Posts

Peterson Weighs In on Objections to Becerra’s Nomination

/0 Comments/in /by

An article examining opposition to the confirmation of Health and Human Services Secretary nominee Xavier Becerra cited Public Policy Professor Mark Peterson. Conservative groups are targeting Becerra’s long track record in support of government-run health care, calling it “hostile to our current system.” However, the article from Politifact and Kaiser Health News noted that President Joe Biden does not support “Medicare for All,” meaning that Becerra’s ability to advance it would be constrained if he is confirmed. Becerra is California’s attorney general, and Peterson said Republicans have a history of painting Democrats from the state as “socialists.” “They’re arguing it’s just showing the infiltration of the radical socialist California state into the federal government,” Peterson said. “But this is ridiculous, because there are not socialist politics, per se, happening in California, and often the California Democrats in Washington are moderate.”

Read the article

Diaz on Urgency of Vaccinating Essential Workers Regardless of Age

/0 Comments/in /by

Sonja Diaz, executive director of the Latino Policy and Politics Initiative (LPPI) at UCLA Luskin, spoke to ABC7 News about the importance of quickly vaccinating California’s essential workers regardless of age. Diaz pointed to the success of Riverside County’s program to bring COVID-19 vaccines directly to farmworkers. “What’s really important is you don’t need technology to get your appointment, you just need to show up,” she said. “When we think about who our workers are right now and the fact that they’re on the front line, saving American lives, we know that they’re not over the age of 65, and they deserve access to a vaccine.” In California, Latinos make up 39% of the population and 55% of the state’s essential workforce, but just 16% of those who have received at least one dose of the vaccine. Immediately expanding access to the vaccine is one of several strategies that LPPI and other advocates are urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to implement.

Watch the video

 

‘It’s Not a Food Desert, It’s Food Apartheid,’ Wolff Says

/0 Comments/in /by

Urban Planning lecturer Goetz Wolff joined a panel of activists and scholars to discuss injustice in the food system during a UCLA Semel Healthy Campus Initiative webinar. Black, poor and marginalized communities have been systematically denied access to nutritious foods, contributing to health inequities. Farmer and activist Karen Washington described the food system as “a caste system based on race, color of skin, where one lives and how much money they have” and argued that “it doesn’t need to be fixed, it needs to change.” Chef Roy Choi highlighted the importance of starting a conversation about the established power structure in order to get to the root of the problem. Wolff argued that the condition under which poor communities are left out is the result of conscious policies and that “food desert” is a characterization that asks us to accept it as a natural process. “It’s not a food desert, it’s food apartheid,” he said.

Read the article

Diaz on Informing Latino Communities About Vaccine Safety

/0 Comments/in /by

Sonja Diaz, executive director of the Latino Policy and Politics Initiative, was featured in a Sacramento Bee article discussing many California Latinos’ hesitations about receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. While vaccines approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have been shown to be safe and effective, a history of deceitful government practices involving communities of color has left many hesitant to receive the inoculations. “There’s been a storied legacy of the way that the U.S. government has rolled out medical and scientific experiments on non-white bodies,” Diaz said. Recent allegations of forced hysterectomies at an immigrant detention center in Georgia have contributed to the erosion of trust between communities of color and government institutions, she said. “More must be done to ensure these communities, who are overwhelmingly on the front lines of this pandemic, have accurate and culturally tailored information to trust that the vaccine is indeed something that will make their lives and their communities safer.”

Read the article

Domestic Migration Patterns Accelerated by COVID-19, Stoll Says

/0 Comments/in /by

Professor of Public Policy and Urban Planning Michael Stoll was cited in a U.S. News & World Report article about Americans’ migration patterns. A study by moving company United Van Lines found that the COVID-19 pandemic played a role in many people’s decisions to relocate, including concerns for personal and family health and well-being, a desire to be closer to family and changes in work arrangements. Idaho had the highest percentage of inbound migration, while New Jersey had the highest share of outbound moves, followed by New York, Illinois, Connecticut and California, the study found. “United Van Lines’ data makes it clear that migration to western and southern states, a prevalent pattern for the past several years, persisted in 2020,” Stoll said. “However, we’re seeing that the COVID-19 pandemic has without a doubt accelerated broader moving trends, including retirement driving top inbound regions as the Baby Boomer generation continues to reach that next phase of life.”

Read the article

Tilly Sees Opportunity for Retail Workers to Voice Concerns

/0 Comments/in /by

Urban Planning Chair Chris Tilly was featured in a WWD article about the challenges facing front-line and retail workers during the pandemic. Big companies like Walmart and Amazon have made efforts to compensate their workers and institute safety measures, including staggering breaks, handing out protective gear, and offering one-time bonuses and temporary raises for employees. However, front-line workers still face increased risk of exposure to COVID-19 while working for low hourly wages and managing additional responsibilities. According to Tilly, highlighting inequalities has been one way worker advocacy groups have sought to frame the discussion, keeping the attention on workers speaking out about pay and safety issues. “Even though most retailers have backed off the hazard pay, or limited it to sort of one-off bonuses, there is, I think, in the general public a renewed respect for this workforce,” Tilly said. “I think that creates an opportunity … to advocate more for protections but also for more voice.”

Read the article

COVID-19 Doesn’t Only Threaten the Elderly, Reber Says

/0 Comments/in /by

Associate Professor of Public Policy Sarah Reber spoke to the Dallas Morning News about the disproportionate toll of COVID-19 deaths on Latino and Black communities in Texas. While many believe that COVID-19 threatens just the elderly, working-age adults in Texas’ Latino and Black communities are dying at rates many times higher than those of whites, according the the story, which was reprinted nationally. “That discussion of ‘Oh, it’s all the really old people’ — that’s a white people’s story,” Reber said. The disparities in COVID-19 deaths have gone largely underreported because health experts were not initially focused on them. However, there are significant differences in the death toll when separated by age and ethnicity. In Texas, the COVID-19 death rate for Hispanics among those ages 25 to 64 is four times as high as that of non-Hispanic whites. Furthermore, Blacks in that age group are dying at more than twice the rate of white people.

Read the article

Peterson on Becerra’s Impact on California’s Progressive Agenda

/0 Comments/in /by

Public Policy Professor Mark Peterson spoke with Kaiser Health News about prospects that California’s health care agenda will grow more progressive once the state’s attorney general, Xavier Becerra, is elevated to the nation’s top health care post. In his three decades of political experience, Becerra has been a strong advocate of health-care reforms including a state-level single-payer system, environmental justice and protecting immigrants’ access to safety-net care. Many California Democrats believe his selection as the next U.S. secretary of health and human services will give them a strong federal ally who will help make the state a laboratory for progressive ideas. Should Becerra back a progressive health agenda in California, similar proposals could follow in other states, Peterson said. “California has pushed the envelope on health care beyond where other states are,” he said. “And that gives more capacity for California sensibilities and ideas to get into the mix in Washington.”

Read the article

 

Shah on Involving Men and Women to Address Intimate Partner Violence

/0 Comments/in /by

Professor of Public Policy Manisha Shah was featured in a Global Citizen article about reducing intimate partner violence in Tanzania. In Tanzania, one in three women between the ages of 15 and 24 experiences intimate partner violence, including physical and sexual violence, stalking, or psychological harm by a current or former partner. A study by the Global Lab for Research in Action at UCLA Luskin found that educational health programs for men and boys and goal-setting exercises for women and girls can reduce intimate partner violence and improve sexual and reproductive health. “I have come to the conclusion that one of the only ways we will be able to shift social norms around violence against women and girls will be to get both males and females involved,” Shah said. Most existing reproductive and sexual health programs focus only on women, but the study found that using men’s soccer clubs to promote domestic violence education reduced intimate partner violence.

Read the article

Criminalization of Sex Work Is Counterproductive, Shah Finds

/0 Comments/in /by

Public Policy Professor Manisha Shah co-authored a Vox Dev article discussing the effects of criminalizing sex work in Indonesia. Previous studies in high-income countries have found that decriminalizing sex work has positive impacts on the health of sex workers and the general population. In a recent study, Shah analyzed the impact of criminalizing sex work in a low-income setting by interviewing female sex workers, their clients and their families after the government in East Java, Indonesia, announced that it would close all formal sex work locations. The closure caused the formal sex market to shrink, leading to increased rates of sexually transmitted infections and negatively impacting the well-being of sex workers who were forced out of work. Shah and her colleagues concluded that the criminalization of sex work is “counterproductive and can reverse the good work that many government health departments and NGOs are undertaking to reduce the spread of STIs and HIV/AIDS.”

Read the article