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Pandemic diseases have a nasty history of racialization. COVID-19 is no exception. Beyond the obvious racist invocations of the 'China virus' or the 'Wuhan Flu' are subtler racializing dynamics that are often veiled in more benign motives but are nonetheless deeply problematic. The racialization of COVID-19 proceeded along two distinct trajectories each of which threatened to reinforce inaccurate biologized conceptions of race while diverting attention from the social, legal, and political forces historically structuring race-based health disparities. First, early on as significant racial disparities in disease incidence and mortality became evident, a frame of race-based genetic difference came to the fore as a possible explanation. Second, as vaccine development ramped up there came widespread calls for racially 'diversifying' clinical trials for the vaccines being tested. The rationales for such diversification were varied but tended to reinforce genetic frames of racial difference. Most common was the assertion (without substantial evidence) that vaccines might work differently in Black or Brown bodies and so racial diversity in trials was imperative for reasons of safety and efficacy. Derrick Bell cautioned 20 years ago that 'the concept of diversity ... is a serious distraction in the ongoing efforts to achieve racial justice.' (Derrick Bell, Diversity's Distractions, 103 Colum. L. Rev. 1622, 1622 (2003).) This article explores the dynamics of how the concept of 'diversity' racialized responses to COVID-19 and considers their broader implications for understanding and responding to racial disparities in the face of pandemic emergencies and beyond. in the short term, vaccine developers did a decent job of enrolling minorities in their clinical trials and the vaccines have proven to have the same safety and efficacy across races. In the long term, diversity in the biomedical context of pandemic response not only distracts attention from important structural causes of health injustice, but it also focuses attention on the genetics of disparities in a manner that has the potential to reinforce pernicious and false ideas of essential biological difference among racial groups. This article argues that an uncritical embrace of the idea of diversity in analyzing and responding to emergent health crises has the potential to distract us from considering deeper historical and structural formations contributing to racial health disparities. It proceeds first by exploring the dynamics through which initial responses to racial disparities in COVID-19 became geneticized. It will then move on to unpack the rationales for such racialization, examine their merits (or lack thereof), and consider their implications for developing an equitable response to pandemic emergencies. The next section will examine the subsequent racialization of clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccines through the concept of 'diversity.' It then moves on to explore how the geneticization of COVID-19 racial disparities laid the foundations for a similar geneticization of race in vaccine development. It will argue that in failing to clearly distinguish social and biological rationales for diversity, such framings, while generally well-intentioned, are poorly supported and work in tandem with the geneticization of racial disparities in COVID-19 morbidity and mortality to locate the causes of disparities in the minds and bodies of minoritized populations; again this distracts attention from the historical and structural forces contributing to such disparities. The article concludes by recognizing a certain intractability to the problems of using race in biomedical research and practice, particularly in the context of public health emergencies. It offers modest suggestions for improvement that could have significant practical effects if taken to heart by researchers, clinicians, and policy makers., CONTENTS ABSTRACT CONTENTS INTRODUCTION I. GENETICIZING RACIAL IMPACT A. Unpacking the Geneticization of Racial Disparities in COVID-19 II. THE RACIALIZATION OF VACCINE TRIALS III. UNPACKING THE BIOLOGICAL RATIONALES FOR DIVERSE [...]

It's hard to believe all that our talented ABA Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources (SEER) colleagues have accomplished! Here we are, halfway through the ABA year. SEER members led the ABA Delegation to COP27, at which ABA, led by its SEER members, cohosted a half day program on "The Role of Lawyers, Bars and Law Societies in the Climate Crisis.". [Extracted from the article]

Each of these chairs and editors will be looking for vice chairs, board members, and committee and task force members. I can't believe I am two thirds of the way through my year as Section chair but indeed I am; this is evidenced by the fact that our wonderful chair-elect, Jeff Dennis, has begun to think about leadership appointments for his year. Jeff has dozens and dozens of appointments to make--substantive committee chairs, council-related committee chairs, editors for our various publications, and chairs of our various conference planning committees. [Extracted from the article]

People join the ABA Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources (SEER) for a variety of reasons. Bulletins and notices of new initiatives, developments, and opportunities get posted to the committee page on the ABA Communities platform ABA Communities is an online platform specifically designed to improve communication and collaboration. Committees hold regular non-CLE programming (Community Conversations) to keep their members up to date on recent developments. [Extracted from the article]