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  • How One Pacific Islander Community Is Responding To The Pandemic

    Pacific Islander communities in Hawaii have formed their own Covid-19 task forces to stop the virus’ spread, rather than wait for the government to respond. Despite a lack of resources, the task forces conduct community outreach providing protective gear and food and have partnered with community groups, recognizing the role of active community engagement and participation to achieve success. The task forces use a model that recognizes the significance of cultural nuances and language challenges, which has added to its success in keeping the infection rate among Pacific Islander communities relatively low.

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  • Women Data Scientists Created GPS-Driven App to Help Kenya Keep Covid-19 Numbers Low

    Women in GIS Kenya created a digital tool that helps the government track the number of Covid-19 cases, recoveries, and confirmed deaths, as well as the number of tests administered. The online database combines a survey that assesses a person's symptoms with cellphone GPS data to create a map of current hot spots and recommend treatment locations. The government credits the tool, which can also predict high-risk areas vulnerable to future outbreaks, with helping to keep Kenya's COVID-19-related deaths relatively low compared to other countries. The tool is popular among younger, tech-savvy populations.

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  • Forged By AIDS, Storied NYC Residence Boosts Aging In Place

    Two community living facilities have played integral roles in combatting the spread of diseases throughout New York's history by relying on mutual aid models. In the 1980's the Manhattan Plaza residence started the AIDS Project, which "assigned care partners to every person who got sick and deployed volunteers to deliver meals and get people to doctors." Now, as the COVID-19 pandemic poses a threat, similar efforts are underway by a younger generation at the Manhattan Plaza as well as at Penn South where the focus has been on keeping senior citizens safe.

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  • How Efforts To Save Hawaii's Forests Are Preventing A 'Freshwater Crisis'

    Landowners, state employees, environmental groups, and local hunters are working together to protect Hawaii’s forests and drinking water by eradicating invasive plants from the state’s protected forests. By allowing native plants to flourish, these forests could help combat climate change by sequestering carbon and allowing freshwater quivers to recharge with rainfall. Since 2013, the state has built 132 miles of fence to keep grazers away from forests to prevent the spread of seeds of invasive plants. However, this method can be expensive; a 1,400-acre fence cost over a million dollars.

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  • Blazing the trail: How coast slum flattened the curve

    Although residents in Bangladesh were initially hesitant to take precautionary measures against COVID-19, once one county began reporting cases, the community took swift action. From implementing hand washing stations at the borders of the regions to teaching children and other community members how to make soap and face masks, Bangladesh has not only been able to flatten the curve of coronavirus cases, but has also been able to avoid the typical influx of cholera cases that occur during the rainy season.

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  • Cities are using poop to look for early Covid-19 outbreaks

    Wastewater-based epidemiology is helping scientists and public health experts track the prevalence of coronavirus in communities. Although this practice can be complicated by the size of cities and lacks a standardized testing protocol, it has already helped identify outbreaks at two universities.

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  • The Warsaw Ghetto Can Teach The World How To Beat Back An Outbreak

    In the 1940s, typhus spread throughout the community living within the Warsaw ghetto, but cases dramatically decreased in the winter of 1941. While some researchers remain unsure why, others point towards a change in behavior that included increasing hygiene and nutrition practices and introducing social distancing.

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  • What sewage can tell us about the spread of COVID-19

    Scientists in Bozeman, Montana are tracking community spread of COVID-19 by studying samples from the city’s wastewater. Although this form of tracking is more tedious and not necessarily as effective as testing individuals via a swab, the wastewater tracking program is able detect the virus and help health officials identify the area where it likely originated from.

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  • Minnesota COVID-19 outreach focuses on vulnerable communities of color

    To extend aid to the Minnesotans most vulnerable to the coronavirus, state and local health departments, backed by $4 million in state funding and by community groups' on-the-ground help, conducted an extensive campaign of culturally appropriate outreach to offer free COVID-19 tests and healthcare advice. The efforts have included one-on-one contacts, email blasts to free-school-lunch recipients, and TV and radio ads on media targeting Black, Latinx, immigrant, and refugee populations. Immigrant communities and people of color have been disproportionately hit by the pandemic.

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  • How Philadelphia Has Tried to Address Water Debt

    An income-based payment structure has alleviated water debt in Philadelphia. Decreasing federal aid to municipal water utilities in conjunction with rising costs associated with climate change has increased the cost of water, making it unaffordable for many. Philadelphia created an income-based program, which caps water bills at three percent of income. The Tiered Assistance Program, or TAP, also provides debt elimination for those who make their minimum payments. Advocates have successfully pushed for similar reforms in Baltimore.

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