Daily Lobo 2/3/20

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Daily Lobo new mexico

N e w M e x ic

DAILY

By Joe Rull @rulljoe

The University of New Mexico’s Emergency Management department issued a university-wide statement on Friday informing students about the novel coronavirus outbreak. The flu-like illness has infected over 16,000 people globally and taken at least 304 lives to date, according to the World Health Organization, which declared the outbreak a global health emergency last week. Originating in Wuhan, China, the coronavirus has spread to at least 25 countries, including the United States where a ninth case was confirmed on Feb. 2, in California. The news comes days after U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar II declared a public health emergency for the entire country. Despite the rising number of confirmed cases across the globe, UNM officials assure students the outbreak in its current state doesn’t pose an urgent risk to New Mexican residents. UNM Student Health and Counseling (SHAC) Infection Control Officer Lisa Leahigh said the risk in the United States and particularly in New Mexico is very low. “The World Health Organization, in terms of their declaration of it being an emergency, is not so much their concern of places like the United

States, but more for countries that have a poor healthcare infrastructure being able to respond to an infectious disease outbreak,” Leahigh said. “We’re less at risk here in the United States and in New Mexico particularly and on campus. You keep boiling that down smaller and smaller, so we’re at very low risk.” News of a confirmed case of coronavirus on Arizona State University campus hit home for many New Mexicans just a state away. Officials at UNM say they have established a course of action in the event that the coronavirus reaches UNM, though were reluctant to delve into detail. “We absolutely have plans in place, but we don’t generally talk about what our tactical response policy is,” said Byron Piatt, UNM’s Emergency Manager. Piatt said he believes healthcare professionals in the United States could mitigate human-to-human spread of the virus. While Piatt declined to describe UNM’s procedure set to address a hypothetical coronavirus case on campus, UNM SHAC Interim Executive Director Dr. James Wilterding offered insight into what could take place. “Let’s say someone comes in here and we decided that they’ve potentially been exposed and that they have symptoms consistent with coronavirus,” Wilterding said. “We’d immediately contact [the Depart-

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Coronavirus page 2

@loreena_cain Layla Saad, author of “Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World and Become a Good Ancestor” visited Bookworks in Albuquerque as a stop on her national book tour. The Jan. 31 event filled the small store, leaving only standing room after the chairs were filled. Saad spoke not only about her book but about racism and

how it appears especially in liberal white women. Saad published her book “Me and White Supremacy” in 2019. The book guides readers through a 28-day journey to recognize and take steps towards eliminating the ways readers unwittingly participate in white supremacy. While the first 28-days are designed to start this journey, Saad makes it clear that combating racism and white supremacy is a lifelong endeavor. During the event Saad also teased that she is working on a children’s book, to help chil-

Emille Domschot / @erdomschot / Daily Lobo

NM LEGISLATURE

Vaping bills advance By Lissa Knudsen

dren understand white supremacy. Saad began getting public attention in 2017 when she wrote a controversial article called “I Need to Talk to Spiritual White Women about White Supremacy.” While many people resonated with the article and it earned Saad a large online following, she also got some very negative reactions online. After the publication of this article, Saad said she remembers, “Every time I go into my inbox, I don’t know whether it’s

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Amanda Britt / @AmandaBritt__ / Daily Lobo

RULL: UNM officials deem campus low-risk for coronavirus BRITT: Home is where the heart is: UNM prof discusses history of houses

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Guests experience a room of fractals and mirrors at Electric Playhouse on Saturday, February 1.

Author Layla Saad talks about her book “Me and White Supremacy” at Bookworks in Albuquerque on Jan. 31, 2020.

Inside this Lobo

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ELECTRIC PLAYHOUSE: see page 6 for photo story

Author Layla Saad combats white supremacy By Loreena Cain

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The Independent Student Voice of UNM since 1895

UNM officials downplay coronavirus threat on campus

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@lissaknudsen New Mexico is one step closer to establishing a licensure process for e-cigarette and other tobacco product retailers and raising the age of purchase of all tobacco products to twenty-one. Senate Bill 131, the Tobacco Products Act, sponsored by Sen. Linda Lopez cleared the Senate Public Affairs Committee on Friday Jan 31, with a unanimous do pass. Though the bill moved easily through the Senate Public Affairs Committee, there are two possible amendments that don’t bode well for the bill: local preemption and banning flavors. Local preemption gives governments “the right to be even stricter with their tobacco laws than (the state) is,” said Rep. Liz Thomson in an interview with the Daily Lobo. “(The vaping) industry wants that out and the City of Albuquerque and some of the advocates… the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association, and the American Cancer Society want to keep that in,” Thomson said. She went on to explain the bill could mean that if the state did not ban e-cigarette retailers from selling flavors, the City of Albuquerque, for example, would be allowed to do so.

The other issue of contention is banning flavors. According to Gregory Conley, the president of the American Vaping Association, about 90% of vape shops sales are made up of fruit and sweet flavors. “Flavors were actually invented in these products because consumers back in 2009/2010. Long before the tobacco industry even thought e-cigarettes were viable, they demanded flavors… they started creating their own and so the industry responded,” said Conley in an interview on CSPAN. Thomson, on the other hand, said flavors are the gateway to youth addiction and that she begged the governor’s staff to include a ban in this year’s message but they declined. According to Thomson, the governor’s office told her, “until we have the licensure in place it would be really hard to police (a flavor ban), so they want to get the licensing in place first and then my plan, anyway, is to go after flavors next year.” The recent e-cigarette epidemic among youth prompted the U.S. Surgeon General to release an advisory calling for action. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website,“e-cigarette use increased 78% among high school students..., from 11.7% in 2017 to 20.8% in 2018. In 2018, more than 3.6 million U.S. youth, including 1 in 5 high school students and 1 in 20

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