- New nasal spray to reverse fentanyl and other opioid overdoses gets FDA approval Yahoo! Voices
- Decision made on RX nasal spray for opioid overdoses WJW FOX 8 News Cleveland
- New overdose antidote approved, but concerns raised about cost, side effects The Washington Post
- Indivior’s Opvee crosses FDA finish line, adding new overdose rescue option amid raging opioid epidemic FiercePharma
- Braeburn’s BRIXADI™ (buprenorphine) Extended-Release Subcutaneous Injection (CIII) Receives FDA Approval for Moderate to Severe Opioid Use Disorder PR Newswire
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Tag Archives: Spray
Former San Francisco city official attacked homeless person with bear spray minutes prior to metal pipe attack, public defender says – CNN
- Former San Francisco city official attacked homeless person with bear spray minutes prior to metal pipe attack, public defender says CNN
- Attorney says man charged with beating former San Francisco commissioner was defending himself CBS Mornings
- New questions and confusion surround San Francisco pipe attack as alleged victim suddenly becomes accused Fox News
- Public Defender calls on DA to drop charges in fire commissioner assault case – 48 hills 48 Hills
- Former SF fire commissioner attacked with pipe accused of violence against homeless people KTVU FOX 2 San Francisco
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Former SF fire commissioner attacked with pipe accused of using bear spray on homeless people – KTVU FOX 2 San Francisco
- Former SF fire commissioner attacked with pipe accused of using bear spray on homeless people KTVU FOX 2 San Francisco
- New questions and confusion surround San Francisco pipe attack as alleged victim suddenly becomes accused Fox News
- Attorney says man charged with beating former San Francisco commissioner was defending himself CBS Mornings
- Suspect Garret Allen Doty acted in self-defense in attack on former San Francisco fire commissioner Don Carmignani, attorney says KGO-TV
- Former SF fire commissioner attacked with pipe accused of violence against homeless people KTVU FOX 2 San Francisco
Ex-San Francisco fire commissioner attacked homeless people with bear spray, attorneys say – KRON4
- Ex-San Francisco fire commissioner attacked homeless people with bear spray, attorneys say KRON4
- San Francisco Drops Case against Homeless Man Who Beat Former City Official with a Crowbar Yahoo News
- Charges may be dropped in brutal attack on former San Francisco Fire Commissioner in Marina District KPIX | CBS NEWS BAY AREA
- SF D.A. to drop charges against man arrested for former fire commissioner’s beating, attorney says KTVU FOX 2 San Francisco
- Ex-San Francisco official hospitalized in pipe beatdown says charges to be dropped against homeless suspect Fox News
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Could a nose spray a day keep COVID away?
During the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, Anne Moscona didn’t feel safe going to a restaurant or catching a flight. And she wished she could feel confident that she could see her immunocompromised relatives without inadvertently spreading the novel coronavirus to them. All this made her work personal: for the last decade, Moscona, a molecular virologist, had been hunting for compounds that could stop viruses in their tracks, before the pathogens infect even a single cell in a person’s body.
Now Moscona, at Columbia University in New York City, and her colleagues have homed in on a compound that might foil SARS-CoV-2. Even better, it’s simply sprayed up the nose — no needle required1.
The spritz developed by Moscona’s team is one of a raft of proposed nasal sprays to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection. The sprays would be fast-acting and would be applied frequently, perhaps once or twice a day, to the site where the virus first takes hold — the nasal lining and throat. Unlike vaccines, which train the recipient’s immune system to build long-lasting protection, the sprays are short-lived compounds that would directly block the virus’s ability to enter cells. Multiple research teams have shown that such sprays are effective at warding off SARS-CoV-2 infection in animals.
Fourth dose of COVID vaccine offers only slight boost against Omicron infection
If effective in humans, these compounds would be a welcome addition to the limited arsenal that researchers have developed against the virus, says Donna Farber, an immunologist at Columbia University in New York City. Vaccines protect against severe COVID-19, but they’re less adept at preventing infection, and current antivirals treat infection rather than preventing it. The sprays could offer people another way to avoid infection on top of — or instead of — wearing a face mask, especially in high-risk settings such as hospitals and restaurants. “They’re definitely worth pursuing in a big way,” she says.
Despite their promise, these sprays have a long way to go: Funding and interest from pharmaceutical firms for human trials has been limited, in part because trials to determine efficacy for prophylactics are large and expensive, says Moscona. And the sprays must achieve the difficult task of coating any surface to which a virus might attach, because once a viral particles enter even a few cells, a full-scale infection can progress rapidly.
Viral blockade
The effort to develop prophylactic treatments against viruses long predates COVID-19, says Wendy Barclay, a virologist at Imperial College London. Such research has paid off with a range of medications taken by mouth, including oseltamivir (Tamiflu), which protects against influenza infection, and tenofovir–emtricitabine, which prevents HIV infection. But, Barclay says, there are no prophylactic nasal sprays except First Defence, which is designed to act as a physical barrier against common-cold virus particles.
Prophylactic sprays have a simpler job than conventional antivirals, such as Paxlovid, that are used in the first days of an infection: preventing a single virus particle from infecting a cell is a “much easier ask than counteracting the effects of millions of viral particles” days after infection, Barclay says.
Researchers have been testing many types of compounds in nasal sprays to thwart SARS-CoV-2 infection. Among them are small antibody-like molecules called nanobodies, which disarm the virus by nestling into the nooks and crannies of viral proteins; short chains of amino acids called peptides; and small molecules that mimic proteins.
Why scientists are racing to develop more COVID antivirals
The prophylactic developed by Moscona and her colleagues, for example, is a peptide that gums up the virus’s machinery for fusing with a host cell. This prevents the virus from delivering its genetic payload into the cell, thus blocking infection.
To test their peptide, Moscona and her colleagues administered it into the noses of ferrets once daily for two days and co-housed the treated animals with another ferret that was infected with SARS-CoV-2. None of the six ferrets that received the peptide became infected with the virus, while all six ferrets that received a placebo dose did1. Before testing the peptide in humans, Moscona wants to replicate these results in another animal model, such as mice.
Another nasal-spray compound, developed by Richard Leduc, a molecular pharmacologist at the University of Sherbrooke in Canada, and his colleagues is a small molecule that inhibits a host enzyme needed by viral particles to fuse with a target cell. Leduc and his colleagues found that mice given nasal doses of the compound became infected with the coronavirus, but they had much less virus in their lungs than did mice that received only saline2. Leduc and his colleagues are working to increase the peptide’s effectiveness by making it more stable and selective before moving on to testing it humans. Both Leduc and Moscona are working with companies to bring their products to market.
The runny-nose challenge
Even if researchers find an antiviral compound that can be delivered as a nasal spray and prevents coronavirus infections in humans, they still face the challenge of ensuring that the compound stays in the nasal lining long enough to be consistently effective. “Your nose and throat are inherently designed to get rid of things,” Barclay says. “You try putting something in there, and your nose runs and flushes it out.”
Researchers could counteract this by designing the sprays to be reapplied more frequently, but Barclay cautions that the more often that people have to take a medicine, the less likely they are to adhere to the regimen. And even though the bulk of SARS-CoV-2 infections start in the nose, it might be necessary for a prophylactic to coat the mouth and throat and even the lungs, which would require delivery through a nebulizer.
Still, such a spray would be an important advance, especially in places where few people wear face masks, says Barclay. “If we had something which was invisible and you self-administered and it gave you confidence to keep going, I think it would be a real game-changer,” she says. “We could keep kids in school.”
NYC subway crime: Straphangers flee train after passenger uses pepper spray in fight at Union Square
UNION SQUARE, Manhattan (WABC) — Train service has resumed after pepper spray was used during a fight on a subway car at the Union Square station.
The incident was reported Friday morning around 10 a.m.
Police say the incident caused passengers to try to flee the train and the station.
Police say a 77-year-old male was sitting on a southbound R train when he was pepper sprayed during an unprovoked attack.
The suspect, a male, then fled from the station.
The victim was taken to Bellevue Hospital where he’s expected to survive.
No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
MTA Spokesman Michael Cortez released the following statement:
“Following a short suspension of service on lines serving Union Square due to FDNY and NYPD response at that station, regular service has resumed. The cause of the incident leading to that response appears isolated.”
ALSO READ | Man dies after being stabbed in unprovoked subway attack in New York City
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Peptide Delivered by Nasal Spray Can Reduce Seizure Activity and Protect Neurons in Alzheimer’s and Epilepsy
Summary: A1R-CT, a novel peptide that binds to neurabin, can be administered via a nasal spray and holds the potential to interrupt uncontrollable brain activity associated with TBI, stroke, epilepsy, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Source: Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University
A novel peptide augments the brain’s natural mechanism to help prevent seizures and protect neurons in research models of both Alzheimer’s and epilepsy, scientists report.
The A1R-CT peptide the scientists developed, which can be administered through a nasal spray, holds promise for tamping down the uncontrolled electrical activity that is common after traumatic brain injury, stroke and which affects more than half of individuals with Alzheimer’s, says Dr. Qin Wang, neuropharmacologist and founding director of the Program for Alzheimer’s Therapeutics Discovery at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University.
The fact that it can be delivered through the nose indicates the peptide’s potential as a new seizure rescue medication as well, to help interrupt, for example, a seizure cluster, where disabling seizures are occurring back-to- back, says Wang, corresponding author of the study in the journal JCI Insight.
A1R-CT works by inhibiting neurabin, a protein that helps ensure that the protective mechanism itself, which tamps down the hyperexcitability of neurons that disrupts normal communication and produces seizures, doesn’t overdo, she says.
The peptide was named after the protective adenosine 1 receptor on the surface of neurons, which gets activated by adenosine, a chemical made mostly in the brain by neuron-supporting glial cells in response to hyperexcitability.
“This is a powerful receptor to then silence the neurons,” Wang says. This natural, calming relationship also is known to block electrical activity that can result in an irregular heartbeat. In fact, an injectable form of adenosine is used to treat a very high heart rate.
“But the A1 receptor itself has to be regulated because if it’s activated too much, you will fall asleep,” says Wang. “The neurons try to make sure everything stays in control and in most of us, it works pretty well. We don’t fall asleep at our desk. We don’t have seizures,” she says, noting that caffeine blocks the A1 receptor.
Alzheimer’s often is accompanied by seizures because the characteristic buildup of the proteins amyloid and tau in the brain disrupts communication between neurons, creates increased oxidative stress and resulting inflammation, and in response to the altered dynamic, neurons can become hyperexcited, she says.
“In Alzheimer’s there are so many things that go wrong,” she says. Seizures can precede the cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s, and definitely contribute to it, Wang says.
A1 receptor’s activation by adenosine in this type of hyperactive scenario makes it seem like a logical treatment target for seizures. But the fact that it is so pervasive throughout the body, including in the heart, lungs and kidneys, makes potential extensive side effects likely.
Back to neurons’ desire for homeostasis, Wang and her colleagues were the ones who found that the protein neurabin, which appears to be primarily present in the brain, provides that balance to prevent hyperactivity of the A1 receptor.
The fact neurabin is primarily in the brain, means that altering its activity should not have the potential body-wide impact of directly altering A1 receptor activity, Wang says.
“Neurabin is a brake so it doesn’t do too much,” Wang says. “But now we need to remove it to unleash A1’s power.”
So, they set to work developing the peptide that could instead interfere with the A1 receptor and neurabin’s interaction and so enable more of the natural protective, seizure-reducing benefit.
A1 receptor activation tamps down the excited state of the neurons by modulating ion channels — proteins in the cell membrane that allow passage through the cell of other proteins — which help generate electrical signals.
A result is so-called hyperpolarization, which means the neuron is less likely to fire an electrical signal.
“The more polarized the neurons are, the harder it is for them to get excited,” Wang says.
A1 receptor activation also decreases the release of glutamate, a neurotransmitter produced by neurons that excites neurons. It also provides additional benefit to neurons by providing some protection from inadequate oxygen and blood supplies, which may occur in the case of an injury. The scientists have noted a dramatic reduction in death of neurons in their Alzheimer’s model, for example, with the use of their peptide.
Now they’ve shown that inhibiting neurabin — either by reducing it directly or with their peptide — enables increased action by A1C to reduce excessive electrical activity in the brain. They’ve shown the peptide is effective in both a mouse model of severe seizures and seizures in an Alzheimer’s mouse model. And It’s effective when directly injected into the brain or via nasal spray.
The scientists opted to look at nasal spray delivery to fully explore the peptide’s potential clinical benefit. They found a similar robust response in both the seizure and Alzheimer’s models.
Looking further at the impact of targeting neurabin, they found that mice with a neurabin deficiency had significantly shorter, less severe seizures and they all survived. Those with the normal neurabin levels intact experienced seizures lasting for up to 30 minutes and about 10% of the mice died shortly afterward.
Blocking A1 receptor resulted in more severe seizures in the neurabin-deficient mice and increased the death rate to more than 50%.
Next steps include additional exploration of ideal doses and delivery times for specific conditions the peptide may be used to treat.
The scientific team also continues to tweak the peptide to ensure it functions optimally, and is pursuing funding needed to pursue clinical trials.
Wang, a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar, came to MCG in April 2021 from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she began the studies of A1 receptor and peptide development. She continues extensive collaboration with her colleagues at UAB on the studies who are coauthors on the new paper. First author Dr. Shalini Saggu is now also a faculty member in the MCG Department of Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine.
Epileptic seizures are common after a traumatic brain injury; a stroke, which is considered an acquired brain injury; and with chronic neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s.
See also
As much as 64% of the some 50 million individuals with Alzheimer’s experience seizures, the scientists write. Patients can experience generalized tonic-clonic seizures, in which they fall down, shake and become unresponsive. Also, focal onset seizure, which tend to be shorter and may include repetitive movement of the arms or legs, lip smacking and chewing.
Seizures are uncontrolled in about 40% of people, which indicates an urgent need for novel therapies, the scientists write, and current therapies tend to be less effective in individuals with Alzheimer’s. Left uncontrolled, seizures can produce brain damage and cognitive impairment.
Adenosine also is a building block of our DNA and a component of the cell fuel ATP.
Funding: The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health.
About this neuropharmacology research news
Author: Toni Baker
Source: Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University
Contact: Toni Baker – Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University
Image: The image is in the public domain
Original Research: Open access.
“A peptide blocking the ADORA1-neurabin interaction is anticonvulsant and inhibits epilepsy in an Alzheimer’s model” by Qin Wang et al. JCI Insights
Abstract
A peptide blocking the ADORA1-neurabin interaction is anticonvulsant and inhibits epilepsy in an Alzheimer’s model
Epileptic seizures are common sequelae of stroke, acute brain injury, and chronic neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and cannot be effectively controlled in approximately 40% of patients, necessitating the development of novel therapeutic agents.
Activation of the A1 receptor (A1R) by endogenous adenosine is an intrinsic mechanism to self-terminate seizures and protect neurons from excitotoxicity. However, targeting A1R for neurological disorders has been hindered by side effects associated with its broad expression outside the nervous system.
Here we aim to target the neural-specific A1R/neurabin/regulator of G protein signaling 4 (A1R/neurabin/RGS4) complex that dictates A1R signaling strength and response outcome in the brain. We developed a peptide that blocks the A1R-neurabin interaction to enhance A1R activity. Intracerebroventricular or i.n. administration of this peptide shows marked protection against kainate-induced seizures and neuronal death.
Furthermore, in an AD mouse model with spontaneous seizures, nasal delivery of this blocking peptide reduces epileptic spike frequency. Significantly, the anticonvulsant and neuroprotective effects of this peptide are achieved through enhanced A1R function in response to endogenous adenosine in the brain, thus, avoiding side effects associated with A1R activation in peripheral tissues and organs.
Our study informs potentially new anti-seizure therapy applicable to epilepsy and other neurological illness with comorbid seizures.
New tragic details of US child who died from tropical bacteria in room spray
Enlarge / Burkholderia pseudomallei grown on sheep blood agar for 24 hours. B. pseudomallei is a Gram-negative aerobic bacteria, and it’s the causative agent of melioidosis.
The fourth person affected by a bacterial outbreak linked to imported aromatherapy room sprays sold at Walmart last year occurred in a previously healthy 5-year-old boy in Georgia, who died of the infection. That’s according to new information presented Tuesday at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases (ICEID), hosted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
The tragic new details of the boy’s cases—presented by epidemiologist Jessica Pavlick of the Georgia Department of Public Health—have newfound significance for the US. In the year since the boy’s death, the tropical soil bacterium behind his deadly infection has been found in environmental samples in southern Mississippi. The bacterium—Burkholderia pseudomallei—is now considered endemic to the Gulf Coast region, creating an ever-present threat to people in the area.
Tragic infection
For years, CDC researchers have suspected that B. pseudomallei could already be lurking in soil and water in the continental US, rather than being brought in via imported animals and products (like the room sprays), as well as travelers and migrants. In recent years, the US has averaged about 12 cases of B. pseudomallei infection, which causes a disease called melioidosis.
Most of the cases are linked to travel, but not all of them, leading CDC researchers to speculate that B. pseudomallei had become a permanent resident rather than an occasional interloper. It wasn’t until an unexplained case in southern Mississippi in 2022—which occurred just miles away from another mysterious case from 2020—that investigators finally caught B. pseudomallei in US environmental samples.
Though melioidosis cases are rare even in places where B. pseudomallei is most prevalent—namely in Southeast Asia and northern Australia—when they occur, they can be difficult to diagnose and treat, and it can easily turn deadly. Awareness of the disease and rapid diagnosis are critical. This was sadly not the case for the 5-year-old in Georgia.
The boy fell ill in July 2021. At that point, the CDC has already issued a nationwide alert on June 30 over three other melioidosis cases in three other states: Kansas, Minnesota, and Texas. Despite the scattered cases, genetic analyses of the B. pseudomallei isolates indicated that they were all connected and that the strain traced back to those found in India and Sri Lanka.
The first case occurred in March 2021 in an adult in Kansas who died of the infection. The two other cases occurred in May: an adult in Minnesota who survived and a 4-year-old girl in Texas who was left with brain damage. Though state and CDC health investigators knew the cases were connected and that an imported product or animal was likely to blame, they had yet to figure out a common source. According to Pavlick’s presentation Tuesday, the boys’ tragic death in Georgia would reveal the answer.
Pavlick laid out the boy’s case and the aftermath. On July 7, a week after the CDC’s melioidosis alert, the boy started feeling ill with fever, weakness, sore throat, nausea, and vomiting. Pavlick noted that he had no underlying health conditions and was previously considered healthy. By July 12, the boy was taken to a local emergency department and admitted to the hospital, where he tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, which may have obscured his melioidosis. The next day, he was transferred to a children’s hospital out of concern for respiratory failure. There, he was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit. The next day, July 14, he was intubated. He became weaker and, on July 16, rapidly deteriorated and died.
Testing
A week later, post-mortem testing conducted by the hospital laboratory first indicated a B. pseudomallei infection. The bacterium was found in the boy’s brain, lung, liver, and spleen. The state health department designated it a presumptive case on July 26, and the CDC confirmed melioidosis and its link to the other three cases on July 29, Pavlick said.
As Ars has reported previously, melioidosis has been described as the “great mimicker” because its symptoms can be various, vague, and similar to other serious conditions, such as tuberculosis. The bacteria can establish an infection through various routes, allowing for wide-ranging presentations. People can be infected if they ingest soil, water, or food that contains the bacteria; if they breathe in contaminated dust or water droplets; or if soil or water harboring the germ comes in contact with a break in the skin.
B. pseudomallei is also resistant to many common antibiotics, and delayed treatment can allow the bacteria to spread further in the body, leading to a deadly disseminated infection, like the one seen in the boy.
After the boy’s death, his family allowed state and CDC investigators to test family members, environmental samples, and household products to try to figure out how the boy had picked up the deadly bacteria. Testing found that two of four family members had antibodies against B. pseudomallei, suggesting past exposure. On August 10, investigators collected 55 household product samples and 38 environmental samples from around the family’s large, rural property. All tested negative for B. pseudomallei. On October 6, the family agreed to let the investigators come back, at which point the investigators tested nine more environmental samples and 14 more household products.
One of those second-round products was a Better Homes & Gardens Lavender & Chamomile Essential Oil Infused Aromatherapy Room Spray with Gemstones, which was made in India and tested positive for B. pseudomallei. On October 26, the CDC confirmed the finding and announced that the spray was the source of the bacterial strain in all four melioidosis cases.
Next era of COVID protection could come in form of pill or spray
MIAMI – The latest COVID-19 variants are taking their toll on the United States as medical researchers eye the next generation of protection.
BA.4 and BA.5 are said to spread more easily and evade prior immunity.
“I’ve been telling folks that it feels a little bit like we’re in a no man’s land of COVID,” said Dr. Megan Ranney, Brown University’s associate dean of public health.
Hospitalizations and deaths are rising, but not yet to the peaks we’ve seen in past surges. Health officials say it’s because of COVID-19 vaccines. The next era of protection could come in the form of a pill or spray.
“Those are in pre-human trials or in very small phase one human trials,” said Dr. Ranney.
Both will need to go through more rigorous, larger scale testing before even trying to get FDA authorization.
But some medical researchers say delivering vaccines via tablets or nasal sprays would deploy more immune defenders to the lining of the mouth, nose and throat, making the virus less able to replicate. That could slow the development of new coronavirus variants and finally bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control.
However, there are hurdles.
“We have a ways to go still. In a best-case scenario, months, but if we don’t see more money coming, it could be much longer than that,” explained Dr. Ranney.
For now, health officials and experts continue to urge vaccination and boosters for those eligible.
There’s also now a fourth coronavirus vaccine available in the U.S. On Tuesday, the CDC signed off on Novavax’s protein-based COVID-19 vaccine as a two-dose primary series in adults.
NYPD arrests Madeline Barker after anti-Asian pepper spray assault
The victims told ABC7 New York that they were walking in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District at about 6 p.m. on June 11 when a woman accused them of harassing her. The victims said they had no prior interactions with the woman, but they tried to calm her down by apologizing to her. In response, the assailant pulled out a can of pepper spray and yelled at them, “Go back to where you came from, you don’t belong here,” one victim told ABC7.
She sprayed four women with pepper solution and yelled at an Asian man passing on the sidewalk to take the women “back to where you came from,” using an expletive, a police spokesperson told CNN.
The victims declined medical attention at the scene, police said.
Video obtained by the New York Post shows a woman, dressed in bright fuchsia, run after a woman and pepper-spray her from behind as she walks away.
The NYPD’s hate crimes task force released photos of the woman in fuchsia last week, then tweeted that it had made an arrest “thanks to help from everyday New Yorkers.”
Barker, of Merritt Island, Fla., was arraigned Saturday on three counts of assault as a hate crime, one count of attempted assault as a hate crime, and four counts of aggravated harassment, according to a criminal complaint filed by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. When shown a still image from the video, Barker admitted to being the woman in the incident, according to the complaint.
Barker was being held on $20,000 bail Sunday afternoon, jail records show, and her next court appearance was scheduled for Thursday.
Her public defender did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday afternoon.
Hate crimes against Asian Americans have risen precipitously since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. In New York, anti-Asian hate crimes jumped 357 percent between 2020 and 2021, according to the NYPD.
Despite legislative efforts to step up investigations of hate crimes, the violence has not abated in 2022. This year, two high-profile killings of Asian American women in New York City have rattled Asian communities there.
In January, Michelle Alyssa Go, 40, was shoved onto the subway tracks at the Times Square station.
In February, a man pursued Christina Yuna Lee, 35, into her Manhattan apartment and fatally stabbed her.
Later that month, a man allegedly assaulted seven Asian women in two hours along a 30-block stretch in Manhattan. He was indicted on 13 hate crimes charges.
The K-pop group BTS appeared at the White House last month to raise awareness about the surge in anti-Asian hate crimes, which have particularly targeted women and the elderly.
Amanda Nguyen, CEO of the civil rights nonprofit Rise, told The Washington Post Live in March that the “intersection of race and gender is one that we cannot overlook.”
“Unfortunately, these acts of violence that have been targeted toward the Asian American community, especially women, have existed pre-covid,” she said. “The pandemic absolutely exacerbated these issues, especially when we had leaders saying things like ‘China virus’ or ‘China flu.’”