Category: Public safety & health
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Violence Prevention and TATs: A Dissenting Opinion
by Dick Hall-Sizemore There has been a lot of discussion on this blog about violence prevention committees and threat assessment teams (TAT). There have been disagreements over whether the University of Virginia is in compliance with state law as well as lamentations about the lack of enforcement where it is considered that an institution is…
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Virginia Should Enforce Threat Assessment Laws. Noting Lack of Compliance Not Enough.
by James C. Sherlock I have written about the Threat Assessment Teams (TAT’s) of two state universities, the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech. I assessed Tech to be compliant with state law. I reported that UVa is not. That of course raises the issue of the rest of Virginia’s colleges and universities. The Virginia…
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Petersburg Resumes Important Actions Against City Code Violators — Homeless Needs Increase
by James C. Sherlock Sometimes absolutely necessary actions have more than one outcome. Such is the case in Petersburg. Joyce Chu of Petersburg’s indispensable Progress- Index last evening initiated a multi-part series on the impacts of the city’s closure due to safety violations of two motels used by otherwise homeless people. Her first article makes…
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You Dirty Rat!
From Orkin’s 2022 list of “rattiest” cities in the United States: 4. Washington, D.C. 25. Norfolk 33. Richmond In the list of cities with the most rodents, Chicago took the top spot, followed by Los Angeles and New York. By counting total rat populations, Orkin’s methodology skews to big cities. I’d like to see a…
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Stress, Fuzzy Symptoms, and Long COVID
by James A. Bacon WHRO Public Media tells the story of Chesapeake nurse Megan Temple, who contracted COVID-19 in October and has dealt with “long COVID” ever since. She got over the initial illness quickly. But in the weeks and months that followed, during which she also recovered from abdominal surgery, she developed an array…
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Widespread Fallout from School Closures
by Kerry Dougherty I feel sorry for 1st-grade teachers. Not only do they have the tough task of teaching kids to read, but they are now dealing with children who lack some of the most basic skills needed to learn. Skills the children should have learned in pre-school and kindergarten. An admissions officer from a…
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Who’s Scared of Monkeypox? Not Me.
by Kerry Dougherty Read the increasingly hysterical stories about monkeypox and you’ll learn that public health officials are “scrambling,” “grappling” and “struggling.” They don’t know what to do to slow the spread of this nasty, but rarely fatal disease. The WHO has declared a public health emergency, its highest level of alert. The Biden administration…
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Violent Crime Now the Top Public Health Concern
Community violence and crime constitute the No. 1 “public health issue” that concerns registered voters in Virginia, finds the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association (VHHA) in a poll released today. Fifty-one percent of the 800 Virginians polled selected the issue. The No. 2 concern was healthcare work shortages, which logged the top vote from 25%…
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No, Your Middle Schooler Doesn’t HAVE to Get the HPV Vaccine
by Kerry Dougherty Virginia Beach Delegate Tim Anderson took his sons to see the new “Minions” movie two weeks ago at the Regal Cinemas at Town Center. They were settled in their seats when a disturbing image appeared on the screen. The movie wasn’t offensive. But a public service announcement from the Virginia Department of…
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Mamas, Let Your Babies Grow Up Before Getting Vaccinated
by James A. Bacon About 21,000 Virginia children aged four and under have been vaccinated against COVID-19 in the three weeks since the shots were made available, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch. That amounts to only 5% of the age group, observes reporter Eric Kolenich, but it’s significantly higher than the national average of 2%. I’m…
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Democracy Dies in Drabness
by Jock Yellott Charlottesville’s City Hall used to be open to its citizens. We could go talk to people. Ask questions. Learn. No longer. Front door locked. A guard in an air conditioned box. A citizen has to justify going inside. Where? Seeing whom? Why? The guard calls upstairs to where I’m supposed to go,…
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The Variants Are Coming! The Variants Are Coming! The Worst One Yet!
by Kerry Dougherty Looks like it has arrived. I’m talking about the eagerly anticipated “Mid-Term Variant.” You know, the “worst one yet, the shape-shifting” variety. It’s the terrifying BA.5, which is spreading right now. And if that doesn’t have you trembling and reaching for an N95, the BA2.75 is on its way. From India! This…
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New Fed Policy Would Hide CMS Data on Patient Safety Records of Hospitals
by James C. Sherlock One of the most disturbing commentaries I have read in a long time relating to federal efforts to improve hospital patient safety reports a major step backwards in that program. I have written here many times of the power of the hospitals over Virginia’s politics. A proposed new federal rule shows…
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No Patient Should Ever Be Left Alone
by Kerry Dougherty Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis this week signed the Sunshine State’s “No Patient Left Alone Act,” guaranteeing that Floridians can have their loved ones with them when they are hospitalized, ill or in long-term care. What’s truly unbelievable is that this needed to be legislated. The importance of family visits was always considered…
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Did Mandated Vaxes at UVa Reduce COVID Transmission?
by James A. Bacon Well, well, well. The indefatigable Walter Smith has obtained new data from the University of Virginia through the Freedom of Information Act that put the efficacy of the university’s mandated COVID vaccinations in a new light. Recall that the university “disenrolled” 238 students for declining to get double vaccinated or qualifying…