Financially Challenged But Fierce, Griffin Hospital Innovates Its Way Through Pandemic

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Sweating in his black jacket under a brilliant spring sun, Keith J. DuPerry, 40, waited in line on the New Haven Green. Destination: FEMA’s first-in-the-nation COVID-19 mass vaccination trailer, administered by Griffin Hospital of Derby. Earlier that morning, DuPerry had taken a bus from the sober house where he lives to an addiction treatment center downtown. The buzz of activity on the Green—party tents and comfortable seating, trailers custom shrink-wrapped with photos of smiling, diverse, shot-giving caregivers and grateful patients—got him thinking. He returned to the Green after lunch.

I-Team In-Depth

Plan To Expand Child Tax Credit Offers Hope Along With Direct Payments

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When her car started making a noise more than a year ago, Chinara Johnson parked the vehicle and hasn’t used it since. As a New Haven mother of 5-year-old twin boys, one of whom is on the autism spectrum, and an 8-year-old daughter, Johnson doesn’t have the money to get the car running properly again. She also didn’t have money for childcare as she underwent breast cancer treatments, including surgery and chemotherapy, and is now struggling with increased utility and food bills since the kids are home during the pandemic. Over the past few years, Johnson has not been eligible for federal child tax credits because she doesn’t make enough money. But under the American Family Act—sponsored by U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District, and others—Johnson would qualify to receive direct payments of $3,600 each for the boys and $3,000 for her daughter in federal child tax credits.

child marriage

Child Marriage Is Rooted In Gender Inequality, Advocates Say

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In 2012, in Dosso, Niger, a 13-year-old girl named Mariama discovered that she was to be married in a few days.   She was sad and afraid and could not eat or sleep. She didn’t want to be married, but her mother insisted thinking it was the best way to protect her, Plan International, an organization that works to advance children’s rights and equality in the world, reported in a story and video. Child marriage is a complicated. But child marriage isn’t just something that happens in faraway countries like Niger, it is happening here in the United States, in states such as Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Delaware, and even here in Connecticut. From 2000-2010, there were an estimated 248,000 child marriages in the U.S., according to Unchained at Last, an organization dedicated to ending forced and child marriage in the U.S. In Connecticut, 980 minors were married, the youngest a 14-year-old, according to data on Unchainedatlast.org

Each state has its own legal age rule, in Connecticut, child marriage is prohibited for anyone 16 and younger.

Environmental Health

Beyond COVID-19: Waste Testing A Vast Public Health Frontier

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As scientists measure the prevalence of COVID-19 in the sludge flowing from New Haven sewage treatment plants, they’re also finding that our biological waste can tell them much more about our collective pathologies. Between March 19 and June 30, a group of scientists tested waste that had previously been used to detect COVID-19, looking for drugs and chemicals. The researchers found significant increases in three opioids, four antidepressants, and other chemicals in sludge from New Haven. The analysis, by scientists from the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES) and Yale University, offered the first glimpses of how the pandemic’s stay-at-home orders affected people’s behavior. It also underscored how important human waste can be as a resource for understanding public health and society’s habits.

Zoom Disruptions On Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration, Will They Continue Or Changed?

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During its Hispanic Heritage Month celebration, Common Ground High School’s Zoom meeting was disrupted by student trolling. To gain insight into the disruption, the Journalism Class at Common Ground interviewed Sharyn  Lopez, the high school’s student engagement and out of school activity manager. “[Distance Learning] requires us to be our best selves, and this [meeting] was not a moment when we were our best selves,” Lopez said. “The focus was taken away. It became centered on the [disruptors] sense of entitlement.’’

Lopez described what happened on Oct.

I-Team In-Depth

Connecticut’s Halfhearted Battle: Response To Lead Poisoning Epidemic Lacks Urgency

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It wasn’t until Bridgeport lead inspector Charles Tate stepped outside the house on Wood Avenue that he saw, immediately, where 2-year-old Rocio Valladares was being poisoned. The paint around a window at the back of the house was deteriorating. Beneath the window was Rocio’s favorite play area, a sloping basement door that was the perfect ramp for an energetic toddler. Next to the basement door was a patch of dirt where she loved to scratch with sticks. White chips of paint were visible in the dirt.

Dispatches From Italy: Surviving COVID-19 Through Vigilance

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Joann Rubino brought her cell phone outside to the balcony and swept the camera around for a neighborhood panorama. The sky blazed a brilliant blue, the apartment buildings an unmistakable burnt sienna. But there wasn’t a soul in sight. “It’s a beautiful spring day, but I’m not leaving the house,” Rubino, 63, said via Facebook from her Italian home. On a typical day in Castel Morrone, a town of about 3,500 people an hour’s drive from Naples, Rubino might be strolling the streets, dropping in on friends and family, stopping at a bar for a coffee or at a pizzeria—living la dolce vita.

Outdoors A Respite As Coronavirus Restrictions Tighten

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Residents took advantage of the sunny weather over the weekend to get out of their houses and enjoy the outdoors. In Edgewood Park in New Haven, there were people on bicycles and skateboards, people practicing yoga and playing cards in the sunshine, enjoying a reprieve from their coronavirus concerns and Gov. Ned Lamont’s increased restrictions, which begin today. Lamont on Sunday ordered that all “non-essential” workers stay home beginning at 8 tonight. Some “essential” operations, including health care providers, food stores, gas stations and pet stores, will remain open. For a complete list, go here.

Cases Of Lead-Poisoned Children Drop 17%

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A total of 1,665 Connecticut children under age 6 had lead poisoning in 2017, a drop of almost 17% from the year before and the largest one-year decrease in five years, according to a just-released report from the state Department of Public Health (DPH). But more children showed higher levels of the toxin in their blood than in 2016, the report says. In 2016, there were 105 children whose blood lead level was 20 micrograms per deciliter of blood or higher, at least four times the measure at which they’re considered poisoned. In 2017, the number had risen to 120 children. DPH epidemiologist Tsui-Min Hung said the improved overall numbers were at least partially due to the department’s more aggressive prevention activities, which 42 local health departments took advantage of, as well a social media campaign.

I-Team In-Depth

Growing Opioid Crisis Tests Limits Of Methadone Clinics; Advocates Favor Expansion

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Jose DeJesus pulls his silver minivan out of a parking lot in back of a row of historic houses on New Haven’s Congress Avenue. He points with pride to the flowers he planted around the lot. Then he grimly spins a commentary as he gives a tour of the surrounding Hill neighborhood. • There’s the John C. Daniels School, where parents are dropping off kids and where a man overdosed and died near a rear stairwell over the summer. • Across the street, there’s the APT Foundation clinic, where clients in recovery from opioid use come every morning for methadone.