Acknowledging Systemic Discrimination in the Context of a Pandemic: Advancing an Anti-Racist and Anti-Ageist Movement.

This commentary draws together the confluence of current events - COVID-19 pandemic and racial injustice. Vulnerability to COVID-19 cannot be understood by age alone but within the context of inequity. We first review how COVID-19 has disproportionately affected Black and Latinx populations across the life span with the latest data from New York City Department of Health. We then discuss critical race theory and analyze longstanding inequities in health, economic, and social conditions that heighten the risk for vulnerability. We conclude with a discussion for the social work profession on the issues of defunding the police to undoing stereotypes.

Backing the Blue in the Midst of COVID-19: Simultaneous Shared Trauma and the Effects of Coping in Law Enforcement Couples.

The impact of the novel coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, has placed a significant amount of stress on local and state law enforcement departments. In addition to responding to crimes, police officers now have additional responsibilities that include enforcing non-essential business closures, dispersing social gatherings, and maintaining order at testing sites and local hospitals, all while trying to preserve their own health. Spousal support serves a critical role in helping officers cope with occupational stressors. However, when both officer and spouse are being affected by the same traumatic event, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, this may bring additional challenges and opportunities to law enforcement couples and their mechanisms of coping. Little has been written on the effects of simultaneous shared trauma on the couple relationship. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to start a dialogue on these challenges and opportunities to serve as considerations for clinicians working with police officers and/or their spouses during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.