THE VOICE OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY SINCE 1934
April 9-15, 2020 Vol. 86 No. 36
85Anniversary
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1934 - 20 19
“AS IT WAS SPOKEN ... LET US RECORD.”
MN doctors on the cutting edge of COVID-19 fight By Mel Reeves Community editor
EDITOR’S NOTE: Minnesota doctors and researchers are on the cutting edge leading the fight in the war against COVID-19. Doctors and researchers at the University of Minnesota and Mayo Clinic are searching for medications that help ease the effects of the virus, including a process of plasma transfer, while also working to develop a vaccine. MSR’s regular health columnist and medical advisor Dr. Charles Crutchfield helped facilitate interviews with two physicians engaged in combatting the pandemic: Dr. David Hamlar (DH), assistant professor of the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Minnesota, and Dr. Michael Joyner of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. Crutchfield himself will provide further information and updates in the next issue of the MSR.
Push for plasma treatment underway
No ‘new normal’ until August
coughs or sneezes. These droplets can land in the mouths or noses of those who are nearby or potentially be inhaled into the lungs. The droplets are airborne through aerosolization [producing a fine mist of minute particles]. MSR: How does one actually contract the virus? DH: The COVID-19 virus can live in any living cell. It is transmitted primarily via the aero-digestive system, meaning airways and oral mucosa. Dr. David Hamlar MSR: Has anything been found to be effective in fightMSR file photo ing off the effects of the virus? DH: Peridex or chlorhexiMSR: Incredibly, Dr. Hamlar, despite of the number of dine has been found to decases and deaths, there are crease the viral load but not some in our community call- eliminate the virus itself. MSR: There has been talk ing the coronavirus a conspiracy or hoax. What do you say about anti-virals being effective in helping those who have to them? Dr. David Hamlar: This is no hoax! MSR: Why has the CDC and others recommended people stay six feet apart? DH: People who are within six feet of one another may contracted the virus to fight it spread the virus through re- off. Tell us more about that. DH: Antivirals are the spiratory droplets produced when an infected person same medications initially uti-
lized in HIV-positive patients who contracted AIDS. These seemed to lessen the symptoms if not reduce the viral
Dr. Michael Joyner: It inAt Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Dr. Michael Joyner (MJ) volves taking antibody-rich plasma from the blood of patients who have survived COVID-19, then infusing it into those who are ill to help their bodies fight off the disease. The approach is known as “convalescent plasma treatment.” MSR: Why is it called convalescent plasma treatment? MJ: It’s called convales- Dr. Michael Joyner cent because the word refers Photo Courtesy Mayo Clinic to when people are getting better. What happened is my friend MSR: You spent most of Dr. Arturo Casadevalle at John Hopkins wrote an editorial in the Wall Street Journal discussing the historical use of convalescent plasma. is part of a group of experts I reached out to Arturo, who are pursuing a unique and since we have a large but time-tested treatment to network of collaborators, we help patients with COVID-19 reached out to them. This was fight off the virus. Convalesme repurposing my career cent plasma treatment has for a few months in my lab to been used historically to treat help attack this problem, to infectious diseases before the your career as a physiologist. see if we could find some way How did you get involved in to push back. discovery of vaccines. MSR: What is involved this? I have thrown in with ArMJ: That’s true, and I turo and want to help him in convalescent plasma treatam also an anesthesiologist. move this forward. He is ment?
"We want to stop people deteriorating as they go from sick to the ICU."
load and increase the CD4-T cell count.
“This is a virus that will be with us for prolonged periods until a vaccine is found.” MSR: What makes the virus fatal? DH: COVID-19 deaths are attributed to pulmonary or ■See HAMLAR on page 5
■See JOYNER on page 5
Dying to work: Frontline workers bear the brunt of lethal virus By Mel Reeves Community editor
Many must choose between safety and paying the bills
“The organizer’s conduct was immoral, unacceptable, and arguably illegal,” is how an Amazon official sought to frame the efforts of one of its workers who was fired by the company. The worker, Christian Smalls, had tried to bring attention to unsafe working conditions at an Amazon warehouse in New York City. Smalls had complained about the lack of gloves and masks and that the company had not been forthcoming in sharing with workers that others in the warehouse had contracted the virus, putting everyone at risk. The official Amazon gen-
eral counsel David Zapolsky also said about Smalls that he was not “smart or articulate.” Ironically, Smalls has told his story to several national news outlets, including a major news network. Nationally, workers have voiced similar complaints about a lack of protective equipment such as masks, inefficient sanitizing of work spaces, and failure by some employers to honor the social distancing as recommended by the CDC to protect themselves from contracting the coronavirus. Many have expressed anxiety about facing a kind of “Sophie’s Choice,” that is, forced
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Amazon workers in New York protest unsafe conditions.
to choose between going to work and possibly risk being exposed to the coronavirus or staying at home and not being able to put food on the table or pay bills. The MSR last weekend asked a few employees at one of the local Minneapolis Cub stores why they were not wearing masks. Two of them said management had told them they didn’t want them to wear masks. They said management cited the CDC as declaring people do not need to wear masks to be safe from contracting COVID-19. Asked if management had been informed that the CDC has since changed its guide-
Photos courtesy of Christian Smalls
lines, they said they were not sure. “I hope it changes,” said one employee who wished to remain anonymous.” I definitely want to protect myself.” Amazon fired Smalls last week after he led a walkout by a number of employees at a Staten Island distribution warehouse. Amazon says he was fired for violating a company-imposed 14-day quarantine after he came into contact with an employee who tested positive for the coronavirus. Smalls disputes this, saying the employee who tested positive came into contact with many other workers for longer periods of time before their test came back. He said he was singled out because he wanted the company to sanitize the work area and be forthright about the numbers of fellow workers who had contracted the virus. Amazon workers have been particularly vocal across the country as social media has shared protests by workers holding signs denouncing their working conditions. "This disease is killing people on a daily basis," one worker who wished to remain anonymous told Business Insider. "As people are testing positive for it where I work, they still expect for us to
St. Paul’s North High gears up for distance learning By Analise Elle Contributing writer St. Paul Public Schools have had several weeks of cancelled classes to prepare their distance learning programs, a largely electronic substitute in lieu of face-to-face class time, as part of the CO-
VID-19 response plan. For North High School, part of that strategic process was equipping nearly 1,700 students with laptops in a short amount of time. As teachers worked tirelessly on designing and
adjusting their course materials, North High School support staff, paraprofessionals, and education assistants all pitched in to unbox and label computers and then get them synced up with the district system.
■See NORTH HIGH on page 5
Christian Smalls protesting outside Amazon Photos courtesy of Christian Smalls come there." The U.S. Postal Service has signed a petition asking for better confirmed that 259 employees protections. The Washington Post on Monhave tested positive for the virus in its workforce of 630,000. day reported that four grocery To date, two letter carriers in store workers have died after New York City, one in Mont- contracting the novel coronavirus. gomery, Alabama and one in Two were Walmart workers who
“We are the power. If they are not caring about your well-being, then walk out!” Detroit have died after contracting the virus. The Postal Service has reportedly sought to make gloves and masks available in all of its work stations, but employees still say basic items are not available. More than 85,000 workers have
worked at the Evergreen Park Walmart in Chicago, one was a worker at Trader Joes in Scarsdale, New York, and another was a grocery greeter at a Giant store in Largo, Maryland. A Detroit bus driver whose Facebook rant warned ■See AMAZON on page 5