Different Takes: Europe Forced To Lockdown Again; Dr. Birx Speaks Out Too Late
Opinion writers tackle Covid and vaccine issues.
Bloomberg:
Vaccines Can Heal Europe’s Lockdown Blues
Lockdown restrictions are sweeping Europe again. France’s Emmanuel Macron is the latest leader to impose nationwide stay-at-home curbs, closing non-essential businesses, schools and daycare centers. A surge in Covid-19 infections has also forced neighboring Germany and Italy into Easter shutdowns, as vaccinations still aren’t where they need to be to keep pace with new and more contagious virus variants. (Lionel Laurent, 4/2)
USA Today:
Dr. Birx Spoke Out Against Trump COVID Response A Year Too Late
The coordinator of the Trump administration's coronavirus response made a shocking revelation during a recent CNN interview — many of the 550,000 Americans lives lost to the pandemic could have been saved with better leadership .In other words, managing the response to the pandemic under President Donald Trump — Dr. Deborah Birx's responsibility — was a failure of historic proportions. (4/1)
Houston Chronicle:
Did Scientists In China Design Coronavirus? Mother Nature Is A Far Likelier Culprit.
This year, one of the great events in biology takes place, the emergence of the 17-year cicadas. These remarkable creatures have managed to avoid extinction by creating an event every 17 years in the northeast and every 13 years in the south. Their behavior has evolved perfectly to avoid the crushing impact of advancing and retreating glaciers and predators over millions of years. What does this have to with the emergence of the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2? As I listened this week to Robert Redfield, the former director of the CDC, tell CNN correspondent Sanjay Gupta that, in his opinion, SARS-Cov-2 came from a laboratory in China, the association became clear. His reasoning was that because the virus was so capable of infecting people, it must have originated in a laboratory in China. He believes well-intentioned researchers may have selected out strains that are easier to cultivate for their research, and in this sense designed the deadly SARS-CoV-2 that made its way into the general population, even if accidentally. Based on that reasoning, the 17-year cicadas must also have been designed by man in a laboratory somewhere on Earth. (Paul Klotman, 4/2)
The Baltimore Sun:
The Pandemic Is Not Over: Wear Your Mask
There is a natural human instinct to declare victory before it is actually achieved. From the Chicago Tribune’s infamous “Dewey Defeats Truman” headline to wide receiver DeSean Jackson spiking the football before he reached the end zone that cost the Philadelphia Eagles a touchdown some years back, people under stress can make bad choices. Sometimes, the impact is merely comical as with a football game or instant collector’s item newspaper. But then there are times when such pronouncements can have deadly consequences. Now happens to be one of those times. (4/1)
Chicago Tribune:
What To Do When Friends, Family Resist COVID Vaccine? Persist. Gently.
Mary Murtaugh is a recently retired nurse who says she has never been shy about promoting good health. She wasn’t shy the day she asked her favorite grocery store cashier if she’d been vaccinated. The cashier was emphatic. No. And she wasn’t going to be. After listening to the cashier explain that she’d had a bad reaction to a flu shot, Murtaugh persisted. (Mary Schmich, 4/2)
Dallas Morning News:
More Than 1 Million Texas Seniors Aren’t Vaccinated. We Need To Get More Creative.
Residents of Dickinson Place, a low-income apartment complex for seniors in Old East Dallas, had been holding their breath for months, waiting for a jab in the arm. Their former lives, full of gatherings and activity, were put away in storage along with the communal living room furniture that was pushed together and hidden behind curtains to enforce social distancing. The dining hall was cleared of tables, and upholstered chairs that sat in a corner were covered in yellow “caution” tape. Many of the seniors at Dickinson Place have mobility problems and require the assistance of home care aides. But because Dickinson Place is not a long-term care facility, the residents did not qualify for a federal program that deployed CVS and Walgreens to administer shots on site. As of late March, about 40 of the 141 residents at Dickinson Place who wanted a vaccine had not been able to get one, even though they live half a mile away from the closest vaccination hub. (4/2)
