Tag: COVID-19
-
Fight the Machine, File for an Exemption!
by James A. Bacon The Young Americans for Liberty chapter at Virginia Tech delivered a petition with about 500 signatures urging the university to end a policy requiring students to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to take classes in the fall, reports The Center Square. “This arbitrary order is a blatant violation of the students’…
-
A Miraculous Turnaround in Richmond’s High School Graduation Rate
by James A. Bacon For at least three years running, the City of Richmond Public Schools (RPS) ranked as the school system with the lowest graduation rate in Virginia. Yet, despite the travails of a COVID epidemic that kept most students home most of the time, school officials are projecting a 14 percentage-point increase in…
-
How 15 Days to Slow the Spread Became 475
by Kerry Dougherty At last! Four hundred and seventy five days after Gov. Ralph Northam first declared a coronavirus state of emergency, his latest order is set to expire today. God willing. I can’t be the only one holding my breath, wondering if the hysteria that Team Apocalypse is ginning up over the Delta variant…
-
More Jumbled Thinking about Healthcare and Race
by James A. Bacon The lead story in the Richmond Times-Dispatch today focuses on the findings from a new Virginia Commonwealth University study: “Life expectancy in the U.S. sees largest drop since 1943, ‘jolting’ decline for Black people and Latinos.” The average life of Blacks fell 3.25 years and of Latinos by almost four years.…
-
Why Mandate COVID Vaccinations for Low-Risk Populations?
by James A. Bacon The University of Virginia announced Tuesday that it was extending its COVID-19 vaccination mandate from students to faculty and staff. The university will provide exemptions for religious and medical reasons, but non-vaccinated faculty and staff will be required to submit to weekly COVID-19 tests if they are to return to the…
-
Stay-In-Place COVID Policies Lead to More Excess Deaths
by James A. Bacon A new study comparing “excess deaths” across 44 countries and the 50 U.S. states finds that Stay In Place (SIP) policies enacted to control the COVID-19 epidemic were counterproductive. Overall, the added number of lives lost to non-COVID more than offset the number of lives saved from slowing the spread of…
-
Herd Immunity Versus Herd Insanity
by James A. Bacon Like 450 other higher-ed institutions across the United States, the University of Virginia will require all students to be fully vaccinated for the COVID-19 vaccine if they want to return to classes this fall. The mandate extends to the 2,800 students who got the virus and now enjoy acquired immunities. Oddly,…
-
Don’t Ask Questions. Just Do What We Tell You.
by James A. Bacon Walter Smith, a University of Virginia alumnus, was miffed when UVa leadership mandated that all students must be vaccinated if they are to return to the university in the fall. His daughter, a UVa student, had caught the COVID-19 virus, lived through 10 days of quarantine, acquired natural immunities, and was…
-
Throwing Kids into the Volcano to Appease the COVID Gods
by Kerry Dougherty Am I the only one who noticed that once Joe Biden became president news outlets lost interest in the COVID scorecards they featured prominently during the pandemic? Remember those screaming headlines about cases and deaths that ginned up the hysteria daily? Just a memory now. But guess what? I’ve been quietly keeping…
-
VA Employers Stuck in COVID Time Warp
By Steve Haner First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. Despite the stunning and rapid success of the vaccines in arresting the spread of COVID-19, if you enter a Virginia workplace you go back in time to the pre-vaccine era of doubt and fear. Virginia acted in haste in adopting…
-
COVID-19 Killed the American Work Ethic
by Kerry Dougherty Sometimes nothing will lift a kid’s mood like a McDonald’s Happy Meal. On Tuesday I was running a raft of errands with a 5-year-old strapped into the back seat. As it crept past lunchtime and she was clearly starving, I saw the blessed Golden Arches. While we idled in a long ribbon…
-
The COVID Restrictions Have Been Lifted!
by Dick Hall-Sizemore We now have been a week without state-imposed COVID restrictions. No social distancing. No restrictions on venues opening. I can go to my grandson’s graduation tonight. Kerry can go to the beach without a mask on. We all can go to Flying Squirrels’ games. As of May 28, the Governor lifted all…
-
No Vaccination Mandates for Community Colleges
by James A. Bacon In stark contrast to the University of Virginia, James Madison University, and the College of William & Mary, the Virginia Community College System board has decided not to require students to be vaccinated in order to attend classes in the fall. “I believe it is in the best interests of our…
-
Paul Marik: COVID Quack or Pandemic Hero?
by James A. Bacon Across the state of Virginia, the fatality rate for COVID-19 patients entering hospitals has been 37.7%. Put another way, nearly two of every five patients died, according to Virginia Department of Health data. But in Norfolk, only 25.8% died. What accounts for that disparity? One possibility is that the dominant hospital…
-
School Closings Negatively Affect Female Employment
by D.J. Rippert Mom at home. An article from The Center Square summarizes a number of studies relating COVID-19, school policies during the pandemic, and the number of women in the workforce. A study by the journal “Gender & Society” characterized the matter as a “tidal wave of women” leaving the workforce in 2020. Center…