Health

The Black Coalition Against COVID Urges You To Get Your New BiValent COVID Vaccine Booster NOW!

Gigi El-Bayoumi M.D. Melissa Clarke M.D. Yolandra Hancock M.D. Reed Tuckson M.D.

Unfortunately, the COVID Pandemic is not yet over. It’s not yet over for the nation and it definitely isn’t over for Black folks. Approximately 400 people a day are still dying of COVID, any many more are, or will, experience the health and financial consequences of Long COVID.

Studies show us that the immune protection from prior vaccinations, and prior infection, decrease over time. It is important that you increase your protection now with the new vaccine that protects from previous and current strains that are still with us.

After billions of doses of COVID vaccine have been administered all over the world, without significant side effects, we now know that the vaccine is safe for children and adults. As for vaccine effectiveness, it is estimated that almost 20 million lives were saved worldwide in the first year alone! A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association indicates that the vaccination campaign averted 58% of deaths that might have otherwise occurred during their study period. The COVID vaccines have been proven safe and effective at preventing death and severe illness.

Our risk of exposure is disproportionally higher than for others. We must protect ourselves and each other. The holidays are around the corner. Please ensure that all of our seniors are protected this year by assisting them in getting their boosters, and you getting yours, so that the entire family is protected for the holidays. If you contracted COVID more than three months ago or received a previous booster or primary COVID vaccine more than two months ago, the time is NOW to get the bivalent vaccine dose. And, the boosters have just been approved for children 5 and older!

The bivalent booster is FREE and you can get the shot at local pharmacies, some physician offices and hospitals, and at DC Health’s COVID Service Centers. The Ward 8 location is 3640 Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE, and the Ward 7 location is 3929 Minnesota Avenue NE. For more information go to coronavirus.dc.gov. Let’s work together to reverse this troubling trend of dying in higher numbers than any other racial group by taking action to protect ourselves. Black lives matter and one way of showing it is by getting your booster!

HEALTH

Attorney General Sues Chemical Company Velsicol Over CancerCausing Pollution

Environmental justice advocates from the NAACP DC, the Sierra Club, and Groundwork Anacostia River DC spoke alongside Attorney General Karl Racine to announce the suit filed October 13.

Kayla Benjamin WI Staff Writer

Attorney General Karl Racine is suing chemical manufacturer Velsicol Chemical, LLC over pollution in the District’s waterways that primarily impacted Black and low-income Washingtonians. At an October 13 press conference, Racine said that Velsicol spent decades selling a pesticide it knew caused cancer.

“[Velsicol] marketed it as being safe and effective,” Racine said. “That’s a lie that hurt people over ‘generations, and that hurt our natural resources.”

Velsicol manufactured chlordane, a chemical used to kill insects, from 1945 until the EPA banned it in 1988. The suit alleges that Velsicol knew chlordane caused cancer as early as 1959.

The pesticide was marketed for and used to control pests both outdoors and inside homes. The lawsuit claims that as of 2016, 21 of the city’s 38 miles of rivers and streams were out of compliance with water quality standards for chlordane. The attorney general said at the press conference that sampling by the Department of Energy and Environment had uncovered

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5 Attorney General Karl Racine announced the lawsuit against chemical manufacturer Velsicol on Thursday, October 13. Environmental justice advocates from NAACP DC, the Sierra Club, and Groundwork Anacostia River DC spoke in support. (Kayla Benjamin/The Washington Informer)

5 The Anacostia and Potomac rivers have had a reduction in pollution levels resulting in environmental lawsuits. (Courtesy photo)

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chlordane hotspots in the Anacostia River, including at Poplar Point, a site across the river from Nationals Park.

Velsicol did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Environmental justice leaders from the NAACP DC, the Sierra Club, and Groundwork Anacostia River DC spoke alongside Racine at the press conference, praising the lawsuit and the attorney general’s focus on holding polluters accountable.

“Environmental justice is a civil rights issue,” NAACP DC President Akosua Ali said. “The long-term impacts of this chemical manufacturer releasing these toxic, cancer-causing chemicals into the Anacostia has had disproportionate health impacts on lower-income Black residents in D.C. So today, the NAACP is proud to stand with Attorney General Karl Racine to emphasize that polluting our water with toxic cancer-causing chemicals and poisoning our wildlife will not be tolerated.”

Shortly after chlordane was banned, D.C. issued a fishing advisory, telling District residents to stop eating catfish, carp, or eel from the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers, partly because of high chlordane levels. The attorney general’s complaint against Velsicol notes that low-income and Black communities were more likely to catch and eat fish from the river.

Both of the District’s major rivers have suffered from high pollution levels, and both have improved significantly in recent years (in some places, it is even safer to swim). But for decades, D.C.’s most toxic industrial projects were sited along the Anacostia River, leaving dirty, dangerous water to flow through Black neighborhoods. Only after more than 30 years of community activism—and multiple environmental lawsuits, both from the District and from organizations like Earthjustice—has the Anacostia begun to revive.

“When companies lie and mislead for money, the best way to hold them accountable is for money,” Racine said. “That’s what they care about.”

Racine’s office has successfully nabbed a number of companies for pollution in the District, including household names like Monsanto and Greyhound. In 2020, the attorney general sued Exxon Mobil, B.P., Chevron, and Shell for “systematically and intentionally misleading District consumers about the role their products play in causing climate change.” That suit is ongoing.

Racine’s term ends in early January, but he said he expects the next attorney general to continue emphasizing environmental justice and accountability for polluters. Brian Schwalb, who won the Democratic primary for that office and received an endorsement from Racine, lists “safeguarding the environment” as one of six priorities on his website.

“This lawsuit sets a precedent for how the D.C. Office of Attorney General should definitely be weighing in on environmental justice issues,” Ali said in an interview after the press conference. “This is a start. WI