Tag: COVID-19
-
How Data Asymmetry Drives COVID Policy
by James A. Bacon There’s a common saying in the business world: You manage what you measure. In Virginia, as in the rest of the United States, we have a super-abundance of data about COVID-19. Just visit the VDH website for a taste. As we have frequently observed on this blog — and we’re hardly…
-
McAuliffe’s COVID Lies Are an Ominous SIgn
by Kerry Dougherty Politicians lie. We all know that. But Terry McAuliffe is a special kind of liar. Not only does he prevaricate about Glenn Youngkin’s policy positions, but he deliberately spreads falsehoods about the severity of Covid-19 in Virginia. Don’t take my word for it. The Washington Post just gave him FOUR Pinocchios for…
-
COVID Did Not Cause the Spike in Richmond Murders
by Hans Bader Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) suggested a spike in murders in Richmond is due to the coronavirus. But it isn’t. VCU Medical trauma surgeon Michael Aboutanos said VCU is experiencing a 121% increase in gunshot-wound victims from across the Richmond metropolitan area. In response, Senator Warner cited the effects of COVID-19, the “frustration…
-
COVID, School Closings and the Real Racism
by James A. Bacon If you’re looking for evidence of “systemic racism” in Virginia schools, you can find it in a table produced by Matt Hurt, executive director of the Comprehensive Instructional Program, and published in the previous post. The table shows the extraordinary decline in in-person instruction that took place in the 2020-21 school…
-
Bedlam at Southwest Airlines
by Kerry Dougherty At the risk of sounding like a paid Southwest Airlines P.R. person, I can truthfully say it’s my favorite airline. No change fees. Two bags fly free. Decent fares if you book early enough. Best of all, Southwest flies out of our sad little airport. Those perks are nice, but what impressed…
-
What If They Threw A Party And No One Got COVID?
by James A. Bacon It has been a month since Hokie fans packed the stands of the Virginia Tech-University of North Carolina football game in Tech’s Lane Stadium, sparking social-media fears of a massive spread. Despite the spectacle of thousands of screaming, expectorating fans in close quarters, there has been no meaningful outbreak. Not only…
-
Desperate Dems Demand Medical Records
by Kerry Dougherty Oh look. Desperate Virginia Democrats — along with their pals in the media — are trying to weaponize COVID-19 vaccines against what appears to be a resurgent Republican Party in the commonwealth. It isn’t enough that gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin has said REPEATEDLY that he’s vaccinated, that he believes Virginians should be…
-
Northam’s Scare Tactics
by Kerry Dougherty It was a gird-your-loins kind of day in Virginia on Monday. While we were on the radio in the morning, our producer handed me a bulletin announcing that Governor Ralph Northam was holding a press conference in the afternoon, on the subject of COVID. Uh-oh. I can’t repeat what I said off…
-
UVa Petri Dish Update
by James A. Bacon About a month ago I suggested that the University of Virginia would make an interesting real-world experiment in the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination mandates during the Delta Variant phase of the epidemic. The Ryan administration required vaccinations for all students, allowing only a handful of medical and religious exceptions. Vaccinations were…
-
Pandemic and Pounds. Buy Bigger Belts
by Kerry Dougherty I’m shocked. Who could have predicted that closing fitness centers, filling public parks with sand, draining public pools, curtailing youth sports, shuttering schools and telling workers to stay home would result in a sharp increase in obesity? And who would have guessed that being obese would contribute to more serious outcomes for…
-
Virginia Schools Grappling with COVID After-Effects
by James A. Bacon Straw in the wind #1: Two students were wounded in a shooting at Heritage High School in Newport News Monday. The incident didn’t fit the profile of a mass shooting by a mentally distressed student lashing out at random. The shootings, in which a male student was shot in the side…
-
Ignore the Fun Police. Football Is Safe.
by Kerry Dougherty Travel back in time with me to the first weekend in September. Anyone remember what the COVID fear peddlers screamed when they saw packed college football stadiums during Week One of the 2021 season? Just wait two weeks! Super-spreader events! Masks! Where are their masks? And then there was the leader of…
-
VEC Made $930 Million in “Incorrect” Payments Last Year
by James A. Bacon Inundated by unemployment claims during the COVID-19-induced recession last year, the Virginia Employment Commission made an estimated $930 million in “incorrect” payments last year, according to an update by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission. The magnitude of wasted dollars has gone largely unnoticed as the media and the Northam…
-
Wait, What? Renter Credit Scores Are Improving?
by James A. Bacon Who would have guessed? For all the angst over the “eviction crisis” precipitated by COVID-19-related job losses, it turns out that the financial condition of low-income renters improved overall as the epidemic wore on, according to a new report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The federal bureau credits stimulus…
-
VDH Still Can’t Count
by Carol J. Bova In a blog post published yesterday, I noted that the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) COVID-19 dashboard breaks down vaccination status by racial/ethnic group and by age, but not by racial/ethnic groups and age. Thinking that VDH might possess the data, even if it had chosen not to publish it, I…