COVID-19 crisis expanding gender pay gap, British study finds

Friday's study found that the retail, food services, hospitality and other female-dominated sectors have absorbed some of the largest impacts from the pandemic. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Job discrimination, the collapse of the child-care sector and COVID-19's curtailing of female-dominated work has led to a wider gender pay gap in Britain and likely elsewhere, authors of a study said Friday.

The Fawcett Society marks Friday as Equal Pay Day, an observance that is made on varying dates of the year by nations and organizations. The group said in the study that 43% of all working women and half of working women of color in Britain are worried about how their jobs and promotions are affected by the pandemic, as are 35% of working men.


The report also noted that a third of working women said they have lost work due to child-care issues related to the pandemic.

"To date, there has been limited assessment by the [British] government of the impact of coronavirus policies by gender," the report states.

"There is growing evidence to suggest we may be turning the clock back, but there are also signs of hope that a more gender-equal future is possible. This report calls for action if we want that better future to be realized."

Researchers say that although the British government asked private employers two years ago to reveal gender pay information, only half of them did so.

Available data have shown pregnant women and new mothers saw a greater rate of job discrimination. Friday's report called on the British government to create laws that would give them stronger protections in the workplace.

The study also found that the retail, food services, hospitality and other female-dominated sectors absorbed some of the largest impacts from the pandemic, and women have been furloughed or lost their jobs at a disproportionate rate.

"We know that women working in these sectors are disproportionately low paid, young or migrant women," it said. "While the full redundancy fallout of coronavirus is yet to be felt, many sectors with large female workforces have seen some of the largest falls in the number of jobs."

The Fawcett Society asked the British government to conduct and publish equity impact assessments for new job support or creation plans to better serve women workers.

Managers At A Tyson Pork Plant Placed Bets On How Many Workers Would Get COVID-19, A Lawsuit Alleges

"At least one worker at the facility vomited on the production line and management allowed him to continue working and return to work the next day," the lawsuit alleges.

Salvador Hernandez BuzzFeed News Reporter
Last updated on November 19, 2020

Charlie Neibergall / AP
Managers at a Tyson Foods plant in Waterloo, Iowa, rejected pleas from local officials to temporarily shut down during the pandemic and placed bets on how many workers would end up getting COVID-19, according to a recently filed lawsuit.


The family of Isidro Fernandez, a worker at the plant who died of COVID-19, filed the lawsuit, alleging Tyson Foods downplayed the spread of the coronavirus among its workforce and incentivized employees to come in when they were sick.

"At least one worker at the facility vomited on the production line and management allowed him to continue working and return to work the next day," the complaint alleges.

Then, as workers were being infected with COVID-19, a plant manager organized a "cash buy-in, winner-take-all" betting pool to see how many workers would end up testing positive for the virus, the complaint said.

The working conditions were so dire at the Waterloo plant, attorneys for Fernandez's family allege a local sheriff said they "shook [him] to the core."

Fernandez, who died on April 20, was one of about 2,800 workers at the facility, which processes more than 19,000 pigs a day, according to the complaint.


The company did eventually shut down operations by April 22 — after all of the hog carcasses from its cooler were processed. But by then, the outbreak had spread through the workforce. Five workers at the plant have so far died, and according to the complaint, the Black Hawk County Health Department has recorded more than 1,000 infections of COVID-19 among Tyson Foods employees.

"We're saddened by the loss of any Tyson team member and sympathize with their families," the company said in a statement to BuzzFeed News about the lawsuit. "Our top priority is the health and safety of our workers and we've implemented a host of protective measures at Waterloo and our other facilities that meet or exceed CDC and OSHA guidance for preventing Covid-19."

The company initially declined to address specific allegations in the lawsuit, including the allegations a plant manager organized the betting pool. But in an additional statement Thursday, the company announced the manager, and other workers allegedly involved in the betting pool were suspended without pay.

"We are extremely upset about the accusations involving some of the leadership at our Waterloo plant," Tyson said in the statement. "We expect every team member at Tyson Foods to operate with the utmost integrity and care in everything we do. We have suspended, without pay, the individuals allegedly involved and have retained the law firm Covington & Burling LLP to conduct an independent investigation led by former Attorney General Eric Holder. If these claims are confirmed, we'll take all measures necessary to root out and remove this disturbing behavior from our company."

Tyson Foods also defended its response to the pandemic, saying it implemented a task force to address the impact of the virus, educated employees in multiple languages, and told workers to stay home if they didn't feel well.

Attorneys for Fernandez's family allege that the company did the opposite, including encouraging workers to finish their shifts when they felt sick and offering bonuses to encourage employees not to call in sick.

Fernandez's family filed the lawsuit earlier this year in state court, but the case was moved to federal court after Tyson Foods argued the plant had remained open during the pandemic at the request of President Donald Trump to preserve the food supply chain.


The amended lawsuit, which was first reported by the Iowa Capital Dispatch, include allegations that the company disregarded worker safety by not providing adequate safety equipment, making them work on a crowded floor, and incentivizing employees with $500 "thank you bonuses" to keep showing up despite being sick.

Tyson Foods said in its statement that it was one of the first companies to take workers' temperatures before coming into work. The company also said it tried to obtain face masks for its workforce before it was mandated by the CDC, and partnered with a medical clinic services company to set up a clinic on site.

Attorneys for Tyson Foods have said in federal court that company managers have "worked from the very beginning of the pandemic to follow federal workplace guidelines and has invested millions of dollars to provide employees with safety and risk-mitigation equipment."

The complaint alleges that the company failed to distribute adequate protection and only started to implement temperature checks of employees on April 6 — but even then it did not check truck drivers or subcontractors.

"By late-March or early April, Supervisory Defendants and most managers at the Waterloo Facility started to avoid the plant floor because they were afraid of contracting the virus," the complaint alleges. Instead, managers started delegating duties to "low-level supervisors."

Supervisors also told employees they had a "responsibility" to keep showing up to work "in order to ensure Americans don't go hungry."

After local inspectors visited the plant on April 10, they asked Tyson Foods officials to temporarily shut down so they could implement measures to stop the spread of the virus.

The company refused and, around that time, the plant manager "organized a cash buy-in, winner-take-all betting pool for supervisors and managers to wager how many employees would test positive for COVID-19," the complaint alleges.

By April 12, two dozen employees were taken to the emergency room of the local hospital, the complaint alleges. Supervisors were told to show up to work even when they exhibited symptoms of COVID-19. When one supervisor was leaving work to get tested another manager allegedly told him to go back to work, saying, "we all have symptoms—you have a job to do."

Tyson Foods said in its statement that officials with the Black Hawk County Health Department had declined to share information about which employees had tested positive for COVID-19. The information was provided after the onsite visit, the company said, and the plant then made the decision to "idle production and work with state and local health officials to conduct facility-wide testing."



Salvador Hernandez is a reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Los Angeles.

Midwest Nurses Say Their Hospitals Are On The Verge Of Collapsing — And Leaders Aren’t Listening

For Tammy Tate, a nurse at a Missouri hospital, this wave is like watching a train about to crash, knowing that it could be stopped in time — if people would listen.

Brianna Sacks BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on November 20, 2020

Courtesy of Steve Edwards
Doctors and nurses work in the COVID-19 unit at a Cox Health location in Missouri.

Cheryl Rodarmel, the chief nurse at the Research Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri, said she is not sure how much longer she can go on like this.

The 61-year-old has loved her job for all 42 years she has been a nurse. But now, she said, the relentless influx of COVID-19 patients who have deluged her wards has her worried that her hospital system will collapse, and most of the staff along with it due to burnout and contracting the virus themselves. Meanwhile, outside the hospital, too many of her fellow residents refuse to wear a mask or otherwise protect themselves and their communities from the virus, driving infection rates ever higher.



Courtesy of Cheryl Rodarmel
Cheryl Rodarmel


“Those in positions of power are still allowing this virus to run unchecked,” she said. “If we continue like this, we won't have the nurses, beds, or ability to care for everyone.”

Across Kansas and Missouri, as intensive care units fill to capacity and beyond with patients struggling to breathe, an increasingly alarmed chorus of medical professionals are echoing Rodarmel’s worries. This week, Kansas posted a seven-day record for new coronavirus cases. In nearly two days, 5,853 people tested positive and 60 others died. In the first two weeks of November, Missouri recorded more COVID cases — nearly 60,000 — than it did during any other month since the pandemic began. The state’s current positivity rate is a whopping 27%.

“We have doctors with patients in dire circumstances with nowhere to put them except in hallways, and then they leave their hospital and go into the grocery store and people aren’t wearing masks and they’re gathering in large groups,” said Brock Slabach, a spokesperson for the National Rural Health Association in Kansas, told BuzzFeed News. “It’s a collision of two different worlds.” Tammy Tate, a nurse at a Missouri hospital, compared it to watching a train about to crash, knowing that it could be stopped in time — if people would listen.

The coronavirus is now surging through rural areas that were mostly spared when the outbreak first hit New York, California, and other densely populated areas this spring. At the same time, residents, especially in smaller communities, are refusing to wear masks and reacting with fierce anger at anyone — from their doctor to their governor — who suggests that they should.

On Wednesday, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, issued her second attempt at a mask order. The first, enacted in July, failed after most of the state’s counties balked and opted out. Republicans attacked her for trying to institute a one-size-fits-all approach. This time, she’s giving counties one week to come up with their own mask regulations; otherwise, they will have to follow the state’s order.

In neighboring Missouri, Gov. Mike Parson, who tested positive for the coronavirus in September, has repeatedly refused to enact a statewide mandate despite a recommendation from the White House’s coronavirus task force in August and ongoing pleas from the state’s medical leaders. Parson on Thursday continued to insist that a mask mandate was not necessary, even as he made a dire announcement that he is extending Missouri's emergency order through next March, saying the state remains “central to the extreme COVID-19 outbreak our country is currently experiencing.”

“Missouri is at a turning point, and if we are going to change the outcome, we must change our behavior,” he said. But he added he would not issue any orders preventing residents from gathering during the holidays, instead letting cities and counties make their own health and safety rules and telling people to take “personal responsibility.”



Steve Edwards@SDECoxHealth
140 Covid positive inpatients, 116 at Cox South, 17 Cox Branson, 4 Cox Monett, 3 Cox Barton County. 28 critical. Below is an image of the before and after COVID unit, note 6+ staff caring for one patient. Our region owes these doctors, nurses, RTs so much.02:29 PM - 17 Nov 2020
Reply Retweet Favorite

Top health officials in his state have been begging him to take a different course. In a tweet, Steve Edwards, the CEO of CoxHealth, a large hospital system based in Missouri, wrote that while he respects the governor, “we are now under uniform threat and, like war, it requires a coordinated response.” In a Nov. 13 letter to Parson, Missouri Hospital Association President Herb Kuhn warned that “the wolf is at the door” and implored him to require all residents to wear a mask; just making comments “is not enough,” Kuhn wrote. A nurse even started her own Change.org petition, arguing that a mask mandate would help save hospitals. It has garnered nearly 6,000 signatures in a few days.

The onslaught of COVID patients has reverberated through hospitals, forcing emergency rooms to give up beds and pulling resources from pediatric units to accommodate the wave of severely ill patients. Nurses and doctors told BuzzFeed News that ventilators are again becoming scarce. At times, patients — some with serious or life-threatening conditions other than COVID — are waiting 36 hours for a bed or just flat out can’t get one. And it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find beds for them at other facilities. If the situation continues to deteriorate, many healthcare workers said, they might have to ration who gets treatment.

“Hospitals in Kansas are calling as far away as Omaha, Denver, [and] Oklahoma City to transfer them and finding they are full, too,” Slabach of the National Rural Health Association said. “It's a scramble.”


Courtesy of Cheryl Rodarmel
Nurses protest outside the Menorah Medical Center in Overland Park, Kansas.

Meanwhile, nurses say they are being “stretched as thin as possible,” as Rodarmel put it. This week, nurses at her hospital and at the Menorah Medical Center in Overland Park, Kansas, 20 minutes away, staged protests over what they say is inadequate staffing and a lack of personal protective equipment. According to the National Nurses United, Menorah and Research Medical cut their staffing budgets during the height of the pandemic, forcing nurses to take on more and more patients. Nurses at the Research Medical Center have picked up 800 additional shifts to help fill in staffing holes, while nearly 250 others have left due to burnout or unsafe working conditions, according to Rodarmel.

Her scratchy, exhausted voice breaking, Rodarmel said that after nearly 30 years working at her hospital, she’s struggled to “pull up the enthusiasm and joy that once earmarked [her] nursing career,” put on her uniform, and walk in those doors because she doesn’t know what she will be asked to do and whether she will be safe. A nurse at her hospital, after caring for a patient without proper protective gear, died in April from COVID-19, Rodarmel said.

“That should never have happened,” the chief nurse said.

Along with Rodarmel, other healthcare workers told BuzzFeed News that they are also back to reusing masks, stretching out one single-use covering for 24 hours or even days before they are able to get a new one.


It’s like going back into a war you’ve already fought — and it’s worse the second time, Tate, a nurse at another Missouri hospital, told BuzzFeed News. Eight months since the pandemic was declared, officials at her hospital are still rationing personal protective equipment, she said. Gloves are locked up and the inventory monitored. She said she gets one surgical mask for a 12- to 14-hour shift — and after she uses it three times, it’s sent off to be cleaned and then returned to be reused. At the end of each shift, she bleaches her protective face shield so she can wear it again the next day. It’s unconscionable, she said, to imagine continuing on at this rate.

“It’s never-ending,” she said. “Our task force, which is all our hospitals working together, stated that if we continue on this pace of 100-plus COVID admissions per day, our health systems will collapse by the first week in December.”

And given how devastating community gatherings linked to Halloween have been in terms of transmission, healthcare professionals said they’re bracing for the weeks after Thanksgiving.

In Missouri’s Newton County, which does not require residents to wear a mask, officials announced Tuesday that they will be using money from the federal CARES Act to pay for a mobile morgue because “area facilities are full.” The purchase was partly in response to an urgent letter from a coalition of health officials, who warned leaders in Newton County, surrounding cities like Jasper, and elsewhere in southwest Missouri that medical centers are about to hit a breaking point. Health officials, too, begged for more masks.

“More ventilators are being used in our hospitals than ever before. … Wait times in the ER are getting longer and the availability of hospital beds in our community and others are diminishing,” they wrote. “We are in a public health crisis.”


In response, several cities said they were counting on residents to do their part to keep the community safe, KOAM News Now, a local outlet, reported. On Thursday night, Larry Bergner, administrator of the Newton County Health Department, told BuzzFeed News he won’t be issuing a mask order. He still doesn’t think it’s necessary. ●



Brianna Sacks is a reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Los Angeles.

Immigrant Children Who Were Denied The Chance To Request Asylum Under An Illegal Rule Are Facing Deportation

"I don't want to spend another Christmas in this detention center."

Adolfo FloresBuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on November 20, 2020

Eric Gay / AP
Immigrants seeking asylum walk at the ICE South Texas Family Residential Center, in Dilley, Texas.


Twenty-eight children who have been detained in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility for more than a year could be deported after being denied the opportunity to seek asylum by Trump administration policies that federal courts have since blocked.

All of the children and their families were subjected to the Trump administration's asylum transit ban, which required immigrants to first seek protection in another country they traveled through before asking for refuge in the US.


In June, US District Judge Timothy Kelly struck down the transit ban and said the administration had “unlawfully” put the rule into effect. The rule was vacated nationwide and is no longer in effect. Then in July, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals also blocked the rule.

The rule, however, had already been applied to thousands of asylum-seekers, including the group of 28 children. So while federal courts have struck down the transit ban, judges have said they don't have the legal authority to intervene in their deportations, said Bridget Cambria, executive director of Aldea — the People’s Justice Center, which offers free legal services to immigrant families detained by ICE in Pennsylvania.

"Although the policies can be deemed illegal, the effect it has on people is not," Cambria said.

Under the transit ban policy, those who crossed through a third country, such as Mexico or Guatemala, before arriving at the southern border were denied asylum during their credible fear interviews, an initial step in the asylum process. After being denied the chance to be screened for asylum, these children and their families were subjected to expedited removal, which allows the government to deport undocumented immigrants without a hearing in front of an immigration judge.


Federal courts have said they don't have the authority to weigh in on expedited removals. As a result, judges can't stop the deportation of the 28 children, even though they've found that the policies leading to their deportations are illegal.

"All 28 of these children were banned from asylum immediately upon entering the United States because they crossed through a third country. That rule has been deemed illegal," Cambria said on a call with reporters. "And despite it being deemed illegal, the children have no recourse."

In a statement, ICE said the children and their families have all been part of a number of lawsuits against the government, as well as appeals, and continue to file new lawsuits, all of which have delayed their deportation.

"The families have been afforded extensive legal processes and have been determined to have no legal basis to remain in the United States," ICE said.

The 28 children are part of 26 families detained at two of ICE's family detention centers, the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, and Berks County Residential Center in Leesport, Pennsylvania. All of the families were granted a stay of removal by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals through Saturday.

"After that time, they will require further court order. But that's not guaranteed," Cambria said.


Charles Reed / AP

Some of the detained children spoke on a call with reporters this week and asked to be identified by pseudonyms, fearing reprisal from the government.

Alex, an 8-year-old who has been detained in Texas for more than 455 days, said it has been difficult to watch other immigrants who are no longer subject to Trump's policies leave detention while he and his family remain there.

"It is really awful, to be honest. I don't want to be here. I feel like I can't bear it anymore," Alex told reporters. "I don't want to spend another Christmas in this detention center."

The asylum transit ban wasn't the only policy the families were subjected to that was later vacated or deemed illegal by federal courts.

Ana, a 15-year-old who has been detained at the facility in Dilley for more than 437 days, had her family's credible fear interview conducted by Customs and Border Protection agents as opposed to an asylum officer. An analysis from the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan immigration think tank, from May 2019 to May 2020 found that CBP agents approved just 37% of credible fear interviews, compared to 64% among asylum officers.

"The officer said that we had no right to asylum," Ana told reporters.

The interview was also conducted within 48 hours of arriving at a detention center, the result of a US Citizenship and Immigration Services directive that credible fear interviews be conducted as quickly as possible after 24 hours of arrival to the facility. Many families were interviewed in that stretch, between 24 and 48 hours after arrival, said Shalyn Fluharty, an attorney with Proyecto Dilley, which represents some of the children. Advocates and attorneys said the directive was illegal because it denied immigrants access to counsel.


A federal judge in Washington, DC, blocked CBP officers from conducting the credible fear interviews, calling it illegal because agents do not receive the same level of training as asylum officers working for USCIS. The directive to rush immigrants through the interviews was vacated in March after a federal court concluded that Ken Cuccinelli, who issued the directive, had not been lawfully appointed to his role as acting director at USCIS at the time.

"I think that the interviews have been unfair because we had no time to talk to the lawyers," Ana said. "We had to go forward with our interview within 48 hours of arriving at the detention center, not knowing what the interview was or what we were about to face. We were sleep-deprived, tired, and still in the process of receiving medical care."

Attorneys for the children and their families said ICE can use its discretion to issue these families a Notice to Appear, a charging document issued by the Department of Homeland Security, and rescind their expedited deportations. An asylum officer at USCIS could also grant each familiy's request for reconsideration for refuge and, if the immigrants receive a positive credible fear determination, issue a notice to appear in immigration court.

Cambria said Congress should also change the provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act that limits judicial review of expedited deportations.

"We are a nation of laws. We expect these children to follow the laws, and we expect the government to follow their own laws. They didn't do it with respect to these kids," Cambria said. "These kids, they have every right to request asylum under the law."

Judge says Trump admin can't use COVID-19 to send back migrant children


A young child looks through the border fence into the United States at Playas de Tijuana in Tijuana, Mexico, on November 28, 2018. File Photo by Ariana Drehsler/UPI | License Photo

Nov. 19 (UPI) -- A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to stop its policy of immediately deporting migrant children who cross the U.S.-Mexico border without a parent, over fears they could spread COVID-19.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan issued a preliminary injunction Wednesday against the Homeland Security Department practice of using emergency health measures to send single children back across the border without first considering their humanitarian appeals.

Under the policy, the department cites the Public Health Service Act to impose stricter border controls, which allows them to send back thousands of unaccompanied children -- defying court-mandated protections.

The government said it has expelled more than 200,000 undocumented migrants since the policy began in March.

The department has argued that the expulsions are needed to protect border agents and the American public, arguing that holding unaccompanied children would spawn new COVID-19 outbreaks.

In his order, Sullivan ruled that the department must immediately halt those expulsions and denied a request that the order be delayed while the matter is litigated.

"The court agrees that the undisputed authority granted in [federal law] is extraordinary and that the COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented," Sullivan wrote. "But that is entirely distinguishable from whether or not [the law] authorizes the government to expel persons."

The American Civil Liberties Union, which sought the injunction on behalf of a migrant child, called the injunction a "critical step" in stopping the administration's "unprecedented and illegal attempt to expel children under the thin guise of public health."

"The administration's order has already allowed for the rapid expulsion of more than 13,000 children in need of protection, who were legally entitled to apply for asylum," ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt, the lead attorney in the case, said.

Climate change thinning glaciers, increasing oxygen levels at Mount Everest


Researchers collected ice cores from elevations as high as 26,400 feet above sea level during the National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Everest Expedition in the spring of 2019. Photo by Dirk Collins/National Geographic

Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Mount Everest's glaciers are thinning, its peaks are accumulating microplastics and the air surrounding the mountain hosts more oxygen than it used to have.

Those are just a few of the findings from a suite of new studies -- each detailing various effects of climate change and human activity on Mount Everest -- published Friday in the journal One Earth.

Over the last few decades, human traffic on Mount Everest has steadily increased.

More and more people are visiting the mountain's basecamp each year, and more and more climbers are attempting to summit Earth's tallest mountain. As a result, pollution is accumulating.

RELATED More climbers successfully summit Mount Everest, death rate stays the same

According to the latest research, most of the trash is concentrated at basecamp, but scientists found microplastic pollution as high as 27,690 feet above sea level, not far from Mount Everest's peak.

Microplastic pollution in Earth's oceans has garnered a lot of scientific interest, but only a few studies have focused on microplastic pollution on land. The latest is the first to investigate microplastic pollution on Mount Everest.

During a few separate expeditions, researchers collected dozens of snow and ice samples to be analyzed in the lab.

RELATED Nepal closes access to Mount Everest due to coronavirus outbreak

"I didn't know what to expect in terms of results, but it really surprised me to find microplastics in every single snow sample I analyzed," first author Imogen Napper said in a news release.

"Mount Everest is somewhere I have always considered remote and pristine. To know we are polluting near the top of the tallest mountain is a real eye-opener," said Napper, a National Geographic Explorer and scientist based at the University of Plymouth in Britain.

Cleaning up microplastics is extremely difficult, but researchers suggest more can be done to ensure visitors to Mount Everest don't make the problem worse.

RELATED Nepal bans single-use plastics at Mount Everest starting next year

"The samples showed significant quantities of polyester, acrylic, nylon, and polypropylene fibers," Napper said. "Those materials are increasingly being used to make the high-performance outdoor clothing climbers use as well as tents and climbing ropes, so we highly suspect that these types of items are the major source of pollution rather than things like food and drink containers."

In a separate study, researchers used historic and modern satellite images to produce a timeline of glacier mass-change measurements. The data showed glaciers in the valleys surrounding Mount Everest have thinned by an average of 328 feet since the 1960s.

"The rate of ice loss in the region has consistently increased over the last six decades, and ice loss is now occurring at extreme altitudes," researchers wrote.

Rising temperatures have also led to increasing oxygen levels on Mount Everest, making it easier than ever before for climbers to summit the mountain without the help of supplemental oxygen.

Because air pressure decreases as elevation increases, oxygen becomes less concentrated as one gets farther from sea level. However, the rate at which air pressure decreases depends on temperature.

As global temperatures have climbed as a result of climate change, air pressure has increased on Mount Everest, yielding greater oxygen availability.

Much of the research detailed in the new collection of scientific papers was conducted during the 2019 National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Everest Expedition.

Gallup: Support in U.S. for death penalty at lowest point in decades

Support is most common among non-Hispanic Whites (61%), while fewer than half (46%) of non-Whites favor the practice, Thursday's survey shows. File Photo by Doug Smith/Florida Department of Corrections/Wikimedia Commons

Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Support in the United States for capital punishment keeps declining and more Americans now oppose the death penalty than at any point in more than a half-century, according to a Gallup survey Thursday.

The survey shows that a majority of Americans still favor executions for criminals convicted of murder, but the share (55%) is at its lowest point since 1972, when 50% said they supported the practice.

The share of Americans (43%) who said they oppose the death penalty, however, is lower now than at any point since the late 1960s, according to the poll.

Support for capital punishment reached its peak (80%) in 1994. It dipped to 66% by 2000, but climbed to 70% in the following years and again tumbled below 60% in 2017.

RELATED U.S. set to carry out 8th federal execution of 2020 on Thursday

"As public opinion has trended away from favoring the death penalty, state laws have also changed," Gallup wrote. "Twenty-two states do not allow the death penalty by law, with nearly half of those having enacted their current laws in the past two decades.

"Three additional states -- California, Oregon and Pennsylvania -- have laws permitting the death penalty, but their governors have issued moratoriums on its use."

Politically, Republicans comprise the greatest share (80%) of supporters over the last four years. Support is far lower among Democrats (39%) and independents (54%).

RELATED Appeals court declines to stop 2 executions, has concerns about protocol

Support is most common among non-Hispanic Whites (61%), while fewer than half (46%) of non-Whites favor the practice, the survey shows.

Age is also a major factor on the issue. Americans born before 1946 (62%) and baby boomers (59%), those born between 1946 and 1964, have supported capital punishment the most since 2017. Thursday's poll found varying support among those in Generation X (57%), those born 1965-1979, Millennials (51%) born 1980-1996 and Gen Z'ers (45%) born 1997-2002.

The Gallup survey was published on the same day the federal government is set to carry out its eighth execution of 2020. Federal executions resumed in July for the first time in 17 years.

Gallup polled more than 1,000 U.S. adults living in every state and Washington, D.C., for the survey, which has a margin of error of 4 points.

THIRD WORLD USA

Report: U.S. leads wealthy nations in pregnancy-related deaths


American women are far more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than women in other wealthy countries -- and a national shortage of maternity care providers bodes ill for the future.

Those are some of the findings from a new report on maternal mortality by the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund, which compared the United States with 10 other high-income nations.


It found what the researchers called "unacceptable" numbers.

In 2018, the U.S. maternal mortality rate stood at 17 for every 100,000 births -- more than double the rate of most other countries. Those figures capture deaths during pregnancy and within 42 days of the end of pregnancy.

RELATED Pregnancy-related deaths still higher with some minorities


But many women die later in the so-called "fourth trimester," or the year after giving birth.

And of all pregnancy-related deaths in the United States, 52% happened after childbirth, the report found. When women died within a week of childbirth, it was often related to severe bleeding, infections or high blood pressure. Later in the postpartum period, the leading cause of death was cardiomyopathy, a weakening of the heart muscle.

"Even though the U.S. spends more on health care than anywhere else in the world, it has higher rates of these preventable deaths," said report co-author Roosa Tikkanen, a senior research associate at the Commonwealth Fund.

RELATED Extreme heat increases risk for preterm delivery, stillbirth, study finds

The United States has long held that dubious distinction. And maternal mortality is yet another area where racial disparities are stark: Black women have more than double the death rate of white women in the United States.


The new report adds a layer, Tikkanen said -- looking at differences in countries' health care systems that may illuminate why the United States fares so poorly.

One key difference is the supply of maternal care providers, including obstetricians/gynecologists and midwives.

RELATED Adverse pregnancy outcomes raise heart disease risk by 25% in older women


Nearly all other wealthy nations, except for Canada, have far more providers relative to population. In the United States, there are 15 providers for every 1,000 births, while Sweden has 78 per 1,000, according to the report.

In many European countries, as well as Australia and New Zealand, midwives make up the bulk of the maternal care workforce.

It's not clear whether midwives are a driving reason for lower maternal mortality in those countries, according to Tikkanen. But in most countries, she said, maternal care is well-integrated into primary care, with midwives being a crucial part of that. So women in other wealthy countries typically have greater continuity of care before, during and after pregnancy.

Dr. Rahul Gupta is chief medical officer for the nonprofit March of Dimes, which has long made reducing maternal mortality a priority.

He said the new report highlights why the United States is an "outlier" among wealthy nations.

"In countries that are doing well," Gupta said, "there is a system of life-course care centered on the individual. Here, we're centered around the health care system."

When, for example, a woman dies of cardiomyopathy after giving birth, he said, that may involve gaps in health care not only after childbirth, but during and before pregnancy.

Gupta noted that midwives are important providers whose ranks are low in the United States: According to the report, there are just four midwives for every 1,000 births in the United States, versus, for instance, 43 per 1,000 in the United Kingdom and 68 per 1,000 in Australia.

But numbers are not the whole story, Gupta added. "We also need culturally competent midwife care -- providers who understand the lived experiences of the people they're serving," he said.

It's not only midwife care that separates the United States from other rich nations. The report underscores several differences:

Along with universal health care in other countries, pregnant women and new moms are often exempt from out-of-pocket costs.

Women in those countries are guaranteed home visits from a nurse or midwife soon after delivering. In the United States, that's covered sporadically, by some health plans and some state Medicaid programs.

The United States remains the only country that does not mandate paid maternity leave.

According to the Commonwealth researchers, the Affordable Care Act has made a difference. It expanded Medicaid in many states, and required the program to cover midwife care, for instance.

But broader change is needed, they added.

Gupta agreed. "The issue isn't that we don't know what works," he said. "We do know what works, based on other countries. So what now? I think we need a coming together of minds across the country. We have to agree that what we have isn't working."More information

For more on preventing pregnancy-related deaths, visit the March of Dimes.

Biden promises to fight for transgender rights on day of remembrance

NOV. 20, 2020 

At least 37 transgender and gender-non-conforming people have died this year. 

File Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo

Nov. 20 (UPI) -- President-elect Joe Biden promised to end violence and discrimination against transgender and gender-non-confirming people in a statement recognizing Transgender Day of Remembrance on Friday.

"On Transgender Day of Remembrance, we honor their lives -- and recommit to the work that remains to ensure that every transgender and gender-non-conforming person in America has the opportunity to live authentically, earn a living wage, and be treated with dignity and respect in their communities and workplaces," a statement by Biden said.

"As part of our remembrance, we must work to end the epidemic of violence and discrimination against transgender and gender-nonconforming Americans and never repeat it."

This year marks the 21st annual TDoR, founded by transgender activist Gwendolyn Smith to recognize the death of Rita Hester. It honors the memory of those killed in anti-transgender violence.

At least 37 transgender and gender-non-conforming people have died by violence this year, most of whom were Black or Latinx, according to the Human Rights Campaign. The organization said it's the highest annual number at this point in the year since it began tracking the deaths in 2013.

"These victims were killed by acquaintances, partners or strangers, some of whom have been arrested and charged, while others have yet to be identified," the HRC said. "Some of these cases involve clear anti-transgender bias. In others, the victim's transgender status may have put them at risk in other ways, such as forcing them into unemployment, poverty, homelessness and/or survival sex work."

Biden said that starting on Inauguration Day, he plans to fight for transgender rights. In an October town hall he promised to reverse President Donald Trump's executive order banning transgender people from serving in the military.

"Transgender rights are human rights," Biden said Friday.

Appeals court overturns local Florida bans on conversion therapy

Demonstrators protest for LGBTQ rights outside the Supreme Court on October 8, 2019. On Friday, a federal appeals court blocked local Florida bans on conversion therapy. File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

Nov. 20 (UPI) -- A federal appeals court on Friday ruled against local conversion therapy bans in Florida, saying they violated First Amendment protections.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court's decision not to place preliminary injunctions against the ordinances in Palm Beach County and the city of Boca Raton, which is in Broward County.

The panel said that if laws ban therapists from attempting to change LGBTQ youths' sexual orientation or gender identity, then jurisdictions could also ban therapists from providing support for the same clients.

"If the speech restrictions in these ordinances can stand, then so can their inverse," said the majority opinion written by Judge Barbara Lagoa.

"Local communities could prevent therapists from validating a client's same-sex attractions if the city council deemed that message harmful. And the same goes for gender transition -- counseling support a client's gender identification could be banned."

The Palm Beach County and Boca Raton ordinances were challenged by therapists Robert Otto and Julie Hamilton, who said they were unconstitutional. They were represented by the Liberty Counsel, a religious liberty organization that provides legal services.

"This is a huge victory for counselors and their clients to choose the counsel of their choice free of political censorship from government ideologues," said Liberty Counsel founder and Chairman Mat Staver. "This case is the beginning of the end of similar unconstitutional counseling bans around the country."

Critics of conversion therapy describe it as dangerous and it has been widely discredited by doctors and mental health experts.

Twenty states and Washington, D.C., have fully banned conversion therapy, and one state and one territory have partially banned the practice, according to Family Equality, an LGBTQ advocacy organization.

A report last year in the New England Journal of Medicine said conversion therapy can trigger depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and suicidal thoughts and attempts.

Lambda Legal, which provides legal support in LGBTQ cases, condemned the appeals court ruling, calling the practice "nothing less than child abuse"

"Youth are often subjected to these practices at the insistence of parents who don't know or don't believe that the efforts are harmful and doomed to fail: When these efforts predictably fail to produce the expected result, many LGBTQ children are kicked out of their homes," said Lambda Legal CEO Kevin Jennings.

"Both judges joining today's decision were appointed by President [Donald] Trump. We fear that today's decision may be the tip of the iceberg in terms of the harm that may come from a federal judiciary that has been packed for the last four years with dangerous ideologues. The damage done by this misguided opinion is incalculable and puts young people in danger."