Bruce Vanderhoff
Vaccine floods into Ohio but drop in new covid cases stalls
Ohio got even more good news on the coronavirus vaccine Thursday. But even as doses are flooding into the state, what had been a steady drop in infections has turned into a plateau. Gov. Mike DeWine announced that next week — when all Ohio adults will be eligible to be vaccinated — the state will […]
Ohio legislature overrides DeWine veto of pandemic authority bill
Wednesday marks the 24th anniversary of the Ohio Supreme Court ruling the state’s school funding model is unconstitutional. Twenty-four years later, the Ohio legislature has yet to fix it. Yet less than 24 hours after Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed a bill to allow lawmakers to strike down public health orders, GOP supermajorities mobilized to override […]
DeWine vetoes bill targeting his pandemic authority; override awaits
Gov. Mike DeWine has vetoed a bill seeking to allow lawmakers to rescind public health orders they disagree with, once again fulfilling a pledge to block any legislation targeting his administration’s authority to respond aggressively to a deadly pandemic. The ball is now in the legislature’s court to override his veto. Republican legislative leaders have […]
Health orgs. backed Ohio’s pandemic response, then gave $ to politicians working to undermine it
As Ohio lawmakers considered a bill last November to allow themselves to strike down public health orders, a handful of organizations banded together to state their unequivocal opposition. “Now is not the time to let up. The public health crisis is not over,” the organizations told lawmakers. This disagreement in a matter of life and […]
Vaccine numbers continue to jump, 600K more Ohioans to become eligible, but not prisoners
Ohio is seeing another big jump in the number of doses of coronavirus vaccine coming into the state. That’s allowing another large group to become eligible to receive it. However, one group — the incarcerated — won’t be. Gov. Mike DeWine on Monday announced that 96,000 doses of the newly approved Johnson & Johnson vaccine […]
DeWine pledges veto of latest attempt to curb public health authority
Gov. Mike DeWine is sticking with his pledge to veto any legislation in 2021 targeting the authority of Ohio’s public health officials. Even as Ohio continues to see a downward trend of new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, the governor said this is not the time to minimize the executive branch’s authority to respond to a […]
Public health officials say SB 22 would hamper pandemic response
Public health took center stage at the Ohio Statehouse on Wednesday, if only for an hour, with experts crediting the government pandemic response for saving lives and asking lawmakers not to hamper the ability to do so again in the future. Officials representing health departments throughout Ohio are opposed to Republican-backed legislation that would give […]
One expert says he can free up millions of vaccines. Ohio’s not biting
Ohio’s supply of the coronavirus vaccine remains under severe strain, with even priority residents facing a months-long wait for a shot. At his coronavirus press conference Tuesday, Gov. Mike DeWine put the problem succinctly: “There are a lot of people who should be vaccinated in the state, but they can’t get it because we don’t […]
Covid crowds some out of Ohio hospitals, federal release shows
Hospital beds in Ohio and elsewhere are filling with coronavirus patients, prompting the federal government to ease rules and allow more people to be treated at home. But for some reason, top Ohio health officials don’t seem to want to say that. Among other experts, Ashish K. Jha has reported that nationally the portion of […]
Strained capacity is not keeping covid patients from being admitted, officials say
Ohio Hospitals have been strained for months by the coronavirus. But unlike in some other parts of the country, that hasn’t prompted them to tell people who would have been admitted earlier in the pandemic to stay home, officials said Thursday. Daily numbers of new coronavirus cases have appeared to be levelling off over the […]
Governor says infection rate “not sustainable” for Ohio hospitals
After weeks of rocketing upward, the daily number of coronavirus infections in Ohio just might be leveling off. But Gov. Mike DeWine and some of the state’s top health officials on Monday said that’s not good enough. If Ohioans keep getting infected at the rate they are, hospitals will have to take increasingly dire steps […]
Trying to buy time. Vaccine is coming but covid spread is “red hot”
The long-awaited coronavirus vaccine is expected to begin flowing into Ohio in about three weeks, but state officials worry that the coming holidays will act as gasoline on a pandemic that is already burning out of control. For caregivers already stressed by the demands the virus has placed on them, the coming weeks are critical. […]