Top 5 Health News of 2022: COVID effects linger, Roe v. Wade is overturned, and addicts find help at local mosques.
Health news has been in the news all year long. The repeal of Roe v. Wade had an immediate impact, especially on lower-income and people of color. COVID continued to have a huge effect around the world. And other health problems resurfaced.
Por SHEILA MULROONEY ELDRED-Sahan Journal
The year marked the beginning of a new phase of the pandemic, with many Minnesotans returning to a more normal daily life. But it also marked a return to health issues that had gone largely unnoticed during the first two years of COVID-19: Mental health issues, addictions, viruses like RSV and the flu, Lyme disease, heart disease, Alzheimer’s. One thing remained the same: health inequalities persisted.
And in June, the Supreme Court threw out Roe v. Wade, turning Minnesota into an “island” of abortion access in the five-state area. The repercussions of this decision continue to resonate in both the medical and political arenas.
In addition to covering those tougher stories, we’re highlighting some positives: We write regarding why black Scott County people live longer than almost anywhere else in the country, regarding a new pediatric clinic for underserved populations, and regarding a new program to treat racial trauma.
The following stories chronicle health equity in Minnesota in a year that continued to be challenging for health workers and the general public, especially communities of color. As we plan our healthcare coverage for 2023, we’d love to hear how you feel! Send your health story ideas to: [email protected].
- On Twin Cities COVID wards: A surge of younger, whiter patients. And a lot of exhaustion.
Reporter Joey Peters interviewed four nurses regarding their experiences working in hospitals overwhelmed by COVID cases. In his own words, they talked regarding the most difficult time of their careers. Many medical workers left the profession due to burnout. Others continue to fight. Wilson Ekinde, a registered nurse at M Health Fairview St. John’s Hospital in Maplewood, told Peters: “It’s been hard to get over. “I cried a couple of times. But you go home, take a shower, and you don’t talk regarding it. Especially with my kids. My wife is a nurse, too, and she has her own stories regarding COVID from where she works. You try not to talk regarding it too much, because you end up getting burned.” At the end of the year, the nurses went on strike to fight for better pay, staffing and patient care.
- The US Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, and experts say people of color are disproportionately at risk of harm.
On the day the Supreme Court announced its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, reporters from the Sahan Journal spoke with local health experts regarding how the ruling would affect people of color. On what was a tough day for these reproductive rights advocates, experts took the time to take our calls.
I spoke with Dr. Rachel Hardeman, director of the Center for Anti-Racism Research for Health Equity at the University of Minnesota, who explained why people of color would be at greater risk. People without resources such as money, transportation and time off work will find it difficult to travel out of state for safe and legal abortions, she explained.
“That’s what breaks my heart,” he told me. “Obviously, we know it’s dangerous and unfair to all people, but the burden will fall most heavily on Black, Indigenous and other racialized groups, as well as non-binary people and those of lower socioeconomic resources.”
Another expert spoke regarding performing the latest abortion in South Dakota in a call with the media.
“When we performed our last abortion in South Dakota, the last patient I saw had a very similar story to many I see,” said Dr. Sarah Traxler, medical director for Planned Parenthood North Central States. “She was a young mother who already had children, she was struggling to make ends meet and she mightn’t imagine having another child in those circumstances. She was able to make decisions for herself and her family that were right for her…for women in South Dakota, this is no longer a reality.”
We also wrote regarding how Minnesota safeguarded abortion access, and how to access services safely.
- Muslims in Minnesota find a safe place to recover from alcohol addiction: the mosque.
Muslims often face extreme stigma for alcohol addiction, because Islam prohibits its consumption. But nurse Munira Maalimisaq didn’t let that stop her from bringing substance abuse treatment to the mosques.
Joey Peters reported on Muslim support groups bringing 60 people together at two local mosques to discuss addiction. The groups are a lifeline for many East African community members who are reluctant to speak publicly regarding the issue because of the shame that substance abuse brings.
- “Slow mind” becomes “one mind”: Minnesota Somalis create new terms to define autism and encourage acceptance.
Until recently, there was no word for “autism” in the Somali language. Reporter Hibah Ansari spoke to local parents who hope more positive language around this neurological and developmental disorder can help remove the stigma.
One of the words, maangaar, translates as “single mind.”
Anisa Hussein told Ansari that the term describes her own children in a positive light.
“We have to teach the community. For that, we have to invent the language,” he said. “The Somali population, they are more speaking, they are more of an oral community. For example, they make poetry. If we find the terms, it will be easier to understand.”
However, there is still much work to be done: The false perception that the measles vaccine causes autism led to local clusters of measles cases at the end of the year.
- How does the long COVID affect Blacks and Latinos? A new brain project at the University of Minnesota will search for answers, a process that begins by changing who participates in COVID studies.
Already in the early days of the pandemic, Dr. Guilin Oz, a professor at the University of Minnesota and a brain researcher, realized something: Research on how the new coronavirus affects the brain would have to start as soon as possible. In addition to the direct repercussions on patients developing neurological problems, he knew that a widespread virus affecting the brain might jeopardize ongoing brain research. If 90% of the population contracted COVID, how might brain researchers distinguish between COVID-related problems and independent brain problems?
And since it soon became clear that people of color were disproportionately affected by COVID-19, Oz and his colleagues committed to assembling a diverse cohort of black and brown participants. “We don’t want to learn regarding long COVID only in the white population”, he told me.
The first results of the study might be published next year.
