Here are the stories on Texas Standard for Monday, June 20, 2022:
Finally: FDA authorizes COVID vaccines for children under 5
Babies as young as 6 months old are now eligible for the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID vaccines, after the federal Food and Drug Administration approved their use for children Friday. Dr. Jeffery Kahn, chief of infectious diseases at Children’s Medical Center and professor of pediatrics at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, joins us with more.
What Texas Republicans prioritized at their 2022 convention
The Texas Republican Party just wrapped up its convention – an event that offers insight into how the GOP plans to push forward in the midterms and its priorities for the coming legislative session. The Texas Newsroom’s Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, who covered the convention, joins us with an overview.
Religious freedom or ‘life safety?’ Clash over Dallas apartment complexes lands in federal court
The owner of two apartment complexes in Dallas’ Vickery Meadow neighborhood alleges the City of Dallas is targeting him – and his refugee tenants – to rid the property of religious organizations and community prayer. Attorneys for the city paint a very different picture: They say their demands for repairs and permits are aimed at the health and safety of tenants. KERA’s Bret Jaspers reports on the ongoing legal battle.
Fighting stigmas and regulations, the VA is giving clean needles to veterans who use illegal drugs
Needle exchange programs have been common in other healthcare settings for decades; the idea is to help prevent illnesses that can spread from drug use. Now VA hospitals are rolling out a needle exchange program – slowly. Stephanie Colombini reports for the American Homefront Project.
Study seeks the best ways to reach vaccine-hesitant Hispanics
Hispanics have made up a disproportionate level of COVID deaths in Texas, comprising 41 percent of statewide deaths. Hispanics overall are almost twice as likely to contract COVID than the non-Hispanic white population. Still, about 35 percent of Texas Hispanics have yet to get a single dose of a vaccine. A new project from researchers at Texas State University studied the most effective ways to reach the population; public relations professor Jennifer Scharlach led the study and joins us today.
Why Freddy Fender belongs in the Country Music Hall of Fame
Created in 1961, the Country Music Hall of Fame currently has 146 members – and it wasn’t until 2000 that Charlie Pride became the first African American to be inducted. But to date, there are no Hispanic members in the hall of fame. Singer and Tejano music archivist Veronique Medrano calls that a huge oversight, and shares her pick for the perfect candidate.
Commentary: Now all Americans can learn what Emancipation Day has always meant to Black Texans
For only the second time in American history, Juneteenth is being recognized as a federal holiday. The designation signed last year by President Joe Biden invites all Americans to recognize the moment when the end of slavery came to Texas, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Texas Standard commentator Peniel Joseph says the act of nationalizing the holiday celebrated by many Black Americans for more than a century and a half underscores the progress and perils of the struggle for racial justice.
All this, plus the Texas Newsroom’s state roundup and Wells Dunbar with the Talk of Texas.
