Commentary
A “new normal” for commuting?
People are driving a lot less in Ohio these days. A report from the Ohio Department of Transportation suggested there have been a little more than half as many cars on the road as usual statewide since implementation of strict social distancing measures in March. This is good for many Ohioans, and not just because […]
What will our social compact look like in the wake of COVID-19?
In 2019, more than 1.6 million different Ohioans needed help from a charitable food pantry because they couldn’t meet their nutritional needs without it. They were 82-year-old widowers scraping by on Social Security benefits. They were working parents with children who cobbled together a couple of important, but underpaid, jobs in food service or home […]
Some Republican legislators need to grow up, stop stoking anger and peddling misinformation
This past week we’ve seen Americans at a fever pitch over stay-at-home orders imposed to save lives during the coronavirus pandemic. We’ve seen men armed with semi-automatic rifles in militia cosplay storm the Michigan Statehouse, screaming in the faces of the police officers preventing them from entering the Michigan House of Representatives. We’ve seen unhinged […]
Dr. Birx’s decision: protecting American lives or protecting the president
Dr. Harold Bornstein should have been our first clue that President Donald Trump might not fully respect what physicians do. Yet, here we are, on the cusp of a risky “reopening” of our country’s social and economic life, hoping that physicians and scientists are driving federal policy. Among other things, Trump has used his daily […]
The risk/reward tightrope of opening Ohio
Today, non-emergency medical procedures become allowable under Ohio’s adjusted stay-at-home order. This will be the first of many steps to lift social distancing restrictions and create a new normal for life in the state of Ohio. On Monday, construction, manufacturing, and distribution operations will resume. On May 12, retailers and service companies will be allowed […]
What’s good for people is good for the economy; Ohio policymakers must help
Our health depends on the health of the people near us, and the people near them. Gov. Mike DeWine’s social distancing orders have saved lives by slowing the spread of COVID-19. Ohioans have pulled through by pulling together. Now we need our statehouse leaders to put people first: Let public health experts, not politics, guide […]
COVID-19 only underscores ACLU’s longstanding fight for society’s most vulnerable
As history painfully reminds us, during times of social uncertainty, political opportunism often leads to attacks on our civil liberties. At the ACLU of Ohio, we don’t choose between protecting people’s lives and safeguarding democracy. We can do both at the same time. Our organization’s priority work has long been about standing up for our […]
The human cost of political retribution as policy during a public health crisis
Much of the presidency of Donald Trump has been marked by his systematic dismantling, or attempted dismantling of the work of President Barack Obama. Trump rose to to right-wing prominence starting in 2011 by repeatedly leveling racist, false accusations that Obama was a Kenyan-born Islamic usurper. The trajectory of this line of attack eventually won […]
Our COVID-19 decisions are self-correcting but at a high price
The peaking of the numbers of new COVID-19 cases in many regions has led some political and business leaders to call for relaxation of social isolation restrictions. But this pandemic has repeatedly forced us to correct our decision making. Both China and the US decided initially to downplay the threat but later had to institute […]
What you should know about changes to unemployment compensation during the pandemic
Both the state and federal government have announced changes to unemployment benefits in response to COVID-19. These include eliminating the usual waiting period for benefits, reducing job search requirements for applicants and clarifying the availability of benefits for workers who have been ordered to stay home. Ohio is still in the process of putting new […]
How the rich reacted to the bubonic plague has eerie similarities to today’s pandemic
The coronavirus can infect anyone, but recent reporting has shown your socioeconomic status can play a big role, with a combination of job security, access to health care and mobility widening the gap in infection and mortality rates between rich and poor. The wealthy work remotely and flee to resorts or pastoral second homes, while […]
Thousands of lives are on the line. Ohio House task force should act like it.
I started tracking the number of U.S. COVID-19 deaths in my day planner once a week on Monday, March 30. It was 2,400 people. By April 6 it had reached 9,600 people. On April 13, it stood at 22,109 people. As of this writing, on April 21, it’s 42,458 people. That’s three weeks and tens […]