The Granddaughter of Tuskegee Study Participant Urges COVID-19 Vaccination

Currents News Staff

Sharon Hawks says it has been hard to hear people citing the Tuskegee experiment as one reason they’re reluctant to take a COVID-19 vaccine.

“It has brought up bad emotions,” says Sharon, the Director of Health Outreach for Reid Temple AME Church.

That’s because her own grandfather, a man named Willie Harris, was a part of that experiment until his death in 1960.

“It’s always been a part of the family history,” Sharon said. “We didn’t talk about it much.”

From 1932 until 1972, the Federal Public Health Service used about 600 impoverished sharecroppers in rural Alabama near Tuskegee to study the natural course of syphilis.

They were promised treatment but they were only given placebos. That deceit led to a mistrust of medicine, which for some, continues to this day.

“The fact that they experimented on him for so many years without him even knowing what they were doing is painful,” Sharon said.

But Sharon, who is a nutritionist and director of health outreach for Reid Temple AME church in Glenndale, she’s helping run a new pop-up COVID-19 vaccination clinic. Sharon says she now wants to share her story so the doubt can be overcome.

“I felt it was a moral obligation to let people know and to get them comfortable with it,” she said.

With people lined up and eager to be vaccinated today, she hopes resistance is already fading.

“African Americans can be assured that this is not experimenting or someone trying to kill us off,” she said, “everyone is going after the same vaccine.”

Her grandfather, she says, was denied treatment which could have extended his life. Sharon now hopes people don’t deny themselves a vaccine, which could save theirs.

Catholic High School Student Turns Quarantine Cooking Hobby Into Fundraiser for Rare Diseases

By Emily Drooby

Gabby DiSalvo calls her Instagram page “@cooking.on.wheels.”

Like many, the Xaverian High School student picked up cooking as a new hobby during quarantine.

Now, she’s stirring up success and adding a hefty dash of donations.

Gabby was diagnosed with myofibrillar myopathy, an incredibly rare disease in children. Doctors told her at the time she was born, she was just one of three kids with it.

“The muscles in my entire body, so every single muscle, my hands, my arms, it’s extremely weak,” she told Currents News.

At birth she was told she would never walk, but she found a way.

“Because my muscles are so weak, I would take a step and shift my weight like that, about sixteen times more drastically, so it caused almost like a swaying motion,” she explained while demonstrating.

However, the sway movement caused scoliosis, which led to surgery and made her wheelchair bound.

The muscle weakening that comes with her condition makes it hard to cook. But like with all her other challenges, Gabby found a way. She created adaptations and utilized kitchen tools.

“When I’m cooking, I feel free, I feel so happy,” she said. “I have learned how to basically turn it into something I can do completely on my own, or almost completely on my own. It might not be what you see on TV of the professionals, but I have turned it into what I am capable of doing.”

The Instagram account has taken off. She’s teaching virtual cooking classes, and was even featured on the Rachael Ray Show.

For the past four years, Gabby has raised $25,000 for Global Genes, a non-profit for the over 400 million people affected by rare diseases.

Because of the pandemic, the bake sale and ribbon sale fundraisers she normally has are impossible this year.

Instead, she’s holding a virtual bake-along on Feb. 27, and a cook-along in partnership with her school’s key club on Feb. 28. She already has a $10,000 donation from Rachael Ray.

The link for both of Gabby’s events can be found here:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/zebra-cake-roll-free-online-bake-along-tickets-137896087911

https://www.xaverian.org/student-life/welcome/student-events

Catholic News Headlines for Tuesday, 2/16/21

President Biden takes to the road, trying to sell his COVID relief package.

U.S. bishops are disbanding a committee meant to take on the presidents’s pro-abortion stance.

An immoral experiment where hundreds were lied to and deceived – the effects still being felt today.

How Long Will the COVID Vaccine Immunity Last?

Currents News Staff

In New York, more than 1 million residents are fully vaccinated, but questions and concerns still remain. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says fully vaccinated people can skip quarantine if they’ve been exposed to someone with COVID-19.

Joining Currents News to provide some more answers to COVID questions is Dr. Robert Tiballi, an infectious disease specialist with The Catholic Medical Association.

Biden Prepares for First Presidential Trip, Town Hall on COVID Relief Deal

Currents News Staff

President Biden’s agenda is taking center stage this morning in a Washington no longer consumed by his predecessor’s impeachment trial.

Looking to drum up support for his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, today, Biden is taking his message directly to the public with his first official trip as president to Wisconsin where he’ll make the case for his relief package during a CNN town hall.

On Feb. 17 it’s off to Michigan to a Pfizer vaccine manufacturing plant. Back in Washington, the Biden Administration is still playing catch up on safely reopening more schools and boosting the national vaccine and testing plans.

A group of bipartisan governors sent the president a letter asking for better coordination on distributing vaccines between the federal and state governments, which is an issue Biden noted in a meeting with local leaders at the White House last week.

“What I found when I got here, that what we thought was available in terms of everything from vaccine to vaccinators was not the case,” Biden said. “So I thank them for the work they did in their cities and their states in order to respond to the crisis.”

The president is also still struggling to get Republicans on board with his relief bill.

But with pandemic relief and vaccines on the line, Democrats are growing impatient and ready to move forward without Republican support.

“We are going to rush to get this done, to help deploy more vaccines, to help get kids back into school safely and to provide the other important benefits in this rescue package,” said Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen. “And if Republicans are willing to join us in that effort, we will work with those who want to join us.”

Another major hurdle is a provision to hike the federal minimum wage to $15. It’s a proposal, opposed not only by Senate Republicans, but also two Democrats.

And with enhanced pandemic unemployment benefits scheduled to expire March 14, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders says there’s no time to waste.

“Congress has got to move forward vigorously, do what the president of the United States campaigned on and wants to do,” said Sen. Sanders. “That’s what we’ve got to do. Not only to help the American people, but to restore faith that government in fact can respond to the needs of ordinary Americans.”

Pre-K Programs Are ‘Desperately Needed’ and Must Reopen, Says Queens Council Member Robert Holden

Currents News Staff

New York City decided to cancel more than 100 Universal Pre-K programs, including five at Catholic schools in the Brooklyn Diocese. Sacred Heart Catholic Academy in Glendale was one of those programs. The cancellation news has upset Council Member Robert Holden, who represents the community of Glendale, Queens.

He wrote letters to both Mayor Bill de Blasio and Department of Education Chancellor Richard Carranza expressing his disappointment.

Council Member Holden joined Currents News to discuss what happens now to the Pre-K program.

Yer Man’s Irish Pub in Queens Open Again After 11 Months Without Indoor Dining

By Jessica Easthope

The locks on Yer Man’s Pub are being taken off after nearly a year. Even though it may never be back to what it was like before the pandemic, the weight of the world is off Jimmy O’Reilly’s shoulders.

“It was great. It was fantastic,” said the owner of Yer Man’s Pub, Jimmy, about his first day back on Friday, Feb. 12.

When Jimmy closed his pub in mid-March, from the outside it looked like nothing was going on. Yet on the inside, Jimmy was working – building barriers and partitions by hand, making his bar safe for indoor dining – if and when that day would ever come.

It finally came on Friday, days after an announcement by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

“We’ll open 25% indoor dining, New York City, Friday, before Valentine’s Day,” Gov. Cuomo announced on Feb. 8.

Yer Man’s first big weekend was a success. Jimmy says people are still afraid to come out, but the hard work he did while the bar was closed made it so much safer.

“People have come in here and they feel so safe here because of the barriers and the barriers at the bar,” Jimmy said, “and because the employees are protected, people have said to me ‘I feel so safe coming in here.’”

And customers said there’s nothing better than being back.

“It’s nice to see somebody in person versus talking on the phone or having a Zoom conference,” said Kevin Kehoe, a regular customer at Yer Man’s.

“It’s like the kids going back to school, you need to get out, you need to have a good time and be among friends,” said Lois Mungay, another regular customer.

For 11 months Jimmy’s family business survived on take-out orders. But was hemorrhaging money just to keep the lights on. He said it was almost too late.

“I got the first PPP,” Jimmy said. “I just got the second one, thank God, because it was getting down to the wire. Without it, I would be gone next month, this month maybe.”

But it’s not too late – even in their darkest days, Jimmy and his family knew that if they had the chance, they would make a comeback.

“I feel like no matter what it is going to bounce back, I do feel like the minute people come back in, it’s like right back being at home again,” said Sinead O’Reilly, a waitress and bartender at Yer Man’s, and one of Jimmy’s three daughters. “Like clockwork, everyone jumps back into the same rhythm.”

Jimmy says if he can help it, Yer Man’s will always be a place to come for good food, good drinks and a good time. He says his faith and his bar are two things that won’t fade away.

Catholic News Headlines for Monday, 2/15/21

New York restaurants are open for business – indoors.

Governor Cuomo responds to the nursing home controversy, saying all the deaths were fully and accurately reported.

With the impeachment trial over, lawmakers push for a 9/11 style probe into the capitol Hill attack, as President Biden pushes for a stimulus deal.

Pope Francis Praises Colombia For Initiative Granting Venezuelan Migrants Legal Status

Currents News Staff

“Dear brothers and sisters, good morning. The square is so beautiful with the sun! How beautiful!” said the Holy Father.

His greeting was heartfelt. This was the second time in 2021 that Pope Francis prayed the Angelus with pilgrims. The weather was better than the first time. The pontiff has felt the lack of contact between him and pilgrims throughout the pandemic.

From a window of the apostolic palace, he praised the president of Colombia’s initiative to help immigrants. Iván Duque proposed a statute to provide 10 years of protection so undocumented immigrants from Venezuela can obtain legal status. There are an estimated 1.7 million undocumented immigrants from Venezuela in Colombia.

“This is not being done by a very rich, super developed country,” said Pope Francis. “No. It is being done by a country with many problems: of development, of poverty, of peace. Nearly 70 years of guerrilla war. But with this problem, they have had the courage to look at those migrants and make this statute. Thank you, Colombia. Thank you.”

The pontiff also said a few words about St. Valentine’s Day, which was being celebrated worldwide.

“And I cannot fail today, on St. Valentine’s Day, to extend a thought and greeting to couples, to those who are in love,” he said. “I accompany you with my prayer, and I bless you.”

Before concluding, the Holy Father reminded the faithful that Lent begins this Wednesday. He suggested taking advantage of this time to foster faith and hope during the current crisis.

At Rome’s Colosseum, Display Showcases Riches of Pompeii Within its Walls

Currents News Staff

The Colosseum’s wide walkways now include a remnant of Pompeii, the city with which Rome strengthened its ties in the fourth century AD, during its expansion.

“This display covers four centuries of history, from the end of the fourth century BC to 79 AD,” said Alfonsina Russo, Colosseum Director. “The volcanic eruption that destroyed Pompeii also guaranteed that its memory would live on in history. Thanks to the frescoes and other cultural artifacts from Pompeii that survived, we were able to partly reconstruct what this part of Rome would have looked like.”

Pompeii was a city of commerce. That’s why the exhibition includes a recreation of the inside of a merchant ship.

“These are original amphoras,” said Maurizio Di Puolo. “They carried wine in those days. They’re not replicas. They would place straw between them to soften the impacts. The ship could carry 600 amphoras, each able to hold 20 liters of wine or oil. It was an extremely valuable load.”

“The merchants from Pompeii were very active in the Mediterranean,” said Alfonsina. “In some way they represented Rome. They were also Rome’s merchants.”

The exhibition includes statues of Roman gods and important people from Pompeii who made a fortune thanks to commerce… but not only. Part of Pompeii’s wealth came from gifts from people like Lucio Mummio, who completed the conquest of Ancient Greece. He conquered cities like Corinth, where St. Paul would later preach, just a few years before Pompeii’s disappearance.