Category: Health Care
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Vaccine Priorities — A Contrarian View
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The Commonwealth is going to follow CDC guidelines and make health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities first in line for the COVID-19 vaccines. I have a different proposal. Health care workers certainly should be first, no argument there. But, I would put teachers next in line. With teachers being…
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Shortage of Health Facilities Inspectors Puts All Virginians at Risk
by James C. Sherlock I have been the single fiercest public critic of the Virginia Department of Health in general and its Office of Licensure and Certification (OLC) in particular. I have been particularly critical of OLC’s inspections of nursing homes. We need them to do better, and they agree. This essay will report what…
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Medicaid Enrollment Reaches 1.5 Million Virginians
By Steve Haner Just under two years into Virginia’s Medicaid expansion, and less than one year into a pandemic-sparked economic crisis, enrollment in the program is now about 1.5 million Virginians. Enrollment has grown more than 25% in less than two years and spending more than 30%. The financial impact on state taxpayers has been…
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Where Does Ralph Northam Go From Here with COVID-19?
by DJ Rippert Marcel Marceau. Ralph “The COVID Mime” Northam dropped a bevy of increased Coronavirus restrictions on the state last Friday. Those new restrictions on Friday followed another rambling COVID press conference held by Northam the prior Tuesday. Anybody watching the Tuesday news conference could be forgiven for being shocked by The COVID Mime’s…
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How Childhood Traumas Are Driving Special-Needs Funding
by James A. Bacon More than 17,000 Virginia school children were categorized by the Virginia Department of Education as being disabled by autism or severe emotional issues in the 2018-19 school year. If these students get too unruly for schools to handle, they often wind up getting transferred to private special-education day schools. The cost…
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Would a Mobile Crisis Team Have Saved Marcus-David Peters?
by James A. Bacon Marcus-David Peters, fatally shot in 2018 by a Richmond police officer while in the midst of a mental health crisis, has become an icon for criminal justice reform in Virginia. Protesters occupying the area around the Lee statue on Monument Avenue erected a sign (since removed) designating Lee Circle as Marcus-David…
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Biden, Birx and COVID Lockdowns in Virginia
by DJ Rippert Sine wave. The third wave of COVID-19 has been spreading across the world and has come to America. As should have been expected it has also come to Virginia. Many European countries have enacted lockdowns that would be considered draconian by most Americans. Several U.S. governors have also dramatically reversed the re-opening…
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The University of Virginia Eastern Virginia Medical School
by James C. Sherlock With additional information and thoughts generated by responses to my original posts on this matter, I offer this post as a final proposal before the November 15 release of the Sentara-funded “study” of what I call the Sentara Plan for Eastern Virginia Medical school. The nation is short of doctors and…
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UVa Medical School Takeover EVMS – A Real Opportunity for A Lot of Good
by James C. Sherlock I recommend the transformation of healthcare and physician training in the Hampton Roads. I reject both the presumptions and the terms of the current study of a merger of ODU, EVMS, Norfolk State and Sentara to improve EVMS. That study is funded by the organizations involved and the outcome is pre-ordained. But…
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The Strange Case of a Proposed Medical Merger in Hampton Roads
by James C. Sherlock There was a story — “Could EVMS merge with ODU, Sentara?” – in the Virginian Pilot this morning. It was well done and rendered a major public service. A private study is “assessing” a regional merger of Sentara, ODU, EVMS and Norfolk State. “Its task will be to provide recommendations to Gov. Ralph Northam on…
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Northam’s Non-COVID Non-Update
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4eTqh-1pTU&w=480&h=315] Note: video starts at 4:50 by DJ Rippert Northam fiddles. As a resurgence of COVID-19 spreads across Europe and the United States, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam held a press conference ostensibly to discuss the pandemic. The presser provided little new information about the coronavirus or Virginia’s plans to combat the disease. Northam did…
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Does Northam Have a Plan to Battle a COVID Resurgence in Virginia?
by DJ Rippert The second (or third) time around. America’s polarized political situation has all eyes on the upcoming presidential election. Millions are voting early and millions more will vote by mail. There is a good chance that the final results will not be known on the morning after Election Day. If true, America’s attention…
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Why We Love Governor Ralph
By Peter Galuszka He’s been through “coonman,” “blackface,” a muddled interview about late term abortion, and aggressive and controversial steps to stop the pandemic, but Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam has sprinted through a recent statewide poll with flying colors. According to a new Washington Post-Schar School poll, more than half of Virginia’s registered voters approve of the…
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Hey, What Happened to All the School Shootings?
by James A. Bacon Anyone notice how we don’t hear about school shootings anymore? Ever since the nation became fixated on the COVID-19 epidemic and the Black Lives Matter movement, school shootings have dropped out of the headlines. According to an ongoing list compiled by Wikipedia, there have been eight school shootings (four in Texas, two…
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Health Enterprise Zones for Virginia
by James C. Sherlock COVID-19 exposed what many already knew: Poor people suffer broad disparities in health outcomes when compared to their wealthier counterparts. In my original post on health care legislative initiatives in the 2021 General Assembly Session, I recommended the establishment of Health Enterprise Zones. That initiative seeks reduction of health disparities among…