Editorial Roundup:

Omaha World Herald. April 2, 2020

Pause packing plant operations to boost their virus protection

The nation’s meatpacking industry must take a break. Packing plants around the country have become hot spots in the coronavirus crisis, in particular fueling dramatic increases in cases in the Heartland, as The World-Herald reported Tuesday.

In the past 10 days, South Dakota, with a 266% increase in cases; Nebraska (155%); Iowa (129%); and North Dakota (117%), account for four of the top five states in case growth. The increases are linked to packing plants, where workers must be in close quarters and where, the numbers clearly show, operators and health officials are behind the curve and playing catch-up with mitigation measures.

For example, only on Monday did Tyson operators in Madison, Nebraska, agree to work with the Elkhorn Logan Valley Health Department on testing and other steps. Gov. Pete Ricketts’ first news conference in Spanish was set for Tuesday, and health officials acknowledged that they must do a better job of translating health news and alerts into languages spoken by many packing plant workers.

“If there’s one thing that might keep me up at night, it’s the meat processing plants and manufacturing plants,” Dr. Gary Anthone, the state’s chief medical officer said Sunday.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds outlined the tradeoff to plant closures, noting that farmers in her state provide a third of the nation’s pork supply and that if plants can’t function, producers may be forced to euthanize their hogs, affecting prices and meat supply.

Let’s be clear: Human lives are at stake, and human lives must come first.

So far loss of production from several random slaughterhouse closings has been offset by meat in cold storage, Kansas State agricultural economist Glynn Tonsor told the Associated Press. Grocers also are getting meat that would have gone to restaurants.

“You could shut multiple plants down for a day or two, and we’ve got wiggle room to handle that,” Tonsor told the AP.

A pause of three or four days, perhaps, could ensure that all possible safety measures are in place to minimize spread of the virus and reduce future plant closures.

Ricketts said Monday that Shelly Schwedhelm, executive director of emergency management and biopreparedness at Nebraska Medicine, is touring plants and giving companies pointers on infection control. Let’s get that job done nationwide during a pause, so when workers return, the environment will be as safe as possible.

Closing the plants for a few days would allow the businesses and health officials to work together with intense focus to ensure that all employers are following best practices, such as putting shields between work stations, spacing them out and perhaps slowing production. The time could be used to be sure all workers have been schooled in their native languages on how to reduce risk. Screening could be become uniform and plants could be sufficiently stocked with personal protection gear.

These steps need to be voluntary — we call on the companies to do the right thing to protect their workers, the communities in which they operate and the food supply. Our elected leaders can urge these steps and of course will work with businesses to find best practices. Here’s the business case: A pause to catch up to the viral spread as much as possible should reduce the risk of more of the random, disruptive closures that are happening around the nation. Ultimately, that should reduce costs and build goodwill.

But the real goal, of course, is to minimize death. We must do all we can. This is, after all, an unprecedented emergency. Half measures on the fly are not sufficient.

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Kearney Hub. April 23, 2020

Classrooms change with COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic is a global threat to humanity, but it also is a vehicle for change. The threat of illness and death are forcing people to take a fresh look at how they do things. Education provides a good example in which mankind has been thrust into changes that certainly were envisioned but may have been years from implementing.

Prior to the pandemic, computers certainly were employed in the classroom, but when school buildings no longer were safe for students and teachers, computers provided the conduit that helped the learning to continue.

Has it been perfect? No. Allowing students and teachers to be personally connected in a live setting remains the preferred approach. However, educators are learning a lot during the great coronavirus experience, and what they’re learning can only accelerate the adoption of new education delivery systems.

We were amused this week after unearthing a Hub Opinion from Dec. 22, 2017, that detailed some of the breakthroughs occurring in online college-level classes. The opinion observed the vigorous growth in online enrollment was making education accessible to a broader group of students.

What an amusing observation, given that the coronavirus crisis forced us to adapt to a system in which nearly every student and instructor at every level — kindergarten through college — was connecting via computer.

The headline over the 2017 opinion read: “Distance classes an advantage.”

Here are excerpts:

“The University of Nebraska is making great strides in making education — the great equalizer — more accessible. The university reported this week that enrollment growth in online classes is outpacing national norms. NU’s online status is important because it underscores the success of efforts to bring educational opportunities to as many people as possible.

“For many people who fall into those categories, online classes erase all boundaries to access.

“New figures reported to the Board of Regents this month show that unduplicated headcount enrollment of distance-only students — that is, students enrolled exclusively in NU online programs — rose from 4,454 in fall 2015 to 4,887 the following year, an increase of almost 10 percent.

“Each campus, including the University of Nebraska at Kearney, saw an increase in distance-only students, and NU’s growth outpaced the average among U.S. public four-year institutions, according to the report shared with regents. Harnessing the power of communications technology is a breakthrough that cannot be ignored, and NU is not ignoring it.

“Now if NU can reduce another educational barrier — cost — there would be hardly anything limiting would-be students from enrolling for classes.”

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Lincoln Journal Star. April 24, 2020

If it’s not safe enough for football fans, it’s not safe enough for the Huskers

If a football game takes place inside Memorial Stadium and no one is there to see it, was there actually a football game?

How should we know? It’s been 58 years since Nebraska last played a football game that wasn’t sold out. The notion of an empty stadium is a completely foreign concept.

We’re hoping it stays that way.

Nebraska needs the identity football provides and the benefits it produces. But more important, it has to be safe. The Huskers, students and athletes, shouldn’t be subjected to an environment deemed to be too risky for the rest of the student body, too risky to involve fans.

And that’s why we believe the Power Five conferences got it right last week when its commissioners, told Vice President Mike Pence in a conference call that football season shouldn’t begin until campuses are opened up for all students.

The message relayed to the White House is smart -- and shows the leverage football has as it relates to the COVID-19 pandemic and reopening the U.S. economy.

″... We need to get universities and colleges back open,” Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby, who was on the call, told CBS Sports. ”... We (aren’t) going to have sports until we had something closer to normal college going on.”

But what does the new normal look like? Clearly, campus life is set for a renovation that should include fewer students crammed into dorms and an end to classes in theater-type settings with hundreds on the roll call. And when it comes to football, can more than 100 players be housed in the same locker room?

Social and physical distancing won’t be going away anytime soon.

That said, there are many issues needed to be broached and solved before the first student returns to campus. Five months from the start of the football season, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln appears to have it hands full.

“A lot has to happen for us to get back to being on schedule, but I’m going to remain optimistic for now,” said University of Nebraska President Ted Carter.

Maybe football doesn’t start in September. Everything -- the Masters, Opening Day of the Major League Baseball season and the Kentucky Derby among them -- has been pushed back. Why not the start of the college football season, too? Football will return when this virus has been tamed -- when we’re ready for it.

Football was meant to be played in front of thousands. The game without fans would be an abject loss to a university and a town that depends on Saturdays in the fall to fund its athletic department and churn the local economy.

In fiscal 2019, Nebraska reported $30.2 million in football ticket sales over seven home games and $5.4 million in concessions, parking and related revenue.

That creates some pressure to play the games. Still, there has to be just as much incentive to provide a safe environment for fans and players.

That should always take precedence. And we trust that it will.

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