coronavirus
COVID deniers take vandalism case to Ohio Supreme Court
The Plain City Public Library asked her to leave in January 2021 for repeatedly refusing to wear her mask, as was state policy at the time. Court records indicate Julie Dean’s “unruly behavior had been a continual issue for the library.” Two months later she came back with her husband and some hard-to-remove stickers. “THERE […]
GOP reps introduce bill to expand access to ivermectin, other debunked covid cures
Several Ohio House Republicans have revived efforts to expand COVID-19 patients’ access to ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, and other drugs that have been shown to be ineffective in treating the disease. The legislation would compel health departments to enter into agreements to “promote and increase distribution” of the drugs. If health departments decline to do so, the […]
COVID vaccination hits record lull in Ohio; less than 2 in 3 are vaccinated
Ohio’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign has hit a new lull after two months of record low numbers of residents getting vaccinated. While the concept of diminishing marginal returns would suggest this is to be expected, Ohio remains under-vaccinated on a national and international scale. Just 62% of state residents are vaccine-started, and 57% are vaccine completed. […]
COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations plunge in Ohio
For more than six weeks in a row, COVID-19 infections rates have plunged across Ohio. At an early January peak, the Ohio Department of Health reported nearly 25,000 Ohioans were testing positive per day, to say nothing of those taking at-home tests or with undiagnosed cases. Last week, that daily average fell below 1,500 cases […]
Stimulus checks tied to overdose spike, but that doesn’t make them a mistake, Yost says
It was an epidemic within a pandemic. April 2020 was a time when the Covid-19 pandemic tightened a grip that still hasn’t really eased. It also marked the beginning of a year that would see 100,000 opioid deaths in the United States. That was the most since the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention […]
Fighting vaccine mandates, Ohio AG says he protected the “rule of law”
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost last week touted a successful effort he led among state attorneys general to get the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a vaccine-or-test mandate for large employers. In a statement, Yost said he wasn’t opposed to vaccines, he was upholding the rule of law. But his office declined to comment Monday […]
Ohio leads nation in COVID-19 deaths over last week
Ohio led the nation in COVID-19 deaths over the last seven days. The finding, per a New York Times tracker of federal data, belies the good news that infections and hospitalizations caused by the new coronavirus have trended downward over the course of the first month of 2022 in Ohio and around the U.S. Death […]
Errors, deception preceded deadly nursing home covid outbreaks, inspections show
Regulators found infection control violations in at least three dozen Ohio nursing homes placed the health and safety of patients in “immediate jeopardy” during the COVID pandemic, an Ohio Capital Journal investigation has found. Between allowing nurses with active COVID-19 infections to report for their care duties, placing infected residents in shared rooms with uninfected […]
Ohio’s pandemic politics cast long shadow over omicron surge
After a severe bout of COVID-19 put him in the ICU and left him with significant respiratory systems, Dr. Emily Amin’s patient had questions about getting vaccinated. Most of the COVID-19 patients Amin treats at the Wexner Medical Center are either vaccinated but manage an immune-compromising condition, or unvaccinated. In an interview, Amin recounted how […]
Meet the anti-vax doctor who just won a local school board race
For most the pandemic, Dr. Elizabeth Laffay, a licensed doctor of osteopathic medicine, worked from the outside in. She told state lawmakers that vaccines kill; she touted dubious COVID-19 treatments like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine on talk radio; she stormed a Big Lots with a small and barefaced crowd to protest its mask requirement; and she […]
Ohio is 2nd in nation for COVID-19 deaths over last week
Ohio is second in the nation per capita in terms of the reported COVID-19 death rate over the last seven days, according to a database from The New York Times. Only Wyoming experienced a higher rate of COVID-19 deaths over the past week, the data shows. Nearly 30,000 Ohioans have died of COVID-19, including some […]
Senate votes for $300 million in COVID relief for nursing homes; more for schools, police
The Ohio Senate passed legislation Wednesday giving nursing homes $300 million earmarked to pay their workers. The payment is part of a $4.18 billion appropriation of federal pandemic relief money. The bulk of the funds go toward schools ($2.49 billion); workforce incentives for health care providers like rural or “distressed” hospitals, plus assisted living and […]