Greene County Democrat

Category: General News

  • Newswire : NIH dismantling draws fierce rebuke from within

    By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

    The Trump administration’s sweeping cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are drawing sharp criticism from scientists, civil rights advocates, and health equity researchers who warn that the reductions are disproportionately harming African Americans and other historically marginalized communities.

    The newly released Bethesda Declaration—signed by more than 2,300 NIH staff, Nobel laureates, and public health leaders—calls out politically motivated funding terminations and staff layoffs that have jeopardized decades of life-saving research. Signatories accuse NIH leadership of abandoning its core mission to enhance health and reduce illness in favor of partisan interference. “NIH has stigmatized and abruptly cut off funding for research mislabeled ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI),’” the declaration states. “Achieving your stated goal to ‘solve the American chronic disease crisis’ requires research addressing the social and structural drivers of health disparities.”

    A particularly striking example came in May when NIH canceled a $9 million UCSF clinical trial studying the effects of guaranteed income on 300 low-income Black young adults in the Bay Area. The study had been offering $500 per month to participants to assess how economic stability could improve health and life outcomes. Its abrupt termination undermined both the research and the trust built with community participants, according to a report by the San Francisco Chronicle.

    Researchers and NIH employees decried the move. “Ending a $5 million research study when it is 80% complete does not save $1 million—it wastes $4 million,” the declaration warns. More importantly, they note, it leaves vulnerable populations without the benefit of critical scientific findings directly relevant to their lives. The effects extend far beyond California. An analysis by Stat News revealed that the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities suffered funding cuts of approximately 30%—a far deeper reduction than experienced by most NIH branches. The institute is responsible for investigating conditions disproportionately affecting African Americans and other communities of color, such as hypertension, diabetes, maternal mortality, and mental health disparities.

    “Broad participation in biomedical research is critical,” NIH staff wrote in the declaration. “Due to misunderstanding of its workforce diversity programs, NIH terminated top-scoring grants to scientists from underrepresented backgrounds, while maintaining poorer-scoring grants from standard pathways.” These actions have not only halted progress in understanding and addressing racial health disparities but also disrupted the careers of many researchers committed to equity-based science.
    The declaration outlines that since January 20, 2025, the NIH has canceled 2,100 grants totaling $9.5 billion and contracts worth an additional $2.6 billion. Many of these terminated programs focused on COVID-19 and long COVID—conditions that have disproportionately impacted Black, Latino, and Indigenous communities. Others addressed the health effects of climate change, gender identity, and sexual health—fields closely tied to the experiences of marginalized groups.
    The signers also warn that NIH staffing and infrastructure cuts have slowed research, jeopardized clinical trials, and undermined public trust. Layoffs targeting essential personnel, they say, have made the agency less efficient, less transparent, and more politically vulnerable. Freeman Hrabowski, President Emeritus of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and at least 21 Nobel laureates—including Dr. Drew Weissman and Dr. Carolyn Bertozzi—are among the high-profile backers of the Bethesda Declaration.
    “Each day that NIH continues to disrupt research, your ability to deliver on this duty narrows,” the signers warn NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, who has come under scrutiny for allowing political considerations to override peer review, academic freedom and ethical obligations to study participants.
    The harms of these policies are not theoretical; they are real. They are already unfolding—cutting short vital research on chronic illness, mental health, and economic justice, and widening disparities in communities that have long faced the worst outcomes and the least investment. “We, the undersigned, stand united with these courageous and selfless public servants,” the declaration concludes. “Together, we stand up for science.”

  • Newswire : The Travel Bans Chilling Impact

    By April Ryan, NNPA White House Correspondent

    “Another shameful moment for our nation’s foreign policy” is what ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Greg Meeks calls President Trump’s latest travel ban on 12 countries. President Trump reinstated his first-term travel ban based on national security concerns. Beginning June 9, 2025, at 12:01, citizens of the designated countries are banned from entering the United States.
    The entry bans citizens from the following countries: Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

    The 12 countries on the travel ban list comprise seven African nations and one Caribbean nation. This ban will impact commerce and possibly diplomatic relations with these countries. Congressman Meeks says, “Trump’s travel ban is discriminatory from the ground up, and ultimately self-defeating—it even betrays our Afghan allies who supported U.S. troops over our twenty-year war and were waiting for their visas to enter the United States.”
    President Trump also signed a ban on international students attending Harvard University, a school he has been battling with over issues such as antisemitism on campus and discrimination against white, Asian, male, and straight individuals. The Trump administration is also concerned with China’s foreign influence and perceived woke ideology. Chioma Chookwoo of American Oversight says, “A quarter of Harvard’s student population is international.” Harvard has challenged these actions in court and won a preliminary injunction to halt the denial of student visas.
    The latest travel ban has far-reaching implications for higher education in the United States. North Carolina Democratic Congresswoman Alma Adams told Black Press USA, “Nationwide, we have more than 1 million international students who contribute $50 billion to the U.S. economy each year.” In Adam’s home district, she says the University of North Carolina at Charlotte” has 2,000 international students from nearly 100 countries.” The congresswoman, who also is a member of the House Committee on Education, says, “These students are coming to our country to better their education and consistently give more than they receive.”
    “Between this latest travel ban, the freeze on student visa processing, and other chilling actions to deter international students, the Trump administration is creating a self-inflicted brain drain that further damages our economy and undermines U.S. influence and soft power,” offered Meeks.

  • Newswire : Disdain for the poor: Job Corps shutdown sparks outrage

     Job Corps – careers begin here

    By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

    For over six decades, Job Corps has been one of the most effective federal programs aimed at helping disadvantaged youth overcome poverty. Created as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Economic Opportunity Act of 1964—a cornerstone of his War on Poverty—Job Corps has helped millions of low-income Americans gain education, housing, job skills, and a pathway to employment, particularly African Americans and other marginalized communities.
    Now, in what critics are calling a direct assault on America’s poor and working-class youth, the Trump administration is suspending operations at all Job Corps centers nationwide. The Department of Labor’s decision made public on May 30, has already resulted in thousands of students being abruptly sent home from residential campuses, leaving many with nowhere to go and no immediate support.
    From Detroit to Memphis to Clearfield, Utah, stories have emerged of stunned students and outraged parents. “Everybody right now don’t know what to do,” said Haley Hawkins, a student from the Dr. Benjamin L. Hooks Job Corps Center in Memphis. “They feel like this is a dead end.” In Detroit, 16-year-old Carleton Davis had just settled into the program when he and dozens of others were told to pack up and leave. His mother, recovering from breast cancer and recently unhoused, feared what would come next.
    The closures affect 99 contractor-operated centers and align with Trump’s fiscal year 2026 budget proposal. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer claimed the centers are no longer achieving the outcomes students deserve and cited financial strain as justification for the pause. But many lawmakers across party lines have condemned the move. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, blasted the decision, noting the value of centers in her home state. “They have become important pillars of support for some of our most disadvantaged young adults,” she said.
    Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) accused the administration of prioritizing “tax cuts for billionaires” over proven programs for poor and working-class youth. The stakes are enormous. Job Corps serves youth between the ages of 16 and 24, most of whom are low-income, have dropped out of school, or face other barriers to employment. Many have aged out of foster care, experienced homelessness, or had contact with the criminal justice system. The program offers not only training in skilled trades such as healthcare, auto tech, and culinary arts but also provides room, board, and wraparound services, including counseling and healthcare.
    Historically, the Job Corps has been especially vital to African Americans. According to data from the Cleveland Job Corps, the majority of its 12,000 graduates over two decades were Black women. Across the nation, the program has offered a rare safe harbor for Black and Brown youths seeking alternatives to crime and poverty.
    Its roots stretch back to the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s, which gave work to young men during the Great Depression. Modeled in part on the CCC, Job Corps was designed to serve both urban and rural youth, with a large portion of participants historically coming from the South and other poverty-stricken regions. Despite occasional criticisms over operational issues, Job Corps has demonstrated strong outcomes. Over 80% of graduates either enter the workforce, join the military, or pursue further education. Students typically improve at least two grade levels in literacy and math while enrolled.
    At its heart, the Job Corps mission remains simple yet powerful: provide vulnerable youth with a chance. “For so many people in this program, their lives have been very challenging,” former Labor Secretary Thomas Perez said recently. “Job Corps has been the game-changer.”
    With this administration’s decision, many said the message to low-income Americans—particularly African Americans and others in underserved communities—is loud and clear: support systems that have worked for decades are expendable. Programs that create opportunity, equity, and stability are being dismantled to make way for budget cuts that disproportionately favor the wealthy. “These aren’t kids in a youth home that got caught in a crime,” Pastor Mo, a Detroit minister and advocate, said. “These are kids who are trying to avoid getting caught in a crime.”

  • Newswire : Pentagon says: National Guard, Marine deployment in Los Angeles Costs $134 million

    Protestors in Los Angeles oppose deportation of immigrants and Trump’s military response

    By Bart Jansen, USA Today
    Defense officials said the Pentagon is spending $134 million to deploy 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to respond to protests against federal immigration enforcement in Los Angeles.
    Bryn MacDonnell, a special assistant to the secretary of Defense, said the cost for the 60-day deployment for travel, housing and food is coming out of operations and maintenance accounts.
    “What’s the justification for using the military for civilian law enforcement purposes in LA?” Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-California, asked at a House Appropriations subcommittee on the Defense Department’s budget. “Why are you sending warfighters to cities to interact with civilians?”
    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said President Donald Trump “believes in law and order. Every American citizen deserves to live in a city that’s safe,” Hegseth said. “We’re proud to do it.”
    As of Tuesday morning, June 10th, the Los Angeles Police Department reported 45 arrests related to the protests. Gov. Gavin Newsom of California has gone to Federal court to oppose President Trump’s calling in the National Guard, without his consent as the governor of the state.

    Aguilar said troops were seen sleeping on floors and not provided food, fuel or water from the Defense Department, reflecting a lack of preparation for the deployment.
    “I want to express my severe concern with the deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles without consultation with the state of California,” Aguilar said. “Why were we unprepared to provide them basic necessities?”
    Hegseth called the criticism “disingenuous” for a hasty deployment and said he was personally monitoring the mission.
    “There are moments when you make do as best you can temporarily,” Hegseth said. “We are ensuring they are housed, fed, water capabilities in real time – from my office because I care that much about the California Guard and the Marines.”

  • True Rate of Unemployment (TRU)soars past 24% — Black and Brown workers hit hardest

    By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

    Despite federal reports suggesting a stable labor market, new data from the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity (LISEP) reveals a far grimmer reality for American workers—particularly Black and Hispanic Americans.

    The institute’s April report on the True Rate of Unemployment (TRU) shows a functional unemployment rate of 24.3%, compared to the official Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) figure of 4.2%. The numbers mark the third consecutive month that functional unemployment has surpassed 24%, according to LISEP.

    The LISEP defines functional unemployment as the combined total of those without jobs, those unable to secure full-time employment, and those earning poverty-level wages—less than $20,000 per year adjusted for inflation.

    “We are facing a job market where nearly one in four workers are functionally unemployed, and current trends show little sign of improvement,” said LISEP Chair Gene Ludwig. “The harsh reality is that far too many Americans are still struggling to make ends meet.”

    Racial and gender disparities remain wide. Black workers saw a 1.4 percentage point increase in their TRU to 26.7%, while White workers experienced a slight decrease to 23%. The rate for Hispanic workers climbed to 28.2%, maintaining the highest among reported groups. A persistent gender gap also emerged in the data: functional unemployment for men rose to 20%, while women—though showing a slight improvement—still face a significantly higher rate at 28.6%.
    Beyond labor force disparities, BLS statistics further indicate a disproportionate impact on Black Americans. The unemployment rate for Black men remains at 6.3%, more than double that of White men. Meanwhile, since September, approximately 181,000 Black women have dropped out of the labor force entirely, even as participation rates among women of other racial groups have increased. The origins of this exodus stretch back to 2020 when millions of working mothers—particularly women of color—left the workforce amid the collapse of childcare infrastructure during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many have yet to return due to ongoing issues with affordability and accessibility.
    LISEP’s research paper, “Measuring Better,” outlines significant flaws in headline economic indicators such as GDP and BLS unemployment rates, labeling them misleading and outdated. Instead, LISEP advocates for measures that reflect the lived economic realities of most Americans—particularly those in working- and middle-class communities that have long been left behind by policy and prosperity.
    According to the paper, the methodology behind TRU includes only those working full-time and earning above poverty wages as “employed.” It excludes part-time workers who would prefer full-time employment and those earning less than $20,000 per year. This approach, LISEP argues, provides policymakers with a more accurate understanding of economic well-being and informs better decision-making for resource allocation. “The public would be well served by a commitment from economic policymakers to adopt a stable course of action, based on real-world metrics, that better serves the interests of working Americans,” Ludwig said.
    LISEP’s mission is to help achieve shared economic prosperity for all Americans, particularly for middle- and low-income families. Our focus is fact-based economic and policy research. For more information on the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity, visit their website at http://www.lisep.org.

  • Here comes the 50th: Black Belt Folk Roots Festival plans 50th community celebration

    By: Carol P. Zippert
    Festival Coordinator
     
        In  1975, the organizers of the first Black Belt Folk Roots Festival in Greene County, Jane and Hubert Sapp, perhaps did not envision that their phenomenal cultural celebration would endure to approach its 50th year.  However, it has come to past through the leadership of the Society of Folk Arts & Culture, the year 2025 will mark the 50th production of the festival scheduled for August 23-24.
        The festival was organized to pay tribute to those persons recognized as bearers of the folkway, traditions and culture of the West Alabama Region, exemplified through their creations in craft, music, storytelling and foodways.  As the elders move on, there are fewer old fashioned quilts and baskets, but the young folk come with their own brand of “handmade.” They bring a variety of jewelry and other adornments; home made soaps in exotic scents but with useful purposes. They bring art works depicting their views of the world, or just living in a day. They offer decorative items to cheer a body and a home. But the young crafters come and claim the festival in their own ways –  Here comes the 50th.
        The festival’s music stage continues.  Saturday’s blues recounts struggles, hardship and pain. Sunday’s gospel lifts the spirit in the joy of making it over. The grateful music is accented by the colorful crafts that adorn the grounds as well.
        Hopefully the 2025 Black Belt Folk Roots Festival will again feature the Kid’s Tent with hands-on art workshops. The Kid’s Tent is a special adventure for children at the festival.  They don’t have to do “grown folk stuff.” They have their own piece of the celebration.  Various art supplies are provided for the children to work at their own creations, which they can keep.  The Kid’s Tent also offers pottery making, face painting and games – Here comes the 50th.
         The Black Belt Folk Roots Festival is not a festival without the traditional foods. One could wonder, does the food make the people important or the people make the food important. However, the people and food are inseparable at the festival.  There are sufficient folk to crowd all the booths – seeking soul food dinners, Polish sausage and bear burgers, fried chicken or fish, deep fried skins and cracklin, tea cakes, pies, popcorn, snow cones and sometimes homemade ice cream and so much more – Here comes the 50th.
           There are costs in producing the festival and we are grateful there are contributors who value the festival.  The Alabama Tourism Department, Alabama Power Foundation, the Black Belt Community Foundation, grants from Legislators, other non-profits and local merchants support the production of the festival – Here comes the 50th.
        The participating artists receive travel honoraria and they always accept what we are able to provide. There are technicians and ground workers to support as well; tents, tables and chairs to rent.  One local couple brings their shop fans to keep us cool under the big tent. The festival belongs to everyone.  City and county governments render invaluable in-kind services including making restrooms in the courthouse accessible to festival goers; assisting with traffic, parking, vendors set-up and general safety.  The festival features another important health safety measure, vaccinations and testing are available on the grounds, provided by Rural Alabama Prevention Center, directed by Mrs. Loretta Wilson – Here comes the 50th.
        This festival is unique in that there is no admission charge, simply because it is a community celebration. It would be like charging your family a fee to come home for Thanksgiving. The festival brings people together because they need and desire to be together – Here comes the 50th.
        The 2025 annual Black Belt Folk Roots Festival is scheduled for Saturday, August 23 and Sunday, August 24, on the Rev. Thomas Gilmore Square (the old courthouse square, downtown Eutaw, AL). We look forward to seeing you at our community celebration – Here comes the 50th.


    For more information contact: Carol Zippert at zippert.carol79@gmail.com or 205-372-0525.

     

     

     

  • Newswire : Defending Medicaid cuts, Ernst tells Iowans, ‘We all are going to die’

    Senator Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa, on Capitol Hill in January.Credit…Eric Lee/The New York Times
     

    By Annie Karni, New York Times


    Senator Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa, had a gloomy message for constituents at a town hall in Butler County, Iowa, on Friday morning: “We all are going to die.”
    Ms. Ernst was fielding questions about cuts to Medicaid that were included in the domestic policy bill working its way through Congress, when someone in the audience yelled out that the effect would be that “people are going to die.”
    “Well, we all are going to die,” Ms. Ernst responded, drawing jeers from the crowd.
    Ms. Ernst appeared taken aback by the negative response. “For heaven’s sakes, folks,” she said.
    Democrats moved quickly to call attention to the comment from Ms. Ernst, a second-term lawmaker who is up for re-election next year. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee circulated a video clip of the moment, calling Ms. Ernst’s remark “stunningly callous” and saying that it came as Republicans in Congress were pushing massive cuts to Medicaid that would leave “millions of Americans uninsured in order to pay for a tax giveaway for billionaires.”

    The sprawling legislation Ms. Ernst was discussing, which contains a $4 trillion tax cut that would provide the biggest savings to the wealthy, also would make several changes to Medicaid, including adding a strict new work requirement, an end to state provider taxes to help states match Federal funds, and other steps. The independent, nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected that the bill would cause around 10 million Americans to become uninsured.
    Ms. Ernst’s comment on Friday came after town hall attendees interrupted her as she was highlighting provisions in the domestic policy measure that seek to ensure that undocumented immigrants, who are not eligible to enroll in Medicaid, would not receive any services. As they defend the legislation, Republicans often refer to that aspect of it, suggesting that the only major changes it would make to Medicaid would be cracking down on waste and abuse in the program, including illegal use by undocumented people.
    Still, it is the more morbid portion of Ms. Ernst’s remarks that Democrats are likely to play on repeat in campaign ads against her in the coming months.
    Ms. Ernst’s Democratic challenger Nathan Sage, a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq and currently leads the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce, was in the audience and said he was stunned when he heard her remark.
    “It was this jaw-dropping moment — how the hell can you say something like that?” Mr. Sage said in an interview. “The crowd was already hot. She was there to answer questions and get out. It just showed she doesn’t care about us.”
    Mr. Sage said he attended the town hall to hear voters’ top concerns. “The overall feeling from everyone in the room was she’s doing what she needs to do to keep her job,” he said.
    With her re-election top of mind, Ms. Ernst, a survivor of sexual assault and the Senate’s first female combat veteran, earlier this year caved to a right-wing pressure campaign and voted to confirm Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth despite expressing reservations about his bid.
    In a statement, a spokesman for Ms. Ernst said that Democrats were trying to “fearmonger against strengthening the integrity of Medicaid.”
    The spokesman added: “There’s only two certainties in life: death and taxes, and she’s working to ease the burden of both by fighting to keep more of Iowans’ hard-earned tax dollars in their own pockets and ensuring their benefits are protected from waste, fraud, and abuse.”

     

  • Newswire : Courts to review legality of Trump’s tariffs

    By April Ryan, NNPA White House Correspondent

    The Trump White House vows to appeal the three-judge panel of the United States Court of International Trade’s ruling that the proposed presidential tariffs exceed his legal authority. This ruling means neither President Trump nor his administration can arbitrarily invoke tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977.
    The three judges appointed by former Presidents Reagan, Obama, and Trump unanimously made the decision. The courts essentially deemed the president’s tariff declaration invalid. Democratic Texas Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett says President Trump “has a lot of emergencies in his mind for sure.” However, Crockett emphasized that this nation is not in an emergency to declare tariffs. “That act declared we are under siege. We are not at war,” assured Crockett.
    Congress, which typically holds the purse strings under the Constitution, regulates import commerce with foreign nations. Michigan Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Dingle believes “it’s a win for consumers. It will not immediately increase costs in stores, which is what I’m worried about. But what’s the next step?” At the White House podium this week, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the courts should have no role here. There is a troubling and dangerous trend of unelected judges inserting themselves into the presidential decision-making process.”
    However, the ruling temporarily alleviates growing concerns about the cost of imports, from food to cars and more.  Thursday, Dingle told Black Press USA in Mackinac, Michigan, at the Detroit Regional Chamber of Congress Meeting, “Every industry needs certainty, and they’re all dealing with a lot of uncertainty. The autos don’t want to be a ping pong ball. They’re too trying to keep their heads down and figure it out. So what we need for the industry and other companies is certainty.” The Trump administration has already filed motions to change the decision. Meanwhile, Crockett, a lawyer turned politician, says she’s “excited that some branch of government put a check on the executor.”

  • Newswire : Stolen, returned, remembered: 19 Black Americans reburied in New Orleans

    African drummers participate in funeral ceremony for the remains of 19 Black Americans returned by Germany university and  New Orleans Second Line

    By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

    More than 150 years after their crania were taken from New Orleans and shipped to Germany for racist scientific experiments, 19 Black Americans were finally laid to rest. In a moving display of remembrance and restoration, Dillard University, the City of New Orleans, and University Medical Center held a traditional jazz funeral and memorial service to honor the 13 men, four women, and two unidentified individuals whose remains were stolen in the 1870s by a local physician and sent overseas.

    The ceremony, held on May 31, included student pallbearers, an interfaith service, and a burial at the Katrina Memorial. “This was not just an act of remembrance,” Dr. Eva Baham, chair of the Repatriation Committee and former Dillard professor, said during an appearance on Black Press USA’s Let It Be Known News morning show. “It was a restoration of humanity.”

    Each person was memorialized in a handcrafted funeral vessel etched with their name, age, and date of death. The vessels featured Adinkra symbols representing universal spirituality and were carried by students from universities in the New Orleans area. The service involved multiple faiths—including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, SGI Buddhism, the Baha’i tradition, and West African rituals—to honor the unknown spiritual identities of the deceased. “This was deeply cultural and deeply intentional,” Baham said. “We weren’t going to bring them home just to store them away. They were brought back with reverence and sealed into the earth.”
    The repatriation followed a 2023 outreach by the University of Leipzig, where the crania had been housed for over a century. Researchers there acknowledged the harm done and initiated the return. The remains, all traced to individuals who died at Charity Hospital in 1871 and 1872, were taken during a time when pseudoscience like phrenology falsely claimed to measure intelligence and inferiority by skull shape—an ideology used to justify slavery and racial hierarchy.
    “This is how we begin to heal from the atrocities committed in the name of science,” Baham said. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, Dillard University President Monique Guillory, and community leaders led the ceremony. The final resting place, the Katrina Memorial, sits near the historic grounds where Charity Hospital once buried the poor and marginalized. “We may never know where their full bodies are,” Baham noted. “But perhaps—just perhaps—we brought them back together in spirit.”

  • Newswire : New highly infectious COVID-19 variant detected in the U.S.

    Patient getting a vaccination for COVID-19

    By Headline Smart

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed the presence of a new, highly infectious COVID-19 variant in the United States, including New York City. The variant, known as NB.1.81, was initially detected in the U.S. in late March and early April among international travelers arriving at airports in California, Washington State, Virginia, and New York City. Additional cases have since been reported in Ohio, Rhode Island, and Hawaii.
    The CDC has stated that the number of cases in the U.S. is currently too small to be accurately tracked in the agency’s variant estimates. However, experts are raising concerns due to the variant’s rapid spread in China, where it has become the dominant strain. The variant has led to a significant increase in COVID-19 cases across Asia, with China experiencing a surge in hospitalizations and emergency room visits.
    Hong Kong authorities have reported a significant increase in COVID-19 cases, reaching the highest levels in at least a year. This surge has been attributed to the NB.1.81 variant, which has resulted in 81 severe cases in the past month, including 30 deaths. Most of these cases have been among adults aged 65 and older.
    In mainland China, the percentage of patients visiting the ER due to COVID-19 has more than doubled in the past month, from 7.5% to over 16%, according to public health authorities. The percentage of people hospitalized for COVID-19 in China has also doubled, reaching over 6%.
    Despite these statistics, the Beijing-controlled government in Hong Kong has downplayed the severity of the variant, stating that it does not appear to be more dangerous than previous variants. However, experts warn that the variant’s rapid spread in China, Hong Kong, and other areas indicates an increase in hospitalizations.
    The CDC’s airport tests have revealed the extent of the variant’s spread, with infected travelers having passed through China, Japan, South Korea, France, Thailand, the Netherlands, Spain, Vietnam, and Taiwan. Like other forms of COVID-19, the variant can cause symptoms such as coughing, a sore throat, fever, and fatigue.
    Experts have noted that the new variant appears to spread more easily, although it does not seem to be more severe. However, Dr. Edwin Tsui, the head of Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection, has warned that the variant should not be taken lightly, as evidence suggests it may have evolved to further evade the protections of COVID vaccines.
    The CDC has recently announced that it will no longer recommend that healthy children and pregnant women receive the COVID-19 vaccine. This decision comes as the Trump administration plans to limit annual booster vaccines to seniors and other high-risk groups.
    The shift in the federal response to stopping covid vaccines for certain segments of society and the increase in cases of measles and the uptick in COVID and flu at the beginning of the year has Americans pondering what we know or don’t know. Medical professionals are concerned there is something else on the horizon. Bird flu is a concern. Dr. Jehan El-bayoumi, a practicing physician and instructor at Georgetown University Medical Center spoke with Black Press USA on the rise in these illnesses and concerns the medical profession has.