Recent editorials from Alabama newspapers:
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July 15
The Times Daily on evolving scientific consensus about the coronavirus:
When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?”
That quote has been attributed over the years to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (incorrectly) and the economist John Maynard Keynes, who may have said it, but there is still some debate.
It’s uncertain parentage, however, makes it no less insightful. It is a pithy distillation of healthy skepticism and how knowledge - especially scientific knowledge - works, or is supposed to.
All of this is worth keeping in mind when considering all the seemingly contradictory pronouncements about the new coronavirus.
Everything from the virus’ symptoms, to how it is transmitted, to who is most at risk, and how people can best protect themselves is subject to change. And all have changed.
This can be confusing, especially if one searches the internet and happens to find advice that is months old and has since been superseded by new advice that says exactly the opposite.
The efficacy of wearing cloth masks to protect oneself from the virus that causes COVID-19 is one example. At first, the advice was cloth masks were no good, and that only N95 masks - then in short supply - were effective at stopping the coronavirus. People are still sharing this as if it were gospel truth, but it is really yesterday’s news.
Next, scientists and health experts said that while cloth masks might not prevent you from getting COVID-19, they might help prevent you (if you are an asymptomatic carrier) from giving it to others. This advice has now taken on the form of conventional wisdom, and it is behind many cities and some states passing mandatory mask ordinances.
There are reasons for this change in advice, and they have to do with scientists learning more about COVID-19 as more research becomes available. When the facts change, they change their minds.
The reason N95 masks were originally thought to offer the only protection is because the coronavirus is too small to be stopped by a cloth mask. But then researchers discovered the virus was transmitted mostly via water droplets, which are not too small for a cloth mask to stop.
Now, some scientists are revising their advice again, saying cloth masks may even help protect the wearer.
“There is this theory that facial masking reduces the (amount of virus you get exposed to) and disease severity,” Dr. Monica Gandhi of the University of California, San Francisco, told The Los Angeles Times.
The changing advice is not evidence of a partisan agenda or a vast conspiracy. It is an inside look at how science happens, only at a far more accelerated rate than usual and with far more public attention.
These debates and reversals and revisions usually take place far away from the public and the press in the pages of academic journals.
The coronavirus makes it crucial that people not only have information with the understanding that even the most up-to-date information is subject to future revision.
This is not a flaw in the system. This is the best of how a system made up of imperfect human beings with limited knowledge works.
Online: https://www.timesdaily.com
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July 14
The Times-News on the fate of sports this fall amid the coronavirus pandemic:
In 2014, The New York Times did a Facebook survey, trying to determine which county in all of the United States had the highest percentage of college football fans.
According to that survey, 38 percent of Chambers County residents are football fans. Overall, Alabama has the highest concentration of fans at 34 percent, five more than the next closest state.
That’s a high number, but it shouldn’t be too surprising with the amount of success the two main universities in the state have performed the last decade, winning six of the last 10 national championships.
But, with all that said, our overall point is that about a quarter of you reading this love college football. Football is a sport that brings us together, and right now, we’re not sure it’s actually going to take place this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
We also know that we’re reaching a critical point as time is starting to run out.
The Pac 12 and Big Ten recently announced that they’ll play conference only football schedules this year. The other Power 5 conferences - the Big 12, SEC and ACC - are working on their plans, but they’ve already seen the ripple effect from other conferences, including canceled non-conference games.
If these games do take place, will any fans be allowed at all? How do these conferences keep fans, players and coaches safe in the middle of this pandemic? And is it worth it?
Those are questions that we all keep asking ourselves as we watch the debate over contact sports head toward a full-on collision.
Postponing baseball and basketball, even stopping golf and NASCAR, is one thing, but in the United States, football reigns supreme. Any stoppage on the gridiron will take sports cancelations to a new level, especially in the south.
The NFL, like the NBA and MLB, are a different animal than college sports. The NBA is pung players in a bubble at Disney World.
The MLB has reworked its schedule amidst the pandemic, and the NFL has contingency plans in place for postponed or canceled games.
But we must admit we also wonder about the ripple effect down from the college level. The difficult thing about a college campus is that those athletes then head back to dorm rooms and into classrooms with other students. That’s not as much of a concern in the NFL.
But it is a concern in high school.
Some states have already made adjustments. New Mexico has moved football and other contact sports to the spring. For comparison’s sake, New Mexico has 15,000 total COVID-19 cases, Alabama has over 53,000, though New Mexico has roughly two-fifths of Georgia’s population.
New Jersey has pushed the start of football back to Oct. 1. Other states have said they are looking at their start dates.
The Alabama High School Athletic Association has given very specific guidelines for workouts, but at this point, everything is still moving forward as scheduled. If the games can be played safely, we hope there’s a full season, but we are concerned.
Like most of you, we love football and many other fall sports, but we are worried about whether it’s possible or even makes sense to have a season.
Over the next month, as decisions are being made about local schools and how to keep students safe, it’ll be interesting to see how sports are impacted.
Online: https://www.valleytimes-news.com
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July 14
Dothan Eagle on the backlash over comments made by Alabama’s senate majority leader about the pandemic:
State Senate Majority Leader Del Marsh drew criticism over remarks he made to reporters over the weekend, prompting the prominent senator to retreat later.
Marsh, who had been asked about the rising number of COVID-19 infections in the state, suggested the increase meant the state was getting closer to herd immunity. “I’m not as concerned so much as the number of cases. In fact, quite honestly, I want to see more people because we start reaching immunity as more people have it and get through it.”
He later walked it back. “It was a poor choice of words on my end,” Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh told The Associated Press, saying he didn’t wish for anyone to become ill.
However, criticism came quickly, and as usually happens in Alabama, arrived in the form of a partisan cudgel.
“It is this type of dangerously stupid thinking that hurts Alabamians,” read a post on the Alabama Democratic Party’s social media. “We need politicians to just shut up and listen to health officials.”
Democratic officials have had their fair share of gaffes, too, and it’s a good bet that both parties will have many more in the future.
Certainly no reasonable person would take that awkward phrasing to mean that Marsh is wishing illness on anyone. And as serious as the coronavirus pandemic is unfolding in our state, rampant partisan acrimony poses a similar threat to the effectiveness of our government.
Every empathetic Alabamian watches the COVID-19 numbers rise with horror. Optimists look for any glimmer of positivity in the darkness.
Online: https://dothaneagle.com
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