social distancing
CDC preps guidance for governors on relaxing COVID rules, but states forge ahead
WASHINGTON — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is preparing guidance for governors about when to relax masking and other measures meant to slow the spread of COVID-19, but doesn’t want to release those instructions just yet. Director Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday that it’s too soon to begin rolling back masking and other public […]
Legislatures across country back off pandemic protocols
As Dr. Jennifer Bacani McKenney walked the halls of the Kansas Statehouse on opening day of the legislative session this month, she was taken aback by what she saw. In the hallways, where “people are chatting and hugging and all that stuff, there were probably less than half of the people wearing masks … You definitely wouldn’t […]
Some politicians deliberately sacrifice public health and safety for personal greed
Whether driven to hang on to power, have access to money, or intoxicated by fame — when politicians say and do things that hurt and harm the people for their personal gain, it is greed of the most grievous kind. Greed? Yes, greed. Greed has many faces and is manifested in many ways. Whatever form of greed […]
Ohio leaders must be vigilant against virus and help prevent more unnecessary deaths
It was springtime, 2020. Andy, as usual, was puttering around his yard on some new project. I couldn’t resist teasing him about spring cleaning and inquired if he did windows. My affable neighbor, a retire middle-school teacher, made a crack about only doing selective window-washing and we laughed. He had a dry sense of humor. […]
Coronavirus highlights how humans are hardwired to dismiss facts that don’t fit their worldview
Bemoaning uneven individual and state compliance with public health recommendations, top U.S. COVID-19 adviser Anthony Fauci recently blamed the country’s ineffective pandemic response on an American “anti-science bias.” He called this bias “inconceivable,” because “science is truth.” Fauci compared those discounting the importance of masks and social distancing to “anti-vaxxers” in their “amazing” refusal to […]
This simple model shows the importance of wearing masks and social distancing
With the advent of an infectious disease outbreak, epidemiologists and public health officials quickly try to forecast deaths and infections using complex computer models. But with a brand new virus like the one that causes COVID-19, these estimates are complicated by a dearth of credible information on symptoms, contagion and those who are most at […]
Video shows crowded prison; inmates and families warn social distancing not possible
As Ohio’s government orders businesses closed and residents inside for their own safety, state prisons facing spiraling outbreaks remain crowded and cramped, videos and interviews show. At Marion Correctional Institution, which houses 2,500 inmates but was built for about 1,650, 55 prison employees have tested positive for the virus as of Sunday, one of whom […]