceron. According to recent reports, the overall amount of STDs went down with the lockdowns in early 2020, but then started to rise again near the end of 2020. Gonorrhea, syphilis and congenital syphilis all surged later in the year to exceed 2019 totals, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in the report. Chlamydia remained the most common STD for the year, although cases declined overall, likely because of under-diagnosis. Possible reason why the numbers may be decreased for the beginning of 2020 might not be because of the lockdowns entirely. Some people in 2020 skipped doctor's appointments where they could have gotten diagnosed, in addition to resources being low during the height of the pandemic. Other trends included in this study are the rates of health insurance among certain demographics. Black people, in addition to LGBTQ people, are shown to have lower rates of having health insurance.
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  2022-04-11

  Medicare Y COVID-19

  This is an Instagram post by crespoinsurance. This is a post written in Spanish giving advice to elderly on vaccines. It advises people fifty and older, and those that are immunocompromised to get vaccinated. It also says that Medicare covers COVID vaccines.
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  2021-02-21

  Laura Larson Oral History, 2021/02/21

  Self description: “My name is Laura, and I am in two bands right now. I am in a band called Scrunchies and a band called Kitten Forever. I play guitar, base, drums, and I sing in those two bands. I live in Minneapolis, Minnesota. For work, I work at a community cooperative grocery store, in an administrative position, but one that is community outreach based and have a lot to do with meeting and coordinating with our community partners, a lot of the work that I do is about mutual aid, and helping out the community with the resources that we have available to us. Besides that I am a visual artist, I like to paint, I like to draw, I like to read books, and I live in a little duplex with my partner and our cat Sissy.” Some of the things we spoke about included: - In addition to performing in the bands Scrunchies and Kitten Forever, working for a community grocer and its ties to health activism. - Income and racial disparities in Minnesota. - The fear that comes with being uninsured in the United States. - The national confusion around the values of masking and other safety precautions and the burden placed on individuals to make these decisions in the absence of clear and consistent messaging. - The significance of shutting down music events while keeping sporting events going. - Media representation of event cancelations, freezers of bodies, and overwhelmed hospitals. - Living less than a mile from where George Floyd was murdered and movements to defund the police. - How the ongoing destruction of the earth conditioned the pandemic and the enduring importance of climate change. - Grocery store workers being essential workers who still did not receive vaccination prioritization. - Collective trauma and that fear begets fear. - Making and consuming art as a form of self-care. - How new the internet still is as a technology. Cultural references: Save Our Stages, The Atlantic article “Cancel Everything”. See also: https://scrunchies.bandcamp.com/ https://kittenforever.bandcamp.com
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  2020-08-07

  Health Insurance Providers mailing reusable masks for medical appointments

  On August 7, 2020 I received a message from a relative that their health insurance company had mailed them a small envelope with a cloth mask. At the time in Oklahoma, masks were still fairly difficult to find in stores and reusable masks were still available mostly online at considerable costs. The elderly relative said that her and her husband were told to use these if they went to a doctor's appointment or to a hospital. The pamphlet also advised them on the best way to wash and dry the mask for further use. This is something that seems like a small cost to the company, but could benefit everyone if it helped prevent people from getting sick, especially from COVID-19.