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Is It Time to End Qualified Immunity?
Following the death of George Floyd and subsequent protests of police brutality, many began to wonder if this should be the end of qualified immunity, the legal protection that police officers and other government officials have from civil rights lawsuits unless the victim is able to show their constitutional rights had been violated by that official. At the time, there seemed to be a lot of momentum. "Based on the events of last summer, we were all poised for the United States Supreme Court to take action on qualified immunity," says Teri Ravenell, a law professor at Villanova who specializes in police accountability and municipal liability. "There were almost a dozen cases pending before them. With the egregious facts in these cases, it was ripe for them to act, but they refused to take cert." It was around the same time that the House passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. And while there had been no action at the federal level, we began to see more states and local municipalities decide to move forward on their own. New Mexico and Colorado put laws in place to end qualified immunity, including for police officers, and New York City recently ended it as well. "Qualified immunity still exists at the federal level, but you now have local options that don't have the same obstacles because it has been eliminated in these state and local statutes," Prof. Ravenell says. While there has been progress, Prof. Ravenell cautions to look beyond the present moment. "We say we want to end qualified immunity, but we're not thinking five steps ahead about what this actually does. We can say we want to make police more accountable, but how are we doing that? If it's that we want them to pay damages, if they take on more liability, municipalities will stop indemnifying and plaintiffs will go uncompensated. We have to think about how different rights and issues intersect with each other."
Much like the cherry blossoms that are reaching peak in DC and are just starting to bloom here in NYC, U.S.-Japan relations seem set to hit their peak with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga set to become the first world leader to meet with President Biden at the White House this week. This marks the first time a Japanese leader—or any Asian leader—is the first to meet with a U.S. president, since traditionally this honor has been reserved for a neighboring country like Canada or Mexico, or a European ally such as the UK. What does this mean for geopolitics? How does this shift our relationship with Japan and other allies? What does this mean for the balance of global power in a world of ever-shifting alliances? According to Joshua Walker, President & CEO of Japan Society, this historic visit indicates the following: This visit highlights the shift from a Western Transatlantic to an Eastern Transpacific Asian century, where Japan plays a critical role as a frontline security ally of the United States against China as this competition dominates geopolitics. It emphasizes the importance of democratic allies like Japan, specifically the Quad formation of Australia, India, Japan, and the U.S. as a new multilateral framing of America’s engagement in Asia. Japanese leadership inaugurated this concept in the last decade, which has now been embraced by the Biden administration. Brings into focus the 70 years of security treaty alliance between the United States and Japan, where Biden and Suga have been key players for the last half century—since the opening to China that changed the character of U.S.-Japan relations. Represents a key bilateral opportunity for both new administrations to get to know each other on the world stage in advance of the G7 summit in England this summer, and a time to coordinate strategies between the first and third largest economies, from domestic COVID responses and infrastructure investment to global responses to climate change and authoritarian regimes from North Korea and Myanmar to Iran. As host of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan elevates global aspirations and hopes for a successful, albeit different, competition of the human spirit that, through its resiliency, can overcome COVID. America represents the largest Olympic delegation and TV market, while Japan is the only Asian country to host two Summer Olympics even as China plans for its own Winter Games in 2022.
Toolkit is easily incorporated into any laboratory science course Wilmington, Del., April 1, 2021 – St. Georges Technical High School in southern New Castle County, Delaware is the first high school in the United States to use ChristianaCare Gene Editing Institute’s innovative CRISPR in a Box Educational Toolkit™ in a science class. CRISPR in a Box brings to life the much-heralded CRISPR gene editing technology – the “genetic scissors” that allow scientists to edit DNA. The toolkit is designed for educational sessions in secondary and post-secondary schools and is suitable for remote learning. “Gene editing is the future of medicine,” said Eric Kmiec, Ph.D., director of ChristianaCare’s Gene Editing Institute. “Our partnership with the Delaware Department of Education will help cultivate the next generation of genetic scientists and enhance Delaware’s position as a leader in the biosciences.” “We are thrilled that students at St. Georges Technical High School will be the first In the United States to experience a live demonstration of CRISPR gene editing using our Innovative CRISPR in a Box educational toolkit,” said Siobhan Hawthorne, Education and Community Outreach leader at ChristianaCare’s Gene Editing Institute. “This toolkit will provide STEM students with a visual understanding of how the exciting CRISPR technology can unlock medical treatments to improve lives.” Delaware Secretary of Education Susan Bunting praised her department's partnership with ChristianaCare's Gene Editing Institute to develop the “Seeds of STEM” course that teaches high school students about gene editing. “Gene editing approaches diseases in new ways and will have significant impact in the health care and agriscience fields,” Bunting said. “This is a great example of an industry and education partnership investing in youth by providing hands-on knowledge and skills around emerging technology.” “We are so fortunate that ChristianaCare’s Gene Editing Institute reached out to our program to plan a high school ‘first’ opportunity with this new CRISPR experiment,” said Danya Espadas, one of the St. Georges biotech teachers. “Giving students the chance to use a cutting-edge, 21st century tool for medicine in their own high school lab – to have that technology at their fingertips – transcends what they see in a textbook or a video. By being able to do it themselves, it makes it real for them.” Espada said the experiment focuses on editing a gene of a non-infectious E.coli bacteria to become resistant to an antibiotic, thereby allowing researchers to create a new class of antibiotics that cannot be overcome by bacteria that are gene resistant. “We’re talking about eventually saving lives, here,” she said. “What can be more important than that?” The tools in CRISPR in a Box have been designed based on the pioneering discoveries of the Gene Editing Institute that are currently being used to explore next-generation medical therapies and diagnostics for diseases, including lung cancer and sickle-cell anemia. Component items in the toolkit include the CRISPR/Cas complex, a target DNA molecule, a mammalian cell free extract and a synthetic DNA molecule. All materials in the kit are safe, synthetic materials. There are no live cultures or viruses involved. The kit is meant to provide a hands-on demonstration of CRISPR’s capabilities, and not allow for manipulations of living organisms. “The kit is easy and fun to use,” said Kristen Pisarcik, research assistant at the Gene Editing Institute who has taught students at Delaware Technical Community College which first used the toolkit. “In a short period of time students will reliably and successfully complete the laboratory activity and be able to see the results of gene editing,” she said. Since the foundations of the kit touch upon key themes in biology, it can be readily incorporated into practically any science or biology course with a laboratory component, “One of the beauties of CRISPR in a Box is that there is no need to purchase specialized equipment. If a teaching lab can support bacterial cultivation, it can perform the in vitro gene editing lab activity,” Pisarcik said. CRISPR in a Box is the evolution of a partnership between the Gene Editing Institute, Delaware Technical Community College and Rockland Immunochemicals that began in 2017 with a National Science Foundation grant to develop the first-ever gene editing curriculum for community college students. Video and photo collection of first class in U.S. to use CRISPR in a Box™ educational gene editing toolkit. About ChristianaCare’s Gene Editing Institute The Gene Editing Institute, a worldwide leader in CRISPR gene editing technology and the only institute of its kind based within a community health care system, takes a patient-first approach in all its research to improve the lives of people with life-threatening disease. Since 2015, researchers at the Gene Editing Institute have been involved in several ground-breaking firsts in the field, including the development of the first CRISPR gene editing tool to allow DNA repairs outside the human cell which will rapidly speed therapies to patients and a unique version of CRISPR called EXACT that reduces the number of off-target edits to other areas of the genome, which is vital for further research and patient applications. Its researchers are currently developing a patient trial for lung cancer using CRISPR and employing the technology to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. About the biotech program St. Georges Technical High School The Biotech career program of study at St. Georges Technical High School is the first such program offered in a Delaware high school. With two teachers and approximately 100 students in grades 10-12, the program presents advanced content in biology and chemistry with opportunities for students to learn basic laboratory techniques and procedures and to maintain and operate common instruments and equipment used in a biotechnology laboratory. St. Georges is a comprehensive career and technical high school with 1,100 students who study in one of 16 different career pathways.
Public health education soars in wake of pandemic
Maybe a silver lining can be found from the COVID-19 pandemic, as interest in public health education is soaring at U.S. colleges and universities, says a nationally prominent public health professor. Public health education has become a logical choice for students when looking at changing public health practice trends and their implications for public health education, explained Gulzar Shah, Ph.D., who authored an invited editorial in the March issue of the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH). Shah is department chair and professor of health policy and community health in Georgia Southern University’s Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health. His editorial is titled “Public Health Education and Changing Public Health Realities in the Public Health 3.0 Era.” “For many of the 19 million college students enrolling annually in public and private colleges in the United States, public health is becoming a logical choice,” he said. “Because of COVID-19, interest in public health careers is soaring, evident from the 20% increase nationwide in Master of Public Health applicants.” The editorial also drew insights from the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health’s national-level data from schools and programs of public health about the first employment destinations of public health graduates. “The emphasis on aligning public health practice and policy with the Public Health 3.0 framework, in which leaders partner across various sectors to address social, environmental and economic factors that affect population health and health inequity, has attracted the spotlight on generalist, behavioral education and health policy degrees,” Shah noted. “The Public Health 3.0 framework has also underscored the desirability of adopting the Health in All Policies approach and encouraging public health leaders to act as chief health strategists in influencing policies in other sectors affecting population health. Increasing focus on Health in All Policies and higher salary positions in health care may further explain the popularity of health policy and management and health law programs.” If you are a journalist looking to know more about Dr. Shah’s work, and the importance public health education in America of the programs Georgia Southern is offering – then let us help. Dr. Gulzar H. Shah is a Professor and Department Chair, Health Policy and Community Health at the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health (JPHCOPH), Georgia Southern University. He is available to speak with media regarding this important topic - simply click on his icon now to arrange an interview today.
UConn Researcher Develops Successful Zika Virus Vaccine in Preclinical Studies
UConn researcher Paulo Verardi, associate professor of pathobiology and veterinary science in the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources, has demonstrated the success of a vaccine against Zika virus and recently published his findings in Scientific Reports, a Nature Research publication. He has also filed provisional patents with UConn’s Technology Commercialization Services for the novel vaccine platform technology used to generate the vaccine, as well as genetic modifications made to the vaccine that significantly enhance expression of the vaccine antigen. Verardi, a Brazilian native, was in Brazil visiting family in the summer of 2015 when the Zika outbreak first began to make waves and soon reached epidemic status. Back in the United States, Verardi kept tabs on the Zika epidemic and its emerging connection to microcephaly, a serious birth defect that causes babies to be born with small heads and underdeveloped brains. In October of that year, Verardi called then-Ph.D.-student Brittany Jasperse (CAHNR ‘19) into his office and told her he wanted to apply their newly developed vaccine platform and start developing a vaccine for Zika virus. It’s an impressive achievement and there’s a full article attached for those looking to know more. Verardi emphasizes that developing vaccines for viruses, in this case Zika, help the world be better prepared for outbreaks of novel and emerging viruses by having vaccine development frameworks in place. “Emerging viruses are not going to stop popping up any time soon, so we need to be prepared,” Verardi says. “Part of being prepared is to continue the development of these platforms.” If you’re a journalist looking to know more about Zika virus and this emerging news about a vaccine – then let us help. Dr. Paulo Verardi is a virologist who specializes in vaccine research and development. He is an Associate Professor at UConn and a member of the Center of Excellence for Vaccine Research. Dr. Verardi is available to speak with media regarding this emerging development – simply click on his icon now to arrange an interview today.
Solar geoengineering - it’s a topic that has caused an ethical lightening storm in the science community. The concept is complex. Should the world take on the crisis of climate change by attempting to artificially attempting to cool the earth? It’s an idea that has the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine seeking a billion dollars in the next five years to investigate the theory. It’s a topic that is somewhat controversial, and journalists are looking to leading experts from across America for expert insight, opinion and perspective. Prakash Kashwan, a political scientist at the University of Connecticut, said he felt the report could have better emphasized the seriousness of some concerns over others. Uncertainties about the impacts of solar geoengineering on global weather patterns have the potential to affect some regions of the world more severely than others, he pointed out. Some experts have raised concerns about potential effects of geoengineering on monsoon rainfall in parts of Asia and Africa, he said. More than 2 billion people around the world rely on these rainfall patterns to support their water and agricultural needs. These kinds of issues should be given special weight, Kashwan suggested. "Some uncertainties are much more highly consequential for the global society, and especially for the poor and vulnerable," he told E&E News. Kashwan also reiterated concerns about potential political effects. While the report makes clear that geoengineering is not a substitute for climate mitigation, he suggests that this doesn't necessarily prevent policymakers from using it in that way. "The problem is the extent to which researchers are really helpless in deciding how research is used in the political system," he said. "That part has yet to be fully appreciated." Kashwan suggests that more dialogue might be warranted before funding a national research program, with greater input from both the international community and political experts who can weigh in on the ways that geoengineering research might affect political decisions. March 26, Scientific American It's a captivating idea – but it could have political, social and ethical consequences. Dr. Kashwan has also been interviewed by The New York Times. If you are a journalist looking to learn more about solar geoengineering, its possibilities and the reasons some scientists are worried – then let us help with your coverage. Prakash Kashwan is an Associate Professor of Political Science at UConn and an expert in the areas of environmental and climate justice, planetary justice, global commons, climate governance, and climate geoengineering governance. Dr. Kashwan is available to speak with media regarding this topic – simply click on his icon now to arrange an interview today.
What Can A Forgotten Piece of Our Opioid Addiction and Treatment History Teach Us?
As the nation struggles with the third wave of a continuing opioid epidemic, a newly republished book co-authored by Nancy Campbell, the head of the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, offers insight into present-day drug addiction and treatment by exploring a complex chapter from the nation’s past. Written with JP Olsen and Luke Walden, The Narcotic Farm: The Rise and Fall of America’s First Prison for Drug Addicts details the history of the United States Narcotic Farm, a federal institution that opened in 1935 outside of Lexington, Kentucky. Jointly operated from 1935 to 1975 by the U.S. Public Health Service and the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Narcotic Farm was a combination prison, hospital, working farm, rehabilitation center, and research laboratory. “All of our scientific knowledge about human opioid addiction comes from that time, comes from that place,” said Campbell, a leading figure in the social history of drugs, drug policy, and harm reduction, on an episode of the Landmark Recovery Radio podcast. The facility, which was also the subject of a 2009 documentary featuring Campbell, has a complicated legacy. It revolutionized treatment methods commonly accepted today, such as using methadone to medically manage heroin detox and the development of drugs like naloxone and buprenorphine. But it fell under a cloud of suspicion in 1975, when Congress learned that researchers had recruited patients as test subjects for CIA-funded LSD experiments as part of the notorious MK-Ultra project. “With the ongoing opioid epidemic worsening this past year in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the lessons learned in this book continue to be relevant today,” Campbell said. Campbell is also the author of Using Women: Gender, Drug Policy, and Social Justice and Discovering Addiction: The Science and Politics of Substance Abuse Research, as well as the co-author of Gendering Addiction: The Politics of Drug Treatment in a Neurochemical World. Her most recent book, OD: Naloxone and the Politics of Overdose, was published in 2020. “Nobody should die of overdose. A high overdose death rate signals that we have not cared for the people who have been hurt most by the war on drugs, first pursued by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954,” Campbell said in a recent “Academic Minute” segment. Campbell is available to discuss a wide range of topics relating to drug policy and history, including the Narcotic Farm.
Immigration history expert can provide insight on anti-Asian racism in the U.S.
Anti-Asian hate crimes are on the rise in America, and new data has revealed over the past year that the number of these incidents — which can include shunning, verbal harassment and physical attacks — is greater than previously reported. And a disproportionate number have been directed at Asian women, such as the recent Atlanta spa shootings and the assault on an elderly woman in San Francisco. The research released by reporting forum Stop AAPI Hate on Tuesday revealed nearly 3,800 incidents were reported over the course of roughly a year during the pandemic. It’s a significantly higher number than last year's count of about 2,800 hate incidents nationwide over the span of five months. Women made up a far higher share of the reports, at 68 percent, compared to men, who made up 29 percent of respondents. The non-profit does not report incidents to police. The data, which includes incidents that occurred between March 19 of last year and Feb. 28 of this year, shows that roughly 503 incidents took place in 2021 alone. Verbal harassment and shunning were the most common types of discrimination, making up 68.1 percent and 20.5 percent of the reports respectively. The third most common category, physical assault, made up 11.1 percent of the total incidents. More than a third of incidents occurred at businesses, the primary site of discrimination, while a quarter took place in public streets. According to the data, Asian women report hate incidents 2.3 times more than men. A further examination of the submitted reports showed that in many cases, the verbal harassment that women received reflected the very intersection of racism and sexism. March 16 – NBC News If you’re a journalist covering this news story, then let us help. Dr. Krystyn Moon is an expert in U.S. immigration history, popular culture, race and ethnic studies – and is available to speak with media regarding the recent study and the history of the anti-Asian racism and violence in the United States. If you are looking to arrange an interview, simply click on her icon now to book a time today.
What We Can Learn From Celebrating Irish-American Heritage Month
About two weeks ago, President Joseph Biden declared March 2021 Irish-American Heritage Month. In an official statement, the president said, "We owe a debt of gratitude to the Irish-American inventors and entrepreneurs who helped define America as the land of opportunity... The fabric of modern America is woven through with the green of the Emerald Isle." As the director of the Center for Irish Studies at Villanova University, an institution founded by Irish Augustinians to educate the children of Irish immigrants, Joseph Lennon, PhD, agrees. He hopes to use this presidential declaration as an opportunity to expand the conversation around what it means to be of Irish descent beyond wearing green and watching the annual St. Patrick's Day parade. The way Dr. Lennon sees it, "there is much more to Irish America than a parade and parties." With such a rich history of Irish immigrants and their descendants living in and contributing to the development of the United States, Dr. Lennon sees March 2021 as an important time to reflect on the "contributions and travails of this ethnicity" in a way that reaches beyond "silly slogans and marketing schemes." He reminds us, "there are over 30 million Irish Americans. The Irish contributed massively to the infrastructure of industrial America and later to the civil, education and business worlds—not to mention the Catholic Church." Dr. Lennon also hopes this month will help redefine the larger notion of what it looks like to be Irish and American. He notes that "38% of African Americans have Irish ancestry," but acknowledges that "this is a complicated issue," since in some cases this may stem from abuses suffered during the American practice of slavery. It is important conversations like these that Dr. Lennon wants to bring to light during Irish-American Heritage Month, and he stresses that "more research is needed into understanding this history—as well as the unions between Irish immigrants and northern-bound African Americans during the late nineteenth century." Per Dr. Lennon, these historical events are tied to our present day. He sees a need for "the level of recent racist attachments to Irishness... to be confronted with historical knowledge and anti-racist understandings." With such important issues in mind, Dr. Lennon wants to impart that "the Irish diaspora is global and diverse and Irish culture runs much more deeply and broadly in America than we might guess by just attending the St. Patrick's Day celebrations." He adds, "I'm curious to see if the conversation continues past St. Patrick's Day this year." Despite most St. Patrick’s Day events and programs being virtual in 2021, there are many opportunities to celebrate Irish-American heritage this year. At Villanova, the Center for Irish Studies is hosting a virtual St. Patrick's Day Celebration called "Links Across the Atlantic" on Wednesday, March 17, from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. This free celebration will include live entertainment segments, from an Irish breakfast tutorial with study abroad director Mary Madec to lunchtime laughs with actor Johnny Murphy, and will culminate with a streamed Irish music fèis (or festival) in partnership with Tune Supply, featuring We Banjo 3, the Friel Sisters and One for the Foxes! For more information or to register for this event, please click here.
Comfort Women – UConn expert weighs in as a dark piece of history returns to light
A recent article in an academic journal claiming that Korean comfort women -- imprisoned, raped, and subjected to brutal atrocities during World War II -- were "prostitutes" who had willingly entered indentured contracts set off a firestorm of controversy and a chorus from historians and academics calling for the paper's retraction. It's a topic garnering international attention as survivors continue to seek resolution, compensation, and acknowledgement of the past. UConn's Alexis Dudden is a professor of history specializing in Japan and Korea who has heard stories from survivors first-hand and is among those scholars calling out the erroneous claims: A recent academic journal article by the professor — in which he described as “prostitutes” the Korean and other women forced to serve Japan’s troops — prompted an outcry in South Korea and among scholars in the United States. It also offered a chance, on the Zoom call last week, for the aging survivor of the Japanese Imperial Army’s brothels to tell her story to a group of Harvard students, including her case for why Japan should issue a full apology and face international prosecution. “The recent remarks by the professor at Harvard are something that you should all ignore,” Lee Yong-soo, a 92-year-old in South Korea and one of just a handful of so-called comfort women still living, told the students. But the remarks were a “blessing in disguise” because they created a huge controversy, added Ms. Lee, who was kidnapped by Japanese soldiers during World War II and raped repeatedly. “So this is kind of a wake up call.” The dispute over the academic paper has echoes of the early 1990s, a time when the world was first beginning to hear the voices of survivors of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery in Asia — traumas that the region’s conservative patriarchal cultures had long downplayed. Now, survivors’ testimony drives much of the academic narrative on the topic. Yet many scholars say that conservative forces are once again trying to marginalize the survivors. “This is so startling, 30 years later, to be dragged back, because in the meantime survivors from a wide range of countries found a voice,” Alexis Dudden, a historian of Japan and Korea at the University of Connecticut who has interviewed the women. In dual articles from The New Yorker and The New York Times, Dr. Dudden weighed in on the controversial journal article and offered her findings on the atrocities committed against the women: Alexis Dudden, the historian of Japan and Korea, was one of the scholars invited to publish a reply to Ramseyer in the journal. In her comment, she observes that a reason for studying past atrocities is to try to prevent similar occurrences in the future, “not to abuse history by weaponizing it for present purposes.” She told me of meeting Korean comfort women in Tokyo, in 2000, at the Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery. “One of them had her tongue cut out,” she said. “Another woman literally lifted up her hanbok to show me where one of her breasts had been lopped off.” Dudden said that the tribunal was “a big watershed in terms of understanding how oral testimony really was necessary, to shift the legal approach but also in terms of doing historical evidence gathering” in the study of crimes against humanity. In some sense, such testimony of atrocities is seemingly irrefutable. But historians such as Dudden continually seek to verify it, producing knowledge of unspeakable horrors, through cycles of historical denial, political conflict, and diplomatic irresolution. If you are a journalist covering this topic, Dr. Dudden is available to speak with media about how history is playing a role in the current controversy. Click on her icon to arrange an interview today.
