Closer Look
A mental health crisis inside California’s women’s prisons
Molly Ferguson for STAT
Pandemic lockdowns weren’t easy for anyone, but they took an especially heavy toll on the mental health of those locked up, STAT contributor Taylor Majewski reports, and that has fueled a crisis that continues to this day. For people incarcerated across California’s women’s prisons, the prison yard and dayroom offer a welcome chance to call family, exercise, and read. But those opportunities were shut off by Covid-19 related lockdowns, cutting off the few freedoms that people had and leaving them locked in their cells for days or weeks.
The result is that many prisoners have felt more trapped, stressed, and hopeless than ever before. And they say these intermittent lockdowns have continued three years later, often with no connection to public health precautions and sometimes without an apparent reason. “It’s a standing joke that we can’t go 48 hours without some kind of major crisis that locks us down,” said Cecilia Fraher, who is incarcerated at the California Institution for Women. Read more.
infectious disease
As temperatures rise, the threat of Zika and dengue will too, study suggests
Many of the world’s deadly infectious diseases are spread by the prick of mosquitoes, which thrive in warm climates. And as global temperatures continue to rise, researchers expect viruses such as Zika and dengue to spread even faster. The findings, published yesterday in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, are based on an analysis of historical temperature data from four regions of Brazil and temperature predictions in these regions between 2045 and 2049.
Scientists project that the reproduction number — the average number of people someone with the virus would infect — could jump as high as 2.7 for Zika and 6.8 for dengue, depending on the temperature. In other words, the study’s authors write, these viruses will be more likely to spark epidemics, and it’ll be extra important for public health systems to monitor for the earliest signs of transmission.
research
CDC survey of high schoolers highlights growing health concerns
The CDC just released its 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance, a biennial survey of more than 17,000 U.S. high school students and the first edition of the survey since the pandemic. Some key findings:
- High schoolers in 2021 were more likely to say they don’t eat breakfast daily compared to students in 2019 (75% versus 66.9%, respectively). The percent of students who reported eating less than a serving of fruits and vegetables a day also increased.
- Physical activity is down. The survey found that while 26% of high schoolers in 2019 reported going to a physical education class each day during a typical school week, that dipped to 19% in 2021.
- One bright spot: Vaping rates dropped. While roughly half of surveyed students said they had ever used a vaping product in 2019, just 36% of respondents in 2021 said they had done so.
