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Volume 55, Issue 61 | monday, april 19, 2021 | ndsmcobserver.com
Lou Somogyi dies at 58
Event explores health inequity Vanderbilt University professor analyzes the pandemic’s racial implications By LAUREN KESIC News Writer
LAUREN KESIC | The Observer
Jonathon Metzl, director of the Center for Medicine, Health and Society at Vanderbilt University, discussed racial tensions in health care.
Last Friday, Jonathan Metzl, Vanderbilt University professor of sociology and psychiatry, discussed the tension between racial prejudice and economic selfinterest as portrayed in his book “Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America’s Heartland.” Metzl’s discussion was
part of the “Building an Anti-Racist Vocabulary” weekly lecture series hosted by the Klau Center for Civil and Human Rights. At the beginning of the lecture, Metzl noted that a lot of his work examines questions of race and the ways race, racial tensions, politics and economics shape what we think about in terms of illness and health in the U.S.
Observer Staff Report
Lou Somogyi, longtime Notre Dame football beat reporter and senior editor for Blue & Gold Illustrated, died Saturday morning, the news site announced Sunday. He was 58. Blue & Gold said Somogyi had
see LECTURE PAGE 4
see SOMOGYI PAGE 3
SMC hosts first student vaccination clinic By CRYSTAL RAMIREZ Associate News Editor
Saint Mar y’s College held its first vaccination clinic Friday for students and community members to receive the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The clinic had a significant turnout, with a large percent of the Saint Mary’s population receiving the vaccine after the school announced the decision
Former faculty dies Observer Staff Report
Jorge A. Bustamante, Eugene P. and Helen Conley Professor Emeritus of Sociology who studied international migration and the U.S.-Mexico border, died March 25, according to an article published by the Notre Dame department of Arts and Letters. He was 82. Bustamante was highly esteemed in his field. He received many awards and earned the respect of his contemporaries throughout his career. Luis Ricardo Fraga, Institute for Latino Studies director see BUSTAMANTE PAGE 4
NEWS PAGE 3
requiring students to be fully vaccinated for the 2021-2022 academic year. Friday’s clinic was the first of two. The second clinic is scheduled for May 7 to allow all those who participated Friday to come back and receive their second dose. The vaccines were provided by Meijer and administered by many health workers. The College also had several hundred vaccines left to offer the
campus community or anyone who wanted to stop by and get vaccinated.
Vice president of enrollment management Mona Bowe said the vaccine clinic planning process was very time-consuming. “It took a long time. It wasn’t a decision that was made overnight or that was made lightly because we understand there is anxiety about the vaccine,” Bowe said. “There’s a lot that
we don’t know yet. We feel comfortable with the science behind the vaccine and what we are seeing. We were looking for information before we made the decision from all different sources.” Bowe said she listened to community input from Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades and Pope Francis on what they said about the vaccine — to view it as the common good.
“We also listened to what the Bishop of Fort Wayne and South Bend Bishop Rhoades and also [what] Pope Francis said, talking about the vaccine and seeing it as part of the common good and how people who are getting vaccinated now are helping stop the pandemic around the world,” Bowe said. “So we see it almost as an see VACCINATION PAGE 3
Ten Years Hence lecture discusses misinformation in China By LUCIANA THOMAS News Writer
The Mendoza College of Business hosted Freedom House research director Sarah Cook for a lecture about disinformation in China Friday. This lecture was part of the Ten Years Hence webinar series that began in 2002 to explore issues and ideas that were likely to affect the world over the next decade. Cook’s lecture, “Disinformation, China, and Beijing’s Broader Global Media Influence” covered China’s increasingly authoritarian government, its role in citizens’ lives and the country’s influence abroad.
Cook began her lecture by tracing the openness of China in the last decade. Since 2010 China has become more authoritarian, especially in its political freedoms and civil liberties,
SCENE PAGE 5
Cook said. “The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the ruler of China, has gotten more authoritarian. It’s gotten more repressive, the targets of repression have intensified, the tactics of repression have intensified,” Cook said. “What’s on the wrong side of the red line has expanded quite dramatically, especially since around 2008 but accelerated in 2012 particularly under the leadership of Xi Jinping.” In 2012, Freedom House, a non-profit organization that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom and human rights, rated China’s political rights and civil liberties a 17 out of 100 and labeled the country in the “notfree” category. Today, China receives a score of nine, almost
VIEWPOINT PAGE 6
LUCIANA THOMAS | The Observer
Professor James O’Rourke and Sarah Cook met over Zoom to explore increasing misinformation in China on Friday, April 16.
half of what it was a decade ago. China state-linked actors increasingly engage in media propaganda by using fake accounts to spread disinformation, Cook said. She also said that
ND SWIMMING PAGE 10
disinformation campaigns took off in China during the Taiwan election around 2017 and 2018. “There were examples see CHINA PAGE 4
ND VOLLEYBALL PAGE 12