Tag: COVID-19
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Follow the Science. Yeah, Right
by Kerry Dougherty Ever since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic I’ve been wondering what it would take for Americans to finally say they’d had enough. Enough of absurd and ineffective regulations imposed on them by leaders hiding behind claims that they were simply “following the science.” I was furious early in the spring of…
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VDH Should Show Vaccinations for Age and Race Together
by Carol J. Bova Jim Bacon used an infographic from the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) in his recent post, God, COVID and the Rage Against the Unvaccinated showing the percent of the eligible population in Virginia with at least one dose. What the infographic doesn’t say is the numbers are based on Virginians age…
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God, COVID and the Rage Against the Unvaccinated
by James A. Bacon “There is a growing rage among the people who are vaccinated about the people who have refused a free and effective vaccine,” Stephen Farnsworth, an oft-quoted political science professor at the University of Mary Washington, said recently. “We’re all going back toward lockdowns because of the selfishness of a few.” As…
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Another Sick Idea: Vaccine Passports for Domestic Travel
by Kerry Dougherty Oh look. Rep. Don Beyer, a Virginia car dealer who served eight years as Virginia’s lieutenant governor and ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1997 against Jim Gilmore, is in the news. The congressman who represents the second-most Democratic district in the commonwealth — the 8th — has joined the Biden administration in…
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UVa, COVID, and Jim Ryan’s $200,000 Bonus
by James A. Bacon Like many other University of Virginia alumni, I was taken aback to hear that the Board of Visitors had granted President Jim Ryan a $200,000 bonus for the great job UVa had done in addressing the COVID-19 epidemic. Rector Whittington Clement put it this way: “When the situation this year became…
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COVID, Vaccinations and Risk
by James A. Bacon A new feature of the Virginia Department of Health’s COVID-19 dashboard compares the rate of infections, hospitalizations and deaths among vaccinated and unvaccinated people. We’ll get to that in just a moment. By way of preface, it’s worth noting that every Virginian who wants the vaccine has it. The graph above…
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Hospitals Experiencing a COVID Crunch
The media is full of stories about how the rebound in COVID-19 cases fueled by the Delta variant is putting hospitals under the most stress since the peak of the epidemic in February. Hospitals are rapidly filling up. Some are reporting shortages of beds, others of staff. Making matters worse, hospitals from other states, also…
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Fairfax Schools to Spend $188 Million Undoing Shutdown Damage
by James A. Bacon Fairfax County Public Schools are getting $188 million in federal helicopter COVID-19 relief funds, and school officials propose spending about 88% of the sum undoing the damage caused by the system’s COVID-19 shutdowns. Eighty-six million will go toward addressing “unfinished learning,” and another $78 million to “academic, social, emotional and mental…
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Closing Schools Made Children Fatter, More Vulnerable to COVID
by Hans Bader Many kids became fatter when schools closed to in-person learning during the coronavirus pandemic. “Overweight or obesity increased among 5- through 11-year-olds from 36.2% to 45.7% during the pandemic, an absolute increase of 8.7% and relative increase of 23.8%,” noted the Journal of the American Medical Association. That’s making the effects of…
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What Impact Did COVID Have on the SOLs?
by James A. Bacon Most Virginia news media duly reported the release of the latest Standards of Learning (SOL) data showing the biggest collapse in pass rates in the history of the SOLs. Most accepted the Northam administration’s spin that the decline was due mainly to COVID-19-related disruptions, and that Virginians should not read too…
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UVa as Petri Dish for COVID-Fighting Policy
by James A. Bacon The University of Virginia is engaging in an interesting real-world experiment in the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccine mandates. UVa’s must-vaccinate rule for students is similar to policies at almost every other university in Virginia and many employers as well. But UVa’s COVID tracker, which is updated daily, provides a finer-grained insight…
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Side Effects? What Side Effects?
by Walter Smith Have you noticed that pharmacy ads on TV close with a long list of side effects and warn you to ask your doctor if BigPharma XYZ is right for you? How come there is no similar warning for COVID shots? You must be an anti-vaxxer, I imagine you are thinking right now.…
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Another Sign of the Education Apocalypse
by James A. Bacon Tom Allison, a staff analyst with the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) has uncovered quite the conundrum. How does the Commonwealth reverse the plummeting rate at which low-income students are completing the Free Application for Federal Student Assistance (FAFSA) form? The free-fall in applications, which are necessary to…
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Let Me Get This Straight…
by Paula Harkins Let me get this straight. I’ve got to show a valid ID to dine out or take a spin class… but not to vote? A growing number of Virginia businesses, restaurants, and venues are requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination and a photo ID to enter. Richmond was the first Virginia locality to…
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2020-21 SOLs: the Racial Gap Widens
Here is a pro forma breakdown of Standards of Learning pass rates by race and subject. I say “pro forma” because these numbers do not reflect the fact that one-fifth to one-quarter of public school students failed to take the test in the 2020-21 school year. Adjusted numbers might prove to be even more dismal,…