Author: James A. Bacon
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COVID-19 Update: Deaths Trending Down, Governor’s Metrics Trending Positive
The number of COVID-19-related deaths reported to the Virginia Department of Health has been falling the last week. (The May 7 spike you see in the chart above represents two days’ of deaths due to a glitch in the VDH system. The average for May 6 and 7 combined was 28 deaths.) The last four…
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Northam’s Ludicrous Beach Rules
by Kerry Dougherty It’s beginning to look like something other than a concern for public health lurks behind Governor Ralph Northam’s irrational decision to keep the beaches closed indefinitely. Although there is much we don’t know about COVID-19, study after study — from Australia to Stanford to Connecticut — indicates that while the virus is…
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Shades of “Shovel Ready”
by James A. Bacon Unemployment in the United States is the highest it has ever been since the end of the Great Depression. But good luck luring people back to work, at least in the short term. Many people can make more money on unemployment than when they were working. Joe Sparatta, chef/owner of the…
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COVID-19 Update: Confirmed Cases Trending Lower
Despite a rough doubling of COVID-19 tests over the past two weeks, the number of confirmed cases is trending lower according to this graph (above) produced on the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) COVID-19 dashboard. Meanwhile, the number of COVID-19 patients currently being hospitalized is drifting higher, as the chart below from John Butcher indicates.…
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“Deal Honestly and Boldly with the Shortcomings and Inequities that Plague our Society”
by James A. Bacon Compare and contrast the visions for the future offered in the commencement addresses of B.K. Fulton to the da Vinci School at Virginia Commonwealth University (see previous post) and that of James Madison President Jon Alger (above). Both expressed faith and optimism in the future, and both encouraged young people to…
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Celebrating the Contributions of Those on the Margins
I love B.K. Fulton’s powerful, uplifting message. As former Fortune 500 business executive, author, and serial entrepreneur, he speaks not only to other African-Americans but to all people. In contrast to those who dwell on the negatives of American society, he emphasizes the positive. He crafts a narrative of hope. Fulton was invited to…
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The Inexorable Logic of Distance Learning
by James A. Bacon Distance learning was already on the rise at Virginia higher-ed institutions before the COVID-19 epidemic prompted college administrators to send students home and complete their classes online. Many faculty and administrators are hoping that they can revert to the status quo of good ol’ fashioned face-to-face classes when the epidemic subsides.…
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What? Nursing Home Rights Outweigh Patient Rights?
by James A. Bacon In a press conference yesterday, Virginia’s Secretary of Health and and Human Resources Daniel Carey stated that under current law the right of nursing homes to protect “personal health information” outweighs the right of the public to know which nursing homes have residents or employees infected by the COVID-19 virus and…
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Death Comes to Virginia’s Nursing Homes
by Kerry Dougherty Imagine for a moment that your grandmother is in a Virginia nursing home. You haven’t seen her since late February or early March when visitation was terminated due to concerns about the coronavirus. Perhaps your grandmother has some dementia, making it impossible to chat on the phone to ask how she’s doing.…
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More than $1 Billion in Out-of-State Tuition Dollars at Risk
by James A. Bacon Several days ago, Juan Espinoza, director of undergraduate admissions at Virginia Tech, emailed his counterparts at Virginia’s other public four-year colleges and universities to inform them that Tech was having difficulty meeting its enrollment objectives. After U.S. higher-ed institutions sent students home during the COVID-19 epidemic this spring, families were having…
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COVID-1 Update: Same Old, Same Old
Not much new to report on the COVID-19 data front, mainly because the Virginia Department of Health, citing “a technical error,” hasn’t updated its dashboard since May 5. That leaves us only the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association dashboard to scour for new trends. The main trend worth noting from the last few days is…
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How COVID-19 Demographics Can Inform Public Policy
by James A. Bacon The COVID-19 virus, we have been told repeatedly strikes all ages. That statement is true, but also misleading. If one crunches the numbers from the Virginia Department of Health COVID-19 dashboard, there is no avoiding the conclusion that COVID-19 is a serious disease primarily for the middle-aged and elderly, and it…
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New Ways to Visualize COVID-19 Data
John Butcher has created two new graphs that allow us to visualize the capacity of Virginia hospitals to handle the COVID-19 epidemic. The graph above compares the number of COVID-19 hospitalized patients to the total number of occupied beds and the total number of hospital beds in Virginia. Clearly, there s abundant excess capacity in…
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COVID-19 Not a Reason to Release Prison Inmates
by Hans Bader Criminals are being released from jail due to the coronavirus pandemic, especially in progressive states. But states should think twice. Letting criminals out won’t save lives. Instead, it will spread the disease far and wide, and increase the crime rate, including murders and rapes. Supporters of releasing criminals say it will protect…
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Behaving Like a Commonwealth
by Kerry Dougherty Gov. Ralph Northam’s press conferences are weird, unsettling events. They’re free of the fireworks and drama that are a regular feature of the president’s wild pressers. But there’s a sense of quiet despair and dictatorial impulses about them. Northam is frequently befuddled on these occasions, as he was last week when he…