Currents News reports secular and religious news from the Catholic perspective.
Some of the top stories on this newscast:
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris together as a team for the first time, launching their run to take the White House.
An in-depth look at the issues that matter most to Catholics and what Senator Harris has to say about them.
A COVID alarm sounded in a Brooklyn neighborhood, and that’s happening at the same time a Bay Ridge Catholic school is confronting the pandemic.
Currents News Staff
When Kamala Harris was asked by Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden if she was ready to go to work, she had a firm response: “Oh my God, I am so ready to go to work.”
And go to work she will, hoping to become the nation’s first female, first Black and first Asian-American vice president.
“Growing up, whenever I got upset about something, my mother would look me in the eye and ask ‘so what are you gonna do about it?’”
Senator Kamala Harris’ mother was born in India and her father was born in Jamaica. Growing up, she was exposed to many of the world’s religions. The 55-year-old was raised on Hinduism and Christianity. She now considers herself a Black Baptist. Her husband is Jewish.
Meanwhile, she could be second in command to the second Catholic U.S. president. She described Biden as a “man of faith, decency and character.” But she’ll have to fight for the support of some Catholic voters. Harris is a staunch supporter of legal protection for abortion and has pushed Biden on that issue.
As California attorney general, Harris was criticized by the state Catholic Conference for sponsoring a bill forcing pro-life pregnancy centers to advertise abortion services to their clients. That law was overturned by the Supreme Court.
In 2016, she was elected to the U.S. senate where she rose in prominence for her grilling of President Trump’s Supreme Court nominees.
“Can you think of any laws that give the government the power to make decisions about the male body?” Harris asked.
She also raised questions about whether a federal judge candidate could be fair since he was a member of the Knights of Columbus, which she called “an all-male society” that opposes a woman’s right to choose and marriage equality.
Her early career included a stint as district attorney in San Francisco. As attorney general, she took on the big banks during the foreclosure crisis.
Now she’s making history as just the third woman to appear in the vice presidential slot for a major party ticket. Harris is considered a role model for little girls who were often brought by their parents to her campaign events. Their young daughters were able to see a bi-racial woman vying for the nation’s top job.
“When I see those little girls in particular, I see myself,” Harris said. “I see the children of my family and I see the children of our country.”
By Paula Katinas and Emily Drooby
WINDSOR TERRACE — Discrimination has seeped into the examining room in the doctor’s office too, according to medical experts, who say the level of health care for women of color falls far below that of their white counterparts.
Women of color are often not listened to or respected by medical personnel, said Alecia Jones, a nurse and the chief executive director of New Beginnings Center of Hope, a Christian-based facility in Jamaica, Queens that assists pregnant women and new mothers.
“The level of respect varies according to your gender and your color,” said Jones, who is black, referring to the treatment patients receive at many hospitals and clinics.
The lack of respect is often found when expectant mothers seek medical care, Jones said.
“Black women who are pregnant have a lot of stress,” she said, adding that their needs are often dismissed.
The lack of respect isn’t just about hurt feelings over a doctor’s rudeness. If a patient’s needs are not being met, it has real and lasting implications, particularly in the field of maternity care.
These statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control are eye-opening:
The problem isn’t being faced only by lower-income women of color, according to Joan Tropnas, an associate professor and director of the Health and Human Services Program at St. John’s University.
“It’s not just poor women. It’s across the board,” she said. “We have to look at systemic racism medical professionals may have when a woman of color enters into a hospital to deliver.”
In many cases, Tropnas says black women are pre-judged as soon as they walk in the door by medical professionals who think they are all alike.
New York State Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte had a deeply painful personal experience with racial injustice in her health care. She suffered the heartbreaking loss of her infant son, Jonah Bichotte Cowan, in 2016 after she says a hospital refused to treat her when she went into pre-term labor at 22 weeks. Doctors told her the hospital’s policy would not allow them to treat her before the 23-week mark of her pregnancy because health insurance would not cover the costs.
“They gave me either two options: Either terminate my pregnancy or leave,” she said, adding that she did not want to terminate the pregnancy.
Even more insulting to Bichotte was that “they told me I had to leave the room because they needed the room for another patient.”
Bichotte, a Haitian-American, is convinced she was given such degrading treatment because she is black.
“Racial disparities are clear when it comes to maternal health care,” she said.
A week later, she gave birth to Jonah. The infant lived for only a few hours.
Bichotte, a Democrat representing Flatbush, introduced a bill — the Jonah Bichotte Cowan Law — on July 23 that would require hospitals to inform expectant mothers if they are going into pre-term labor. The legislation would also require hospitals to provide care to women experiencing high-risk pregnancies.
The bill was passed by the State Assembly and Senate. Gov. Andrew Cuomo is expected to sign it into law.
Tropnas said that while enacting new laws is a step in the right direction, it isn’t the only answer.
“There’s the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. Laws are always good to have on the books,” she said, but “you have to work at two levels.”
Raising people’s consciousness about hidden racial prejudices is important, Tropnas said: “If we are aware of them, we can work to diminish them.”
Health care providers are also working on solutions at the grassroots level. One way is to foster a better relationship between the expectant mother and her health care provider.
New Beginnings Center of Hope is designed to look like a warm, inviting health spa, instead of a medical clinic, and clients are treated with respect, according to Jones.
“When women come in, they are cared for and they are heard,” she said. Clients are not told what to do but are offered suggestions so that they can make informed decisions about their pregnancies.
The spotlight on racial discrepancies in maternity care is happening at the same time the Black Lives Matter movement is sweeping the country.
Tropnas believes they fall under the same umbrella and added that the medical treatment of women of color is also part of a broader question: “What is the value of black life in America at this point in time?”
She recalled when she worked as an associate director of nursing at a hospital, being told by a doctor that she was “too fat” while undergoing cancer treatments.
“I found that very shocking. I don’t think that another associate director of nursing who was white would have been told that,” she said.
Currents News Staff
Now that Joe Biden has chosen Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate, voters will decide if this is the team they want to see in the White House. How important is this moment for the Democratic party, and what can Harris do to help Biden win?
Joining Currents News to take a closer look at the presumptive Democratic ticket is Saint John’s University political science professor Brian Browne.
By Jessica Easthope
School principal Kevin Flanagan walked the halls of St. Anselm’s Catholic Academy for years. Now, he’s back and gearing up for a new year, the halls look the same but the school is totally different.
It’s now called Bay Ridge Catholic Academy and its curriculum will focus on science, technology, engineering, the arts and math, also known as STEAM, the very thing that will keep its students safe from COVID-19.
“We have temperature readings being done when students and teachers enter the building so there’s a camera system that will measure everyone’s body temperature,” said Flanagan.
The new school, created out of a merger of St. Anselm’s and Holy Angels Catholic Academies always planned to rely heavily on science inside the classroom, now kids will experience the high-tech side of their school before they even enter the building.
More than 350 students will move past a thermal imaging camera upon coming into school every day, if they have a temperature, the camera will say it, giving alerts like “caution, abnormal.”
“We’ve invested a tremendous amount of resources in the health and safety of our students so that when parents send their kids here I can give them my assurance that it’s as safe as humanly possible,” Flanagan said.
Opening during a pandemic has forced the school to water down a lot of its big plans.
“Every student who came to school here was going to learn to play an instrument, unfortunately we can’t operate in a model where kids would be able to change classrooms that frequently, have their instruments with them and get adequate spacing,” said Flanagan.
The curriculum will remain focused on STEAM but will have to be modified.
“We’re going back to the basics to get open like everybody else in the community, our focus is on health and safety,” Flanagan said.
Flanagan says the school’s goal is simple – be the best in Brooklyn. How that dream will become a reality is similar to how the school started, with a merger of unique STEAM-driven courses and Catholic values.
“To instill the values of the Catholic religion and help you to be a well-shaped member of the community who are able to extend those values out into the world so the world sees the kind of students we educate here at the new Bay Ridge Catholic,” said Flanagan.
The school’s plan to reopen has already been approved by the state. The first Bay Ridge Catholic Academy students start school on September 9.
Currents News Staff
Understandably, many parents are worried about sending their kids back to school. Teachers are also concerned. Should schools reopen? Is it safe?
A new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association noted a 90 percent jump in coronavirus cases among children over the past month.
Dr. Robert Tiballi, an infectious disease specialist with the Catholic Medical Association, spoke with The Tablet to assess new data and answer questions that parents and teachers have as back-to-school season begins.
Currents News: What’s your take on the new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association on cases among children over the past month? What have we learned about the virus when it comes to children since the beginning of this pandemic, and what’s changed?
Tiballi: Well, we do understand for certain, so far, that this virus is less problematic for children than regular traditional seasonal influenza.
It is an issue for children. They seem to maybe be asymptomatic but they can have fairly high accounts of virus in their bodies but, they don’t really seem to be very symptomatic with it, for the most part.
Very small numbers of children can develop significant illness, such as these COVID-type toes, which is a blood clotting disorder. A very, very small number of children develop the lung issues that we see in adults.
Although this virus can be problematic in very, very small numbers of children, for the most part, children deal with it much better than adults do, and simply because they don’t exchange a lot of air in and out of their chest. So they don’t actually broadcast the virus out into the air nearly as efficiently as an adult with adult-sized lungs, coughing or sneezing, would do.
Currents News: In your expert opinion, should schools reopen for in-person learning? Do you think it is safe for children then?
Tiballi: Well, there’s a domino effect when children can’t go to school. There are problems, stresses in the family, children get depressed. There has been a silent increase, a dramatic increase in suicides in children and young adults. Some states term children up to age 24.
When the children are late adolescents, early adults, they seem to have more of a problem with depression and possibly gearing towards suicide. So the whole socialization aspect of being in school is very, very helpful for children.
I’m a strong proponent of reopening schools. I’ve been working with a number of parochial schools in my area here, where I live, about retrofitting of classrooms to try to decrease the potential for infection.
One thing we can’t do is think that just because we’re reopening, everything is back to normal.
No. Unfortunately, there’s a new normal and that includes children wearing masks and teachers wearing gloves, and negative pressure if possible in the classrooms to try to get any virus that may be in the air externalized to the outside world, and not harboring it in the classroom.
The children could be at risk but the people who are more at risk are the teachers, who may have underlying medical conditions, such as being overweight, hypertension, and diabetes.
Unfortunately, we don’t have an approved therapy to put teachers on prophylaxis, and there’s a lot of discussion that hydroxychloroquine may be effective in that manner.
There are many studies out there, of a less scientific caliber, that do seem to show that there’s a value there, but we don’t have an approved medicine at this time.
Currents News: What do you think about Russia’s vaccine? The president there, Vladimir Putin, said his daughter was one of the first to get it, but it has not appeared to have gone through extensive trials yet. Is that right?
Tiballi: That’s right, and there’s a lot of concern that this may be a dangerous thing, and good luck with that. You won’t see me recommending that anybody that I care for.
Currents News reports secular and religious news from the Catholic perspective.
Some of the top stories on this newscast:
Vladimir Putin claims to have a coronavirus vaccine, but experts are worried that corners are being cut.
President Trump might shut the borders to American citizens abroad sick with the virus.
And it was no ordinary ordination – 8 new priests for Los Angeles.
Currents News Staff
Many parents are worried about sending their kids back to school. Teachers are also concerned and many are wondering – should schools reopen? Is it safe? There’s been a big jump in cases among children.
Still, as some public health officials have warned about opening schools in states with COVID-19 hot-spots, others want students back in class, including President Donald Trump.
“For the most part, they do very well. I mean, they don’t get very sick. They don’t catch it easily. They don’t get very sick.”
The governor of Florida also made a statement on the return to school.
“In terms of risks to school kids, this is lower risk than seasonal influenza,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said.
However, medical experts say having youth in crowded hallways and classrooms poses a significant threat. A former professor from Harvard Medical School says it’s risky.
“You’re waiting for a second fire to erupt,” William Haseltine said. “You’re pouring fuel on a raging fire.”
More than 800 students in Georgia’s Cherokee County are in quarantine due to possible coronavirus exposure. This comes one week after in-person learning began.
“We are not out of the woods yet and we cannot take our foot off the gas,” Gov. Brian Kemp said. “I’m asking that all Georgians continue to remain vigilant as we continue this fight.”
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association, over the past four weeks, there’s been a 90 percent hike in known COVID-19 cases among U.S.
The director at the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy says September might see far more coronavirus cases.
“We think we’re going to see an explosion of cases in September that will far surpass what we saw after Memorial Day,” Michael Osterholm said. “And this is just going to continue increasing, getting higher and higher in terms of numbers.”
By Emily Drooby
The moment Famous Fish Market’s doors opened for the day, people were already waiting to enter the Harlem shop. It was a welcome sight, one the long-time owners feared they wouldn’t see again.
“I have seen other businesses fall through this, even my favorite restaurants, it’s tough, it’s tough,” explained Michael Howie. His father owns the shop and he’s also the manager.
The pandemic has crushed thousands of businesses across the country.
According to a study done by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 41 percent of Black-owned businesses across the country shut down between February and April. That’s compared to 32 percent of Latino businesses, 26 percent of Asian businesses, and 17 percent of white businesses.
Famous Fish Market was started in 1974 by current owner, Eric Strickland’s aunt. He took over in 1998 and now runs it along with his wife, Viola and two children, Michael and Erica.
It has survived a lot, even the gentrification of the neighborhood. But when the pandemic erupted, the family thought this might be it.
“Honestly, I’m like, ‘We are going to do bad going into this.’ I just know it because we have never shut down,” Michael said. “The most we shut down was a day.”
The Black-owned business fought hard to survive.
“Things are starting to open up for us, we did a lot of things to deal with the coronavirus, we had to change our whole system,” Eric explained.
They changed everything; from their hours, to the way they take orders, even to the way customers receive their condiments. They struggled to get a loan and were turned down twice before receiving it.
The hard work paid off. Not only has the 46-year-old business survived, it has thrived.
“When we got back, the amount of love, it was just crazy I did not expect it at all,” Michael said.
Their daughter Erica said the family believes their Christian faith is a big key to their success.
“There’s a higher power, our blessings come from there,” she said. “As long as we do right, put out the right energy. Good things come back in return.”
That faith is coupled with a special family recipe.
“Once you taste it, it’s like no other taste like it, and that’s what keeps people coming back,” Viola told Currents News.
But there’s one more ingredient that makes this place special: family, something you feel the moment you walk through the door.
Fried-up food, faith, fortitude and family, that’s what you’ll find at Famous Fish Market.
By Jessica Easthope
More than 4,000 nurses from across the country came to New York City to fight coronavirus during the height of the pandemic, Janelle Orbon is one of them.
“Watching things unfold on TV it actually was a no-brainer, that’s where I needed to be, I was fully trained and wanted to help and would have felt much worse not being there,” said Janelle, a critical care nurse from Denver, Colorado.
Janelle left Denver thinking she’d be in New York for six weeks, she stayed for three months. What she learned is that medical professionals still don’t know enough about the deadly virus.
“We don’t know what we’re up against. I don’t think anyone knows a ton about COVID,” Janelle said.
When Janelle arrived in New York City at the end of March, it was the epicenter of the COVID-19 crisis. She wasted no time resuming her role as a critical care nurse at the hospital where she worked for five years.
“When I first got to New York it was the thick of it, that’s when there were still field hospitals across the street, every floor of our hospital had become a giant ICU,” Janelle said.
What struck Janelle wasn’t how many nurses came from other areas of the country, but other areas of medicine to do everything they could to save lives.
“Nurses from pediatrics from obstetrics, oncology, stepped up into roles that normally takes a nurse years to master and train for,” Janelle said.
Now, back home in Denver, Janelle says that her city has control over the big spike it saw when 122 people died on April 24.
On that same day in New York City, 437 people died. Janelle says out-of-town nurses got most of the credit when it came to fighting the virus in New York City, but she says the real heroes are the nurses who were there long before the pandemic.
“We were almost out of ventilators and the nurses on my old ICU unit said they would stay after work and manually bag breaths into patients, these are the true heroes,” Janelle said.
The gravity of Janelle’s time in New York City is still taking its toll and has changed her outlook on nursing.
“I immediately upon returning I actually talked to my boss about transitioning back into critical care full time and I’m doing that now,” said Janelle.
Janelle’s experience has taught her that what’s certain in the fight against COVID-19 is the unknown, she says she would come back in a heartbeat. 