In 2015, Princeton economists Angus Deaton and Anne Case reported research results that took most everyone by surprise: Death rates for middle-aged white Americans were rising. The causes, they found, were suicide, alcohol-related liver disease and drug overdose – what they termed “deaths of despair.” “Only HIV/AIDS in contemporary times […]

This is part two of a two-part series exploring racism as a public health crisis in Appalachia and its compounding due to COVID-19. Read part one here.  As COVID-19 bore down on his community, Thomas Beavers recognized that primary among his responsibilities was dispelling the rumors.  Beavers is pastor of […]

Shortly after midnight on Sept. 29, Felisha Walter assumed an identity very much at odds with the fullness of her life: statistic.  Walter was a devoted mother, a chef and caterer; gracious, giving and forgiving; spiritual and kind. And when she passed away, just after her 62nd birthday, at UAB […]

When city-dwellers conjure rural America, they envision “the farmer and rancher out in western Nebraska or western Kansas,” said Alan Morgan, CEO of the National Rural Health Association.  “Those guys pioneered the concept of social isolation; they’ve got social distancing down.” Morgan was speaking at the Rural Assembly Everywhere, a […]

In late July, having just completed a summer fellowship at a community health center in eastern North Carolina, Sam Lidsky was preparing to enter medical school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, Lidsky, 23, has taken considerable precautions in both his private […]