By Thomas Doherty Professor of American Studies, Brandeis University Published: May 12, 2020 8:33am EDT What FDR’s polio crusade teaches us about presidential leadership amid crisis Throughout much of the last century, a lethal and terrifying virus besieged America. Then, as now, the fear of contagion gripped ordinary Americans. And then — unlike now — a president displayed decisive leadership in fighting the virus, maintaining an unfailingly good humor and leaving the immunology to the experts. The scourge was infantile paralysis, or polio, and the president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was its most famous victim. First clinically described in the late 19th century and persisting deep into the 20th century, the virus invaded the nervous…

How to grieve a death in the coronavirus pandemic David A. Schuck, Gina Hens-Piazza, Rodney Sadler Editor’s note: Every religion has its death rites, communal practices developed over millennia to honor the dead and console the living. Some of these rituals are unique to one faith, but more are shared – a reminder there’s a common path toward healing. Yet COVID-19 is forcing many people to grieve in isolation. We asked three faith leaders and religion scholars for their counsel on mourning during the pandemic. Honoring the dead and comforting mourners Rabbi David A. Schuck Jewish mourning rituals follow the principles of “k’vod hamet,” honoring the deceased, and “nichum aveilim,” comforting…

By Sara Talpos September 18, 2023 Like many other institutions, the University of Pennsylvania campus was mostly shuttered to in-person learning when Vincent Kelley began work there as a Ph.D. student in ethnomusicology in the fall of 2020. But when the first vaccines were rolled out to all American adults the following spring, Penn leadership announced that in-person classes would resume for the 2021-22 academic year — with one proviso: Only students, faculty, and staff who had received a Covid-19 vaccine would be permitted to return. Religious or medical exemptions were available, but Kelley, who had chosen to be vaccinated himself, said he still found the mandate overly coercive. Then, when the university…

Sara Luterman/Caregiving reporter April 10, 2024 Commentators have recently singled out the Supreme Court justice, who has type 1 diabetes. Disability lead s say it’s not a reason for her to resign. *Correction appended. Increasing calls from some Democrats for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to retire because of her age and diabetes diagnosis are biased and misguided, according to disability leaders who say she’s more than up to the job.  For months — particularly with the November election approaching — left-leaning commentators like former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan have expressed concern that because Sotomayor is 69 years old and has type 1 diabetes, she may need to be replaced on the…

Zachary Morris Nanette Goodman Stephen McGarity Edward Mitchell is 34 years old and lives in Jackson, Tennessee, with a spinal cord injury caused by a hit-and-run accident that happened when he was 17. He has plenty of expenses that all Americans have, like groceries and utilities. But to maintain his independence, he also has to pay for home modifications to accommodate his wheelchair, personal nursing care, dictation tools to help him write and adjustments to his car so he can drive himself to work. He is just one of the 20 million working-age adults living with disabilities in the U.S., for whom it takes more money to make ends meet because of…