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Understanding Vaccine Hesitancy and Barriers to Access in Hispanic Individuals of Metro Detroit
Full text linkBackground:
Detroit’s Hispanic community is still disproportionally uninsured at about 2x the rate of non-Hispanic white and 3x the rate of non-Hispanic Black residents. In the post-COVID era, vaccine hesitancy and barriers to access have been well-documented. Studies suggest that minority populations, including the Hispanic population, may experience unique social determinants of health which affect their vaccination rates and outcomes. Additionally, research shows that knowledge of vaccines may correlate with levels of trust.
Methods:
We sought to describe the knowledge, barriers to access, and levels of trust regarding the influenza (flu) vaccine in Hispanic individuals of Metro Detroit. We used a 23-question, 5-part survey adapted from the validated WHO SAGE Working Group on Vaccine Hesitancy Survey to assess these above variables at Wayne State Amigos Médicos clinics and vaccination events, as well as in the community throughout Metro Detroit during the flu seasons of 2023 and 2024. Upon verbal consent, voluntary survey participants (current n=120) were administered the survey via Qualtrics in either English or Spanish. Descriptive analysis was subsequently conducted.
Results:
Findings included average knowledge and high trust regarding influenza vaccination amongst participants. Additionally, few overall barriers to vaccination were reported, including insurance. Only 44% of respondents felt that the flu vaccine is required each year (p=0.21), suggesting knowledge of vaccine development may be deficient. 47% felt that the vaccine helps prevent illness (p=0.01), and 98% felt that vaccines are at least sometimes necessary (p
Conclusion:
Our study shows that Hispanic individuals of Metro Detroit have average levels of knowledge and high trust regarding the influenza vaccine. Barriers to influenza vaccination may be more likely time-related than insurance-related. Young Hispanic individuals and males may be less trusting of the influenza vaccine overall; it is possible that lower vaccine-taking behavior and knowledge in these groups, respectively, may correlate with low trust. Further research is needed to address time-related barriers and increase vaccine knowledge and trust through patient education to improve health outcomes for all Hispanic individuals.Knowledge, barriers, and trust may relate to influenza vaccination behavior. Our study suggests that these variables may be better than previously expected in the Hispanic population of Metro Detroit. More research is needed to investigate the needs of this unique group, including ways to further improve vaccination and health outcomes
Antisemitism on Social Media Since October 7, 2023
No full textThe October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel and the resulting war with Gaza has shifted social media experiences of antisemitism in innumerable and catastrophic ways. This analysis of Instagram uses the frameworks of new antisemitism, epistemic antisemitism, and a lethal combination of the two: de-marginalized antisemitism, that fetishizes Palestinians as the ideal subaltern to situate the ways in which Jew hatred manifests daily online. This essay argues the malleability inherent to antisemitism lends to its current pervasiveness, its intermittent invisibility allows for its longevity, its constantly changing nature gives it power, and the current and often repeated denial of its existence may be what is most frightening. Combined with the personal nature of Instagram, Jew hatred on social media enacts a violence against Jews, triggering an epigenetic response that has real emotional and physical consequences
On The Sisterhood: How a Network of Black Women Writers Changed American Culture
Full text linkThe Sisterhood: How a Network of Black Women Writers Changed American Culture by Courtney Thorsson. Columbia University Press, 2023. Pp. 296. 19.00 paperback
Forensic Anthropologists as “Social Workers for the Deceased”: Integrating Social Work Standards and Collaborative Efforts in Long-Term Unidentified Human Remains Cases
Full text linkForensic anthropologists working in university laboratories are often curators of long-term unidentified human remains cases. Here, we review how and why anthropologists can effectively move toward case resolution by drawing on literature and collaborative best practices from the field of social work. Borrowing from the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) standards for case management, we detail five standards that can be effectively followed during the forensic anthropological case investigation to ensure culturally sensitive and victim-centered approaches to human identification. While the field of forensic anthropology has its own professional standards developed through a consensus body and shared governance, these standards cannot address all the issues inherent in doing long-term unidentified remains casework in academic laboratories. By borrowing useful standardized NASW procedures (with its focus on improving the lives of living people), we outline how we can improve standards of care and service for deceased individuals in our laboratories. Using case studies from anthropology laboratories in the northeast, midwest, and west that are directed by anthropologists tasked with identification and/or curation of archaeological, historical, anatomical, and forensic cases, we offer collaborative strategies for resource-constrained institutions. As current debates about bodily autonomy, antemortem consent, and ethical treatment of the dead continue to (re)define how anthropologists interact with the individual remains in their care, we offer one potential path forward by exploring how our work can be more deeply understood and enacted by positioning ourselves as “social workers for the deceased.
From a Shtetl House to an Urban Apartment: The Soviet Jewish Home Negotiated, Transformed, and Reimagined
Full text linkThis essay argues that despite the powerful forces of assimilation, official campaigns against Jewish religion/languages, and grassroots/state antisemitism, the “Jewish home” did not disappear, as is sometimes assumed, but continued to present a site of Jewish ethnic production and transmission, creativity, and resistance during the Soviet regime. In the Soviet Union, especially in the postwar period, Jewish ethnic culture was forced to leave the public sphere, where it became unwelcome and even dangerous, and withdrew into the less visible space of domestic interiors. The degree of Jewish public presence varied geographically: the situation was generally better in the Baltic Republics, in the former shtetlekh of Ukraine, and in Moscow, probably because it had to put up a façade for the international community. The situation in Leningrad, where most of my interviews for this article were recorded, was much worse
A Square Peg in a Round Hole: The Isolated Chitrali Population Displays the Lowest Consanguinity Rate in Pakistan
Full text linkPakistan is among the countries with the highest prevalence of consanguineous unions, with reported rates ranging between 55% and 65%. This high level of consanguinity contributes significantly to the burden of recessive genetic disorders. The Chitrali population, an isolated community residing in the Hindu Kush mountains of northwestern Pakistan, exhibits distinct genetic and cultural characteristics. This study aimed to assess the prevalence and patterns of consanguineous unions within this population. A random sample of 993 individuals from Chitral was recruited between January 2023 and December 2024 through visits to public venues and household surveys. The consanguinity rate and inbreeding coefficient were calculated, and their associations with various biodemographic variables were analyzed. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression models were employed for data analysis. The overall consanguinity rate was found to be 12%, with an estimated inbreeding coefficient of 0.0052. Interestingly, consanguinity showed a trend toward higher prevalence with increased literacy and exhibited a positive association with higher socioeconomic status. The Chitrali population exhibits the lowest reported rate of consanguinity among Pakistani populations. This community has retained diverse marital practices that differ markedly from those of neighboring populations. Contributing factors to the low consanguinity rate may include geographic isolation, low population density, family structures that discourage intrahousehold cousin marriages, and minimal tribal conflict or land-related disputes. These dynamics suggest that, despite its genetic distinctiveness, the Chitrali population may have a lower burden of the recessive disorders commonly observed in more inbred populations across Pakistan
