Author: James A. Bacon
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West Virginia Cocktail Party
Up yours, COVID-19! This is how we deal with epidemics in our western Henrico County cul de sac. We call it a West Virginia cocktail party. Someone in the neighborhood brings out some hors d’oeuvres, a bottle of wine and some folding chairs, and plants them in the front driveway. Neighbors come walking by, see…
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COVID-19 Update: March 17
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases jumped sharply, according to statistics updated today by the Virginia Department of Health. But don’t panic! While the number of cases increased 31%, the number of people tests leaped 110% as testing kits became increasingly available. The leap is a function of the testing, not the spread of the…
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Powerful Medicine: Fresh Air and Sunlight
by James A. Bacon One day some 60 years ago, I caught the flu. My mother, who believed that “sunlight and fresh air” cured many ills, deposited me in a chaise lounge in the side yard, threw a blanket over my lap, and let me soak up the great outdoors. I have no idea if…
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Surviving COVID-19 with Video Chat, Netflix and Amazon Prime
Northern Virginia reader Allen Barringer responded to my request yesterday for readers to describe how they are coping with COVID-19. He started writing this piece as a comment, but it became so comprehensive that we decided to publish it as a full-fledged post. — JAB by Allen Barringer We live in a surreal moment: On…
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Millions More for Higher Ed — with Strings Attached
by James A. Bacon Among the billions of additional spending for traditional Democratic-leaning constituencies in the next two-year budget, the General Assembly is ladling out $80 million more in state support for higher education. Unlike with most new expenditures, lawmakers are demanding something in return: To get their share of the moolah, public colleges and…
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Tracking COVID-19 Cases in Virginia
Coronavirus cases reported by the Virginia Department of Health have continued to increase in recent days, but they do not appear to be increasing at an accelerating rate. Whether these numbers accurately reflect reality or just the paucity of testing kits remains to be seen. If the impression is accurate, it is heartening indeed: The…
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Hey, Politicians, Give Unspent Campaign Funds to Charity
by James C. Sherlock I am a strong believer in the generosity of most Americans. I offer in this essay a way for Virginia elected officials to donate campaign money left over from their last elections to charities that provide healthcare services to Virginia’s poor. It is a simple concept that can do a lot…
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Damn the Coronavirus! Full Speed Ahead!
The budget forecasts underpinning Virginia’s General Fund budgets for FY 2021 and 2022 suggests that revenues will increase 4.5% next year and 3.7% the year after that. Secretary of Finance Aubrey Layne released those numbers back in December, when COVID-19 was still an obscure disease incubating in a Wuhan wet market. But it’s a very…
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COVID-19 Open Thread: Speak, Readers. How Are You Responding?
by James A. Bacon On Friday I met a friend for what will likely be my last restaurant meal for a long time. We spent most of the time talking about the COVID-19 virus: its origins, the government’s response, and the response of individual citizens. We chatted with our waiter, who was cheerful and surprisingly…
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Blame COPN for Looming Bed Shortages
by James Sherlock The hospital bed shortages cited by Jim Bacon in his post, “Not Nearly Enough Hospital Beds,“ is a direct outcome of how the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) has administered Virginia’s Certificate of Public Need law. Virginia’s scarcity of physicians and nurses also can be traceable in part to COPN’s denial of…
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Doctors and Nurses Need Child Care to Fight Coronavirus
by Hans Bader Last week, several governors correctly closed their states’ schools to slow the spread of coronavirus. The draconian actions were needed to keep hospitals from being overwhelmed in the coming weeks as the number of coronavirus cases grows exponentially. But closing the schools will place heavy burdens on many parents who have to…
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A Source of Doctors, Nurses for COVID-19 Response
by James Sherlock This morning, March 15, I sent an email to Dr. Dan Carey, Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Resources, to the Medical Society of Virginia and to the Medical Society of Northern Virginia. I offered a concept for significantly and quickly increasing the number of medical personnel available for COVID-19 response in…
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Final Day of Quarantine
by Philip Shucet Since the beginning of the year I’ve driven through fifteen states from Florida to Iowa and have been around tens-of-thousands of people to photograph political rallies. Coronavirus cases have been confirmed in every one of those states. On Monday, March 9, I came down with chills and a fever of over 101.…
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Not Nearly Enough Hospital Beds
by James A. Bacon On Friday, the VDH reported on its COVID-19 page that 30 individuals had been identified as having contracted the coronavirus and 10 had been hospitalized. As of Saturday, VDH was stating that the number of cases had increased to 41, but it no longer provided the number of hospitalizations. The website…
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Money and Chaos in Virginia Politics
by James C. Sherlock Having watched the flood of money into the 2017 and 2019 Virginia elections and the utter chaos in the 2020 General Assembly, I offer what I hope are two reform suggestions that meet with bipartisan approval. Limit the money in state politics I wrote an entire column on the abuses of…