Monthly Archives: April 2020

Northam to Virginians in Pain: Your Elective Surgery Can Wait

Posted on April 24, 2020 by | 25 comments

by Kerry Dougherty

Bad news for those living on pain relievers and waiting for shoulder, hip or knee replacements.

Gov. Ralph Northam has decided you can suffer a while longer. On Thursday he announced that he was extending the ban on elective surgery from today until May 1. He first prohibited such procedures on March 25.

Elective surgeries are not cosmetic procedures. They’re often desperately needed surgeries that can be scheduled in advance. That includes some heart procedures, joint replacements, kidney stone removals, gall bladder surgery, eye surgery and a host of other procedures designed to alleviate the pain of thousands.

Northam issued his latest edict while ignoring the pleas of patients, doctors and the state hospital association that begged him to allow elective surgeries to resume.

According to The Richmond Times-Dispatch, Sean Connaughton, CEO of the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association that represents 27 healthcare systems and 110 hospitals, wrote to Northam asking him to allow elective surgeries to resume. Continue reading →

25 Comments

Posted in Health Care, Regulations and Government Oversight

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And Now For Something Completely Different

Posted on April 24, 2020 by | 24 comments

By Peter Galuszka

Dear Baconauts,

As you know, people like me have been described by a B.R.  commenter as those who submit “scorch and burn, mock and smear writings encased in scornful, supercilious, opinionated, and shallow rhetoric.”

I freely admit this and am damned proud of it.

But instead of dishing out the usual sarcastic bile, I have another idea today. I don’t know about you, but with me self-quaranting as much as possible, I am running out of things to read or watch. I still have for-pay work but who knows how much that might last? So, why don’t we exchange ideas of new stuff to occupy our minds with. Here’s a list of recommended movies, TV series and books:

  • On Netflix, I am a huge fan of the German TV series “Bablyon Berlin,” which imagines a very dark, brooding German capital after the Great War and before Hitler. The chief characters are Georeon Rath, a shattered war veteran and police detective who gets into the seamy side of life. His heart throb is Charlotte Ritter, an office worker and part-time prostitute. The series has everything, shady characters, mysterious train shipments from the Soviet Union, fascists, communists, early porn studios. The acting, story line and photography are excellent. It’s like a grown up version of “Cabaret.”

Continue reading →

24 Comments

Posted in Blogs and Blog Administration, Culture wars, Defense and National Security, Energy, Environment, Immigration, Media, Mental illness and substance abuse, Money in politics, Politics, Public safety & health

Who Is Tommy East?

Posted on April 23, 2020 by | 59 comments

Tommy East

James C. Sherlock

Tommy East sits as the Nursing Home Industry representative on the Virginia Board of Health. He is the President & CEO of Heritage Hall Healthcare and Rehabilitation Centers, an operator of nursing homes headquartered in Roanoke.

In 2014, he was appointed by Governor McAuliffe to serve on the Commonwealth of Virginia Board of Health. In 2018, he was reappointed by Governor Northam.

East has served on the Board of Directors and the Executive Board for the Virginia Health Care Association (Nursing Homes). The Virginia Healthcare Association over the years has contributed more than $2.5 million to candidates and PACs in Virginia.

Medicare Nursing Home Compare data and the state records maintained by Virginia Health Information were last updated on March 30, 2020, from facility payroll reports. In those data, 42 of Virginia’s 286 Medicare and Medicaid long-term care facilities reported one-star (much below average) staffing levels. More than half of the 286 were rated much below average or below average. Continue reading →

59 Comments

Posted in Health Care, Money in politics, Regulations and Government Oversight

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Do Not Extend Ban on Elective Procedures, Hospitals Urge Governor

Posted on April 23, 2020 by | 23 comments

Sean Connaughton

by James A. Bacon

Citing ample hospital capacity and the deferral of 15,000 medical procedures each week, the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association is calling upon Governor Ralph Northam to allow hospitals to resume non-emergency procedures across Virginia.

“Significant progress has been made in combating the COVID-19 pandemic and treating those afflicted with the virus,” wrote President Sean Connaughton to the governor in a letter written five days ago and released today.

Northam’s March 25 executive order prohibited inpatient and outpatient surgical hospitals from performing elective procedures in order to free up more hospital beds and personal protective equipment. That directive expires April 24, and Connaughton urged the Governor not to renew it. In place of that order, hospitals have agreed to abide by a “Framework for Reopening Virginia’s Hospitals.” Continue reading →

23 Comments

Posted in Health Care, Regulations and Government Oversight

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Notes from the Right Wing Echo Chamber

Posted on April 23, 2020 by | 45 comments

By Peter Galuszka

On Wednesday, I was standing next to the Capitol grounds in Richmond watching brightly decorated cars and pickups drive on 9th Street, their horns blaring.

I was attending the drive by protest rally on assignment for Style Weekly and happened to speak to Jason Roberge, a Spotsylvania County resident who is one of several Republicans hoping to oust U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a former covert CIA officer who represents the 7th Congressional district.

Roberge was there to protest what he says is Gov. Ralph Northam’s “terrible job” in temporarily shutting down businesses to prevent the spread of the COVID 19 virus. The rally was part of a series of protests across the country that are being set up on cue from right-wing activists.

Roberge told me: ”I hear he’s (Northam’s) down on North Carolina beach while this is going on.” As he spoke the House of Delegates was holding a special session under an outdoor tent nearby while the Senate presided at the Science Museum of Virginia.

Northam at the beach? It turns out that the conservative echo chamber has been peddling a story, firmly denied by Northam’s office, that he was at his house in Manteo, N.C. not far from the beaches at Nags Head during the special General Assembly session. Continue reading →

45 Comments

Posted in Business and Economy, Consumer Protection, Corruption and Scandals, Courts and law, Culture wars, Economic development, General Assembly, Governance, Money in politics, Politics, Property rights, Regulations and Government Oversight

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Northam Is Using the Wrong Metric to Guide Lock Down

Posted on April 23, 2020 by | 19 comments

by James A. Bacon

Governor Ralph Northam says he won’t begin phasing out COVID-19 lockdown measures in Virginia until he sees a decrease in the number of coronavirus cases for two full weeks. “We are nowhere near 14 days,” he reminded everyone in a virtual town hall yesterday.

Here’s the rub: The Governor has no idea whether the number of COVID-19 cases is increasing or shrinking. The state’s capacity to administer tests is so inadequate — Virginia tests per million population lags that of 49 other states, even Guam, says Jim Sherlock in a previous post — that the Governor has appointed a working group to fix the problem. He has provided no estimate of when the shortfall will be resolved to his satisfaction.

But there is another set of metrics — a more reliable and, arguably, a more useful set — that could guide the Governor should he choose: Hospitalization data. As can be seen in the graph above, taken from the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association COVID-19 dashboard, the number of confirmed COVID-19 patients in hospitals has reached a plateau and is increasing very slowly. The number of severely ill patients in ICUs and on ventilators has actually decreased over the past two-three weeks. Continue reading →

19 Comments

Posted in Health Care, Regulations and Government Oversight

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Even Guam Leads Virginia in COVID-19 Testing

Posted on April 23, 2020 by | 8 comments

Lowest ranked states and possessions for COVID-19 tests per million population.

by James C. Sherlock

Virginia trails almost all U.S. states and possessions in the percentage of the population tested for the COVID-19 virus — even as Governor Ralph Northam has made extensive testing a prerequisite for ending the shutdown. Guam has performed more tests per capita than Virginia. Among the 50 states, Virginia exceeds only Kansas by a slim margin.

The accompanying table draws from The COVID Tracking website, which in turn pulled data from Virginia Department of Health website, effective April 22, 2020. I used state population figures from latest Census Bureau estimates for July 1, 2019.

Continue reading →

8 Comments

Posted in Health Care

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COVID Casualty: Unemployment Insurance System

Posted on April 23, 2020 by | 25 comments

The rise and fall of Virginia’s unemployment insurance tax, per worker, in response to the 2008-2009 recession. The COVID-19 recession, just starting, is likely to set new records for amount of tax and the length of time those elevated taxes are imposed. This chart includes the average (not maximum) base tax, an additional $16 fund builder tax, and a pool tax imposed on everybody who pays to compensate for employers who default. Source: Virginia Employment Commission.

By Steve Haner

This first appeared in today’s Richmond Times-Dispatch and has also been distributed by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy.  

America’s and Virginia’s unemployment insurance program – born of the Great Depression and the Social Security Act of 1935 – may be another casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus has mutated unemployment insurance into a form not financially sustainable.

Each state has its own unemployment insurance trust fund, financed by taxes on employers and steadily growing in good times. The last time the Virginia Employment Commission publicly reported on our fund’s status, almost a year ago, it projected a balance of $1.3 billion by the end of 2019.  Continue reading →

25 Comments

Posted in Business and Economy, General Assembly, Labor and Workforce, Taxes

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Parole Board Frees Murderers

Posted on April 23, 2020 by | 21 comments

Deborah Scribner, mother-in-law from hell

by Kerry Dougherty

In 2012, Debra Scribner, 58, was convicted of first degree murder, conspiracy to commit first degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a murder in connection with the shooting death of her son-in-law Eric Wynn in Halifax County.

She was sentenced to 23 years in prison plus 6 months.

That was eight short years ago.

Scribner’s now 66, back at home on Virginia’s Southside and prosecutors say neighbors report seeing her relaxing in her yard.

This felon was freed earlier this month by Gov. Ralph Northam’s parole board which is breathlessly throwing open cell doors all over the commonwealth during this pandemic.

State officials want you to believe they are releasing only non-violent criminals and those with less than one year to serve on their sentences.

Debra Scribner is proof that this is not true. Continue reading →

21 Comments

Posted in Crime, Corrections and Law Enforcement

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More Radio Punditry from PeterG

Posted on April 22, 2020 by | 9 comments


Listen to the latest Bold Dominion podcast from WTJU radio in Charlottesville, in which Peter Galuszka swaps views with the host.

9 Comments

Posted in Media

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Autoimmune Response and Unequal Impacts

Posted on April 22, 2020 by | 32 comments

by Carol J. Bova

When I first read of the racial differences in Virginia’s COVID-19 statistics, I wondered how reliable the numbers were. After exploring details from multiple sources, medical and popular, I no longer doubt there is a serious demographic divide in the impact of COVID-19. The disparities are is not limited by race but tie into genetics and early life experience. Socioeconomic status, especially early in life, is too often the foundation for adult impacts of health conditions that increase the risk of severe COVID-19.

Diabetes, chronic lung disease (including moderate to severe asthma, heart disease, obesity, and other chronic diseases are the top four comorbidities for COVID-19, according to an April 3 CDC report. Others include an immunocompromised condition, kidney disease requiring dialysis, pregnancy, being a current or former smoker, neurologic disorders, and liver disease.(1) The report broke down 7,162 COVID-19 cases with “data on the presence or absence of underlying health conditions and other recognized risk factors for severe outcomes from respiratory infections.”(2) Although the results were preliminary and limited by the amount of data collected by health departments, they seem to echo more recent reports.

In that first study of 7,162 COVID-19 cases with completed information on one or more underlying conditions, the CDC found:

Continue reading →

32 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

Looking for the Goldilocks Lockdown

Posted on April 22, 2020 by | 4 comments

by Chris Spencer

Virginia has an opportunity to show the rest of the nation how to reopen and prepare for the next waves of COVID-19.

We needed widespread mandatory restrictions in March to (a) flatten the curve to give the health system a chance to manage it and (b) impress upon people the seriousness of the situation. That worked. Everyone recognizes that the rules have to be lifted. The question is when and how. We need to find what one might call the Goldilocks zones: not too hot, not too cold, just right. Why zones? Because no one approach is going to be right for every business and for every part of the state.

Who decides? Certainly not talking TV heads or Twitter. Certainly not government alone. Certainly not each business and each citizen. We are all in this together and we have to get out of it together.

How do we decide? By working together. Continue reading →

4 Comments

Posted in Health Care, Regulations and Government Oversight

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COVID-19 Update: Hospitalization Signs Stable

Posted on April 22, 2020 by | 6 comments

by James A. Bacon

Hospitalization of patients testing positive for COVID-19 continues to creep higher in Virginia, though not at the scarily rapid rate of earlier in the month. Social distancing measures, both those imposed and those voluntarily embraced by the population, are slowing the spread of the virus.

The plague is still spreading by this measure — 870 confirmed cases yesterday, up from 854 the previous day — but we’re close enough to a peak that Virginia hospitals are no longer worried about Italy-style scenarios being replicated here. (The VHHA also reports the number of hospitalized patients who are being tested for the virus, which stands at 495 in today’s data update. But I have not been tracking that number, so I cannot say how fast it has been rising.)

Even the widely reported shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) seems to be easing. At one point, the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association dashboard indicated that 11 hospitals in the state expected to have difficulty obtaining the equipment within the next 72 hours. That number now is down to three. Continue reading →

6 Comments

Posted in Health Care

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No, Governor, Back-to-Work Protesters Are Not “Selfish”

Posted on April 22, 2020 by | 78 comments

Florida protesters against economic lock-down measures.

by James A. Bacon

Governor Ralph Northam has a problem with protesters who would like to see him reopen Virginia’s economy by phasing out his COVID-19 emergency decrees. In an interview with MSNBC, he said (as reported by Politico):

I’m just as anxious as anybody else to open up our economy. We don’t need protesters to encourage me and anybody else to ease these restrictions. …

What they’re doing at the end of the day — which I think is so selfish — they’re putting our health care providers, those that are in the trenches trying to save lives every day, they’re putting them at risk, and that’s wrong. I would ask them to think about that.

Selfish?

As Northam acknowledged in this tweet in another context, “Most people live paycheck to paycheck.” He was right about that. Hundreds of thousands of Virginians do live from paycheck to paycheck. The loss of a week’s pay can represent financial disaster for some, and there is no assurance that emergency federal helicopter dollars will make them whole.

Is it “selfish” to want to go back to work? Continue reading →

78 Comments

Posted in Civil Rights, Individual Liberties

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Ralph “No Hope” Northam

Posted on April 22, 2020 by | 60 comments

Eighty degrees and empty. Photo by Kerry Dougherty.

by Kerry Dougherty

Gird your loins, Virginia.

While some governors are preparing to gradually reopen their state economies with social distancing and restrictions, noncommittal Ralph Northam seems ready to stretch this misery out for months.

Long after COVID-19 is forecast to be inactive.

Last night, during a virtual town hall, Northam once again deflated expectations that his stay-at-home order — as it affects coastal Virginia, anyway — might be revoked before June 10.

Question: Is it reasonable to expect large events this summer?

Gov. Ralph Northam: I would like to say by July the virus will be in our rear view mirror, but I wouldn’t recommend summer events right now such as festivals and beaches opening.

He wouldn’t recommend summer events such as beaches being open by July?

Is he insane? Continue reading →

60 Comments

Posted in Business and Economy, Uncategorized

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