CONNECTICUT
Coronavirus another grim chapter for black Americans
New Haven Register
April 10
The pandemic is a reminder of the most shameful chapters of American history.
In case you need a refresher course, divisions in our nation over issues of humanity were once so deep that the result was a civil war.
There is more, so much more, that slowed the march toward equality for black Americans.
Still, after 244 years, we still have so much work to do. The coronavirus era will be a defining chapter in the lives of everyone, but we should also bookmark how cruelly it has infected black people in our nation.
Black Americans are dying as a disproportionate rate in the United States, a reflection of failures to provide balanced resources to all communities.
Even the coronavirus deniers out there - and we must acknowledge their existence - should be alarmed by the disparity. These numbers don’t lie.
“Why is it that the African American community is so much, numerous times more than everybody else?” President Donald Trump observed, noting that federal officials will dig deeper into examining the issue.
Tracing the trail across the states is a bleak travelogue with a limited road map. Only a few states have released racial data, but they all reveal similar trends.
African-Americans represent about one-third of the population in Louisiana, but 70 percent of coronavirus patients.
About 15 percent of the Illinois population is black, a number that almost doubles regarding cases. Similarly, Michigan has seen one-third of its COVID-19 cases impact its black community, which is less than 15 percent of the state’s population.
The available data that may resonate for many Connecticut residents comes from New York City. African Americans represent 22 percent of the population and 28 percent of the number of deaths related to coronavirus. It’s less jarring compared with other available data, but comes with another piece of troubling information: Hispanics account for 29 percent of the population and 34 percent of the deaths.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working to ensure data is available from every state. It’s vital to address immediate concerns, such as creating more effective communication with minority populations.
And, even as we celebrate heroes on the front lines, we need to be unflinching in exploring whether patients are being treated equally at medical centers.
It is necessary to also address a picture even bigger than this once-in-a-lifetime pandemic.
It’s easy to reason that more black Americans are becoming infected because fewer are able to work from home. Because fewer have access to the same technology providing updates and best practices for dealing with the crisis. Because fewer have access to health insurance.
Black Americans are also prone to suffer from asthma, high blood pressure and diabetes, all of which is not helped by leading harder lives.
Collectively, these are all signs of a health crisis in America, even if it’s not the one everyone is thinking about right now.
Online: https://bit.ly/2RwGzR8
___
MASSACHUSETTS
Coronavirus: All coming together on next stimulus bill
The Republican of Springfield
April 8
When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are on the same page regarding the need for another economic recovery package, with the White House generally on board, too, there’s little doubt that something will get done. And soon. Thank goodness.
The $2 trillion economic stimulus act that Congress passed late last month before getting out of town was seen at the time as a much-needed salve for our greatly wounded economy. The widespread stay-at-home orders and the attendant business shutterings put into place because of the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus were not yet in full force. But everyone knew what was just around the corner: a sudden and dramatic economic collapse with no clear end in sight.
And that’s exactly what’s now upon us.
Funds in the latest round of stimulus buoy unemployment insurance, get money into the hands of the people, assist small businesses in dire need. And though there have been significant wrinkles along the way, the stimulus bill will help. But not as much as needed.
This is why Pelosi has wisely been pushing another stimulus package — to the tune of another trillion dollars-plus — with McConnell and the White House mostly going along. Pelosi, a Democrat from California, and McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, often have exceedingly differing agendas. Though the pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus hasn’t altered that basic fact, it has, at least for now, allowed both of them, and others, to set those differences aside so that Washington can do what needs to be done.
When Congress passed the first three phases of coronavirus legislation, congressional leaders, from both political parties, worked closely with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. All sides pulled together. As the next piece of legislation comes together — so-called Phase 4 — lawmakers and the White House will be looking to improve upon what came before, and to expand the help that’s coming. More aid for the states. For hospitals. More testing.
In a crisis, one can’t follow the usual playbook. Effectively, everyone is making things up as they go, looking to implement changes as needed. And then to change some more as conditions merit.
Right now, we are all Americans, in the same perilous boat. Lawmakers and the White House need to keep working together to do what’s right, what’s best. Partisanship can wait.
Online: https://bit.ly/2JXbykY
___
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Realistic stockpile needs set up
Nashua Telegraph
April 10
Nearly 6,000 of the protective masks sent to Alabama from the federal stockpile of medical supplies were supposed to have been thrown away a decade ago. Materials in them had sustained dry rot and were unusable, according to The Associated Press.
Meanwhile, more than 150 ventilators sent to Los Angeles from the federal stockpile did not operate properly. They had to be repaired.
Any more questions about whether the federal government was prepared adequately for the COVID-19 outbreak?
Similar stories of unpreparedness have been uncovered in some states and big cities. They are not a matter of Republican or Democrat failures, though, no doubt, some politicians will attempt to capitalize on them.
No, this is a long-standing, bipartisan failure. We Americans simply grew complacent about our security against outbreaks of deadly diseases.
It has been pointed out that the states, not the federal government, should be responsible for public health challenges such as the coronavirus. Technically, that may be true.
But COVID-19 has made it clear that Washington must be a reliable strategic reserve for the states.
That means federal officials should have a stockpile of certain medical supplies and equipment such as protective masks and ventilators – and must keep supplies up to date and devices in good operating condition. No hospital should receive a shipment of masks that fall apart when unwrapped. No doctor should learn during a crisis that a ventilator does not work.
What to place in the federal stockpile? Good question. We know supplies such as face masks are needed to battle many infectious diseases. We recognize ventilators can save the lives of those suffering from a variety of illnesses. But other types of supplies and equipment are needed to deal with other types of disease.
The key is that a realistic federal stockpile needs to be set up – and maintained – as a backstop for states that may find themselves overwhelmed in a pandemic.
Online: https://bit.ly/3b14UpU
___
RHODE ISLAND
Protect safety of elections
The Providence Journal
April 9
Mail ballots are a notorious way politicians and activists can swing if not corrupt elections. The late Providence Mayor Vincent Cianci, a twice-convicted felon, was famous for using mail ballots to influence elections. Even in his last race in 2014, the only run for mayor he ever lost, state police investigated the collection of mail ballots by two of his supporters, off-duty police officers, at a homeless shelter.
Fair and legitimate elections are how the people exert their power in our system. Voters choose politicians they believe will best represent them and their interests. This system - combined with a free press and freedom of speech - is devised to keep citizens in charge, and to make it harder for politicians to abuse their power.
When fraudulent activity decides elections, voters are disenfranchised and the abuse of the public becomes much more likely.
That is why careful protections are built into a system. Most voting occurs on Election Day, in closely monitored polling places. In Rhode Island, voters are required to present an ID. This helps ensure that those who are voting are who they say they are.
For this reason, The Providence Journal has served a watchdog role in advocating that voting rolls be kept up to date and made accessible to the public in electronic form.
It is important that voter rolls be kept up to date so that votes are not cast in the names of dead voters or others who moved away.
Mail ballots are necessary to protect the voting rights of those who are unable to make it to the polls. But there must be legitimate reasons for skipping the normal process, and there should be protections that they are not misused or manipulated.
There are many special interests that would love to control the result of elections so that they might avail themselves of the powers of government to extract more money from taxpayers and achieve their political ends. The individual citizen would have little clout if elections could be easily manipulated by those who have the means to collect huge numbers of mail ballots, possibly filled in by someone else than the purported voter, and make sure they are the ones that get delivered.
As strong defenders of our system of self-government, we are extremely wary of talk that we should junk our in-person elections and go entirely to mail ballots because of fears of the coronavirus.
We call on Rhode Island’s legislative leaders to remain opposed to mail-ballot elections for this year’s September primary and November general elections. We ask them to protect the state’s hard-won voter ID law.
State officials should be making plans for conducting elections later in the year that are as safe as possible, without opening the floodgates to cheating.
Much will change between now and the fall. As we have long argued, a balance must be struck when dealing with the virus. While keeping people safe, we must also take care to protect our Constitution and our system of self-government, while refraining from utterly devastating our economy.
Online: https://bit.ly/34Dd85j
___
VERMONT
Crisis proves the importance of community
Brattleboro Reformer
April 8
We are learning quite a bit about ourselves and each other in these difficult times.
And while we sit in our houses, isolating ourselves from exposure to the COVID-19 virus and waiting for the worst of the danger to pass, one thing becomes more clear than anything else: We need each other.
This week brings religious holidays that are usually celebrated with family gatherings - Passover and Easter. It’s hard to be apart from family and faith communities at a time such as this. The absence of those in-person gatherings underscores how important they are, while the religious underpinnings of those holidays remind us to keep faith in uncertain times.
In sharp contrast to those communal holiday gatherings, there’s a persistent mythology in this country that anyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps and, by force of sheer will, become wealthy and comfortable. It’s not that it never happens; sometimes, it does.
But there’s a dark side to this fairy tale; the one that conflates wealth, success and fame with goodness or intelligence, and equates poverty or a lack of success with some personal failing or deficiency. It’s been used to justify letting the rich get richer at the expense of basic services for the poor. Some would say it’s playing out in the way medical resources are being allocated or denied to people in need right now.
That vulgar strain of Darwinism is a lie. It took a microscopic virus, which respects neither birth nor wealth in its harm to people of all ages and walks of life, to remind us of the truth: we are all human, and interconnected.
So when your federal government chooses “Alone Together” as its hashtag slogan for social distancing through this crisis? Reject “alone” for the bald-faced lie that it is, and embrace the word “together,” which has been proven a self-evident truth these past few weeks.
None of us can make it alone, not through this crisis and not in life. We all need a family we can call our own - if not by birth, then by choice. We all need mentors and teachers who can help us set goals and learn how to achieve them, friends we can confide in when things go wrong, and neighbors who can lend a helping hand when we’re in need.
We’re seeing every day how even the most simple gesture of caring among each other makes a significant difference in our ability to weather this storm. Whether it’s neighbors delivering groceries for each other or donations to a food pantry, we’re seeing how those simple human connections make such a big difference.
It can be as simple as a parade of police vehicles honoring Brattleboro’s first responders, or Manchester residents ringing bells at 8 p.m. every night, or Bennington residents organizing a car parade past the Vermont Veterans Home, so the men and women who live and work there could see and hear and know that they are remembered and valued.
As the weeks have stretched on, we have all, at one point or another, wished for the day to come when we can go “back to normal.” But if normal is anything like the system that created this disaster, we must recognize it for what it is and resolve to do better.
We cannot go back to a nation where you’re on your own. Not when we’ve seen it proven conclusively that we’re all in this together - and stronger together.
Online: https://bit.ly/2wzFxwq
___
MAINE
We need to hear the president’s plan for reopening the economy
Portland Press Herald
April 10
The Trump administration is expected to announce in the coming days a second coronavirus task force, this one focused specifically on reopening the economy. The White House reportedly hopes to reverse the broad shutdown as soon as May 1.
Yet we have not heard President Trump articulate a concrete plan for how that will be accomplished. Other than concerns over the slumping economy, and the president’s own impatience with it, we haven’t been told why that date makes sense, or whether it has any grounding in public health.
REOPENING THE RIGHT WAY
Reopening the economy too soon risks allowing a second wave of COVID-19, one that would cause more illness and death, and likely greater economic turmoil than if we continue to keep things shuttered until we’re in the clear.
Doing it right will take the willpower to wait until the right time, and it will take a coordinated response from a federal government that knows what it is doing.
Three weeks out from May 1, there are few indications the Trump administration can offer either of those things.
It’s true that the impact of widespread physical distancing is promising, and that continued diligence by everyone in the coming weeks could allow some aspects of life to begin to return to normal. But we cannot be lulled into complacency.
In order for businesses and other places of public gathering to reopen without causing another outbreak, it has to be done right. That means, at least, that there exists an adequate supply of rapid-response tests and personal protective gear so that new cases can be quickly identified, and people can be treated and their contacts tracked – just one missed case can ignite another regional outbreak.
FAILURES ON TESTS, SUPPLIES
The Trump administration has failed to act to ensure the United States has enough protective gear, telling states they are on their own. Now, states are competing with each other, paying exorbitant prices and still not getting the amount they need.
And after the federal government failed in its first attempt to produce its own coronavirus test, capacity for testing is still not close to where it needs to be.
In just one example, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday said it had received only 5 percent of the promising rapid-response tests it was promised. Rather than the capacity for about 2,300 tests, the state increased its capacity by just 115.
The Trump administration has promised that antibody testing - which could show how many people are immune to the disease and could thus move about freely - will be available soon.
But administration officials also promised last month widespread testing capabilities that never materialized.
In one case, President Trump on March 13 brought retail executives to the Rose Garden to announce the creation of the kind of large-scale drive-through testing sites that helped South Korea hold back its outbreak. As of this week, only five were operating, and they are only for health professionals and first responders.
WHAT’S THE PLAN?
If the president has a plan for reopening the economy despite these and other shortcomings, people need to hear it. They need to hear why it makes sense to do it now, and that it’s not just because he is anxious to see the stock market rise again. They need to hear from health experts on why it won’t come back to haunt us.
Otherwise, it won’t work. It was governors who for the most part closed things, and it is governors who will decide when to open them. They and most other Americans understand the severity and the stakes of COVID-19, even if the president doesn’t, and they won’t go out in large numbers if they don’t feel safe, regardless of what he says.
But the president’s message matters, and if it’s the wrong one we’ll end up with more of the patchwork of responses that we have had the last two months, as President Trump has left it largely up to individual states. He’s never had a plan, really, and we shouldn’t trust that he has one now.
Online: https://bit.ly/3eaYsys
___
Please read our comment policy before commenting.