Viewpoints: Lessons On Promoting Health Care Policies During A Drug Crisis; Wearing Masks Really Does Lower Transmission Rates
Opinion writers weigh in on these pandemic topics and others.
Los Angeles Times:
Crack Epidemic Set Tone For Police And Coronavirus Failures
What if the nation had met the crack epidemic of the 1980s with healthcare rather than with police and prison? How much more prepared might we have been today for a deadly viral pandemic, and how much more resilient in the aftermath, had we built out a public health infrastructure with treatment clinics, housing and other resources and supports aimed at restoring the health of American neighborhoods? What if we had recruited, trained and adequately paid a generation of clinicians, physicians, nurses, researchers, peer counselors and educators to deal with the drug crisis instead of buying tanks and armored cars for police and sending them into neighborhoods suffering the physical and social consequences of cheap crack cocaine? (6/10)
St. Louis Post Dispatch:
Strong Evidence That Masks Really Help Contain The Contagion
The results are by no means scientific, but they sure are impressive. An unintended experiment in contagion containment occurred in Springfield, Missouri, last month when two hairstylists at a Great Clips salon worked on customers despite showing symptoms and ultimately testing positive for coronavirus infection. They potentially exposed 140 clients and six co-workers.Amazingly, none of those exposed tested positive or displayed symptoms after being placed on a two-week watch during the normal incubation period for the virus. One factor that might have figured heavily in this remarkable result: All staffers and clients had been required to wear masks, which help reduce the airborne transmission of tiny droplets exhaled by infected people. Despite the high potential for infection, the result in all 146 cases strongly suggests that masks and other precautionary measures help. (6/9)
Arizona Republic:
Gov. Doug Ducey won't wear a COVID-19 face mask. He prefers to wear blinders
It would be a lot less annoying and a lot more honest if Gov. Doug Ducey simply said that he’s decided Arizona will not impose any more restrictions needed to save lives and is going full speed ahead – COVID-19 be damned. Just … say it. Instead, Ducey continues to pretend that he and his administration consider protecting the public health to be their top priority. ...At the same time, since Ducey lifted restrictions there has been a spike in COVID-19 cases and in hospitalizations. So much so that hospitals have been advised by Dr. Cara Christ, Arizona Department of Health Services director, to "fully activate" their emergency plans. (EJ Montini, 6/9)
The Detroit News:
Keep Workers Safe, Healthy And On-The-Job
The labor movement has always led the charge in protecting working people from workplace injury, illness and death. We’ve all seen heroic workers on the news during the COVID-19 outbreak, working in jobs from health care to food service, risking their health and the health of their families in the process. The AFL-CIO has been working to advance protections in Michigan and federally to ensure we reopen the economy in a way that’s appropriately cautious and importantly, avoids a second wave of this awful virus. I’m grateful to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for all the actions she’s taken to protect Michigan’s working families. Her efforts have truly saved lives. Now the Republican majorities in the Legislature need to step up and do right by working people and work with Democrats to pass laws that make sure that these protections stay in place for the future, because this crisis isn’t over yet. (Ron Bieber, 6/9)
Cleveland Plain Dealer:
A Mother’s Plea Highlights Why All Ohio Juveniles In Detention Need To Be Sent Home Now
“They’re trying to kill my son.” With eyes overwhelmed by tears, a mother cried to me with these words. What made it harder was that I could not embrace her because these difficult times call for social distancing. As protests against police brutality ramp up across the country and uncertainty rises in the streets, surely I wanted to tell her: “Your son wasn’t sent to a prison to die.” But there are a number of children within youth prisons in Ohio, and across the United States who are at extreme risk of contracting COVID-19. (Basheer Jones, 6/9)
Dallas Morning News:
Universities Must Put Students First As They Discuss Fall Semester
Summer is in full swing, which means colleges have now shifted gears fully from managing the turmoil of spring semester to planning for an already rocky fall semester. The University of Dallas and the University of Texas System have already announced plans to hold classes in person, though what that will look like still remains up in the air.A lot must go into readying campus for student life once again and adjusting protocols to welcome the many that will return, but that should not overshadow the responsibility these institutions have to those faced with barriers to returning. As Texas universities look to reopen, they must do so cautiously and consider the well-being of their students first. To do this, they must be open and communicative and actively acknowledge the different circumstances students are undergoing as they deal with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. (6/9)
Tampa Bay Times:
Coronavirus Is Hurting Florida’s Renters And Landlords. Here’s A Remedy.
Gov. Ron DeSantis brought temporary relief to thousands of desperate Floridians by extending the statewide moratorium on foreclosures and evictions. The extension, to July, buys time for renters and homeowners who’ve been devastated by the coronavirus pandemic to imagine how they’ll pay rent or their mortgage. But landlords and lenders are hurting, too. Now is the time to come up with a comprehensive plan that softens the blow for the most vulnerable players along the housing food chain, for this crisis will not end overnight. (6/9)
Boston Globe:
In Minneapolis, An Anti-Brutality Blueprint For The City — And Possibly The Country — Could Be Drawn
For as long as Black people and other marginalized people are oppressed and brutalized in this country, there will be unrest. There will be protest. George Floyd deserves to rest in peace. And as we look at life after his death, we must make choices that allow us to live and thrive rather than fight to survive. We need justice to live in peace so we don’t have to die to find it. (Jeneé Osterheldt, 6/9)
