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U.S. NEWS Tuesday 2 February 2021

In this Jan. 9, 2021, file photo, transporters Miguel Lopez, right, Noe Meza prepare to move a body
of a COVID-19 victim to a morgue at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in the Mission Hills
This April 14, 2015 photo provided by Philip Greenberg shows section of Los Angeles.
Deborah Archer in New York. Associated Press
Associated Press
ACLU, for first time, Pandemic's deadliest month in U.S.

elects Black person ends with signs of progress

as its president By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN ID-19 deaths in any month pensed in the week and a
and MICHELLE SMITH
since the pandemic be-
half since Biden's inaugu-
Associated Press gan," said Dr. Rochelle ration has been running at
NEW YORK (AP) — Debo- tion, challenging policies PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Walensky, director of the around 1.3 million per day
rah Archer, a professor at related to immigrant rights, The deadliest month yet of Centers for Disease Control on average, well over the
New York University School voting rights, LGBT rights, ra- the coronavirus outbreak and Prevention. president's oft-stated goal
of Law with expertise in civil cial justice and other issues. in the U.S. drew to a close Deaths do not move in per- of 1 million per day. More
rights and racial justice, has The campaign against with certain signs of prog- fect lockstep up or down than 5.9 million Americans
become the first Black per- Trump's administration — ress: COVID-19 cases and with the infection curve. have received the required
son in the 101-year history promoted in a catchy "See hospitalizations are plum- They are a lagging indica- two doses, the CDC said.
of the American Civil Liber- You In Court" ad campaign meting, while vaccinations tor, because it can take a However, the CDC re-
ties Union to be elected its — fueled huge increases are picking up speed. few weeks for people to ported Monday that many
president. in donations and member- The question is whether the get sick and die from CO- nursing home workers are
The ACLU announced ship. According to Romero, nation can stay ahead of VID-19. not getting their shots when
Monday that Archer was the ACLU national office the fast-spreading muta- Dr. Philip Landrigan, an epi- doses are first offered.
elected over the weekend and its state affiliates re- tions of the virus. demiologist at Boston Col- Researchers looked at
in a virtual meeting of the ceived about $175 million The U.S. death toll has lege, said vaccines are a more than 11,000 nursing
organization's 69-member in donations in the three climbed past 440,000, factor in the sharp drop in homes and other such fa-
board of directors. She suc- months after Trump's elec- with over 95,000 lives lost cases but are not the pri- cilities that had at least one
ceeds Susan Herman, a tion, helping to finance a in January alone. Deaths mary cause. Instead, he vaccination clinic between
professor at Brooklyn Law major expansion of staff. are running at about 3,150 said, the crisis has become mid-December and mid-
School who had served as "The ACLU has proven itself per day on average, down increasingly "depoliticized" January. While 78% of resi-
president since 2008. as an invaluable voice in slightly by about 200 from in recent weeks as more dents got at least one shot,
As the ACLU's eighth presi- the fight for civil rights in the their peak in mid-January. people come to grips with only 37.5% of staff members
dent since 1920, Archer will last four years of the Trump But as the calendar turned the threat and how they did. Surveys suggest some
act as chair of its board of era, and we are better po- to February on Monday, can help slow the spread nursing home workers are
the directors, overseeing sitioned than ever to face the number of Americans of the virus. skeptical of the shots' ef-
organizational matters and the work ahead," Archer in the hospital with COV- "I don't think you can under- fectiveness and don't think
the setting of civil liberties said. ID-19 fell below 100,000 for estimate the importance of viruses spread easily from
policies. The fight against Early in her career, after the first time in two months. this culture change. I think them to the people they
racial injustice is expected graduating from Yale Law New cases of infection are it's critically important," he care for.
to be a top priority. School, she was a legal fel- averaging about 148,000 said. Three mutated variants of
The ACLU's day-to-day op- low at the ACLU in 1997-98. day, falling from almost a After a slow start, the vac- the virus from Britain, South
erations are managed by She has been a member quarter-million in mid-Janu- cination drive that began Africa and Brazil have been
its executive director — a of the ACLU's board since ary. And cases are trending in mid-December is picking detected in the U.S. The
post currently held by An- 2009, and a general coun- downward in all 50 states. up the pace. More than British one spreads more
thony Romero. sel and member of the "While the recent decline 32.2 million doses have easily and is believed to be
During former President board's executive commit- in cases and hospital ad- been administered in the deadlier, but the South Af-
Donald Trump's four years tee since 2017. missions are encouraging, U.S., according to the CDC. rica one is prompting even
in office, the ACLU filed an At NYU Law School, Archer they are counterbalanced That is up from 16.5 million more concern because of
unprecedented 413 law- is a professor of clinical by the stark reality that in on the day President Joe early indications that vac-
suits and other legal ac- law and director of its Civil January we recorded the Biden took office, Jan. 20. cines may not be as pro-
tions against his administra- Rights Clinic. q highest number of COV- The number of shots dis- tective against it.q