Tag: Guest contributors
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Where Are the Other 52 Nursing Homes with Outbreaks?
by Carol J. Bova The governor’s Long Term Care Facility Task Force list shows 179 nursing home and assisted living facilities with outbreaks of COVID-19. There are 52 more, according to the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) Outbreaks tab on the daily COVID-19 data, but no explanation why they’re missing from the Task Force list.…
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How Did VDH Miss 1,100 Suspected Cases?
by Carol J. Bova When Governor Northam announced the release of the Virginia Health Department (VDH) COVID-19 details for specific nursing homes and assisted living facilities on June 19, he explained the reversal in policy: “It is also important that this information is released now, given inconsistent information reported at the federal level.” The governor’s…
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Get Ready for the Taxpayer-Funded University Bailout
by Shaun Kenney Consider for a moment how much of a college or university’s budget comes from room and board, not to mention the prosperity of the surrounding economy. Now consider the precarious position most colleges and universities are in America, beset on all sides by administrators, federal and state regulations, and a college campus…
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VDH Playing Catch Up
by Carol J. Bova The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) has made two major recent changes on the COVID-19 dashboard. On June 15, under Race and Ethnicity in the demographics tab, VDH moved about 20,000 cases between categories and added 380 total new cases. Category Cases reduced by… …
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The Divine Puzzle of Life as Seen by a Native Son of Virginia
by B.K. Fulton Our Nation has not yet fully addressed its original sin . . . the savage institution of slavery. The residue of inequality still permeates our shores and infects the globe as a pandemic of the mind. Despite our scientific similarities (we are more alike than different), when it comes to power —…
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Loophole Allows Nursing Homes to Cover Up COVID-19 History
by Carol J. Bova The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) published an interim final rule with comment period (IFC) on May 8 that provided more flexibility for health care providers “to respond effectively to the serious health threats posed by the spread of COVID-19.” The rule amended Medicare policies on an interim basis to…
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Absentee Voting by Mail Has Many Safeguards
by Rosanna Bencoach In a recent piece in Bacon’s Rebellion, “COVID-19 No Justification for Mail-In Voting,” Brian Glass questioned the security of mail-in voting by citing controversies in other states during previous elections. The underlying issues and outcomes varied but did not cast doubt on the entire system. As Dick Hall-Sizemore commented: Voting by mail is…
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Why Do 58 Nursing Homes Lack PPE?
by Carol J. Bova The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) publishes COVID-19 data reported by nursing homes as of May 31. Only five Virginia facilities reported not having enough essential supplies for current use, but that still put the safety of 554 residents plus an unknown number of staff members at risk for COVID-19…
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Polybius, ANTIFA, and the Cycle of Discord
by Scott Lingamfelter When I awoke this morning, like many of you, I found myself genuinely concerned about what is going on in America. The violence, looting, the wanton destruction of life and property are both shocking and unacceptable. Most people are angry with the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a rogue…
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COVID-19 No Justification for Mail-In Voting
by Brian Glass With the COVID-19 epidemic, adherents of mail-in voting in Virginia and around the country believe they have found the “hook” to pass their favored legislation. That idea needs to be revisited before the primary elections in June and the presidential election in November. Regardless of the epidemic, voting by mail is still…
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Federal Action Should Clarify COVID-19 Racial Impact
by Carol J. Bova Discussion of the percentage of black COVID-19 hospitalized patients in Virginia is based on the known racial identification of all COVID-19 cases. The breakdown of all cases shows this is a false narrative. We don’t know what the true racial percentages are because currently 32% of all COVID-19 cases have no…
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Accountability in the Age of Tribalism and Relatavism
by Verhaal Kenner Imagine you give a class of high school social studies students a quiz and ask: “A friend suggests that the both of you rob a bank. What would you say? What thoughts go through your mind?” In today’s culture, you could expect many students to give answers such as: “Which bank were…
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Dissecting the COVID-19 Death Statistics
by Carol J. Bova If you compare the COVID-19 hospitalization statistics published by the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) and the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association (VHHA), you’ll quickly see they don’t add up. On May 30, the VDH COVID-19 dashboard showed a total of 4,601 hospitalizations. The same day, the VHHA showed that 5,745…
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Staunton’s Election Lessons
by Chris Saxman Virginia’s most accurate statewide election locality — Staunton — just swept off City Council three Democratic incumbents in favor of three Republicans. Democrats go from a 6-to-1 majority to a 3-to-4 minority. This made headlines around the Commonwealth and political news sites. “Virginia is going Red this fall!” “Will Trump win in…
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Virginia’s Lockdown Violates Natural Law
by Deborah Hommer My favorite Greek tragedy play is Sophocles’ “Antigone.” The protagonist risks her life with civil disobedience by burying the body of her brother Polyneices according to the religious dictates (natural/higher law) of her God in defiance of King Creon’s edict (man-made or positive law). When confronted with the choice of whether to…