Contact by email:
Director (or send email to emeriti@emory.edu) Letters to the Editor Click on the above link to let us know what you think (or send email to emeriti@emory.edu)! |
Upcoming Events--
All on Zoom
Lunch Colloquium Vernon Robbins June 1, 2020
Lunch Colloquium Holly York June 8, 2020
|
|
|
This issue of our newsletter is sent to members and friends of the Emory University Emeritus College (EUEC). I hope the newsletter will help keep you informed about our activities and help you feel connected with our members throughout the U.S. On the left are links to our website and links to contact either me or the EUEC office.
With best wishes,
Gray
Gray F. Crouse Director, EUEC
|
 Message from the Director
The past two months has been an incredibly busy period for us, but it has been very rewarding as we have had an incredibly rich and diverse series of programs. It has been great to have members joining in our programs from a distance. I think the record so far is by member Ruth Pagell in Hawaii, who has been at our two Afternoon Seminars (our Lunch Colloquiums occur too early for her!). We have room for more members to attend. If you have any questions about using Zoom, please feel free to contact me.
Thanks are due to many people who have made this increase in programming possible: the Mind Matters Committee of Gretchen Schulz, Holly York, and Al Padwa (for which there is a great need for more members--let me know if you are interested), those of you who do the articles describing the talks that provide a valuable resource for members who were not able to attend, Don O'Shea, who prepares the video files to put on our website, and Stacey Jones who gets everything on the web.
Our two Afternoon Seminars broke new ground for us as they featured out-of-state speakers: Carol Hogue in North Carolina and Kay Holmes in Seattle. They were both excellent talks and illustrate how we can expand our vision of available speakers. Although they came together separately, it is instructive to reflect on how the talks by Holmes, Raynor, and Hogue fit together to paint a picture of COVID-19 from its origins to its differential effects on African Americans. Where else at the university could one get such a perspective?
It was a real pleasure to celebrate Commencement Day with Gary Hauk and to have such a fascinating discussion afterwards with even a contribution from a previous honorary degree awardee!
We will take a short break next week but be sure to come to "class" on June 1 when we will learn about a little known second century CE version of the Jesus birth story that Vernon Robbins describes as "breathtaking."
Don't forget that our own Mort Waitzman will be featured in a program on the end of World War II this Thursday at 8 PM on the National Geographic TV channel.
I am very grateful to Gretchen Schulz, Ann Hartle, and Marge Crouse for help with editing and proofing.
|
|
|
Lunch Colloquium--June 1
The Birth of Jesus to Virgin Mary in the Infancy Gospel of James
(Protevangelium Jacobi)
Location: Wherever you are
11:30-1:00
Vernon K. Robbins, Professor Emeritus of Religion, Winship Distinguished Research Professor in the Humanities
|
Lunch Colloquium Report--Monday, May 4
"Ah, You're a Doctor?" Exploring the Experiences of African Americans in Medicine
Denise Raynor, Professor Emerita of Gynecology and Obstetrics, and Adjunct Professor, Department of Psychology, Emory College
Click here to read more below about this Lunch Colloquium
|
Afternoon Seminar Report--Tuesday, May 5
 Why Are Coronaviruses so Frequently Implicated in Emerging Diseases of Humans and Domestic Animals?
Kathryn V. Holmes, Professor Emerita of Immunology and Microbiology, University of Colorado School of Medicine
Click here to read more below about this seminar
|
Lunch Colloquium Report--Monday, May 11
|
Afternoon Seminar Report--Wednesday, May 13
The Corona Inequity: Why COVID-19 Disproportionately Affects
African Americans
Carol Hogue, Jules & Uldeen Terry Professor Emerita of Maternal and Child Health, Professor Emerita of Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health
Click here to read more below about this seminar
|
New Members
|
Faculty Activities
|
Walking the Campus with Dianne
|
Lunch Colloquium--June 1
The Birth of Jesus to Virgin Mary in the Infancy Gospel of James (Protevangelium Jacobi)
Vernon K. Robbins, Professor Emeritus of Religion, Winship Distinguished Research Professor in the Humanities
The Protevangelium Jacobi (Infancy Gospel of James), written ca. 180 CE, presents Mary, the mother of Jesus, growing up in the holy environment of the Jerusalem temple where she is fed by angels. When her monthly flow is about to begin, the priests take her out of the temple so she will not pollute it. After the priests assign Mary to the care of a widower named Joseph, who already has children, difficulties arise when Mary becomes pregnant while Joseph is away for six months on a carpentry job. The immaculate holiness of Mary, however, leads to the birth of Jesus in a thoroughly surprising manner in a cave alongside the road to Bethlehem.
For centuries, Christians knew this version of the birth of Jesus, also referenced in the Muslim holy book of the Qur'an. Then, with the sixteenth century Reformation, Christians began to privilege the birth stories in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke in the New Testament. Join us on Monday, June 1, for a discussion of this now so little known second century CE version of the story with a scholar who describes it as "breathtaking."
About Vernon Robbins
Vernon Robbins obtained a BA from Westmar College, an MDiv from United Theological Seminary, and MA and PhD degrees from the University of Chicago Divinity School. He taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign before moving to Emory.
In 1984, his Jesus the Teacher launched socio-rhetorical criticism in New Testament studies. His books The Tapestry of Early Christian Discourse (1996) and Exploring the Texture of Texts (1996) present this approach in the form of programmatic strategies for interpreting the inner texture, intertexture, social and cultural texture, ideological texture, and sacred texture of texts. A Festschrift in his honor, Fabrics of Discourse (2004), contains essays that apply insights of socio-rhetorical interpretation. The Invention of Christian Discourse (2009) and Sea Voyages and Beyond present work in the first decade of the 21st century. Who Do People Say I Am? (2013) and Jesus and Mary Reimagined in Early Christian Literature (2015) show how first through third century Christianity negotiated the humanity and divinity of Jesus in narrative portrayals. Two recently edited volumes, Foundations for Sociorhetorical Exploration (2016) and The Art of Visual Exegesis (2017), present programmatic essays for interpretation of early Christian texts in the context of the Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity. He is Co-Editor of Emory Studies in Early Christianity and Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity and is widely published in national and international journals. He is a major figure in Markan scholarship (scholarship related to the Gospel of Mark) and is the creator and a prominent proponent of socio-rhetorical criticism in New Testament studies.
Click here to return to top
|
Lunch Colloquium Report--Monday, May 4
"Ah, You're a Doctor?" Exploring the Experiences of African Americans in Medicine
Denise Raynor, Professor Emerita of Gynecology and Obstetrics, and Adjunct Professor, Department of Psychology, Emory College
Hearing that phrase said aloud with the right inflection sums up the experience of many African Americans in medicine. So explained Denise Raynor, Professor Emerita of Gynecology and Obstetrics speaking to the Emeritus College Lunch Colloquium on Monday, May 4, 2020, via Zoom. Dr. Raynor gave multiple examples of the surprise about their status that she and other African American medical students and physicians routinely encounter over the many years of their careers. She began with an example from her second year as a medical student at Vanderbilt University when the physician she accompanied to the ward presumed not that she was a medical student, despite her white coat and other ways she might be identified as medical personnel, but rather that she was a "ward clerk," a lowly category of employee, usually with no more than a high school education, responsible for running errands as the doctor directed.
Dr. Raynor related that such incidents, which to use the current term are instances of "micro-aggression," continued throughout her long medical career at Grady Hospital and elsewhere and are still occurring to her and other African Americans practicing medicine today, with the evidence of bias coming sometimes from a colleague, sometimes from a superior, sometimes from patients and their family members. She gave one example where a black surgeon wearing scrubs, who came to explain to waiting family members that the patient had experienced complications, was dismissed by them eager to "see the doctor" but unwilling to believe she was that person. Particularly frustrating are incidents such as that when a medical student was subjected to comments revealing black stereotyping in the hearing of his mentor, who laughed rather than coming to the student's defense. This incident made the student angry: angry at the mentor and angry at his powerlessness to control his personal interactions. But he just smiled. As Dr. Raynor explained, he knew that students or residents who complain are told that they are "making too much of" such an incident and they risk being tagged as the "angry black" and possibly a troublemaker, a perception that can dog them throughout their careers. If someone in administration does take seriously such complaints, then often it is the students themselves who are asked to fashion the appropriate remedy (which the administration may or may not adopt). This seems a rather curious way to address an institutional problem unless, of course, it is meant merely to placate a particularly noisy group.
The number of African American students in medical school has been growing in recent years as has the number of faculty, though the latter number is still very small indeed. And these faculty are disproportionately called upon to mentor African American students, which is a burden on their time, leaving them with less time for their own work. Such students seem to need mentoring more than ever, however. Dr. Raynor has found that African American medical students today are not at all well prepared for the obstacles they are going to face thanks to the bias that still infuses our society and are not well able to cope with those obstacles. They feel pressured to succeed, not only for themselves, but also, for all other African American students. But in the meantime, they're working among white Americans who often think there is less "racism" and less reason for blacks to worry about it. Too many among both blacks and whites tend to think of "racism" as involving overt extremes of bad behavior and do not know how to deal with the lesser (but still impactful) effects of implicit racism within even supposedly enlightened institutions such as those they are going to encounter in incidents like those Dr. Raynor narrated.
Turning briefly from the problems of black medical staff to those of black patients in a white-dominated system, Dr. Raynor pointed out that black patients, and black women especially, often complain that doctors do not listen to them. (I might suggest that is a problem for all women, not only black women.) In another Colloquium, scheduled soon, another retired Emory doctor, Carol Hogue, will speak about the fact that black mothers die in childbirth or suffer complications more frequently than white mothers, yet more victims of implicit racial bias.
In sum, Dr. Raynor would indict the medical community as too slow to act to combat racial prejudice. She sees no significant political will within our institutions to address bias. Faculty, staff, students, and patients would all need to change. Such change is difficult, and it seems all too likely that, despite nominal lip service to reform and high-minded statements, this problem will be inherited by the next generation.
-Jan Pratt
|
Afternoon Seminar Report--Tuesday, May 5
Why Are Coronaviruses so Frequently Implicated in Emerging Diseases of Humans and Domestic Animals?
Kathryn V. Holmes, Professor Emerita of Immunology and Microbiology, University of Colorado School of Medicine
In a Zoom session scheduled on Tuesday afternoon, May 5, Dr. Katherine (Kay) Holmes, who has spent her entire career investigating the behavior of coronaviruses, generously shared with us some "take home" lessons. Her overview of decades of research by multiple scientists was presented so clearly that even those unfamiliar with the complexities of virology, molecular biology, and epidemiology could understand the concepts.
Kay's talk focused on why coronaviruses as a group are so successful in causing diseases in human and domestic animal populations. Why can they successfully skip to new hosts, causing health and economic woes? Why are there dramatic differences among the diseases caused by different coronaviruses? The data in the table below show the stark contrasts among the three emerging human epidemics of the 21st century caused by coronaviruses, with numbers for COVID19 still increasing.
Kay proposed four essential questions to approach these issues.
First: How do coronaviruses infect cells?
The ability to grow a mouse coronavirus in vitro and study it in vivo in a mouse model has allowed scientists to learn about the basic structure and binding properties of this virus. Three proteins fused together comprise the spikes that give the name to this virus group. Binding of these proteins to a receptor on a host cell allows the virus to fuse with the cell. The viral RNA can then enter the host cell, where it can be amplified to make new virus particles. Coronaviruses are highly sensitive to soap because they have a lipid membrane. WASH YOUR HANDS!
Second: How do errors in the replication of viral RNA influence disease?
Once the viral RNA enters a host cell, it is replicated by the machinery of that host cell in a process that is error-prone. These errors (mutations) result in individual base substitutions as well as recombinants with segments of other virus RNA that happen to be present in the same cell, or with host RNA segments. So, instead of a population of identical virus particles, a "cloud" of viruses with slightly different RNA molecules results. Since the RNA genome of coronaviruses is larger than that of all other known RNA viruses, the statistical probability of a mutation in the RNA genome is higher for coronaviruses than for other RNA viruses. The resulting pool of virus variants allows selection among them for progeny viruses that have the best chance of continuing to affect more cells.
Third: How do the spike proteins recognize host receptors and enter the host cells?
Binding to the host receptor is very specific; changes in a few receptor protein amino acids prevent binding and infection. Because different host species differ in the sequence of the receptor protein, a mouse virus, for example, can only infect mice. Research over many years in the mouse model showed that this highly complex process not only requires appropriate receptor binding, but also multiple enzymes that facilitate the opening of the host cell membrane to allow RNA entry.
Fourth: How can "spillovers" occur allowing a virus to jump to a new host?
Since host specificity is determined by binding of the viral spike protein to the host receptor, changes in the viral spike protein resulting from RNA synthesis errors could allow a virus to infect a different host and unleash an epidemic. Thus, the high error rate in the synthesis of the large RNA of the coronaviruses provides opportunities for jumping to new hosts. Just in the 21st century, four such spillovers of coronaviruses with significant economic and epidemiological impacts have been documented. However, many more are likely to occur in the future.
Kay next offered some discussion of each of the coronaviruses that have thus far plagued this century.
PEDV (Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus)
Since most of us are not farmers, we probably were unaware of this epidemic even though in 2013-14 it killed about 8 million pigs, resulting in a huge economic impact. The virus spread to 32 US states within a year because American pigs had never been exposed to this virus before. PEDV kills 100% of infected piglets within a few days of birth, though older pigs only exhibit a diarrhea that resolves. Thus, the older pigs may carry the virus, so it is still present in US pigs. Because PCR testing for this virus is now done routinely in all US pigs, and quarantining and disinfection are instituted if the virus is detected, no additional epidemics have resulted from PEDV. Antibodies from adult pigs that recovered from this infection protect piglets born later, adding another element of protection. We can hope that antibodies to SARS-Cov-2 will be similarly protective in people. (Recently, antibody to the spike protein has been found at high levels in Sars-CoV-2 infected patients: JRS.)
SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, 2002)
Prior to this, coronaviruses were thought only to cause colds in humans, but within 7 months of the emergence of this novel coronavirus, it had resulted in nearly 800 deaths in 30 countries. This virus had a 10% mortality rate. PCR tests were developed quickly, travel restrictions and quarantines were instituted, and contacts followed and quarantined, and the virus was no longer circulating after 7 months. Although death rates among medical workers and hospital patients in contact with SARS patients were high, because this virus is not shed until symptoms develop, containment was possible. Bats can harbor this and other coronaviruses without getting very sick and thus they provide a "reservoir" from which these viruses can be transferred to other animals. Apparently, the SARS virus jumped from a bat to exotic animals sold in a market in China, and from there to people, where it was much more lethal.
MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, 2012 - ?)
This epidemic originated in Saudi Arabia and spread to other areas, but with low infection rates in countries other than Saudi Arabia. It is very deadly with a mortality rate of 35%, but containment by testing and quarantine has been successful in limiting the rate of infection. The virus remains in circulation today, with sporadic outbreaks that have killed 861 people over the past 8 years. In camels, though, the MERS virus is less lethal and leads to persistent infection, which can be transmitted to humans by close contact. Don't kiss your camel! Animal models of MERS have identified remdesivir as a possible drug treatment and have pointed to some candidates for vaccines. (Remdesivir was approved recently by the FDA to treat the current SARS-CoV-2 virus, but it is administered intravenously only to severely ill hospitalized patients: JRS.)
COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2, 2019 - ?)
The SARS-CoV-2 virus probably originated in bats, then moved through pangolins to humans. This epidemic spread rapidly worldwide despite very rapid determination of the sequence of the viral RNA genome that provides the basis for PCR tests used to determine its carriage. Quarantine was not instituted until nearly a month after the first infection was detected, and testing before and since has been inadequate. (New tests are now available for the viral proteins, i.e. antigens, as well, and that may help: JRS).
Despite being genetically about 96% similar to the 2002 SARS virus, SARS-CoV-2 behaves very differently from the first SARS virus. This pandemic differs from previous coronavirus epidemics in that virus is shed in large amounts prior to the expression of symptoms, and possibly even after recovery, allowing for high exposure and infection rates. Therefore, although this virus is less lethal than either MERS or SARS (see the table at the top), it is much more dangerous and much harder to contain. The number of infections is probably hugely underestimated because of testing limits and asymptomatic infections.
Conclusions and future needs:
- This virus is very successful in spreading before symptoms emerge.
- Testing and contact tracing are vital to containment.
- Quarantine will help but will not be sufficient.
- Early "opening up" is dangerous and could lead to rebound; science needs to guide policy.
- Drug development will likely occur before a vaccine is available.
- WASH YOUR HANDS!
Suggestions for further reading (JRS): Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health, recently co-authored a paper about world-wide cooperation to overcome the problems of vaccine development for SARS-CoV-2. He is optimistic about development of a vaccine based on work with animal models of SARS-CoV-1
-Marianne Skeen (edited by June R. Scott)
Kay Holmes' talk will not be on our website, but may be viewed by clicking here. (Note that this link will be deactivated in early November.)
|
Lunch Colloquium Report--Monday, May 11
"The Feast of Reason and the Flow of Soul"--A History of
Emory Commencement
Gary Hauk, Former Emory Vice President, Deputy to the President, University Historian
May 11, 2020, will go down in Emory's history -- and Dr. Gary Hauk will be its best qualified historian. Instead of attending Emory's 175th Commencement, members of EUEC stayed home, gazing at their computer screens--to watch Dr. Gary Hauk talk about Emory commencements through the ages. The COVID-19 pandemic required cancellation of graduation exercises, preventing us from hearing those bagpipes, from admiring colorful hoods in the processional, from watching a sea of eager young faces, from listening to enlightening remarks by honored speakers, from participating in a glorious celebration. To console us somewhat, the EUEC, with help from Zoom technology, made it possible to get together to learn and reminisce about Emory's long history of commencements.
In the course of his 34-year career, Dr. Hauk has been a key figure in major chapters in Emory's evolution, and as official university historian he has many interesting stories to tell. Working closely with five presidents, he has held many positions: assistant secretary of the university, secretary of the university, vice president, deputy to the president, senior adviser to the president, and university historian. As President Sterk put it, "Gary knew the story behind the story of Emory." On Monday, he shared some of that story with us. And, as he did so, befitting the topic, he wore a bow tie of the Emory tartan, and modeled his beautiful gold and blue PhD robe.
The first slides in Gary Hauk's PowerPoint presentation showed recent commencements and reminded us of just what we were missing this year: as many as eight bagpipers in kilts, thousands of students robed with colorful sashes, colleagues and VIPs processing in splendid academic regalia, and everything that has always made commencement a magnificent occasion. Always? But no. As Gary explained, many of today's "traditions" are relatively new.
For example, Gary told us that it was the legendary and curmudgeonly Professor George Cuttino, professor of medieval history, who promoted the inclusion of many of the elements that make up today's elaborate pomp and circumstance. In 1986, when Emory celebrated its sesquicentennial, it was the first time that an entire band of bagpipers initiated the commencement procession, playing a tune composed by an Emory alumnus. As we who've attended many commencements since then remember, the musicians are followed by the long procession of marshals, trustees, faculty, senior administrators, honorees, carriers of the gonfalon, and the main speaker. Last come the bedel, who carries the silver and gold mace, symbolizing Emory as a corporate body of scholars, and, finally, the president of the university. George Cuttino was passionate about all the rituals and, as head marshal, was so determined to protect the dignity of the proceedings that he did not hesitate to use rather undignified words to call unruly audience members to order.
Today's cast of thousands contrasts with the first Emory commencement in 1841, on the Oxford College campus where Emory had been recently founded, when three students graduated. In the early years, festivities went on for many days, all in the July heat. There were religious services with lengthy sermons, and every graduate gave a presentation. The different classes then competed with declamations, as did the various literary societies. It's hard to imagine that any of today's attendees at commencement ceremonies would be willing to sit through so very many hours of speechifying, however fine the speeches might be.
Over the last 175 years, graduation exercises have been held in various locations, both inside and outside many buildings on the Oxford and Atlanta campuses. Gary showed photographs of these sites, many of which no longer exist. Different months and different times of day were also tried out, with some evening and some morning events, but in recent decades, commencement has been held in the morning in early May. The first time that the Quadrangle was used was in 1959. In the years since then, the university has experimented with several orientations of the chairs to avoid glare from the morning sun.
Gary recounted highlights of the lively history of Emory commencement speakers. In addition to the tension between someone whom the students want-- a celebrity from popular culture-- and someone whom the faculty and administration deem appropriate, there are also political conundrums. For example, the choice of Nobel prize winner Desmond Tutu met with disapproval from some faculty and alumni who did not like his role in South African politics. It was a major coup when Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to come, even though some vociferous alumni objected that he was still an unrepentant Communist. His appearance presented a logistical nightmare, as thousands of people with no relation to Emory and hundreds of reporters wanted to attend. Whole busloads from churches and other organizations all around the state clamored for tickets. A tall fence and 15,000 chairs had to be set up and only a limited number of tickets were made available to each student.
Gary told many good anecdotes about speaker-related situations, too many to repeat here. But definitely worth retelling is his story of Gorbachev's arrival at the Atlanta airport. Gary and a crowd of dignitaries were waiting for Malcolm Forbes's private plane, as Forbes had invited Gorbachev for the flight. It was a marvelous moment of irony when the plane landed and came into view: In huge letters the plane's name was written along its body: "Capitalist Tool."
Over the years, countless honorary degrees have been awarded, with many undeniably laudable recipients, such as Seamus Haney and Dr. Anthony Fauci, and some questionable ones, like Werner von Braun. As with the choice of commencement speakers, there were often disagreements about those chosen for such recognition. For example, many students objected to the choice of Georgia Senator Sam Nunn, because he headed the Senate Armed Services Committee during the Vietnam War.
As Gary reported, there were some important (and long overdue) firsts among these speakers and honorary degree recipients: in 1965, the first woman to get an honorary degree, Dr. Marion Hines, Emory professor of anatomy; in 1970, the first African-American commencement speaker, Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, president of Morehouse; and in 1971, the first female speaker, Rosemary Park, president of Barnard College. And Gary also noted that, moving beyond Emory's tradition as a Methodist institution, commencement now includes inspirational words from representatives of many different faith traditions: Hindu, Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, and Islam.
As you might imagine, Gary's presentation elicited many questions and comments from the audience, as listeners shared their own notable reminiscences of commencement festivities through the decades. Maybe next year, we'll be able to enjoy the festivities of 2021 on the Quad once again. But in this year's straitened circumstances, we nonetheless managed to have a happy time, thanks to our very own commencement speaker extraordinaire, Gary Hauk. We thank him.
-Angelika Pohl
Click here to return to top
|
Afternoon Seminar Report--Wednesday, May 13
The Corona Inequity: Why COVID-19 Disproportionately Affects
African Americans
Carol Hogue, Jules & Uldeen Terry Professor Emerita of Maternal and Child Health, Professor Emerita of Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health
On Wednesday, May 13, in a special afternoon Zoom session of the Emeritus College Colloquium program, Carol Hogue, MPH, PhD, Jules & Uldeen Terry Professor Emerita of Maternal and Child Health, and Professor Emerita of Epidemiology, renowned for her enormous contributions to the understanding of disparities in maternal-child health, shone a beacon on the health inequities apparent in COVID-19 statistics as representative of those throughout society. She presented the complex underpinning of COVID-19 statistics, facts that undermine what often appears to be victim blaming. She began by explaining the limitations of data on COVID-19. Because public health data are collected by the states, the information the CDC has gathered is limited to what is being reported to them. At this time, too, those data include only confirmed cases and deaths, not presumed or unknown causes of death; and race and ethnicity are not included in many reports, including those from the states of NJ and NY, further limiting the data and their analysis. Given the dearth of testing, asymptomatic infections have not been determined at all, effectively excluding calculation of case-fatality rates. However, even with these limitations, a clear pattern of significantly higher infection rates and deaths among African Americans has emerged. Summarized in this chart, in states with at least 5% black populations, members of those populations have a 3 to 4X larger share of confirmed COVID-19 cases and 2 to 6X higher share of deaths.
Excess morbidity and mortality among African Americans are not new; indeed, they were carefully documented by WEB Dubois in 1899 in a study of Philadelphia's infant mortality. These disparities are not genetic or random but grown from the intentionality of racialized inequality embedded in federal policies and social norms to extend historical disparities of wealth and opportunity from the time of slavery. One example is the racialized policies of the New Deal, like those of the GI Bill. Another example comes from the history of the March of Dimes. Polio was believed to be a Caucasian disease, particularly affecting the middle class, and the March of Dimes raised money for white establishments only despite FDR's appeals to all races. When black leaders balked at continuing fundraising efforts, the foundation finally set up a segregated treatment unit at Tuskegee in 1954. When scientific studies found larger numbers of black cases than white, scientists refused to believe the supposedly aberrant results for years, not doing so until long after the polio epidemics were ended by the vaccine. As a result of this racialized thinking, African Americans were forced to stand in long lines to receive the vaccine as the white population was prioritized.
Among the specific characteristics of COVID-19 that heighten the vulnerability of African Americans is its asymptomatic shedding, solely combatted through social distancing when crowded racially segregated residential units preclude social distancing. The tripled rate of black incarceration creates a highly susceptible pool of individuals including the 70% of the people in local jails who have been found guilty of no crime but are awaiting arraignment because they can't afford bail. Furthermore, inequitable educational and employment opportunities mean that African Americans are more likely to be poorly paid "essential workers," including a considerable portion of prison guards and ancillary personnel, unable to shelter at home; lower wages mean few private alternatives to public transportation; limited access to medical care means chronic medical conditions are poorly managed; and food deserts and unsafe neighborhoods limit healthy eating and exercise, adding to obesity rates and, again, vulnerability. Hypertension is also exacerbated by living with interpersonal and structural racism.
After noting that being black in America is a risk marker for increased mortality and morbidity, Arlene Geronimus proposed the concept of "weathering," a process of premature aging. Reduced protection of telomeres, immunosuppression, and chronic health conditions appear at an earlier chronological age, driven by physiologic responses to chronic stress. In a pioneering study of premature birth, a significant cause of infant mortality, Dr. Hogue linked prematurity to weathering by demonstrating that among women with higher education, low birth weight and mortality were 2-3X higher in African Americans than Caucasians, the gap increasing rather than decreasing with educational attainment. This contrasts with similar rates among women with less than a high school education.
This discovery suggested a factor other than poverty was at work, a result refined through further studies that led to a biosocial model of the interactions between institutionalized and interpersonal racism, chronic stress, and physiologically dysfunctional bioregulatory systems. A racialized institutional and interpersonal environment leads to increased early life acute and chronic stress, which then cause vascular and hypothalamic pituitary (HPA) dysfunction and inflammation, all of which increase the risk of hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and preeclampsia and preterm delivery in pregnancy as well as elevated maternal morbidity and mortality. This is reflected in the trend of increasing severe maternal morbidities between the 1990s and 2011.
High rates of diabetes, obesity, and hypertension among Blacks are co-morbidities that help explain black vulnerability to COVID-19. But this is not the whole picture. In addition to physiologic factors, there are differences in patient care grounded in the racial attitudes of medical providers that contribute to excess deaths among African Americans. Carol gave two examples of deaths due to poor patient care, one of an African American friend who died of COVID-19, the other an unnecessary maternal death. Both patients died after their complaints were dismissed until it was too late to intervene to save them.
How then can we "bend the disparity curve" in the wake of COVID-19's exposure of long established health inequities? During the pandemic, we can identify gaps in community knowledge and partner with community organizations to disseminate or create resources. During it and after it, we must fight for the expansion of Medicaid. And we can seek out and adapt good ideas from all around the country. A Minneapolis councilman, Jeremiah Ellison, has shown one way to upend segregation in housing by eliminating single family zoning in the city and rewriting housing inspection codes.
More broadly in what David Williams and Lisa Cooper have called a "new kind of herd immunity" to health inequities, we must raise awareness of the problem. Racial gaps must be made explicit and racial disparities defined as the cause of health inequities, not simply poverty or lack of access to care. Critically, we must find a way to bridge the racial gap in empathy by telling stories that can build support for political action. Such empathy can only be built if we reach out from our comfortable primarily white spaces to people who don't look like us, hear what they have to say, and ask what we can do to help end inequity and attendant suffering and death.
-Denise Raynor
Denise suggests that some of us might want to read the article inspired by the death of Ahmaud Arbery that Dante Stewart published in Christianity Today on May 8. She sees it as "an article that perfectly captures the experiences that cause weathering." That article can be read by clicking here.
|
New Members
New members are the lifeblood of any organization. Please make a special effort to welcome them to EUEC!
Members in Transition
Rong Cai, PhD, Associate Professor of Chinese Studies
Peter A. Topping, PhD, Professor in the Practice of Organization & Management, Associate Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Emory School of Medicine
Click here to return to top
|
Faculty Activities
Katherine Mitchell Senior Lecturer Emerita, Visual Arts Department
Solo Exhibition. Hearing the Trees: Part III. Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, Atlanta. August 1-September 26, 2020. This exhibition will include a number of current works, as well as some from the earlier two exhibitions.
Group Exhibitions:
Drawing in Georgia. Museum of Contemporary Art in Georgia, Atlanta, GA. November 16, 2019-January 11, 2020.
Artists from the MOCAGA Permanent Collection Recognized by the National Museum for Women in the Arts. Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia in Atlanta. January 25 -March 7, 2020.
One Earth/One Chance. Georgia State University/Perimeter at Clarkston, GA. February 19 - March 30, 2020.
Art Auctions Donated To:
Art Papers Magazine. February 22, 2020. 60-40% split. (artist receives 40%)
The Hambidge Center: Creative Residency Program. October 26, 2020. 100% donation.
Continuing Volunteer Work with Citizens' Climate Lobby:
I am one of a committee of three for Educational Outreach. First event of this project was a screening of the James Redford (son of Robert Redford) film, Happening the Clean Energy Revolution, at the Goethe-Zentrum/German Cultural Center of Atlanta. October 23, 2019. We had full capacity with about 65 attendees.
Our second event of the series was to have been a tour of Georgia Tech's Kendeda Building on March 18, 2020. Unfortunately the tour had to be cancelled because of Coronavirus precautions. We hope to be able to re-schedule.
I write occasional letters to the editor of the AJC. I had five published in 2019. I also handle correspondence with incoming members of CCL's North Atlanta Chapter and assist the chapter in various other ways.
Michael J. Kuhar
Candler Professor of Neuropharmacology
Georgia Research Alliance Scholar
Senior Faculty Fellow, Center for Ethics of Emory
This second edition was published on April 1. Not many of our books have an endorsement from the Dalai Lama: Click here to return to top
|
Walking the Campus with Dianne
The building we looked at during our last walk is Clifton Tower. It's located at 1501 Clifton Road between the Student Health Center and the Woodruff Residential Center. The Tower was once a Howard Johnson hotel, but has recently been renovated to house second-year and continuing Oxford students in suite-style rooms with the features of a residence hall and apartment-style dorm living.
Emory acquired Clifton Tower in 1979. The university converted it into a residence hall for graduate students and, during the 1990s, began housing undergraduates there. Clifton Tower, which never had a major upgrade, was then closed in May 2014 until the recent renovated reopening.
Let's next explore a place on campus that you could walk to, but arriving there on a bicycle would be even better. It's actually a hidden gem for any Emory community bike enthusiast.
Where will you find this on the Emory Campus?
Click here to return to top
|
Emory University Emeritus College The Luce Center
825 Houston Mill Road NE #206 Atlanta, GA 30329 |
|
|
|
|
