Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • Who Can Breathe in Lane County?

    As smoke from local wildfires created an unhealthy outdoor environment, cities in Oregon looked to expand temporary housing options for those experiencing homelessness. While not all have been successful, the Portland area saw success from being able to rely on their "system for responding to severe weather, as well as the Multnomah County’s Emergency Management Department."

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  • India's first two ‘Tsunami Ready' villages in Odisha

    Two decades after a massive cyclone killed close to 10,000 people in India's Odisha state, the government's efforts to protect coastal villages vulnerable to cyclones and tsunamis has produced a host of safety measures, from reinforced shelters and early-warning systems to search and evacuation training. Two villages were singled out as the first in the Indian Ocean region to achieve UNESCO's "tsunami ready" certification. A drill in 2019 showed how quickly villagers were trained to respond to an imminent threat.

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  • How Mexico City's poorest neighbourhood is battling climate change

    The people in a neighborhood in Mexico City are coming up with innovative solutions to handle climate-related disasters like flood. They use an early warning system that uses a radio signal and WhatsApp to warn residents of environmental dangers. However, the app does not always work. And a mobile classroom offers simulations about how government decisions are made when deciding danger levels of disasters. While thousands of residents had been trained, the classroom is usually only in the neighborhood for a day. Yet, these solutions based on education and communication could be applied to other communities.

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  • The disaster recovery groups helping rural North Carolina weather COVID-19

    Mobilized to help North Carolina’s second-poorest county recover from two major hurricanes over the past four years, the Robeson County Disaster Recovery Coalition pivoted to provide COVID-19 relief and brace for the possibility of a hurricane during the pandemic. The coalition and other small nonprofits have filled gaps left by state-run relief efforts that either wasted federal aid or failed to take advantage of available aid. During the pandemic, the groups have distributed personal protective equipment and educated a region hard-hit by both kinds of natural disaster.

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  • Microbe Mappers Are Tracking Covid-19's Invisible Traces

    Scientists have been mapping microbes in public places for a long time and are now tracking Covid-19 by swabbing subways, park benches, ATMs, and even the air, for traces of genetic material to better understand the virus’ transmission dynamics and detect hotspots before transmission becomes widespread. Molecular monitoring has identified how long the virus can live on different surfaces and the origin of different strains, which can flag sanitation priorities and help contact tracers. There are limits to what it can reveal because finding virus on surfaces does not always lead to definite infection.

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  • Seattle's Leaders Let Scientists Take the Lead. New York's Did Not

    In responding to the coronavirus outbreak, Washington State stands in direct contrast to New York in how local governments responded. While New York relied on direction from politicians, Washington State looked to public health experts to lead briefings and directions – a response that is now emerging as a successful model for building trust with state residents, and inspiring action rather than skepticism.

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  • To Combat Coronavirus, Scientists Are Also Breaking Down Barriers

    The research field has often been siloed, with each discipline focusing on its own lane, but in the wake of COVID0-19 the shift toward interdisciplinary research is happening – and proving necessary. Often incentivized by grant funding for siloed work, now, researchers are seeing urgent calls to work together against the pandemic. While there have been great strides made across disciplines in the past, the complex issues of our time – climate change, systemic racism, economic inequity – are causing a shift across fields.

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  • How Uganda's history of epidemics has prepared it for COVID-19

    Having spent a number of years combatting Ebola and Marburg viruses, officials in Uganda were able to quickly set into a motion a series of proactive strategies such as restriction of movement, surveillance strategies, and widespread testing to help contain the coronavirus outbreak. Although the approach isn't without its limitations – many are stockpiling groceries out of fear – the rapid and aggressive measures have kept the country's caseload low compared to that of other African nations.

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  • First to Feel COVID-19's Impact, Chinatown is First to Deliver Aid for Small Business

    Renaissance Economic Development Corporation, a nonprofit loan fund in New York City, has helped Chinatown small businesses recover through 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy, and COVID-19 is the newest crisis it needs to navigate. It has been able to rely on its larger than standard loan loss reserve to have room for emergency loans to provide swift and integral support to Chinatown businesses.

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  • Coronavirus Slowdown in Seattle Suggests Restrictions Are Working

    After learning of the first cases of coronavirus that weren't contracted by direct exposure or from foreign travel, officials in Washington took quick and strict measures to start introducing social distancing, which may have helped slow the transmission. Although the hospitals are low on supplies, they have not yet been "overrun," indicating that modeling and widespread testing, along with limiting human-to-human interactions and gatherings, were all beneficial parts of the strategy to slow the spread.

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