Arianna Mbunwe, a 20-year-old African-American University of Georgia student who used her Twitter account to expose pandemic violations at the school, is receiving racist and sexist backlash from Greek organizations on campus, some in a group chat and others on social media.
Mbunwe tweeted her encounters as well as those from other students, including images of mask-less sorority members at a date night mixer, to bring attention to the issue.
The University of Georgia issued a statement over the weekend saying, “Such statements of bigotry and intolerance do not have any place on our campus, and we condemn them in the strongest terms.”
In early September, UGA reported almost 2,600 total cases of coronavirus infections since mid-August. Despite the infections, the university has continued in-person classes.
The school made national headlines last week for announcing that it would not host any on-campus voting sites, citing the risk of spreading coronavirus during in-person voting. However, thousands of its students will be allowed to attend football games in the fall. After much backlash, the university has reversed its decision on allowing in-person voting on campus.
“I was disappointed but I wasn’t surprised,” Mbunwe said about the racist posts in an interview with WGCL. “UGA has a history of having a lot of racial discrimination. In the past 3 years that I’ve been here, every semester there has been an incident.”
Mbunwe has demanded a personal apology from the university, the school’s Interfraternity Council and the national and UGA chapters of Lambda Chi Alpha. She is also calling for the expulsion of the students in the chat.
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In-person learning at a Massachusetts High School has been delayed after at least 50 high school students attended a party hosted by a teen and the teen’s parents in the basement of their home. The parents and child are facing fines and possible jail time for the party, which ignored social distancing and mask guidelines issued by the town’s board of health.
“There are no known positive COVID cases involving these students at the time of this release. Due to lack of information of who attended the event and the inability to consult directly with those students, the risk to the school community cannot be adequately assessed,” the Sudbury Board of Health said in a news release.
Police said in a statement that open containers of alcohol were also found in the back yard of the residence.
The Food and Drug Administration is considering new rules for authorization for a coronavirus vaccine that could push an authorization beyond Election Day, according to three sources familiar with the process. Sources say potential scenarios giving vaccine authorization to a pharmaceutical company will be Thanksgiving Day, at the earliest.
Trump, who called America’s Covid-19 death toll of 200,000 “a shame”, has said repeatedly the vaccine could be ready by November 3.
Johnson & Johnson has begun the world’s largest coronavirus vaccine studies. The study, which includes 60,000 volunteers in eight countries, including the U.S., hopes to discover if a single-dose COVID-19 vaccine can protect individuals against the virus.
U.S. health officials insist that safety is a priority in the race for a cure for the pandemic.
Upon hearing the news of the study on Wednesday, Trump tweeted the link to the Johnson & Johnson announcement, adding the FDA “must move quickly!”
Health experts are warning citizens of the dangers of indoor winter gatherings, saying they could be “extremely dangerous.”
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As Halloween approaches, the CDC has released guidance discouraging traditional trick-or-treating activities to slow the spread of the coronavirus. High-risk activities include door-to-door trick-or-treating, indoor costume parties, indoor haunted houses and haunted hayrides with strangers.
Earlier this month, Los Angeles County announced it would ban traditional trick-or-treating, but reversed its decision, instead warning against the activity but not outright banning it.
Retailer Ralph Lauren announced it will lay off 3,600 workers as it struggles with falling sales due to the pandemic. The company said it will let go 15% of its global workforce as part of a broad reorganization, reducing costs by $180 million to $200 million.
After receiving $600,000 in loans through the Paycheck Protection Program, convicted bank robber Michael Moller was caught by federal prosecutors. Moller gambled away $30,000 of the loan money in Las Vegas.
The Rhode Island man applied for $4.7 million in loans to pay employees at businesses he said he owned in Massachusetts. There was no evidence those businesses existed, authorities said.
