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On Saturday, Rev. Al Sharpton and the National Action Network will distribute free masks and meals in Harlem, N.Y. and in Newark, N.J.

In the wake of the unprecedented emergency impacting the country due to coronavirus (COVID-19) and new mandates by the governors of New York and New Jersey that residents must wear masks in public, Rev. Al Sharpton and NAN will give away free masks and pre-packaged meals in Harlem, New York and Newark, NJ.

Inner-city residents must follow this mandate to ensure public health and safety, and we are going one step further, by giving away masks to those who need it most, said Reverend Al Sharpton. In times of stress and struggle, we all need to support one another.

Saturday, April 18, 2020 12 NOON

HARLEM

NANS House of Justice

106 West 145th Street at Malcolm X. Blvd.

Rev. Al Sharpton will distribute masks and food

NEWARK

NAN TechWorld

400 Hawthorne Avenue, Newark, New Jersey

Pastor Steffie Bartley, NAN NJ, will distribute masks and food

About National Action Network

(NAN) National Action Network is one of the leading civil rights organizations in the nation with chapters throughout the entire United States. Founded in 1991 by Reverend Al Sharpton, NAN works within the spirit and tradition of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to promote a modern civil rights agenda that includes the fight for one standard of justice, decency and equal opportunities for all people regardless of race, religion, nationality or gender.

For more information go to http://www.nationalactionnetwork.net.

Original post:
NATIONAL ACTION NETWORK WILL DISTRIBUTE FREE MASKS, MEALS IN HARLEM AND NEWARK - Black Star News

Every day, we are inundated with information about the horrors of the coronavirus pandemic. We hear about the rising number of deaths, the increasing rate of infections, the mental anguish, the shortages of critical supplies in hospitals, the people struggling to pay bills and survive, the long lines at food banks and so much more. But lost in the coverage of this virus is one critical point that we simply cannot ignore: the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on African Americans and disenfranchised communities.

To be clear, I am not saying the pandemic is a conspiracy to kill or target Blacks, but it is illuminating the existing racial disparities in this country.

To be clear, I am not saying the pandemic is a conspiracy to kill or target Blacks, but it is illuminating the existing racial disparities in this country that reverberate in everything from health care to jobs, housing and more. We are watching a crisis within a crisis unfold before us, and our challenge is not just to expose it but also to ensure that when we rebuild and re-emerge, we take strategic steps to rectify it.

ProPublica recently released a report on the alarming rate at which Black Americans have contracted and died from COVID-19. The report notes that Black Chicagoans account for half of all coronavirus cases in the city and more than 70 percent of deaths, even though they make up only about 30 percent of the city's population. In Milwaukee County, Blacks comprised almost half of all cases and 81 percent of its deaths even though the Black population is only 26 percent in that area. In Michigan, the state's population is 14 percent Black, but Blacks make up 40 percent of deaths. In Louisiana, the Black population is about 32 percent of the total, but more than 70 percent of people who have died from the virus are Black, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.

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On Wednesday, data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention backed up this reporting. The CDC analysis includes data from hundreds of patients from 14 states and found that, in the data available, significantly more patients were white than Black.

But the racial inequality becomes even more apparent when you factor in pre-existing conditions and the imbalances and disparities that have long persisted in our community. African Americans suffer from higher rates of underlying health conditions like heart disease, diabetes, asthma, hypertension and more all of which increase the likelihood of death or serious illness due to coronavirus. The inability to get access to good health care or medical assistance in everyday life and, of course, during this pandemic also greatly impacts the Black community and poorer communities. Environmental issues like air quality and water quality, as well as inadequate housing, also disproportionately impact Black Americans and other communities of color.

When you are living in a housing project or crowded buildings with multiple family members, you don't have the luxury to socially distance. When you don't have the luxury to work from home, you can't avoid getting on a subway, a bus or other forms of public transportation to go to work. Ditto when you can't afford your own car, can't afford an Uber or can't afford a cab ride. It's easy to socially distance in the suburbs or in affluent neighborhoods, but it becomes nearly impossible in crowded urban areas and in lower-income neighborhoods.

As we continue to grapple with the new normal and try to come together as a nation to battle this vicious pandemic, we cannot simply gloss over the toll this horrendous virus has taken on the Black community. As the CDC numbers show, we are only just starting to understand the danger this pandemic poses to Black Americans in the days, weeks and months ahead. These societal disparities existed long before the virus, but they are now magnified before us.

We must flatten the curve, but we must also flatten inequality in health care, the economy, access to nutritious food and overall quality of life. It is the only way we can truly emerge from this tragedy with a semblance of hope for the future.

Related:

With over 40 years of experience as a community leader, politician, minister and advocate, the Rev. Al Sharpton has held such notable positions as youth director of New York's Operation Breadbasket, director of ministers for the National Rainbow Push coalition and founder of his own broad-based progressive civil rights organization, the National Action Network. He hosts "PoliticsNation," which airs from 5 to 6 p.m. ET on weekends on MSNBC.

See more here:
Coronavirus deaths in the U.S. reveal a startling truth about America's 'two pandemics' - NBC News

MSNBC host Rev. Al Sharpton asked Dr. Anthony Fauci when it occurred to him that the coronavirus had become a serious problem.

Fauci explained that there was always some indication that there was danger. But he claimed that the information coming out of China was wrong until the end of December. Trump has claimed China, saying that they lied to the United States and blamed the World Health Organization for perpetuating it. Whether that is true or not, Fauci made it clear that the United States knew this was a problem at the end of December and by the end of January, it was known that the virus was spreading from person to person.

They said it was something like 24 cases in this wet market, where these exotic animals are sold and there is a human/animal interface, said Fauci. The proposal made by the authorities in China where this was just jumping from an animal to a human, and it wasnt spread from human-to-human. Then it became clear, when you look back, that it was likely in China that there was human-to-human spread. By the time we got that information and we started getting cases here, it was, well, its not efficiently spread from human-to-human. As soon as it became clear that there was community spread, which means that it isnt just a travel-related case, that there are cases that are in the community under the radar screen, then it became clear that we were in real trouble.

Sharpton asked when that was and Fauci said that it was toward the middle to end of January.

And did you begin advising the administration and those authorities that we were, in fact, seeing something different here and this could be a major problem at that time? asked Sharpton.

You bet, Fauci said emphatically. And then thats when it became clear that there are a couple of ways of addressing that. You could either prevent or try to block the influx of new cases from out of the country, and already cases had come in from China, to try to say, Thats it, we got to stop that because now we already have cases here. And then it switched to Europe, and when Italy had their outbreak, it became clear that that became a danger. So, thats when cases were cut off from coming in from Europe and then, ultimately, the U.K. but by that time we had enough cases in our own country that the ability to do the containment slipped then into the need for mitigation and we saw what happened in New York.

Trump attacked the media Sunday, saying they criticized him for shutting down China. But Fauci explained it was too little too late by the time Trump declared the ban. By the time he banned Europe it was even later.

Sharpton explained it was clear the US was behind the ball. Fauci agreed, explaining that it was clearly too little too late.

Watch the full interview below:

then let us make a small request. The COVID crisis has cut advertising rates in half, and we need your help. Like you, we here at Raw Story believe in the power of progressive journalism. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnstons DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. Weve exposed billionaire tax evasion and uncovered White House efforts to poison our water. Weve revealed financial scams that prey on veterans, and legal efforts to harm workers exploited by abusive bosses. And unlike other news outlets, weve decided to make our original content free. But we need your support to do what we do.

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Read this article:
Dr. Fauci explains why Trumps travel bans didnt work and he was begging action as early as mid-January - Raw Story

It looks like the coronavirus is taking a harder toll on Hispanic and black New Yorkers thanks to issues that mostly cant be addressed until the crisis is over.

Nationwide, the underlying issue seems to be a disparity in preexisting conditions, reports the US governments top infectious-disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci: Its not that they are getting infected more often, its that when they do get infected, their underlying medical conditions the diabetes, hypertension, the obesity, the asthma those are the kind of things that wind them up in the ICU and ultimately give them a higher death rate.

In the city, at least, blacks and Hispanics may well face greater exposure to the virus, since theyre likely a more-than-fair share of the essential workers still riding (and operating!) the subways and generally taking greater risks.

Fauci suggests the pandemic will ultimately shine a very bright light on some of the real weaknesses and foibles in our society, such that these issues will get the nations attention in the months ahead.

But the hard truth is that theyre extremely difficult to address.

Poverty, of course, drives much of the problem: Healthy eating takes more money or more time, care and energy, which often comes down to the same thing. And awareness of the dangers tends to go along with higher incomes and higher education.

The Bronx has long ranked as the states least-healthy county in yearly lists from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. That prompted Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. to create the #Not62 campaign to improve health outcomes for the boroughs predominately Hispanic and black residents by targeting the underlying social, economic and environmental factors. But progress is painfully slow.

How aggressive should we go? This problem was the target of any of Mayor Michael Bloombergs nanny-state policies, from his (fairly successful) drive to marginalize smoking to his (largely failed) efforts to ban Big Gulp sodas, discourage high-salt and high-fat diets and so on.

He even experimented (using private, not public, money) with bribing people into leading healthier lifestyles. None of it won him much popularity.

Nor does it help that prominent leaders like the Rev. Al Sharpton can be bought off by Big Tobacco to defend menthol cigarettes and vaping products against public-health efforts.

When it comes to disparities in public health, the weaknesses and foibles in our society are a lot more complicated than anything as simple as racial prejudice.

See the rest here:
Race and coronavirus: There are no easy answers - New York Post

Source: Prince Williams / Getty

Sean Diddy Combs is known for his signature dance moves and now he wants to share the dance floor with the worldvirtually that is. The hip-hop mogul will be hosting a Dance-A-Thon today (April 12) via Instagram in order to raise money for healthcare workers in underserved communities.

Me and my family are having a dance-a-thon the whole world is invited, he said in his Instagram announcement. We on lockdown, but we want to dance.

The Bad Boy CEO has partnered with Direct Relief and has called on celebrities like Megan thee Stallion, Snoop Dogg, Jennifer Lopez, Swizz Beatz, Shaquille ONeal, Alicia Keys, Drake, Will Smith, Chris Brown, Oprah Winfrey, Drake, DJ Khaled, Lizzo, Kelly Rowland, Janelle Monae, Ciara and many more to participate. All six of Diddys children will be participating as well.

Diddy also hosted a town hall meeting about the COVID-19 pandemic last week in Revolt TV. OnState of Black America & The Coronavirus, Diddy moderated a discussion about his COVID-19 is significantly affecting the African-American communities. Panelists included Senator Kamala Harris, Angela Rye, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Van Jones Meek Mill and New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell.

He also has been urging people to get involved and stay informed so we can help those in need as much as we can.

Over the next few days Ill be locked in and focused on finding ways to directly support our healthcare workers but I dont have all the answers, he said on Instagram. If you want to help or have any great ideas, please reach out to me now! God bless us all.

COVID-19 has been killing African-Americans at a higher rate due us having more preexisting health conditions than other races.

African-Americans have more of the underlying health conditions associated with fatality (among those with coronavirus); the heart disease, diabetes, asthma, obesity, Dr. Jeanette Kowalik told BBC News.

Tune into the Dance-A-Thon today at 3 p.m EST via Diddys Instagram. Take a look at his Instagram announcements below.

More here:
Diddy Is Hosting A Dance-A-Thon To Benefit Healthcare Workers - MadameNoire