ISSI Responses to Covid19

We are maintaining a page on the ISSI website to collect the work of our affiliates and alumni in response to Covid19, and we have a similar page on the Berkeley Center for Social Medicine site for social medicine perspectives on the pandemic. We also acknowledge and appreciate that many in our community are advocating for those who are hit hardest by the pandemic, and some in our community are in that group. We grieve with those who are mourning, and our thoughts are with those who are sick or on the frontlines, whether in grocery stores or hospitals.

Black Lives Matter

ISSI stands in solidarity with those protesting anti-Black violence and working to promote racial justice in policing, health care, and all spheres of society. There are many relevant resources on our website; we would like to draw your attention to two essays written by members of our community: The Vital Shift from “Idiosyncratic” to “Systemic” by Troy Duster, Chancellor’s Professor and Founding Director of the Institute for the Study of Social Change (the precursor to ISSI), and On George Floyd and the Struggle to Belong by Denise Herd, ISSI affiliated faculty member and Professor of Public Health.

Farmworker Health and Covid-19

Berkeley Center for Social Medicine co-chair Seth Holmes was interviewed by a few news stations regarding his work on farmworker health and the Covid-19 pandemic:

CBS News (Miami):  "Facing South Florida: Florida Farmworkers"; NBC News (Fort Myers and Naples): "Immokalee Residents Suffer from Lack of Coronavirus Testing, Poor Living Conditions"; and FOX News (Fort Myers and Naples): "Immokalee Quickly Becoming the Epicenter of COVID-19 Cases in Southwest Florida"