6 minute read
AAPI community leaders seek solutions...
holidays” and that following the string of anti-Asian attacks, the Asian American community is “feeling more unsafe than ever.”
The many families of these victims are still healing and reeling from the sudden deaths of their loved ones, most of whom were in the coveted twilight years of their lives. Seeking solutions or pondering what could have been done to prevent these tragedies won’t bring back their loved ones, but it’s crucial to prevent these kinds of attacks from happening, Pan said.
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It’s important to point out that it is unclear if the motivations behind these murders were related to any hate crime, as defined by the U.S. Department of Justice, in the way that the 2021 Atlanta spa shootings were.
Investigators of the Monterey Park massacre have yet to confirm a motive for the shootings; the shooter killed himself the following day.
A Half Moon Bay prosecutor told reporters that the shooter may have snapped after he was forced to pay $100 to repair a forklift he damaged at work and alleged bullying from his coworkers and long working hours.
Regardless of the motive, Asian American leaders across the country recognize the presence of military-grade firearms in both events, sparking eerily familiar conversations about the gun epidemic in the United States. According to Gun Violence Archive, there have been 40 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2023: more than there have been days in the year so far. (The organization categorizes a mass shooting as an event where three or more people are shot.)
Statistically, the United States dominates the world in the number of gun-related deaths and homicides. In 2020, those in the U.S. were responsible for 79% of gun-related killings; that same year, Canada was responsible for 37%, Australia for 13%, and the United Kington for 4%, according to data from the U.S. CDC, UK House of Commons, Statistics Canada, and the Australian Institute of Criminology.
Gun ownership is also significantly higher in the U.S. than in any other country, with an estimated 120.5 firearms per 100 residents — this is up from 88 per 100 in 2011, according to a Small Arms Survey.
“Only in America do we see this kind of carnage, this kind of chaos, this kind of disruption of communities and lives,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said last week.
According to AAPI Victory Alliance Executive Director Varun Nikore, 70% of Asian Americans support stronger gun control legislation but noted that interest in gun ownership among AAPIs, along with the U.S. population in general, has increased since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Like the many mass shootings that reach national and international attention, urgency toward stronger legislation that makes it harder for the wrong people to get guns occurred almost immediately in the aftermath of the Monterey Park shooting.
“No one policy will solve this issue, but an assault weapons ban will dramatically reduce these mass shootings,” said Po Murray, co-founder and chairwoman of gun control group Newtown Action Alliance and Newtown Action Alliance Foundation.
Murray also stressed the importance of stronger restrictions and practices in purchasing firearms in general.
Currently, lawmakers in the U.S. Congress are pushing for safer storage solutions for firearms and permit requirements to purchase guns.
In addition to gun control
Millions to lose coverage during...
reapply to renew their eligibility.
Erzouki says enrollment in Medicaid grew to 89 million-plus people since February of 2020, an increase of 30%. It was the biggest experiment in universal health care since the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed in 2010.
“Access to coverage and healthcare services has been critical during this time of increased hardship. At the same time, this continuous coverage policy has meant that most Medicaid enrollees probably have not had contact with their Medicaid agencies in three years, and in some cases, even longer,” she said.
Erzouki said that people would have to do the paperwork in order to keep their medical coverage.
People have moved during the pandemic or may not receive their renewal notice in the mail.
Erzouki said in the coming months Medicaid agencies are going to be overwhelmed processing cases and documents. She estimated seven million people could lose their coverage due to paperwork issues although they are still eligible.
“They need to make sure that their Medicaid agency has updated contact information for them,” said Laura Guerra-Cardus, CBPP’s Director of State Medicaid Strategy.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid have dubbed the end of expanded health coverage an “Unwinding.”
The Biden Administration could extend the date of the Public Health Emergency (PHE) for another 90 days and the continuous coverage requirement would remain for another three months. However, at some point it would end.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) projects that some 8.2 million Medicaid recipients who reapply will no longer qualify and will have to transition to another source of coverage. Another 6.8 million will
FDA experts are still puzzled over who should...
information was needed to make such a declaration.
lose Medicaid coverage despite still being eligible.
“Check your mail,” says Guerra-Cardus. People could receive letters at some point from either Medicaid or CHIP and they should complete the renewal forms if they get one, she says. If they don’t qualify, they may be able to get affordable coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplace and can learn more by visiting www.healthcare.gov
“However, people are given a pretty limited time after they lose Medicaid coverage to transition to the ACA. So the concern there is that people won’t have enough time to enroll in the marketplace after they lose Medicaid coverage without experiencing some sort of gap in coverage,” she said. Eligibility and income requirements vary widely by state. So contacting non-profit groups can help you fill out state-specific applications forms. For local help filling out an application go to: https://widget.
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Several panelists noted that in recent studies, only about a third of people hospitalized with a positive covid test actually were there because of covid illness. That’s because everyone entering a hospital is tested for covid, so deaths of patients with incidental infections are counted as covid deaths even when it isn’t the cause.
The experts questioned the rationale for annual shots for everyone, given that current vaccines do not seem to protect against infection for more than a few months. Yet even a single booster seems to prevent death and hospitalization in most people, except for the very old and people with certain medical conditions.
“We need the CDC to tell us exactly who is getting hospitalized and dying of this virus — the ages, vulnerability, the type of immune compromise, and whether they were treated with antivirals. And we need immunological data to indicate who’s at risk,” said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center and a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “Only then can we decide who gets vaccinated with what and when.”
Offit and others have expressed frustration over the lack of clear government messaging on what the public can expect from covid vaccines. While regular boosters might be important for keeping the elderly and medically frail out of the hospital, he said, the annual boosters suggested by the FDA and the drug companies may not be necessary for everyone.
“The goal is to keep people out of the hospital,” he said.
“For the vulnerable, it would be important for vaccines to keep up with circulating strains. But for the general population, we already have a vaccine that prevents hospitalization.”
Other panelists said the government needs to push research harder to get better vaccines. Pamela McGinnis, a retired official of the National Institutes of Health, said she had trouble explaining to her two young-adult sons why they promptly got sick after venturing out to bars one night only weeks after getting their bivalent booster.
“‘Think how sick you would have gotten if you weren’t fully vaccinated’ is not a great message,” she said. “I’m not sure ‘You would have landed in the hospital’ resonates with recipients of the disease.”
Members of the FDA’s advisory committee have been irked in recent months, saying the agency didn’t present them with all the data it had on the bivalent vaccine before it was released in September. And some critics have said the FDA should have instructed drug companies to include only the newer strains of the virus in the shot.
Asked about that Thursday, Jerry Weir, a senior FDA vaccine officer, said his “gut feeling” was that a vaccine matched to a single omicron strain would have performed better than the bivalent shot, which also contains the original covid strain. “But the real question is where we’re headed,” he said, “and I don’t know the answer.”
Perhaps the most important presentation Thursday was from Heather Scobie, who keeps tabs on covid at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She reported that fewer than half of Americans 65 and older had gotten the latest booster, and that only two-thirds of that age group had gotten even a single booster.
Yet evidence continues to mount that it’s mostly the elderly who are at serious risk from covid. Death rates from the disease have declined in every age group except those over 75 since April, despite the uptick in new strains. Except for the very
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AAPI community leaders seek solutions...
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