The evidence is very clear that you need to get a yearly flu vaccination. Under the Affordable Care Act, flu shots are covered at 100% as preventive care. So, whether covered by the pre-65 retiree medical (Caremark pharmacy benefit or Aetna medical) or through Medicare Part B, flu shots would be at no cost to the member. Flu shots are covered whether received at the doctor's office or at a retail pharmacy.  However, there are now several choices of vaccine and debate about when is the best time for those 65 and older to get vaccinated.

Class action lawsuits have been filed against a number of universities including Emory over the administration of their retirement plans.

EUEC Members are invited to submit nominations for Honorary Degree candidates by October 15 of this year.  The full invitation with instructions for what is needed may be read by clicking here.  Additional information may be found at:

We note the passing of Betty Partin, widow of the late Clyde Partin, Sr.

Stefan Lutz on Denali

Department of Chemistry

Born in Switzerland, Stefan Lutz grew up hiking in the mountains. In 2012, when he summited Aconcagua, at 22,960 feet the highest point in South America, his life-long avocation became a full-fledged quest to climb the other six of the so-called Seven Summits, the highest peaks on each of the continents. Five successful summits later, he's going to share the wonderful variety of scientific insights he has derived from these adventures, a merging of hobby and scholarship that has often found its way into the classroom and research laboratory and that we'll now be able to enjoy in our venue, too. He'll recount his experiences in the desolate environment of the southern polar region while climbing Mount Vinson, the struggle with extreme cold on Denali, and the challenges of extreme altitude on Mount Everest, stories infused with academic expertise that ranges from the physiology and biochemistry of altitude (sickness) to the sociology and psychology of endurance, fear, and bonding during intense experiences. As Carol Clark, Editor of Emory's eScienceCommons, put it in a fine article she published last March, Stefan's "scientific training deepens his understanding of extreme landscapes and the physical and mental processes a climber may experience." Well put, Carol. But, as she realized then--when she asked him to complete the article himself--there's just no substitute for his own words and photos. Those of us who attend this Lunch Colloquium will have the opportunity to realize the same thing.

You can read Carol Clark's entire article on Stefan (with some great pictures) by clicking here.

• PhD (Chemistry), University of Florida (1999)
• MSc (Biotechnology), University of Teesside, UK (1995)
• BSc (Chemistry), Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland (1992)
• Postdoc at Penn State University, 1999-2002

• Biophysical, Bioorganic

Carol Anderson
Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor
Chair, African American Studies

At the first Lunch Colloquium of the new academic year, on Monday, September 12, Dr. Carol Anderson, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor and Chair of African American Studies, author of White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide among other books and many other publications, engaged and enlightened the emeritus audience about a topic of great current interest.

 

Carol began by saying that she had been asked specifically to talk about her new book, White Rage.  She had recently talked about it at the Decatur Book Festival, now the largest book festival in the country.

 

"I want to discuss how I came to this topic," she explained. In 1999 Amadou Diallo, a black male who had been working all day, was gunned down.  Officers from the New York Police Department shot him 41 times and hit him 19.  He was unarmed, had committed no crime, and had no record. TV newsman Ted Koppel interviewed Mayor Rudolph Giuliani about that incident, and the Mayor declared the City safer than most in having the most restrained police of any city in the U.S.  Carol realized at the time that something systemically wrong was behind this tragic event.

 

Her thinking on the subject evolved over many years. Then, in August of 2014, she was invited to do an op ed piece about the shooting of another unarmed black man in Ferguson and its aftermath for The Washington Post. "While we watched Ferguson in flames all the TV stations were asking about black rage and why people would burn down places where they lived."  And of course blacks were angry. Michael Brown's body had been left in the street for four hours in the summer heat, which Carol attested was worse there than in Atlanta.

However, unlike most commentators addressing the situation, Carol traced the eruption of violence to a build up of white rage, not the black rage it finally triggered.  She argued that suppressed white rage had led there (as throughout the country) to the massive disenfranchisement of black people.  She noted there were only a handful of polling stations for the black voting districts in St. Louis, which had created long lines that were still there when the polls closed.  Michael Brown's school district had lost accreditation for 15 years, but the white-run system was fine with that.  The white politicians there saw the black residents as cash cows since 25% of the city budget came from fines and fees paid by blacks.  Such white policies and attitudes were the kindling for the fires blacks lit there in Ferguson.

 

Carol argued that the situation in Ferguson was just the latest consequence of the angry white response to black advancement that has been evident in this country since the Civil War.  Ever since then, whites have been systematically, quietly, using the power of the state legislatures, Congress, the Supreme Court, and the White House to repress blacks. She began with this: "When we look back on what happened in Ferguson during the summer of 2014, it will be easy to think of it as yet one more episode of black rage ignited by yet another police killing of an unarmed African American male. But that has it precisely backward. What we've actually seen is the latest outbreak of white rage. Sure, it is cloaked in the niceties of law and order, but it is rage nonetheless."  Black people who demand their rights, aspire, and achieve are the targets of white rage. Carol's op ed went viral when the verdict came back with no charges for the Ferguson police.  Carol wasn't the only one upset when New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said blacks, not whites, are the problem: "All they have to do is obey the law and they won't get shot."

 

Carol then discussed three examples of how white rage has been playing out in recent years (as in all the years since the end of the Civil War), punishing blacks while pretending to do something else entirely. First she mentioned laws that have been passed to allow public school funds to be used to send whites to private schools.  Virginia closed its public schools providing no public education for almost 3,000 black children for 5 years.  Similar things have happened in other states including Arkansas and Georgia.  Second she mentioned how the war on drugs has led to the mass incarceration of blacks even though data show African Americans use drugs the least and sell them the least of other groups in the American population.  Shouldn't we reward that good behavior? 

 

Next she talked about voter suppression. Obama's run for office and election unleashed massive voter registration; there were 15 million new voters in '08.  Sixty-nine percent of those new voters voted for Obama.  In response (to reinforce the effects of the gerrymandering they have already managed) Republicans have created voter ID laws. Thirty-six states have passed such voter suppression laws.  Of course, the white Republicans sponsoring such laws cloak themselves in the Constitution:  "We have voter fraud so we need voter IDs." However, research has found that out of one billion voters there were only 31 cases of fraud.  Carol spoke of Texas voters who now need a government issued photo ID to vote.  She noted that many Texans have to travel 250 miles one way to get to a DMV office where they can get a photo ID.  The cost involved becomes a poll tax.  One million eligible voters in Texas don't have the required photo ID.  But the Texas attorney general says the policy is justified by the need to protect against the rampant voter fraud!  Why do we punish people who want to participate in democracy?

 

Carol explained that her book traces the history of white rage against black advancement --and its many different guises--all the way back to the period of Reconstruction right after the Civil War.  The Black Codes developed then systematically repressed blacks by allowing blacks to only do certain jobs such as picking cotton and working in lumberyards.  If you had been trained to be a blacksmith, for instance, you couldn't continue to do that unless you had permission from someone like the mayor of your town.  You weren't allowed to fish or hunt to feed your family.  If like many you were arrested for vagrancy, which had a very broad definition, you had to sign a labor contract that basically enslaved you again.  Mississippi designed laws of this sort, and other states copied them and were allowed to do so.  The Supreme Court eviscerated the 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th amendments during this time.

 

Carol discussed the Great Migration of the early 20^th century when 10% of southern blacks went north.  During WWI northern industries that had lost so many workers to the war began recruiting blacks. The Ford plant paid a daily wage that equaled 3-4 months pay in the south.  In addition to good jobs there were good schools.  Carol talked about her granddaddy's pride walking down the street with a copy of the Chicago Defender newspaper under his arm--a sign of the promise life in the north held for southern blacks. However, the white-powers-that-were in the south did all they could to interfere with this Great Migration, not least, countenancing Klan activity of all sorts including lynchings.

 

Carol next spoke of how the Brown decision of 1954, making segregation of schools illegal and so, heralded as a great advance in the Civil Rights Movement, actually was another motivator of white rage and attendant suppression of blacks.  If you watch HGTV as Carol admitted she does, you notice that all the show participants request good schools meaning they all know there are bad schools still, today, more than 60 years after the Brown decision.

 

And eventually there came the Obama election! And more and more backlash! Responses to Obama's election have shown that black achievement and success are seen as direct threats by some whites. Remember Dylann Roof in Charleston at the Emanuel AME church.  He saw his murder of 9 black people as a means of reasserting white supremacy in this country. How interesting (and revealing) that Donald Trump talks so often, in similar terms, about "taking our country back."  No, says Carol, it's time we take our country forward.

 

Carol then took questions from the large audience.  Are students now less racist?  She said students are more open-minded than in the past and, though often more focused on their "pre-professional" work than anything else, do show considerable concern for social justice. In response to a question about Trump rallies she said they give people permission to be racist. Another question was whether racists and elites are preying on the poor.  She talked about her piece in the LA Times about the Brexit vote in which she argued just that has been happening in Britain as here, motivated there, as here, by white rage. Yes is the answer, she said, and the angry want to make their feelings felt. 

 

The final question was "Do you have any hope for resolution of some of these problems after Hillary wins --or God forbid--Trump?"  She said that Hillary is trying to get more vested in the system because then it will be more stable.  She is encouraged by the fact that Hillary is working through these issues.  Trump, she said, is reaching back to some supposed good past, though no enlightened person sees that past as good.  He doesn't do policy nor do his people.  He's a sloganeer.  She mentioned a book we might like, It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism by Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein. 

After applause one more question came:  Why don't we see Carol Anderson herself on the ticket?  She replied with a smile: NO!  I understand her answer as a retired political consultant.  I, too, was often asked that question, and my answer was also always no.  But, as Milton (almost) said, they also serve who only stand and vote. SO DO VOTE on November 8th. Let's do our best to keep people motivated by white rage out of office--all the way from the top of the ticket down to the very bottom.

 

--Margaret Hylton Jones

 

Recommendations from the CDC include the following:

Vaccination is especially important for people 65 years and older because they are at high risk for complications from flu. Flu vaccines are often updated each season to keep up with changing viruses, and also immunity wanes over a year so annual vaccination is needed to ensure the best possible protection against influenza.  A flu vaccine protects against the flu viruses that research indicates will be most common during the upcoming season. The 2016-2017 vaccine has been updated from last season's vaccine to better match circulating viruses.  

 

Of special interest is the following, which is new this year:

 

There are two vaccines designed specifically for people 65 and older:

• The "high-dose vaccine" is designed specifically for people 65 and older and contains 4 times the amount of antigen as the regular flu shot. It is associated with a stronger immune response following vaccination (higher antibody production). Results from a clinical trial of more than 30,000 participants showed that adults 65 years and older who received the high-dose vaccine had 24% fewer influenza infections as compared to those who received the standard-dose flu vaccine. The high-dose vaccine has been approved for use in the United States since 2009.
• The adjuvanted flu vaccine, Fluad, is made with MF59 adjuvant which is designed to help create a stronger immune response to vaccination. In a Canadian observational study of 282 persons aged 65 years and older conducted during the 2011-12 season, Fluad was 63% more effective than regular-dose unadjuvanted flu shots. There are no randomized studies comparing Fluad with Fluzone High-Dose. This vaccine will be available for the first time in the United States during the 2016-2017 season.

The high-dose and adjuvanted flu vaccines may result in more of the mild side effects that can occur with standard-dose seasonal shots. Mild side effects can include pain, redness or swelling at the injection site, headache, muscle ache and malaise.

 

The complete CDC recommendations can be read by clicking here.  

 

One issue for those 65 and older is when one should be vaccinated.  The evidence is not clear cut, but the concern is that immunity might be shorter-lived in those 65 and older.  If that is the case, then getting a vaccination too early might provide less protection during the height of the flu season in January-March.  There was a recent report on NPR that discussed this issue, which you can read by clicking here. 

 

Ann Davidson Critz, MD, Associate Professor Emerita of Pediatrics

Gerald W. Staton, Jr., MD, Professor Emeritus of Medicine
 

Sam (who turned 90 this year) reports that among his other activities he continues as USA editor for The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology.  The dictionary has a very nice article on him and his distinguished career.  Sam now lives in Nashville, TN, and says Sallie reports: "In retirement, I've been bitten by the history bug. Those of us with ties to academia know the value of primary sources. In Richmond, Virginia, where I live now, we are fortunate to have the Library of Virginia (LVA), which includes the state archives. Currently one of the LVA's key projects is Making History (http://www.virginiamemory.com/transcribe/) in which historical manuscripts from the LVA's vast collection are being transcribed in order to make them digitally accessible to researchers.
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Betty Partin, widow of the late EUEC Founding Member Clyde Partin, Sr., died on September 7.  A memorial will be held October 8, 2016 at 10:00 a.m. at University Heights United Methodist Church.  Her complete obituary may be read by clicking here.