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Coronavirus: What It Is And How To Avoid It

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Fortunately, the case at George Mason turned out to be a false alarm. Nonetheless, it’s a good idea to be careful and protect your health.

After the U.S. had its first person-to-person transmission of coronavirus, the World Health Organization has declared the current state of the disease a “global health emergency.”

There have been six confirmed cases within the U.S., while more than 300 have already died due to the virus in China. On Wednesday, 195 passengers on board a flight returning from Wuhan, China were ordered into a 14-day quarantine at March Air Reserve Base by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  

Residents of Virginia raised concerns when a student at George Mason University was being tested for coronavirus symptoms (test results for the student were declared negative on Friday). For those anxious about the spread of the disease, here’s what you need to know and what precautions to take. 

By CDC/Alissa Eckert, MS; Dan Higgins, MAM – This media comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Public Health Image Library (PHIL), Public Domain, via Wikimedia

What It Is

Coronaviruses are a group of viruses typically found in animals, which resemble the common cold because of their similar symptoms. However, coronaviruses are much more severe and have longer durations. Other examples of coronaviruses include Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

The new coronavirus (nCoV) that originated in Wuhan, which has now reached the U.S. and Europe, is a respiratory illness that has never been seen before in humans. 

“It’s believed it was initially transmitted from animals to human beings probably from food markets or animal markets in Wuhan, China,” said Gonzalo M. Bearman, M.D., M.P.H., in a video released by VCU Health. 

Coronaviruses can be transmitted between animals and people with numerous versions found in animals that haven’t affected humans. There have been other cases of the virus transmitting from animals to people, including SARS-CoV from civet cats to humans, and MERS-CoV from dromedary camels to humans. 

Symptoms

Signs that one might have the virus are similar to signs of the flu; they include shortness of breath, respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, and difficulties with breathing. The new coronavirus also includes more severe symptoms, such as pneumonia, worsening cough, sore muscles, and joint pain.

The risk of someone in the commonwealth receiving the virus is currently low, so someone who is showing these signs may simply have the flu. For doctors to be concerned, someone would have had to recently visited an area with epidemic activity or have been in contact with someone else with a confirmed case of the virus within the past 14 days. 

Officials from the Virginia Department of Health have been informing citizens that they should be more concerned about the flu. Roanoke’s Carilion Clinic has reported three patients dying from influenza, while no one in Virginia has a confirmed case of coronavirus. 

Map of the 2019–20 Wuhan coronavirus outbreak as of 4 February 2020. Region of origin (mainland China) in brown. Confirmed cases reported in red. Suspected cases reported in blue. By Pharexia. Map derived from BlankMap-World-Microstates.svg. Data derived from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. New York Times, CNBC, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia

Precautions

Health officials are advising people to take routine steps to prevent further spread of the disease and to protect themselves from it. 

Recommended precautions include:

  • wash hands with soap and water regularly
  • cover mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing
  • don’t share drinks or food
  • use alcohol-based hand sanitizer
  • don’t make contact with people showing symptoms of the infection.

If someone is experiencing symptoms of the infection, has been in contact with someone known to have the infection (or currently being tested for it), or has recently traveled to Wuhan, China, they are advised to seek medical attention immediately. Those in the Richmond area can visit the VCU Health emergency room at 1213 E. Clay St.

“VCU Health is aggressively monitoring the situation, so that we’re aware of all the latest updates and recommendations coming from the CDC to have the appropriate teams to respond to changes in the situation,” said Bearman. 

More information about the new coronavirus can be found at the World Health Organization or VCU Health webpages.

Top Photo by Macau Photo Agency on Unsplash

Richmond Restaurants Surge in Numbers, Struggle to Hire Employees

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Twice the usual number of restaurants opened in Richmond last year, and owners are now finding that the city might not have enough cooks, servers, and bartenders to go around.

Significantly more food establishments opened in the greater Richmond area this year than any other year this decade, according to the Virginia Department of Health, which grants health permits for businesses to operate. As the restaurant market grows, so does competition among food establishments — not only for customers, but for quality employees. 

Since 2010, 62 food businesses have opened each year on average; this includes fast food, caterers, food trucks, full service restaurants, and other small food service establishments such as coffee shops or daycare facility kitchens. But as of Dec. 4, the VDH had issued 133 health permits — more than double the average — for food-related businesses to begin operating this year. Many restaurant owners are aware of the increase, and not only has it challenged them to maintain high standards over the food they serve, it also raises the competition for hiring personnel.

Employment of food preparation and serving personnel in Richmond increased 15 percent from 2010 to 2018, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Last year, restaurants and food establishments in Richmond employed nearly 54,000 people to work in the kitchen, wait tables, bartend or host — and they’re still hiring.

Via Pexels.com

“There just aren’t enough people to work in the service industry,” said Jeff Allums, owner of Baja Bean Co., which closed a location in Richmond in October and operates another in Staunton. “There’s still a lot of great professionals around, and quality of food is not necessarily the issue as much as when you talk service and things like that.”

Allums attributes this issue to a series of cultural and technological developments that have impacted the restaurant industry. He also recognizes that market growth offers more opportunities for employment, therefore restaurants are competing for the same personnel, and in some cases, several establishments have to share employees.

“There are a lot of places where they’ll have a bartender come in for one shift a week and then he’ll go to another bar for another day of the week,” he said. Allums said some restaurants have to use platforms like Snagajob, which allow owners to hire staff for a certain amount of time on a specific date, without knowing the person and having to pay a higher rate. “Even though services are changing the way people work, there’s no loyalty as a 40-hour work week.”

Tarrant’s Cafe, via RVA Hospitality

At the same time, Allums said food delivery apps like Uber Eats and Doordash attract some members of the population restaurants seek to hire, like high school and college students. The flexibility of working on their own time and for as long as they want are opportunities that the restaurant industry cannot always grant. So now, the competition for personnel is not only among local restaurants, but also among popular online services. Although food delivery may seem promising for a business, it can also negatively affect their operation and reputation, and benefit fast-food establishments.

The typical restaurant does not do take-out well because the food doesn’t taste as good when it’s eaten 20 or more minutes after it’s ready, Allums said. “You order an enchilada platter for me or something, it’s not as good unless it’s less than two minutes away from the kitchen,” he said. “In 2018, I was doing about $600 – $700 a week in Uber sales, and that is when all of the sudden McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, started to do those Doordash things and it plummeted.”

Popular restaurant groups like RVA Hospitality, which owns four restaurants — Bar Solita, Max’s on Broad, Tarrant’s Cafe, and Tarrant’s West — are not exempt from the insufficient labor force. Co-owner Liz Kincaid categorized finding high-quality staff as one of the most important issues that restaurants currently face, mainly because people are joining the workforce at an older age compared to years ago, reducing the total pool of potential employees.

“The fact is, you know, you let someone go, they’re going to walk across the street and get a job tomorrow,” Kincaid said. “The cards are in the employees’ hands, and I think in previous generations it may have been the other way, that big businesses or the business owner would have had an upper hand.”

Bar Solita, via RVA Hospitality

Both Allums and Kincaid mentioned that teenagers and young adults are not seeking jobs in the restaurant industry as often as in the past. This situation is a reality around the country and is expected to become a larger trend, according to the National Restaurant Association’s Research and Knowledge Group. In a report released in November, the data shows that from 2008 to 2018 there was a decrease of 1 million employees ages 16 to 19. Last year, 5.9 million people in that range worked for food establishments, and the association expects that number to drop to 5.1 million by 2028. The working population of 20-to-24-year-olds is expected to drop participation in the industry by half a million during the same period.

Volume of employees is important, but the issue becomes more prominent when addressing a lack of quality workers. Relationship marketing expert Michael Short, founder of the PRO Business Group Support in Richmond, also believes that finding quality staff is one of the top three challenges restaurants face in Richmond — along with marketing strategy and high competition.

Nobody wants to work as a server anymore, Short said. He said employees tend to feel discouraged by the uncertainty in scheduling — especially when they’re scheduled to work on traditionally slow nights — and not knowing how much money they could make each day.

“If you’re the server or the bartender scheduled for Monday or Tuesday night, you’re going to work making almost no money, and it’s hard to keep employees excited and enthused about their job,” Short said. “As a server … you’re generally not paid a significant hourly wage and you really rely on the tips. And a lot of times, folks forget that and it’s hard to find people that want to work.”

Chef Jimmy Tsamouras, via Demi’s Restaurant

Another factor that affects the employees’ enthusiasm, especially early after entering the business, is the unrealistic expectations of the job. 

Most new employees don’t realize how much hard work it is to serve in a restaurant, according to Jimmy Tsamouras, owner and chef of Dot’s Back Inn and Demi’s Mediterranean Kitchen. “They think it might be easy, and then they get into it and realize how grueling and how hard it is, and they get turned off by it,” he said.

Restaurant server and bartender Carlee Morse also said the job is harder than people expect, but time and experience have helped her become more efficient and perform better. She is one of the employees restaurants have to share. Morse, a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University, managed to have a full-time job combining her shifts at Metro Bar & Grill and Tang & Biscuit in order to pay for rent, utilities, and groceries.

Although she enjoys her job, she admits that it can be overwhelming due to understaffing and high clientele. Morse said sometimes she waits tables for over 60 people at the same time by herself. She said in some cases new employees start working and a few weeks later they leave the restaurant.

Morse considered other options for work, like Uber Eats, but her interests are clear. “I personally like serving because you can make connections with people you meet on the job, which helps a lot later down the road,” she said.

Max’s On Broad, via Facebook

When it comes to getting a job as a server, Morse believes it is not an easy road but said restaurants might be having issues because of their hiring strategies.

“I don’t think restaurants do a good job about letting people know they are hiring,” Morse said. “Both of my jobs, I got just from calling around, not from seeing an ad or anything like that. A lot of times you have to seek it out yourself, instead of normal big companies where they will put ads out and say they are hiring.”

Richmond restaurants employed 16 percent of the total food preparing and serving personnel in 2018 in Virginia, according to the BLS. This labor group is the third biggest in Richmond, just behind office and administrative support, and sales-related occupations. The years 2012 and 2016 saw the biggest percentage increase in food preparation and serving employment, with 8 percent and 5 percent growth, respectively.

In a more general scope, over 15,500 food and beverage businesses operated in Virginia in 2018, according to a review of the National Restaurant Association. The total sales in the commonwealth exceeded $18 billion last year. The study estimates that the industry currently offers over 378,000 jobs, including all food preparing and serving positions, managerial and administrative roles. This number is expected to increase another 10 percent in the state over the next decade.

Written by Mario Sequeira Quesada, Capital News Service. Top Photo via Pexels.com

Sex Ed Is Key to Reducing Teen Pregnancy, Advocates Say

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States requiring schools to teach sex education have lower teen pregnancy rates; some say high teen pregnancy rates in some Virginia localities are a direct result of the lack of a sex ed requirement in the Commonwealth’s schools.

In the early 2000s, Martinsville, a city of about 13,000 near the North Carolina line, had one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in Virginia. In a typical year, nearly 75 of every 1,000 teenage girls got pregnant.

More than a decade ago, the school opened a teen health clinic, which provides birth control and treats sexually transmitted infections. Since then, the city’s teen pregnancy rate has plummeted.

“It’s just been amazing because I’ve seen success,” said Beth Holyfield, the clinic’s health coordinator. “I think everybody was a little nervous about it because it was Bible Belt area, you know, offering birth control for children.”

Under the federal Title IX program, the Martinsville High School Teen Health Clinic can treat STIs and provide birth control without notifying the student’s parents. Holyfield and two nurse practitioners don’t discuss abortion, but they do routine checks on student weight and blood pressure and administer prescriptions.

According to new data from the Virginia Department of Health, among the state’s 133 localities, Martinsville ranked 16th in teen pregnancy rates in 2018. For every 1,000 teen girls, there were about 21 pregnancies.

Martinsville’s increased access to sex education and contraception coincided with the drop in the city’s teen pregnancy rate. Experts say preaching abstinence over other methods — Virginia’s official policy — has been ineffective. States with more schools teaching contraceptive methods tend to have lower teen pregnancy rates.

Localities vary widely in teen pregnancy rates

Virginia’s teen pregnancy rate in 2017 was 15 pregnancies for every 1,000 teenage girls, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Thirteen states had a lower teen pregnancy rate than Virginia’s. Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Connecticut all had fewer than nine pregnancies per 1,000 teenage girls.

Within Virginia, the rates vary widely, according to data obtained by Capital News Service from the Virginia Department of Health through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The data showed the number of pregnancies for every 1,000 adolescent girls in each city and county of Virginia. That way, it’s possible to compare localities regardless of population.

Petersburg, 30 miles south of Richmond, had the highest teen pregnancy rate in the state in 2018: about 44 pregnancies for every 1,000 teenage girls.

Norton, a city at the southwest tip of Virginia, was second with 35 pregnancies per 1,000 teenage girls. Lancaster County, along the Chesapeake Bay, followed at about 30 pregnancies per 1,000 adolescent girls.

The cities of Roanoke, Richmond, and Hopewell all had rates around 25 pregnancies for every 1,000 teen girls.

Sex education is optional in Virginia

Under the Virginia Standards of Learning, the state’s public school curriculum, schools in the commonwealth may teach sex education but are not required to do so. State law requires an emphasis on abstinence, but the SOL curriculum also includes recommendations for teaching about contraception and condom usage.

More than 90 percent of Virginia schools teach abstinence. Fewer than 40 percent of the state’s high schools teach contraceptive methods recommended by the CDC, according to the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, or SIECUS.

Virginia Department of Education spokesperson Charles Pyle says the curriculum is designed to promote parental involvement and help students cope with peer pressure during developing stages.

Pyle said classes “include age-appropriate instruction in family living and community relationships, abstinence education, the value of postponing sexual activity, the benefits of adoption as a positive choice in the event of an unwanted pregnancy, human sexuality, and human reproduction.”

Dr. Samuel Campbell, an obstetrician-gynecologist at the Virginia Physicians for Women health-care service, says pregnant teens need more than that.

Pregnant teenagers encounter a specific set of problems because of limited resources and support, Campbell said.

“They have difficulty with transportation. They frequently will seek care later because they are afraid to tell their parents (or) family. They have to continue with their schooling,” Campbell said. “And they have to deal with the social stigma of being a teen mom.”

Most states require sex ed

Thirty-two states require schools to teach sex education, according to the most recent statistics from SIECUS. Eighteen states — including Virginia — do not.

There are seven types of recommended contraception: the birth control pill, patch, ring and shot; implants; intrauterine devices; and emergency contraception. In 2017, no states reported that all of their schools were teaching about all seven methods as well as how to properly use a condom.

According to SIECUS, 19 states reported more than half of school districts teaching students about a variety of contraceptive methods. Fifteen of those states had teen pregnancy rates below the national average of 18 pregnancies per every 1,000 adolescent girls.

Of the 10 states with the lowest teen pregnancy rates, eight required sex ed in all school districts. They include New Hampshire, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, which had pregnancy rates under 15 per 1,000 teenage girls.

The six states with the lowest teen pregnancy rates — Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Vermont, New Jersey, and Rhode Island — reported that three quarters of their schools taught students how to use a condom.

On the other hand, of the 10 states with the highest teen pregnancy rate, seven do not require sex ed in schools. Those states include Arkansas, Texas, and Alabama.

Nationwide, 89 percent of school districts teach abstinence, which recommends that teens put off having sex until marriage. Many schools teach both abstinence and contraceptive methods. That is the case in New Jersey and New Hampshire, where teen pregnancy is below the national average.

Dr. Elizabeth Broderick, a pediatrician in Newport News, calls abstinence education “insufficient information.”

“Abstinence is an excellent way to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections,” Broderick said. “But eventually, many people choose to become sexually active, and they should have accurate and complete information so they can make the best decision that fits their beliefs and values.”

Broderick says long-acting and reversible contraceptives are generally best for adolescents, but they can be hard to get.

“Access to contraception is difficult for most teenagers,” Broderick said. “Education about anatomy, physiology, contraception, sexually transmitted infections, and consent is appropriate at school and at home.”

‘Educate them on the facts’ to make good decisions

The CDC’s teen pregnancy prevention guidelines say implants and intrauterine devices, or IUDs, are the most effective and reversible birth control methods. Broderick says these are more difficult to obtain than condoms or spermicide because they require a trip to the doctor and a prescription.

Dr. Natalie Dogal, an OB-GYN with Virginia Physicians for Women, said talking about contraception is important for preventing teen pregnancy. She said she discusses contraceptive options with all her teen patients.

“They tend to have heard good or bad stories from friends, parents, or from reading online, and I like to educate them on the facts to help them make good contraceptive decisions,” Dogal said.

According to SIECUS, about 40 percent of male and female high school students nationwide report having had sexual intercourse.

Nationally, the teen pregnancy rate has decreased in recent decades. According to data from the CDC, the rates dropped by 50 percent from 2005 to 2017.

Nearly a third of teen moms reported not using contraceptives because they didn’t think they could get pregnant. Another quarter of teen moms reported that their partners did not want to use contraception.

“Many teenagers think they are invincible,” Dogal said. “That includes thinking they will never be the one who gets pregnant or gets an STI.”

Resources for Teen Mothers in Virginia

The Virginia Department of Health has resources for first-time teen mothers. In the “Resource Mothers” program, a community health worker develops a supportive mentoring relationship with the teen and her family. The free resources include information about prenatal care and health care, assistance finishing school, and tools to avoid drugs and alcohol. Mothers can also sign up for free text messages on prenatal and infant care.

The Healthy Teen Network has a variety of resources for teen parents across the country, including #NoTeenShame, “Mom, Dad — I’m Pregnant,” and Healthy Families America.

To find a health assistance program near you, call 1-800-311-BABY. This will connect you to the nearest health department. For information in Spanish, call 1-800-504-7081.

The U.S. Bureau of Maternal and Child Health has resources for women nationwide. The programs and initiatives include home visiting, which provides at-risk pregnant women tools for mother and child health, raising children, and preventing neglect. The bureau seeks to promote child development and encourage positive parenting.

Planned Parenthood has a webpage for teens to get information about sex, puberty, pregnancy, and birth control, as well as a private chat function for additional questions.

Planned Parenthood has health centers in Charlottesville, Richmond, Hampton, and Virginia Beach. There are also two health centers in the Washington, D.C., area.

How We Got and Crunched the Data

For this report, we downloaded teen pregnancy rates for each state from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In addition, we needed the teen pregnancy rates for each city and county in Virginia. The Virginia Department of Health posts such data on its website; however, at the time, the most recent statistics available were for 2017.

We filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the VDH, asking for the 2018 data. The department emailed us the file we requested and then posted it online.

The VDH provided the data as PDFs. We exported the data as an Excel file and cleaned up column headings and other formatting. We have posted all of the data we obtained from the VDH and CDC.

One question we wanted to explore was whether there was a relationship between teen pregnancy rates and the sexual education curriculum taught in schools. To examine this on the national level, we used 2017 data from the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States.

We compared the council’s data, which explains how comprehensive sex ed is in each state, with the pregnancy rates from the CDC.

Written by Hannah Eason and Emma North, Capital News Service. Top Photo by kyo azuma on Unsplash.

Four Percent of Marriages in Virginia Have Been Same-Sex Unions

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Since marriage equality came to Virginia, a significant amount of the marriages taking place in the state have been same-sex marriages.

Same-sex couples have made up 1 of every 26 marriages in Virginia since such unions were legalized in the commonwealth in 2014. In a half-dozen localities — ranging from cities such as Richmond and Norfolk to rural communities like Buena Vista — same-sex couples represent approximately 1 of every 15 marriages.

Norfolk, for example, recorded about 12,400 marriages from 2014 through 2018, according to the Virginia Department of Health. About 850 of those weddings were same-sex marriages, the agency’s data showed.

That means same-sex couples constituted almost 7 percent — or about 1 of every 15 marriages — in Norfolk.

George Schaefer, the Norfolk Circuit Court clerk, offered several possibilities why his locality is so popular with same-sex couples. At the top of his list was convenience.

“We are centrally located within the Hampton Roads region,” Schaefer said. “You can get a marriage license at any courthouse in Virginia. We may be the most convenient location. Furthermore, we have a marriage commissioner on site whose office is literally 15 feet from the counter.”

Schaefer also cited pent-up demand for same-sex weddings in Southeastern Virginia.

“Gay couples in heavily populated Northern Virginia who wanted to be married may have already gone across the border (to Maryland and Washington, D.C.) to legally wed by the time the (U.S. Supreme) Court authorized it in Virginia in October 2014,” Schaefer said.

Same-sex marriage was legalized in Virginia on Oct. 6, 2014, when the Supreme Court let stand a lower court ruling that declared the state’s ban on such marriages unconstitutional. The ban had been challenged by two men who wanted to get married in Norfolk.

On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down all state bans on same-sex marriage.

Like Norfolk, Charlottesville and Roanoke also had relatively high proportions of same-sex marriage — about 1 in 15 weddings, according to a Capital News Service analysis of the Health Department’s data. Then came Richmond, where 1 in 16 marriages was same-sex.

Of the approximately 8,960 marriages recorded in Richmond from 2014 to 2018, nearly 565 were same-sex.

Edward Jewett, the Richmond Circuit Court clerk, says same-sex couples apparently see the capital city as inviting.

“As the clerk’s office in an urban locality, we may have been perceived as a welcoming place to get them [marriage licenses] at first,” Jewett said. “But as things have become routine, things have now spread out. The Charlottesville clerk and I still have a friendly disagreement as to which of us issued the first license.”

Although each locality has a different set of forms to obtain a marriage license, most require the applicants to circle bride, groom, spouse 1 or spouse 2.

Between 2014 and 2018, same-sex couples made up about 11,360 of the 300,865 marriages recorded in Virginia.

Virginia Beach has recorded more same-sex marriages — 1,155 — than any other locality. They represent about 1 in 21 marriages performed there.

Tina Sinnen, the Virginia Beach Circuit court clerk, couldn’t cite a specific reason why the coastal city consistently has the highest number of marriages, both same-sex and overall (almost 25,000 over the four years).

“Virginia [Beach] is a beautiful place to get married considering we are a resort city,” Sinnen said. “Possibly my staff is very welcoming and inclusive.”

Of the more than 130 localities in Virginia, only Bland and Highland counties and the city of Manassas Park did not have a single same-sex marriage.

The locality with the highest proportion of same-sex marriages was Buena Vista, a city of 6,240 people nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Of the 201 marriages recorded in Buena Vista from 2014 to 2018, 14 were same-sex. That is 1 in 14, or 7 percent.

Christopher Coleman, the Buena Vista Circuit Court clerk, declined to comment on his locality’s proportion of same-sex marriages.

Now that same-sex couples represent a growing proportion of marriages in Virginia, will they also constitute a sizable proportion of divorces? Bill Harrison, the president and director of the Richmond-based LBGTQ rights organization Diversity Richmond, doesn’t think so.

“Many gay and lesbian people who are now officially married have already been coupled for many years,” Harrison said. “Chances are they will not divorce. Hopefully that will help the 50% divorce rate set by our heterosexual friends.”

Written by Patricia Cason, Capital News Service. Top Photo via CNS

Black Women Far More Likely Than Whites to Die Giving Birth

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For black women, childbirth can be a death sentence. African American women are three to four times more likely than white women to die from pregnancy-related causes.

Last fall, Tanaca McCargo, a Chesterfield native, found out she was expecting her second child. McCargo, who already had a 3-year-old boy, discovered early on that her second pregnancy would be different. Her complications began when she experienced light bleeding.

“The morning after scheduling an appointment with my OB-GYN, I passed an actual blood clot,” McCargo said.

She was sent to the emergency room for a transvaginal ultrasound, which allowed doctors to examine her reproductive organs. They found that McCargo’s pregnancy was ectopic: Her fertilized egg had attached to her fallopian tubes instead of to her uterus.

Tanaca McCargo, 22, of Chesterfield (Photo courtesy of Ms. McCargo)

McCargo, 22, faced a life-and-death dilemma. If she proceeded with the pregnancy, her fallopian tubes likely would rupture, causing internal bleeding and possibly her death.

There was only one other option. “I couldn’t keep the baby,” McCargo said. “That was the most heart-wrenching and traumatic experience I’ve ever had in my life.”

Three months into the pregnancy, McCargo decided to have an abortion. But even that did not go smoothly.

Doctors gave her chemotherapy injections to stop the fetus from growing, but they initially didn’t work. “Those injections made me feel horrible. I was nauseated almost all day every day,” McCargo said. “I experienced extreme fatigue, I slept less — it was just overall mentally and physically exhausting.”

Eventually, the abortion was performed. McCargo is still recovering from her ordeal. Currently, she is a stay-at-home mom caring for her son, Zakhai.

Her situation is not uncommon. For black women, childbirth can be a death sentence. Nationwide, African American women are three to four times more likely than white women to die from pregnancy-related causes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That is true in Virginia as well.

Among white women in the commonwealth, there were 11 maternal deaths per 100,000 births last year, the nonprofit United Health Foundation reported. But among the state’s African American women, there were 36.6 maternal deaths per 100,000 births.

Virginia’s chief medical examiner highlighted the racial disparity in a report released last month.

“Black women in the United States and Virginia are known to suffer the greatest burden of pregnancy-associated death, a perplexing and consistently reported fact. In each of the 15 years of pregnancy-associated deaths reported in Virginia, the mortality ratio for Black women exceeded that for White women,” the report stated.

On the national stage, several black women have stepped forward with their own experiences of pregnancy-related challenges.

In an HBO series, tennis star Serena Williams, who gave birth to a daughter in 2017, described having complications during her pregnancy and labor. And in a Netflix special, the singer Beyoncé opened up about the difficulties she faced when pregnant with twins two years ago. She experienced preeclampsia, a sudden, potentially life-threatening increase in blood pressure.

Are black women treated differently?

Throughout her pregnancy, Jazmine Brown felt uneasy, filled with unexplainable emotions and pressure. She especially resented visiting her doctor.

Brown said the doctor treated her dismissively — not like the other patients.

Brown said she wasn’t sure whether the reason was because she was “young and black” or her insurance situation.

“I felt like they didn’t want me to be there — like I was inconveniencing them,” said Brown, who worked and attended Tidewater Community College at the time.

Brown’s job didn’t cover all of her medical expenses, so she turned to Medicaid. “When I was pregnant, I had Medicaid to pick up what my job insurance wouldn’t,” she said.

Brown said that she received a lot of backlash at her prenatal visits and that the pressure began to weigh on her. The situation came to a head when “we had an ultrasound appointment, and I was no more than 5 minutes late.”

Brown said she arrived at the building on time — but was late to the doctor’s office because she had to take the stairs.

“I was only 23 at the time, and she felt like it was OK to yell at us for being late, and I had never been late before,” Brown said.

The unsettling feeling led Brown to look into other doctors’ offices — where the waiting rooms were filled mostly with white middle-aged women. “I saw how they would talk to them differently,” Brown said.

She tried to find another OB-GYN, but the ones that would accept Medicaid had a waiting list. “In March, I looked, and they said they couldn’t see me until June — my baby came in July,” Brown said.

A month before Brown’s due date, she was diagnosed with preeclampsia.

As her due date approached, Brown received a little more attention, but she said her feelings were still hurt. “I will not settle for that treatment again,” she said. “I know they saw me just as a ‘poor little black girl.’”

Brown subsequently gave birth to a daughter, Jamie. Now 24 and living in the Virginia Beach area, Brown is a currently a stay-at-home mom and a student at Norfolk State University.

Research suggests that it wasn’t Brown’s imagination that she felt mistreated and agitated during her pregnancy. African Americans sometimes are treated differently by health care providers and experience greater pregnancy-related stress, studies show.

According to a 2016 study by the University of Virginia, black people are systemically undertreated for pain in relation to white people. Researchers found that a substantial number of white medical professionals and students held false beliefs about biological differences between black and white people.

For example, they might think black people have tougher skin or that their blood coagulates quicker than in white people.

Moreover, the nonprofit Seleni Institute found that black and Latina women are at a higher risk for mental health issues after pregnancy. Backing that up, the Icahn School of Medicine found that 44% percent of black women — versus 31% of white women — reported symptoms of depression after their pregnancy.

New law calls for ‘awareness and prevention’ about maternal deaths

Maternal mortality rates have alarmed members of the Virginia General Assembly.

At the start of the 2019 legislative session, Democratic Dels. Marcia Price of Newport News and Lashrecse Aird of Petersburg introduced a resolution “recognizing the maternal and infant mortality crisis in the United States.”

The resolution said:

  • The United States is the only industrialized country with a rising maternal mortality rate.
  • Maternal and infant mortality “is exacerbated by factors such as poverty, gender inequality, age, and multiple forms of discrimination, as well as factors such as lack of access to adequate health facilities and technology and lack of infrastructure.”
  • “Considerable racial disparities in pregnancy-related mortality exist, with deaths per live birth for black women nearly three times higher than such deaths for white women.”
  • “The root cause of these disparities is longstanding structural racism, which has contributed to poorer health outcomes among communities of color.”

The House Rules Committee never held a hearing or voted on the resolution. However, the General Assembly passed a bill requiring the Virginia Department of Health to review the rate of pregnancy-related deaths.

Under HB 2546, the department will establish the Maternal Death Review Team, which will include state health officials and outside experts.

The bill was sponsored by Republican Del. Roxann Robinson of Chesterfield and Democratic Del. Kaye Kory of Fairfax. It says the team will improve data collection and record keeping regarding maternal deaths and recommend ways “to increase awareness and prevention of and education about maternal deaths.”

On April 3, the General Assembly unanimously approved minor changes that Gov. Ralph Northam had recommended concerning HB 2546. It will take effect July 1.

Birth in Color RVA Provides Help for Pregnant Women

Pregnant women in the Richmond area can get information and other assistance from a newly formed advocacy group — Birth in Color RVA.

The organization’s goal is to educate and provide support especially for women of color during their pregnancies.

“It’s important that black women are taught about their body — that they’re taught about their options during pregnancy,” said NyTasha Stevens, an advocate at Birth in Color RVA.

The group is a collective and network of birth workers who provide culturally centered support to women and families during pregnancy and birth and postpartum.

Stevens has been a birth worker since January 2018.

“I always tell women to make sure that you and your doctor are on the same page,” Stevens said. “You have to interview the doctor taking care of you. You can’t just assume the doctor giving you pap smears since you were 16 is the doctor you want to help you give birth. It’s a different ball game.”

Stevens speaks from personal experience. She got pregnant at age 20 — before becoming a birth worker. At the time, Stevens was unaware of questions she should have asked her doctors.

With her first pregnancy, Stevens was pregnant with twins. Looking back, Stevens said there was a lack of communication between her and her physicians.

“Before I was in labor, I wasn’t permitted to eat. I wasn’t permitted to stand or walk around,” Stevens explained. Now that she is a birth worker, Stevens knows that she has more options than she originally thought.

Birth in Color RVA seeks to make black women feel less alone during the entire pregnancy — from beginning to childbirth.

As a birth worker, it is Stevens’ job to build a relationship with the expectant mother and to be there for her at every step during the process. Stevens’ responsibilities include advising women about breastfeeding and accompanying them to appointments with their doctors.

Stevens has a gift — and a personality — for anticipating and accommodating the needs of her clients.

“I’m incredibly nosy,” she said.

By Arianna Coghill and Kaytlin Nickens, Capital News Service. Top Photo: Jazmine Brown and her daughter Jamie Brown at 6 months. (Photo courtesy of Ms. Brown)

Health Commissioner Says Most Whites Are Unconsciously ‘Anti-Black’

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The commissioner of the Virginia Department of Health faces backlash after stating that most white people are unconsciously “pro-white” and “anti-black.”

Dr. Norman Oliver’s remarks came through a weekly message last week sent to VDH employees. Oliver, who is African-American, was addressing the controversy over the discovery of a racist photo on Gov. Ralph Northam’s page of his 1984 medical school yearbook. The picture showed a man in Ku Klux Klan garb beside another in blackface.

“Unfortunately, as I know from my own research prior to joining VDH, the majority of whites (and a number of African Americans) are implicitly, that is, unconsciously, pro-white and anti-black,” the letter stated. “We have a great challenge ahead of us to increase awareness of our unconscious racial biases and find ways to mitigate, reduce, or eliminate them.”

In a follow-up internal message this week, Oliver acknowledged that his “weekly message” sparked comments from some offended employees.

I didn’t say that all whites are racist,” Oliver wrote in the follow-up message aiming to clarify his remarks, “rather, I said that the majority of whites have an implicit or unconscious preference for whites over Blacks.

A state worker, who provided the internal messages on the condition of anonymity, said Oliver’s follow-up letter defending himself satisfied some employees but did little to ease concern from others who considered his remarks out of bounds.

In Oliver’s original letter, he drew a distinction between “anti-black” bias and racism, stating that the vast majority of whites are not explicitly racist.

“Racist and stereotype views of Black people were pervasive in the state and in the country,” the letter stated. “Moreover, the events of August 2017 in Charlottesville demonstrate that white supremacist views still hold sway among some Americans of European descent. Thankfully, only a small minority of whites hold such racist views.”

“Some employees mistakenly thought I was calling all whites racist,” Oliver said in an email to Capital News Service. “I wasn’t, and I made it clear that I was talking about unconscious biases.”

Oliver said unconscious bias is also shared by a “significant number of African-Americans.”

“What do we mean when we say someone is a racist?” Oliver wrote in his follow-up message to employees.

“Most of us mean that such a person consciously believes their racial category is superior to others. A racist actively and deliberately discriminates against members of the supposedly inferior racial categories. A racist may harbor such racial hatred that they seek to cause bodily harm to people in these other racial categories. Let’s call such racism intentional and personally mediated, that is, committed by that individual.

“The majority of whites in the Commonwealth, and in the country, do not hold such views or commit such actions. In fact, the majority of whites explicitly, that is consciously reject such racist notions.”

Oliver stated in his letter that those who are “explicitly anti-racist” but still hold “racial biases” can be led to “unintentionally discriminate against those whom they are biased against.” He pointed to studies that have found clinicians with unconscious pro-white biases are more likely to inadequately treat or manage pain among black patients who suffer heart attacks.

Before he was appointed commissioner of the Virginia Department of Health in 2018, Oliver was the chair of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.

Oliver’s research focuses on improving people’s understanding of the role of racial discrimination, bias, health injustice, and racial and ethnic health disparities, among other things.

“In the wake of the events of the last few days, I pledge that the senior leadership will work with Office of Health Equity and others to bring this discussion of race, racism, and equity to our offices and local health districts,” the initial letter said. “We will heal through having a crucial conversation about our common humanity and making a mutual commitment to racial justice.”

“In the coming weeks and months,” Oliver wrote in his most recent letter to state health workers, “we will continue our discussion about racism and what we can do as an agency to help eliminate racial inequities in health.”

By Kaytlin Nickens, Capital News Service. Photo via CNS.