Author: Carma Henry

     “I’m going to take a moment to dedicate this legislation to my dear sister, who is dying in a hospital in St. Louis, Missouri right now, infected by the coronavirus,” Waters announced as she voted on a new coronavirus small business package.

     “All of my work throughout my life has been working on behalf of low-income Black neighborhoods, helping them to create strategies to promote excellence within their communities so they’re agents of their own uplift,” Woodson said.

The collapse in advertising revenue during the pandemic ex-acerbated the already perilous financial position of news outlets, who have been decimated by Google and Facebook’s monopolistic actions. The Tampa Bay Times was even forced to cut back to two days a week of printed copies. The forgivable loans will allow these newsrooms to obtain some sense of normalcy but will not nearly restore the damage done during this crisis.

     Songstress Beyoncé is stepping up to provide support for vulnerable groups impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. According to Vulture, she has donated $6 million towards COVID-19 relief efforts.

      The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) has some criticism for a new Senate bill in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

     A group of national Black faith and civil rights leaders along with the heads of the largest historically Black religious denominations are encouraging communities to stay at home in states where stay at home orders are being lifted until there is evidence that it is safe.

The Florida-based non-profit is donating and distributing approximately 700,000 units of personal protection equipment (“PPE”) to Coronavirus outbreak hotspots around the country. These hotspots include hospitals and healthcare workers in New York, Washington State, California, Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, Florida, and Michigan. The donations include some of the most crucial PPE equipment such as surgical masks, N95 masks, face shields and hazardous material protective coveralls.

     Thanks to the efforts of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), Democrats have secured $60 billion in new Small Business Administration PPP funding dedicated to small lenders and community-based financial institutions. They’ve also secured $50 billion for the SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program, which will allow approximately $300 billion in loans to small businesses.

     The collective of medical professionals—dubbed the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium—were aware of the socio-economic disparities surrounding the accessibility to testing, specifically in Philadelphia. A study revealed that residents who had higher incomes were on average tested six times more often than the city’s low-income population. The inequities connected to COVID-19 testing and care factored into rising death rates among Philadelphia’s Black community which sparked the group of doctors to take action and address the issue head-on.

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