Children Obesity

    Children now in days are gaining more weight that they’re becoming obese. This is due to the fact that not everyone can afford a healthy lifestyle. For instance, if your rich then you have access to fresh food. Schools also play a role in the increase of obesity but have tried to diminish the effects of obesity by changing the food diet they serve at school, but its not always the food that causes obesity it can also have to do with genetics or the lack of exercise.

Believe it or not depending on where you live plays a huge role on one’s diet. If you live in a neighborhood where it’s not safe to walk outside or to simply go for a small jog, then children have no way to exercise in their own community. Social class plays a huge role in obesity. For instance, if you don’t have access to vacant lots, open fields, or can’t afford to place your child in some sort of sport, then that means that’s another opportunity the child is being deprived of. It’s not always the parents fault though, instead it has to do with low economic status. For example, a child who lives in a gated community means they have access to fresh food, open fields, and are more likely to be involved in some sort of sport. Whereas, a child who were to live in an area where there’s gang activity means children can’t go outside and exercise due to the fear of being harmed.  

Physical education is also very important but in the United States schools are usually being pressured to focus on test scores. This means more time has to be spent inside the classroom, which means physical education is being cut down in order to accommodate the learning process. When this occurs, it means a child’s recess was removed. Recess is a 15-minute break where a child has access to physical activity. Considering not all children have the privilege to do exercise at home. For instance, researchers state, “many children from disadvantaged backgrounds are not free to roam their neighborhoods or even their own yards unless they are accompanied by adults… recess may be the only opportunity for them to practice their social skills with other children” (Barros et al., 2009, p.434). Even though children may go outside if they’re accompanied by their parent, that won’t always be the case if they’re from a disadvantage background because in most cases the parents have to work in order to support their family. 

In some cases, a child’s health can also be a factor of obesity, for instance if the child has asthma, high blood pressure, or elevated cholesterol then there’s a higher risk that child may be obese in the future. Once it comes down to this stage though it becomes dangerous and mortifying considering all a child needs is access to some sort of physical activity. 

Children usually prefer snacks over healthier full course meals which are healthier. Considering children have small stomachs, a snack is an unhealthy supplement to the nutrition system of a child.

Social relationships can also be a factor to a child’s obesity. For instance, if a child is lonely and has less friends compared to the average child it can increase the chance of obesity. A reciprocal relationship is apparent: Children with poor social skills and few friends are more likely to become obese and vice versa (Jackson & Cunningham, 2015; Vandewater et al., 2015).

Needs, Prevention, & Solution

In some cases, ethnic gaps such as 9% of Asian Americans but 26% of Hispanic Americans obesity might be genetic. Knowing or believing that genes might be genetic might lessen the blame but doesn’t exclude the fact that over the year’s obesity has drastically been increasing over time. 

    In figure 1, we see some examples of ethnic groups which show the percent of obese children through the ages of 6 and 11 in the united states. 

    Although in same cases family habits can be passed down, good or bad. Especially if it starts from infancy to early childhood. If children are accustomed to usually getting what they want, then that can be a factor to obesity. In order to diminish this and create a healthy lifestyle for a child one would need to start teaching them from an early stage to prefer healthier snacks, instead of junk food.

Figure 2 is an example of childhood obesity around the world. This demonstrates the catastrophic problem of obesity, which now leads to more deaths than malnutrition.

Obesity is a catastrophic problem that’s needs more awareness due to risk factors that can lead to death. Children now in days are gaining more weight by the second and can be easily avoided if education systems improve. In doing so children should have more time for physical activities such as an extended recess. It is clear that not everyone can afford a healthy lifestyle, but children can be provided the chance while they’re at school at least. You don’t necessarily need to be rich to have access to healthy food if it’s being provided by the school.  

References

Berger, Kathleen Stassen. The Developing Person Through the Lifespan. Worth Publishers, 2017.

Figure 1 Data from Ogden et al., 2014.

Figure 2 Data from M. NG ET AL, 2014.

Stop Asian Hate

 The Asian community suffers from different forms of discrimination and even severe violence 

    

    In the past few months, many Asian Americans in the United States have been attacked to varying degrees. I was shocked and angered by this racial hatred，every time I see this kind of news, I start to worry about the old people in my family.

    In last month, March. 17, in the morning about 10: 30 am, an old Chinese woman in San Francisco was attacked by a white man when she was waiting at the traffic light. Then, Ms. Li (the old man) saw a wooden stick and started to defend herself. According to the KPIX 5 News,

     "Li said her mother cannot see at all out of her left eye and hasn’t been able to eat. The hope is that time will heal the physical and emotional wounds, but her family said the incident has left her scared for her life."

    “As you can see she is extremely terrified,” Xie’s grandson John Chen told KPIX 5. “She’s terrified to even step out.”

                                                  (The victim, Xie)

    Since COIVD-19 has taken the world by storm, discrimination against Asians has increased. People who are racist will look at you with a look of hatred if you look Asian, whether you were born in the US or not. It's like they accusing you with their eyes saying that “leaving their country, you do not belong here.”

    Discrimination has always existed in the United States, but it has never been taken seriously. In many cases, we are just forbearance. Until the outbreak of Covid-19, the degree of discrimination against Asians has become more serious. According to the analysis released by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, "this month(March) examined hate crimes in 16 of America’s largest cities. It revealed that while such crimes in 2020 decreased overall by 7 percent, those targeting Asian people rose by nearly 150 percent."

    For me, as a Chinese who immigrated to the US，fortunately, I have not been discriminated against in any way but it doesn't mean that I do not care about this. I feel like Asian hate crimes have never been taken seriously. Think about it, If a black old man is killed in the street by a white teenager, then all of San Francisco, all of California, and the whole country will flood the streets in the unit of 100,000 blacks. The president echoed in tears, and the country set off a new upsurge of anti-racism. Or If an old Hispanic man is killed by a white teenager in the street, then heavyweight Hispanic congressmen such as AOC will surely complain in tears in the parliament that Hispanics have suffered unfair treatment in the United States and have suffered blood and tears, as well as tens of millions of illegal immigrants. It is not easy, and there is a high probability that Biden will amnesty illegal immigrants. But if an old Asian man was brutally beaten to death in the street, and the national mainstream media hardly saw any reports, for me I knew this news is from a social media of an Asian film actor.

    Stop discriminatory behavior，make the world be better.

Sources:

https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2021/03/18/update-elderly-chinese-woman-clobbered-attacker-talks-about-terrifying-san-francisco-assault/

Yam, K. (2021, March 09). Anti-Asian hate crimes increased by nearly 150% in 2020, mostly in N.Y. and L.A., new report says. Retrieved April 11, 2021, from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/anti-asian-hate-crimes-increased-nearly-150-2020-mostly-n-n1260264

single-use plastic and it's impact

SINGLE USE PLASTIC AND IT'S IMPACT IN THE ENVIRONMENT- Maria Carbonell

The first definition I found of civic engagement is from the American Psychological Association. Their definition of civic engagement is, 

"individual and collective actions designed to identify and address issues of public concern. Civic engagement can take many forms, from individual voluntarism to organizational involvement to electoral participation. "

The second definition of civic engagement is from youth.gov. Their definition is as follows, “working to make a difference in the civic life of one’s community and developing the combination of knowledge, skills, values and motivation to make that difference. It means promoting the quality of life in a community, through both political and non-political processes."

I chose the topic of single-use plastic as my civic engagement topic because it is an issue that affects us locally and as a society worldwide.

 SINGLE-USE PLASTIC

Have you ever considered how much plastic you use on a daily basis? Try and  count how much you used today. Did you have a cup of coffee with a plastic lid? Did you use a plastic stirrer in that coffee? How about lunch? Did you go out and order something that came in a styrofoam container? Did you use a plastic fork or other utensil to eat that food? What about your choice of beverage? What type of container did it come in? Was it a plastic cup with a plastic lid? Did you use a plastic straw? How about dinner? Did you stop somewhere and pick something up? What type of container did it come in? Fast food, styrofoam box? Something you bought from the market that comes in some type of plastic container. Have you ever taken the time to think about how much single use plastic you use and how it affects our planet? 

PLASTIC IN OUR ENVIRONMENT

Plastic is the most widely used consumer product throughout the world. This product has also managed to find itself into every corner of the planet. A study of plastic debris pollution in the deep-sea was started in 1983 by the Global Oceanographic Data Center. The database archives photograph than 33% of the debris was macro-plastic. In 2010, an estimated 4.8–12.7 Mt of plastics entered the oceans globally (Jambeck et al., 2015). A 2014 study (from six years of research by the 5 Gyres Institute) estimated that 5.25 trillion plastic particles (weighing 269,000 tons) are floating in the sea. Although the contribution of plastics in man-made garbage is roughly 10% by mass (Barnes et al., 2009), it is estimated that plastic debris accounts for 60–80% of marine litter (Derraik, 2002), reaching 90–95% in some areas (Walker et al., 1997, Walker et al., 2006, Surhoff and Scholz-Böttcher, 2016). Due to its durability, the lifespan of plastic is estimated to be hundreds to thousands of years (Wang et al., 2016).

If we do nothing to change the way that we consume, we are just setting up the planet for a shorter shelf life. We may not see it in our lifetime but that is no reason to not do anything about it. I know that I do not want to leave this planet worse than I found it. That is my choice. I do not have children nor will I ever- that is my choice. I'm sure that a lot of you are parents and you need to think, what type of world are you leaving behind for your children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren? Single use plastic is unnecessary to use every single day. I choose to take my own containers to restaurants when I order out, I only use glass (Pyrex is a great choice and it's microwave safe). If they refuse to package it for me in my container- then I order it to eat there and put it in my container. Most modern plastics are derived from fossil fuel based petrochemicals like natural gas or petroleum and are known to leach when heated. Think twice before you heat food in the microwave in a plastic container. Styrofoam is a bad choice for reheating. I normally will take things out of the plastic container that they came in and put them in a bowl or plate and then heat them up in the microwave. 

Globally, about 40% of plastics are used as packaging. Unfortunately, the majority of packaging is made for single use. Packaging is processed in one of three different ways: landfill, incineration, or recycling. Waste incineration has the largest climate impact of the three options.

https://ilsr.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/ILSRIncinerationFInalDraft-6.pdf

According to the CIEL report, U.S. emissions from plastics incineration in 2015 were equivalent to 5.9 metric tons of carbon dioxide. The World Energy Council has projected that if plastic production and incineration increase as expected, greenhouse gas emissions will increase to 49 million metric tons by 2030, and 91 million metric tons by 2050. (Yale 2019)

The climate impact isn’t the only concern. Incineration facilities are disproportionately built near communities of color and low-income populations. “Incineration is a massive environmental injustice – not just in the United States, but all over the world,” Arkin said. “The people who are subjected to the pollution from these incinerators often are the ones who are least responsible for the waste in the first place and have to bear the brunt of the impacts.” (Yale 2019)

But beyond the direct emissions from plastics in the environment, there’s another issue with microplastics. Historically, the ocean has sequestered 30-50% of carbon dioxide emissions from human-related activities. However, evidence suggests that plankton are ingesting ever-greater quantities of microplastics. Researchers at the Ocean University of China, found that microplastics reduced the growth of microalgae and the efficiency of photosynthesis. So producing more microplastics could degrade plankton’s ability to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. (Yale 2019)

What can we do about this issue? Unfortunately, we have become so dependent on plastic that it will be a hard cycle to break. With the onset of COVID-19, plastic use has increased significantly. Everything is packaged separately in multiple containers. A large number of people use disposable gloves when they leave the house and go out. I see plastic gloves all over the floor in parking lots. We need to break this vicious cycle! Buy in bulk if you have a large family. Do not buy multiple small containers if you know your family will consume large amounts of those items. (Not appropriate for single folks) It is good for the environment and you will save money in the long run.

                                                                                                                            

So how can you break away from plastic? It can be done, but you have to be willing to put in the work. If you use zip lock baggies once and then dispose them- use something different. There are reusable silicone re-useable bags that come in different sizes. Use reusable containers. Take a fork, knife and spoon in your glove compartment. Don't use a straw! Come on folks, you have a mouth! There are many things we can do to get away from our "use once and done" mindset, but it will take effort. 

     great videos from University of California - Please watch 

(1) Food waste is the world's dumbest problem - YouTube

(1) Takeout creates a lot of trash. It doesn't have to. - YouTube

references:

Barnes, David K., et al. “Accumulation and Fragmentation of Plastic Debris in Global Environments.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol. 364, no. 1526, 2009, pp. 1985–1998., doi:10.1098/rstb.2008.0205.

Chiba, Sanae, et al. “Human Footprint in the Abyss: 30 Year Records of Deep-Sea Plastic Debris.” Marine Policy, Pergamon, 6 Apr. 2018, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X17305195.

Derraik, José G.B. “The Pollution of the Marine Environment by Plastic Debris: a Review.” Marine Pollution Bulletin, vol. 44, no. 9, 2002, pp. 842–852., doi:10.1016/s0025-326x(02)00220-5.

“Exposure to Chemicals in Plastic.” Breastcancer.org, 11 Sept. 2020, www.breastcancer.org/risk/factors/plastic.

Jambeck, J. R., et al. “Plastic Waste Inputs from Land into the Ocean.” Science, vol. 347, no. 6223, 2015, pp. 768–771., doi:10.1126/science.1260352.

Suhrhoff, Tim Jesper, and Barbara M. Scholz-Böttcher. “Qualitative Impact of Salinity, UV Radiation and Turbulence on Leaching of Organic Plastic Additives from Four Common Plastics — A Lab Experiment.” Marine Pollution Bulletin, vol. 102, no. 1, 2016, pp. 84–94., doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.11.054.

Walker, Tony R., et al. “Accumulation of Marine Debris on an Intertidal Beach in an Urban Park (Halifax Harbour, Nova Scotia).” Water Quality Research Journal, vol. 41, no. 3, 2006, pp. 256–262., doi:10.2166/wqrj.2006.029.

“Why Plastics Can Be Garbage for the Climate.” Yale Climate Connections, 4 Apr. 2020, yaleclimateconnections.org/2019/08/how-plastics-contribute-to-climate-change/. 

 Intersectionality and Social Inclusion 

How does intersectionality play into our everyday lives - and how can we make a change to our social inclusion?

by Thalia Hendricks

Homelessness in Los Angeles -Yeslin Chavez

 Homelessness in Los Angeles

                                                                                                                        Latimes.com

One environmental issue that concerns me because it affects my community is the high rates of homelessness population that Los Angeles currently has. This issue affects me because it is seen all over my community and I would like to see the rates decrease. 

 

Homelessness in Los Angeles is a big problem, rates are increasing every year and it has been labelled according to an article in Forbes as the second city with the most homeless people.

Civic Engagement Definitions 

According to Youth.gov, “Civic engagement involves working to make a difference in the civic life of one’s community and developing the combination of knowledge, skills, values and motivation to make that difference. It means promoting the quality of life in a community, through both political and non-political processes”

 https://youth.gov/youth-topics/civic-engagement-and-volunteering 

The American Psychological Association defines civil engagement as “individual and collective actions designed to identify and address issues of public concern. Civic engagement can take many forms, from individual voluntarism to organizational involvement to electoral participation”. 

 https://www.apa.org/education/undergrad/civic-engagement

From what I have read about civil engagement, my understanding is that civil engagement is working towards a common goal within a community. It can be through a political or nonpolitical standpoint and can be accomplish by an individual or group of people. Civil engagement can also be performed through volunteering and involvement.

Poverty in Los Angeles 

The ones the most affected with this poverty level are people of color. In many cases these individuals do not have access to adequate health care needed. They also suffer from substance abuse and many have mental health illnesses. Being without a home is one of many of their problems that they are going through.

Skid Row 

Skid Row has a large population of homeless in Los Angeles. It is the home to poverty, crime, and homelessness. Their living conditions are not sanitary, and the lack of resources affect their everyday lives. Due to the unsanitary conditions the amount of trash, human feces, and urine can lead to the quick spread of bacteria and diseases. This can also affect the quality of our air.

                                                                                            

                                                                                           Latimes.com

                                                                                                                                Dailynews.org

 

In LA, poverty on Skid Row defies US’ humane reputation

COVID-19 

I came across an article on latimes.com, it shared a visual presentation of the races of COVID-19 cases in California. Based on the data found, it demonstrated that from the months of June 2020-December 2020 Latinos and African Americans have contracted higher rates of COVID-19 than Asians, whites, or other. Latinos being the highest, 4,038 cases per 100,000. One potential outcome of this result being that Latinos and African Americans have higher rates of COVID-19 can be because they share similar populations being low-income communities.

"One reason African Americans or Latinos are dying from COVID-19 at rates higher than other populations is because of underlying health conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and asthma."  - Sacoby Wilson 

These health issues are the reflection of one's environment. Low-income communities do not have access to resources and availability of products as compare of wealthier communities. All these factors underline the lack to equality that low-income communities are face with and make lower income communities more vulnerable to COVID-19.

Social Change 

Andrew Gervase , a resident of Downtown Los Angeles took the initiative and  created an Instagram account called  la.homeless where he documents the living conditions that people in the street experience and also share the heartbreaking stories that show the cruel reality that homeless people in Los Angeles face daily. His goal is for politicians to see his videos and hear about the many stories that he has encounter. His action taken has definitely inspire me to find a way to get involve in order to import my help. Decreasing the homelessness rates would bring a lot of positive benefits into our environment. Our air quality and our streets would be much cleaner. It is time for everyone to get involve and speak up for the homelessness population in Los Angeles and everywhere else. These people desperately need our help. 

References

Andrew Gervase Instagram Page

              https://www.instagram.com/la.homeless/?hl=en

California Department of Public Health. California coronavirus cases: Tracking the outbreak.Los Angeles Times. (2020). Retrieved from https://www.latimes.com/projects/californiacoronavirus-cases-tracking-outbreak/.

Katherine Bagley. May 7, Katherine Bagley,., Katherine Bagley is the    managing editor of Yale Environment 360. Connecting the     Dots    Between Environmental Injustice and the Coronavirus.    

 Retrieved April 03, 2021., from https://e360.yale.edu/features/connecting-the-    dots-              between-environmental-injustice-and-the-coronavirus

McCarthy, N. (2020, January 14). The American Cities with The Highest Homeless Populations In 2019    [Infographic]. Retrieved April 03, 2021., from      https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2020/01/14/the-american-cities-with-the-highest-            homeless-populations-in-2019-infographic/#28550d9614a9

Resources Available LA Hop ·      Designed to assist people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles County with outreach services including :  - Homeless Services Navigation -Mental Health First Aid -Motivational Interviewing -Trauma Informed Care Homeless and Stable Living Resource locations “The Los Angeles Public Library helps connect residents who are experiencing homelessness with resources to help them transition to stable, independent or supported living. This site will help you find work, food, housing and many other helpful services near our library branches in the City of Los Angeles.”  https://www.lapl.org/homeless-resources

Nate Aguilar - The Eviction and Mistreatment of the Homeless in Echo Park

 The Eviction and Mistreatment of the Homeless in Echo Park

By Nathaniel Aguilar

Image credit from Los Angeles Magazine

Context

Los Angeles is one of the many cities in California with the largest homeless population. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, one of every four people experiencing homelessness did so in New York and Los Angeles in the year 2020 alone (14). As of March 2021, the homeless population in Los Angeles is over 63,000, a 12.7% from 2019. This statistic is alarming considering this marks the fourth consecutive year, homelessness has increased nationwide (1).

Image credit from U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

The leading cause: 

While causes can vary widely between poverty, drug abuse, mental illness, unemployment, etc. A recent annual survey conducted by the U.S Conference of Mayors listed the lack of affordable housing to be the number one cause for both homeless families and individuals. (LAFH, n.p).

Los Angeles County is now being considered the least affordable rental market in the county. The graph above credited by LA Family Housing suggests that in order for housing to be considered affordable, a family should spend less than 30% of their income on rent. Thus, a working family needs to earn at least 42$ an hour or $87,880 a year to afford the average rent (LAFH, n.p). On average however, people in L.A are spending 47% of their income on rent. Housing isn't just out of reach for those making minimum wage. it's out of reach for the majority of middle class families.

The Echo Park Situation

With many people on the street, many homeless found themselves shelter in encampments inside public park, the most recently popular being Echo Park for its safety and thriving community. The Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority documented 590 in the small neighborhood of Echo Park, with many residing in the park (LAHSA n.p).

As a resident of Echo Park myself, I took notice of the huge increase in tents among the years, specifically the year 2020 when COVID-19 struck many and unemployment risen. While taking sister to work, I pass by the park only to now notice it with angry protesters and police officers surrounding the area. As I began researching, I learned that city officials intended to shut down the encampment and relocate the homeless into temporary hotels and housing while they renovate the park. This project is titled, Project Roomkey. At the moment, I believed this was for the better as homeless were now given the opportunity for housing and resources such as food, clothes, etc. Yet many homeless were displeased with the dismantling of their encampments as many of them believed to have built a community within in the park. Not to mention the police force swiftly barring the park and attempting to remove the park-dwellers by force. This sudden urge to relocate the homeless by force sparked protest from the community of Echo Park as it signified the mistreatment and lack of compassion for the homeless in our community.

Image credit from ABC NEWS

On the day of the removal, March 25, police arrested 182 people including journalist and reporters only furthering the distrust in city officials and police in this small community of Echo Park (Lenthang). The next morning, the park was met with closed gates and the homeless completely removed.

The Aftermath

The big question after the transfer, is where were the homeless relocated to? An article by The Los Angeles Times, titled, "A week later, here's what happened to some of the homeless people booted from Echo Park" meticulously depicts the mismanagement and confusing mess that stemmed from the relocation. A women by the name of Olga recounts that she ended up in a hotel in Century City where she expected to stay for several months, but is now being evicted again and taken to a new hotel in Monterey Park far away from anyone she knows, as travel restrictions from COVID-19 are starting to ease (Smith). 

She was quoted saying "They're not truthful...there's no full disclosure". Despite city officials already happily calling the removal of the homeless in Echo Park a success.

Smith reports in her article that at a press conference in front of L.A City Hall, Ayman Ahmed a former Echo Park inhabitant ranted, "I don't even have my Bible. They tossed it...Why did they displace us? For what reason? These are not adequate alternatives to what we had. What we had at Echo Park was a shelter".

It's difficult to call this a "success" when people were forced to leave and are unhappy of the treatment set upon strict Project Roomkey rules such as lack of privacy, a curfew, background checks, and more disruptiveness, while at the same time refusing to stay in the housing that's being offered to them. While Echo Park was at least a stable safe place for them, it's clear to see that Project Roomkey is causing them more distress than comfort.

While there's no clear resolution as of yet, I hope to bring awareness of this issue, as City Officials will continue to brag about their success while many homeless are still continuing to suffer. The eviction of the homeless in Echo Park is just a small talking point to the bigger crisis we're facing in all of California.

My Final Words

This social issue directly influences me as I live in Echo Park myself. As I mentioned above, I see the park on my drive home almost every day, and it saddens me to see how bad the homeless crises has gotten over the years. It's not just that I believe it's getting worse, it's that people seem to generally not care. I chose this issue because I have talked with some of the homeless living here, and my uncle is homeless himself and frequents this park a lot despite never setting up a tent here. When the homeless were finally forced out, I spoke to my uncle and he told me that many of the people living in the encampment were genuinely nice people, in fact many of them would share their food with him and invite him to their prayers which they would host every week. I can't speak for every homeless there, but as someone with an uncle who is homeless and is still very savvy and kind, I hope to see that kindness shared back by the people who can provide a better opportunity than what Project Roomkey is now. 

Works Cited

2020 Homeless Count By Community/City. (n.d.). Retrieved April 14, 2021, from https://www.lahsa.org/data?id=45-2020-homeless-count-by-community-city.

Causes & Solutions to Homelessness. (n.d.). Retrieved April 15, 2021, from https://lafh.org/causes-solutions

Henry, M. (2021, March). The 2020 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress. Retrieved April 14, 2021, from https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2020-AHAR-Part-1.pdf.

Lenthang, M. (2021, March 26). Police, protesters clash over sweep of Echo Park homeless encampment. Abcnewsgo.com. Retrieved April 14, 2021, from https://abcnews.go.com/US/police-protesters-clash-sweep-echo-park-homeless-encampment/story?id=76701960

Smith, E. D. (2021, April 3). Column: A week later, here’s what happened to some of the homeless people booted from Echo Park. Latimes.com. Retrieved April 14, 2021, from https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-04-03/echo-park-lake-homeless-housing-los-angeles

Misinformation and the Anti-Vaxx Movement

 

According to the American Psychological Association, civic engagement can be defined as “individual and collective actions designed to identify and address issues of public concern”.

Among the most notable and first instances of vaccine misinformation was the publishing of an article in a medical journal. In 1998, a UK-based medical journal by the name of The Lancet published a report by gastroenterological surgeon and medical researcher Andrew Wakefield that suggested a link between the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism in children (“Andrew Wakefield’s”). Shortly after the report was published, medical professionals refuted the study’s claims for issues such as unreliable data, a small data pool, a conflict of interest, ethical issues, and for the connections Wakefield drew between the MMR vaccine and Autism without enough scientific evidence (“Andrew Wakefield’s”). In 2010, after years of scientific evidence and other professionals refuting Wakefield’s claims, The Lancet finally retracted the report and Wakefield was stripped of his medical license (Andrew Wakefield’s). However, the harm of Wakefield’s study had long since gained momentum, the false claims gained the voiced support of influential people in power such as celebrity Jenny McCarthy (“Andrew Wakefield’s”).

Wakefield’s trouble filled report was just the beginning of the slippery slope of misinformation regarding vaccines. In the time following the publishing of Wakefield’s report, numerous studies refuted the claims of connection between vaccines and autism, but it was too late to prevent the misinformation from spreading. Media and celebrities like McCarthy used their platforms to shout out the supposed “dangers of vaccines” wherever they could, with McCarthy herself doing countless interviews and even writing a book which claimed vaccines were the cause of her son’s autism, and later claiming it was cured through home remedies like a special diet etc. (Einbinder, 2019).

In 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared vaccine hesitancy due to misinformation as one of the top ten threats to public health. This is largely due to vaccine hesitancy and a correlating rise in the occurrence of sickness and deaths from vaccine preventable diseases (WHO). While a large portion of the anti-vaxx community bases their beliefs on the claims that vaccines are not safe for children because the ingredients are ‘unsafe and unknown,’ the fact remains that vaccines for children are among the most thoroughly tested and monitored parts of modern medical trials and data. When vaccines are undergoing trials, they undergo vigorous monitoring: being given to large populations and children in early development stages before being available to the public (Broom and Healy). In addition, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) licenses and approves vaccines while closely monitoring the vaccine for some time with the Center for Disease Control (CDC) for possible negative effects, being temporarily or permanently pulled if necessary (Broom and Healy).

Despite the many studies refuting vaccine misinformation, public figures and social media remains among the largest spreaders of vaccine misinformation. Among the greatest perpetrator of vaccine information is social media sites like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and other media outlets that provide almost anyone with an anti-vaxx opinion the platform to spread unsubstantiated claims and misinformation. A study collected data from 2009-2015, in which Twitter was monitored for vaccine and autism keywords to map anti-vaxx beliefs throughout the US, and identified California as one of the states with the greatest number of monthly anti-vaxx tweets (Tomeny et al., 2017). Furthermore, this study found a direct correlation between the number of increased anti-vaxx tweets with increased vaccine-related news coverage (Tomeny et al., 2017).

 A graph from the Tomney et al. study depicting the five states with the largest number of anti-vaxx tweets by month from January 09 to July 15.

A graph from the Tomney et al. study showing the percent of anti-vaxx tweets per area. 

Another study found the correlation between the occurrence of anti-vaxx YouTube videos being recommended from other videos about vaccine health or having vaccine related keywords: from a significant occurrence of misinformation anti-vaxx videos being recommended from another anti-vaxx video, to even anti-vaxx videos being recommended following pro-vax videos (Tang). The following graphic depicts a visualization of four YouTube video networks, where each dot is a video, with green dots being pro-vaxx videos and red being anti-vaxx videos. In this graphic, the size of a dot shows the exposure value of said video to anti-vaxx videos.

Perhaps the most influential provider of vaccine information is Facebook itself. The Guardian found that despite comments and claims from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg regarding vaccines as scientifically backed as important for community health, Facebook itself unwittingly steers those who seek out vaccine information towards anti-vaxx and unscientific misinformation groups and propaganda (Wong, 2019).

 

The spread of vaccine misinformation has led to detrimental trends in vaccine administration and the increase of otherwise preventable diseases. The WHO cites a 30% increase of measles globally, however the WHO notes that some of the increase is due to resurgence of the disease in other countries with less efficient vaccination processes, if any exists.

 

Zhang et al. (2021). 

It is crucial that media outlets and those with an influence base do their best to ensure that vaccine misinformation is not spread, but rather debunked for the benefit of the greater public health. Vaccines are an effective form of preventive health care to ensure that individuals remain safe from otherwise preventable but harmful illnesses. This includes populations that are otherwise unable to take vaccines, such as babies or immunocompromised individuals, as well as those with less access to vaccines who may be of lower socioeconomic status, etc. The widespread use of vaccines has led to a decline of these illnesses and allowed for a healthier population and saved the lives of many. By stopping vaccine misinformation, more lives can be saved from potential disease exposure or even death.

 

The social issue of vaccine misinformation and the anti-vaxx movement directly impacts my community and myself as I have personally seen the effects of misinformation through my work and in my distant family friends. I previously worked in a local hospital as a student nurse. There, I experienced many mothers refusing to vaccinate their children or attempting to get vaccine waivers from their doctors citing personal beliefs in which they directly mentioned “information” they had seen on Facebook or from a social media influencer. These anti-vaxx sentiments impacted not only those children, but their peers, as California schools require vaccinations for enrollment and those without vaccinations could become sick or be carriers of diseases to other children. Furthermore, this also impacts herd immunity in which a largely vaccinated population reduces the chances a person who cannot be vaccinated gets sick with a vaccine-preventable disease. I also chose this issue as vaccine misinformation and distrust recently came to the forefront of the media and the general public with the spread of COVID-19. The spread of misinformation regarding COVID-19 as “fake news” I feel attributed to the spread of the global pandemic in the US, which was also hurt by the distrust and misinformation regarding vaccines in general, and the speed at which they many COVID-19 vaccines were developed.

 

 

Resources

 

Andrew Wakefield’s Harmful Myth of Vaccine-induced "Autistic Enterocolitis". (2011). Retrieved October 4, 2018, from https://www.badgut.org/information-centre/a-zdigestive-topics/andrew-wakefield-vaccine-myth/

Broom, Julie A, and Mary Healy. “Standard Childhood Vaccines: Parental Hesitancy or Refusal.” UpToDate, UpToDate, 27 Nov. 2018, www.uptodate.com/contents/standard-childhood-vaccines-parental-hesitancy-or-refusal.

“Civic Engagement.” American Psychological Association, American Psychological Association, 2009, www.apa.org/education/undergrad/civic-engagement.

Einbinder, Nicole. “How Former 'The View' Host Jenny McCarthy Became the Face of the Anti-Vaxx Movement.” Insider, Insider, 30 Apr. 2019, www.insider.com/jenny-mccarthy-became-the-face-of-the-anti-vaxx-movement-2019-4.

Tang, L., Fujimoto, K., Amith, M. T., Cunningham, R., Costantini, R. A., York, F., ... & Tao, C. (2021). “Down the Rabbit Hole” of Vaccine Misinformation on YouTube: Network Exposure Study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 23(1), e23262.

Tomeny, T. S., Vargo, C. J., & El-Toukhy, S. (2017). Geographic and demographic correlates of autism-related anti-vaccine beliefs on Twitter, 2009-15. Social science & medicine, 191, 168-175

WHO. “Ten Health Issues WHO Will Tackle This Year.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, www.who.int/news-room/spotlight/ten-threats-to-global-health-in-2019.

Wong, Julia Carrie. “How Facebook and YouTube Help Spread Anti-Vaxxer Propaganda.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 1 Feb. 2019, www.theguardian.com/media/2019/feb/01/facebook-youtube-anti-vaccination-misinformation-social-media.

Zhang, J., Featherstone, J. D., Calabrese, C., & Wojcieszak, M. (2021). Effects of fact-checking social media vaccine misinformation on attitudes toward vaccines. Preventive Medicine, 145, 106408.