The Truth About COVID19

Countering misinformation about COVID-19

A joint campaign with the Government of the United Kingdom and BBC World

WHO has joined forces with the communications teams at the Government of the United Kingdom and the Prime Minister’s office for an awareness campaign about the risks of incorrect and false information regarding the pandemic. “Stop The Spread” is a global campaign, rolled out on BBC World television, website and apps during May and June 2020.

The campaign aims to raise awareness among BBC audiences of the risks of misinformation on COVID-19. It encourages them to double check information from unreliable sources and promotes WHO and national health authorities as trusted sources of information. 

In addition to the global TV and web channels, the campaign will also roll out through BBC digital apps in these 20 countries worldwide.

• Africa - Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Zambia
• Asia – Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Thailand
• Europe – Azerbaijan, Moldova
• Middle East – Algeria, Libya, Tunisia
• Latin America – Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Paraguay

Read the full article here



Source: World Health Organization

Thank You Amanda Nguyen and Senator Shaheen!!!

Senate Passes Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill Of Rights

The Senate unanimously passed legislation to establish basic rights for survivors of sexual assault today. The bill, which now must pass the House of Representatives to become law, was authored by Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) with input from Amanda Nguyen, a sexual assault survivor who founded national civil rights nonprofit Rise to implement a Sexual Assault Survivors' Bill of Rights.

If passed into law, the Sexual Assault Survivors' Bill of Rights will be monumental in standardizing the treatment of survivors by the criminal justice and medical systems in America.

Seeking justice as a survivor of sexual assault is a disturbingly arduous process, requiring in-person follow-ups in order to make sure rape kit test results aren’t permanently disposed of — Nguyen is required to return to the state of her assault every six months to make sure the DNA evidence gathered from a forensic exam is not destroyed.

Different states have varied ways of dealing with the crimes of rape and other sexual assaults, many of which leave a lot of responsibility on the survivor. Navigating the criminal justice system is daunting enough, let alone while recovering from a traumatic experience. As Nguyen experienced herself, survivors sometimes have to pay for a rape kit test, and some states don’t keep them for longer than six months, jeopardizing essential evidence necessary for putting rapists behind bars. “When the federal government makes changes to criminal statutes,” Shaheen said in a Medium post outlining the legislation last month, “states often quickly follow suit.”

“When you hear about Amanda’s experience, you can see why nearly 70% of survivors don’t report their rape or decide not to press charges,” wrote Shaheen. “This has to change.”

The basic rights included in this new legislation, designed to address the unique challenges faced by sexual assault survivors, include the following:

1. The right to have a sexual assault evidence collection kit preserved for the entire relevant statute of limitations.
2. The right to be notified in writing 60 days prior to the destruction of a sexual assault evidence collection kit.
3. The right to request further preservation of a sexual assault evidence collection kit.
4. The right to be informed of important results of a sexual assault forensic examination.

“The system failed Amanda and so many other survivors of sexual assault across the country,” Shaheen wrote. “Today, the Senate has sent a message that it’s time to change the culture around how survivors are treated in our criminal justice system. I’m hopeful that the House will soon follow suit and we can send this important legislation to the President’s desk.”



Source: Refinery 29

Happy New Year California and Oregon!!!

The Birth Control Pill Is Now Available Without a Prescription In Oregon and California

Oregon this week allowed women who are at least 18 to buy over-the-counter birth control pills. In March, California will become the second state to implement a similar policy.

Since Jan. 1, women in Oregon who are over the age of 18 are allowed to get birth control without a doctor’s prescription. The bill was signed into law on July 1 by Gov. Kate Brown.

At the pharmacy, women are required to fill out a health questionnaire that pharmacists will use to fill the prescription, KOIN reported.

California’s law is set to start in March and has some differences — notably there are no age restrictions.

Senators from Colorado and Washington have also introduced bills that are similar to Oregon’s new law.



Source: BuzzFeed

Korean Singers Mistaken for Prostitutes and Detained at Airport

Question: What does a prostitute look like and what specifically triggered security to detain them in hopes of preventing a "terrorist attack" and was detaining them sexist or [stereotypically] racist???

Kesha Johnson-Clark

K-Pop Band Oh My Girl Mistaken for Sex Workers and Detained at LAX

 

The eight members were travelling to America for an album cover shoot but were detained for 15 hours in customs. A statement from the group's record company, WM Entertainment, said authorities held them after going through their costumes and props.

"They seem to have mistaken them as sex workers," said a spokesman.
Oh My Girl, who formed in March, are thought to be back in South Korean capital Seoul after being released by officials at Los Angeles International Airport. WM Entertainment says it is taking legal advice in the US to find out whether the band's detention was legal.

The record company also said there might have been an issue with the type of visa the band members presented. They had also been booked to perform at a gala event in Los Angeles on Saturday.
It's unclear if they will try to return to America to complete their album cover shoot.

Oh My Girl (or OMG) brought their debut single Cupid out in April with a second mini-album and title track Closer released in October. The band members are all aged between 16 and 21.
South Korean pop music, known as K-pop, is dominated by girl and boy bands whose members are sometimes as young as 13 or 14 years old.

In 2012, the government clamped down on over-sexualised performances by threatening to give higher age ratings to films, music videos and TV shows which exaggerated the sexuality of younger singers and bands.


Source: BBC

UPDATE: Guards Indicted for Negligence in Death of Nimali Henry

St. Bernard prison employees indicted for negligence in inmate death

A federal grand jury on Thursday (Dec. 3) indicted four St. Bernard Parish Prison employees in the death last year of inmate Nimali Henry. The indictment accuses Andre Dominick, Timothy Williams, Debra Becnel and Lisa Vaccarella of failing to provide proper medication and treatment to Henry, who suffered from a rare blood disorder.

All four defendants also are accused of civil rights violations, as well as making false statements to the FBI. They have been placed on indefinite administrative leave, St. Bernard Parish Sheriff James Pohlmann said.

The accused correctional officers have been named for the first time with the indictment, which came about eight months after the FBI intervened in a civil rights lawsuit against the St. Bernard Sheriff's Office.

The civil suit, filed by the father of Henry's baby daughter on the daughter's behalf, was put on hold pending the outcome of the criminal investigation.

None of the defendants could be reached Thursday evening at publicly listed phone numbers. Court records do not list their attorneys.

Henry was found face down in an isolation cell in April 2014. A coroner's report found she likely died of a blood clot. In addition to the civil rights charges, the indictment accuses all four defendants of providing false statements to the FBI, as follows:

• Dominick, a captain, told agents that Henry and another individual, "D.S.", were not aware of Henry's medical conditions. In fact, both Henry and D.S. informed Dominick of the condition, according to the indictment.
• Williams, a corporal, falsely told agents he'd spoken with another individual, J.C., about Henry's condition the weekend before her death, and that he had checked on her in the hours before her death, according to the indictment.
• Becnel, a deputy, falsely told agents that Henry, as well as other inmates, had not told her about her condition, according to the indictment.
• Vaccarella falsely told agents she saw Henry walk into a dorm, lie on the ground and stand up and walk on her own, without difficulty, according to the indictment, which also accuses Vaccarella of discussing her observations with a supervisor. In fact, prosecutors say, Vaccarella watched Henry fall to the dorm floor and left her there, without discussing the indicident with the supervisor. 

Pohlmann said he's still learning about the circumstances that led to Henry's death, as he hasn't spoken to any of the defendants since the FBI became involved in March. He declined to comment on whether the allegations might lead to any changes of procedure at the jail.

"I don't know a lot of the facts that resulted in the indictment today," Pohlmann said. "I'm hoping to meet with the U.S. Attorney's Office soon to maybe get briefed up on more of the detailed facts."

If convicted, the defendants face maximum lifetime prison sentences for the civil rights charges and five-year sentences for making false statements to the FBI, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Kenneth Polite's office.

Also read related article, FBI Launches Civil Rights Probe in St. Bernard Prison

Source: Nola

Photo credit to DeShawna Henry, sister of Nimali Henry

Peruvian Government Grants Reparations for Abortions

Peruvian Government Gives Monetary Reparations As Part of Historic United Nations Abortion Case

The Peruvian government has agreed to pay reparations as part of the first United Nations (U.N.) ruling on human rights violations in an abortion case.

Almost a decade after the U.N. Human Rights Committee declared that Peru’s denial of access to legal abortion services is a human rights violation, the government will provide reparations to K.L., a woman who was forced to continue with a pregnancy that put her physical and mental health at risk, even though abortion is legal in these circumstances under Peruvian law.

The Center for Reproductive Rights with local partners the Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defense of Women's Rights (CLADEM) and the Counseling Center for the Defense of Women's Rights (DEMUS) brought her case to the U.N. Committee and negotiated the reparations agreement. This decision marked the first time in history that an international human rights body held a government accountable for failing to ensure access to legal abortion services.

To read the entire press release, click here.


Source: Center for Reproductive Rights

60 Years Later: Rosa Parks

According to history, Rosa was 42 years old and riding the bus home after work. She was a seamstress and a member of her local NAACP chapter who refused to 'move out of her seat so that a [white] man can sit'...that was her crime. She is a civil rights pioneer.

~Kesha Johnson-Clark

 

 Today marks the 60th anniversary of Rosa Parks taking a stand.

The 42-year-old seamstress and secretary of her local NAACP chapter defied Jim Crow laws that called for the separation of the races by refusing to move to the back of a bus to allow a white man to have her seat.

That defiant act in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955 was a pivotal point in the civil rights movement and transformed Parks into a symbol of the struggle. Social media marked the day and remembered her, with some taking note of the current plight of African-Americans.



Source: CNN

Photo: Essence