amy acton
Ohio Senate passes bill to prohibit widespread stay-at-home orders
The Ohio Senate has approved a bill that would restrict the state health director from issuing broad quarantine and stay-at-home orders in battling a pandemic. Senate Bill 311 is one in a string of bills introduced by Republican legislators this year seeking to rein in power of the Ohio Department of Health, all while the […]
DeWine’s health director pick withdraws hours after selection
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine named his choice for a new health director Thursday afternoon in a release at 3:30 p.m. By 8:30 p.m., DeWine had announced she had withdrawn from consideration. “This evening, Dr. Joan Duwve withdrew her name from consideration for the position of Director of the Ohio Department of Health, citing personal reasons,” […]
GOP lawmaker wants to see if DeWine can be criminally charged
With his impeachment effort against the governor making little progress, state Rep. John Becker pulled up his email and brainstormed a late-night solution. It was almost 2 a.m. when Becker typed out a request to the Legislative Service Commission, a nonpartisan group that conducts law and policy research for lawmakers. “I believe that Governor DeWine […]
DeWine should help save lives and the economy by mandating face masks in public
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine knows what needs to be done. It’s as obvious as the mask-covered nose on his face. COVID-19 cases are spiking in Ohio, and spreading out of control in the South and West. The governor of Kansas this week ordered residents to wear face masks in public. Kansas is the 19th state […]
How Ohio has responded to COVID-19: The first tests arrive
This was still a calm before the storm. Gov. Mike DeWine had already hosted a crowded press conference announcing changes to the Arnold Sports Festival. He had also hosted a large gathering of top state officials to help prepare with how the new coronavirus would impact all aspects in Ohio’s government. He, Ohio Department of […]
As coronavirus continues to hit Ohio, public health officials take the heat
For the second time during the pandemic, Delaware General Health District imposed a lockdown and called the police April 23. Commissioner Sheila Hiddleson, a nurse who has led health departments for 23 years, said one person said “I’m going to kill you” to one of her health department employees. “The other time, the person said, […]
Dr. Amy Acton has been calming and competent. The vicious attacks on her have been madness.
Ohio House Republicans had no problem some years ago when former Gov. John Kasich appointed his turnpike director, a former marketing and building industry person with no medical training, as state health director. Nothing against Rick Hodges, but it’s hard to imagine a person like him in that job now, leading the state’s response to […]
We don’t know where Ohioans are contracting COVID-19
Everyone knows the numbers. About 40,000 Ohioans have contracted COVID-19, 2,500 have died. That’s a piece of the 2 million infected Americans, more than 114,000 of whom have died in the pandemic since January. The data are nearly ubiquitous, a click away. Absent from the Ohio Department of Health’s website, however, is comprehensive information on […]
Ohio prisons chief says inmates getting ‘excellent’ health care; 63 dead, thousands infected
Ohio has decreased its prison population by less than 4% while some institutions have been virtually overrun by COVID-19. Four prison workers and 63 inmates have died since prison officials first detected the new coronavirus March 29. More than 4,500 inmates have tested positive, though officials believe this to be a massive undercount since they […]
House Republicans vote down mask mandate for lawmakers and staff
Ohio House Republicans squashed a proposal from Democrats on Tuesday that would have required lawmakers and staff to wear face masks while conducting House business to slow the spread of COVID-19. The House Rules and Reference Committee, an arm of House leadership, recommended postponing the issue indefinitely, paving the way to the proposal’s demise. The […]
Ohio’s great social experiment
A week of pandemic can feel like a year. But it is hard to believe that just last month Dr. Amy Acton, Ohio’s public health director, was empowering us, telling us how great we were, and assuring us that we were capable of doing hard things. For just that moment, Dr. Acton was right. Most […]
More Ohioans are getting COVID-19 tests. It’s still not enough.
The COVID-19 tests were too warm to use. Probably. The Ohio Department of Health attempted to send two shipments of a combined 750 COVID-19 specimen collection kits to Summit County Public Health. On April 29 and May 6, however, the Styrofoam packaging housing the swabs, the media that carries the specimens, and the ice that […]