Public Venues Begin To Relax Covid Restrictions

AP: 2 Major Venues To Lift Virus Capacity Limits In Nashville
Two major Nashville venues will soon lift capacity restrictions as the city continues to reopen from implementing limitations on businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. News outlets report that Nashville Soccer Club will open at near capacity for its May 23 match. Face coverings will still be encouraged, but not required for outdoors. Meanwhile, Grand Ole Opry will begin weekly performances at full capacity on May 14 for the first time in more than a year. The indoor mask mandate will remain in place. (5/10)

AP: Big Venues Set To Expand Capacity As State Eases Limits
Large event venues including TD Garden, Fenway Park and Gillette Stadium will be allowed to double their current capacities starting on Monday, and amusement parks will be permitted to reopen at half capacity as the state relaxes its COVID-19 restrictions. The state is scheduled to move to the next step in its reopening plan, allowing large indoor and outdoor venues to increase capacity from 12% to 25%. Gov. Charlie Baker announced the shift last month, saying the state’s coronavirus cases had fallen 20% since March. (5/9)

NBC News: Walt Disney World, Universal Studios To End Temperature Checks For Guests
Walt Disney World Resorts announced this week that it will begin to phase out temperature checks at parks and facilities before the end of the month. The theme parks and related resorts will end temperature screenings for cast members on May 8 and for visiting guests on May 16, according to an announcement on Disney's website. The change comes as Florida begins to make adjustments to its local coronavirus regulations. (Vaughn, 5/7)

NBC News: Workers At Ballparks And Theme Parks Have Mixed Feelings About Returning
After more than a year of being shut out, cashiers, food vendors, guest greeters and other workers are making their way back to America’s most beloved baseball stadiums, amusement parks and concert venues — but the great return is being met with changes and conflicting feelings of anxiety and excitement as tens of thousands of fans and visitors also make their way back. “You don’t know what’s going to happen,” said beer vendor Heidi Hashem, 46, at the beginning of the 2021 season. (Messenger and Pandise, 5/8)

AP: Tearful Reunions Mark Second Mother's Day Under Pandemic
Last Mother’s Day, they celebrated with bacon and eggs over FaceTime. This time, Jean Codianni of Los Angeles flew to New Jersey to surprise her 74-year-old mother, now that both have been vaccinated against the disease that has stolen uncountable hugs and kisses around the world. “You forget how your mom smells, how she looks. It’s like, she never looks as beautiful as the last time you saw her,” Codianni said. “We understand how privileged we are, how lucky we are. Hundreds of thousands of people don’t get to celebrate Mother’s Day, or are celebrating it under a veil of grief.” (Lauer, Liu and White, 5/9)

In other public health news —

Philadelphia Inquirer: Heart Failure Can Occur During Pregnancy, And Black Women Fare Worse Than Others. Penn Doctors Are Starting To Find Out Why
For several days, Carmelita Murphy felt short of breath and her legs were swollen. She had given birth to a son, DJ, just two weeks earlier, so she figured those symptoms were part of the deal. Then came the really bad headache. After promising her mother that she would get it checked out, she went to bed that night in her Atlantic City apartment. But at 1 a.m., when she heard the baby cry and tried to get up, she felt dizzy and passed out. Murphy, then just 20 years old, had a condition normally seen in people many decades older: heart failure. (Avril, 5/9)

Opelika-Auburn News: Auburn Family Starts Nonprofit Honoring Son Lost To Cancer
Whether through anger, denial, depression or guilt, everyone goes through their own ways of coping with the loss of someone they loved. For a few, they find the strength to transform that grief into ensuring that others don’t have to suffer the same loss they went through. The Power of Will, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to funding research and assisting families with loved ones suffering from sarcoma, was founded by the family of Will Hudson, a 26-year-old Auburn native who died in August 2020 after years of battling cancer. (Hosey, 5/9)

KHN: How Schools Can Help Kids Heal After The Pandemic’s Uncertainty 
Kai Humphrey, 9, has been learning from home for more than a year. He badly misses his Washington, D.C., elementary school, along with his friends and the bustle of the classroom. “I will be the first person ever to have every single person in the world as my friend,” he said on a recent Zoom call, his sandy-brown hair hanging down to his shoulder blades. From Kai, this kind of proclamation doesn’t feel like bragging, more like exuberant kindness. (Turner and Herman, 5/10)

KHN: From Covid Coverage To ‘Public Option’ Plans, Journalists Delve Into Details
KHN senior correspondent Julie Appleby discussed changes in insurance coverage for covid-19 care on Newsy on Thursday. ... KHN senior correspondent Mary Agnes Carey discussed Connecticut’s legislative efforts to pass a “public option” insurance plan on WNPR’s “Where We Live” on Wednesday. (5/8)

BBC: Elon Musk Reveals He Has Asperger's On Saturday Night Live
Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has revealed he has Asperger's syndrome while appearing on the US comedy sketch series Saturday Night Live (SNL). It is thought to be the first time Mr Musk has spoken about his condition. ... "I don't always have a lot of intonation or variation in how I speak... which I'm told makes for great comedy," he joked in his opening monologue. (5/9)

In news about health and race —

Stateline: As States Push For Police Accountability Advocates Focus On Black Trauma
Nearly 2,000 police overhaul and accountability bills in all 50 states and the District of Columbia have been filed this session as federal and state lawmakers face mounting pressure to respond to continued police shootings and nationwide protests. Mental health advocates and professionals say passing such laws is necessary, but they argue strongly for additional measures to address the trauma Black people face because of policing issues. They’re pushing for more affordable and accessible mental health care, trauma-informed training for law enforcement officials and financial support for Black mental health professionals and community organizations. Mental health advocates also want to help Black people overcome any fear or distrust of the medical system. (Wright, 5/7)

KHN: The Making Of Reluctant Activists: A Police Shooting In A Hospital Forces One Family To Rethink American Justice
The beer bottle that cracked over Christian Pean’s head unleashed rivulets of blood that ran down his face and seeped into the soil in which Harold and Paloma Pean were growing their three boys. At the time, Christian was a confident high school student, a football player in the suburbs of McAllen, Texas, a border city at the state’s southern tip where teenage boys — Hispanic, Black, white — sung along to rap songs, blaring out the N-word in careless refrain. “If you keep it up, we’re going to fight,” Christian warned a white boy who sang the racial epithet at a party one evening in the waning years of George W. Bush’s presidency. And they did. (Varney, 5/10)