Editorial Roundup: West Virginia
Recent editorials from West Virginia newspapers:
___
July 28
The Register-Herald on the implications of a recent coronavirus outbreak among Major League Baseball players:
We did not need the news from Major League Baseball on Monday to tell us what we did not know already. No matter the sport, no matter the precautions, no matter how secure we seal off athletes from the world, and no matter how much Americans needed the comfy distraction of their national pastime, this novel coronavirus finds a path to do its worst because people do not live in bubbles, after all.
Of course there was bound to be an outbreak of Covid-19 during this experimental run at some sense of normalcy just as there was with the Miami Marlins over the weekend that has now spread to at least 17 of the team’s traveling party. A series of games this week on into the weekend has been canceled, players are sitting in quarantine and the rest of us have been put on notice that the MLB’s 60-day season may be coming, sadly, to a premature end.
And, of course, there will be disappointment and there will be more outbreaks, more disruptions to life. Everything else that we associate with life as we once knew it is in the crosshairs. Unfortunately, the odds are stacked against any return anytime soon to the way we once lived. When you hear that “we must learn to live with this virus”? That’s where we are.
And while it is OK to be grumpy about all of that, we – collectively – have not come to grips with that reality. Not how to take out next steps forward.
We need to.
We cannot say that it is OK to cancel a Republican National Convention in Florida because of elevated rates or transmission of this deadly disease in the Sunshine State but then turn around and demand that school children go back to their classrooms in the near future.
We cannot say, as West Virginia University has, that only freshmen and graduate students will be allowed back on campus for now but plow ahead with plans for a college football season.
We cannot say, as State Superintendent Clayton Burch did on Tuesday, that “we will make sure (school districts) that do open on September 8th for live learning will be safe and will be healthy.”
Burch is a gifted educator, not an epidemiologist. He knows – or should – that he cannot promise a darn thing when it comes to making our school environments entirely safe and healthy.
True, we have learned that there are certain practices that keep the spread of the virus at bay – like wearing a mask, like social distancing, like sheltering in place.
But there are no guarantees – only odds and probabilities and then deciding at some level what collateral damage is acceptable.
That’s right. Who gets sick and who doesn’t.
And because sports generates great wads of cash for professionals, team owners and college athletic departments, many are willing to put much at risk.
Breaking news: Kids get sick and they pass it to other children, brothers and sisters and classmates, and to adults, moms and dads, grandmas and pawpaws. In West Virginia, 13.49 percent of all those who have tested positive for Covid-19 are under the age of 20. That is one in every seven people.
In Monongalia County, home to West Virginia University, 51.36 percent of all confirmed cases of Covid-19 have hit people between the ages of 20 and 29. In shorthand, college-aged students.
Yes, it is true, the numbers in West Virginia are far better than the transmission rates almost everywhere else, but our numbers have grown increasingly worrisome these past few weeks.
For each of the last nine days, there have been at least 100 people in West Virginia who has come down with the illness. And when infections rise, death follows. Over the past two days, five people in West Virginia have died of Covid-related causes.
The time to have been cautions with this pandemic, to prepare for its eventual spread, of course, was months ago. But Americans, as we are proving, are not a patient lot.
But that does not mean that the battle is lost.
We still have to take appropriate measures to make sure that we keep as many of our friends and neighbors out of harm’s way – especially the elderly, those with compromised immune systems and those with underlying health issues because they are vulnerable.
But, please, let’s stop kidding ourselves. We cannot just open everything back up without consequence.
It hurts our heart to think of kids not going back to school, of their primary lessons in reading and writing and social engagement being delayed yet again. A whole class of seniors missed out on prom and participating in a normal graduation ceremony.
Well, guess what. There may not be a Homecoming game this fall, no crowning of a king and queen, no Homecoming dance.
No conference championship.
No Most Valuable Player.
No World Series.
But we can cut our losses if we find the temerity to deal with the facts honestly and without emotion, if we follow the lessons of science.
But we need to get a grip, now, right now, and plan accordingly.
Online: https://www.register-herald.com
___
July 28
The Parkersburg News and Sentinel on reimposing restrictions in nursing homes as the coronavirus spikes in West Virginia:
For several weeks, it appeared West Virginians were doing a good job protecting residents of long-term care facilities — those most vulnerable to COVID-19 — from the disease. But as the coronavirus sets new infection records in many counties, it may be time to worry that we have let our guard down.
If something is not done about that immediately, more people will die. COVID-19 has made a comeback throughout the Mountain State.
It seemed for a time that effective barriers against the disease had been erected around nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, but only after 14 residents of them died. So effective were the countermeasures that visitation bans were lifted at many nursing homes.
Now we may be paying a price for overconfidence. As of July 24, state numbers showed staff members at 12 West Virginia nursing homes had contracted the virus.
More worrisome was the state chart showing 13 residents of nursing homes in six counties had active COVID-19 infections on July 24. They were in Fayette, Greenbrier, Kanawha, Ohio, Pendleton and Wood counties.
It appears, to judge by success at nursing homes earlier this year, that we know how to keep residents safe from the coronavirus. But failure to heed warnings about easing up too soon may be coming back to bite us.
West Virginians need to re-erect those barriers around our nursing homes — and administrators need to make clear to staff that the strictest safety protocol must be followed when they are OFF duty, too. If we do not, we might be paying for that overconfidence in lives lost.
Online: https://www.newsandsentinel.com
___
July 26
The Herald-Dispatch on continued calls for a legislative special session to allocate virus aid:
Four years ago in West Virginia, two years ago in Ohio and last year in Kentucky, how many people who cast votes for governor had “how they respond to a disease outbreak” on their list of criteria of who to vote for?
The novel coronavirus has been the driving force of government this year at all levels. Government buildings have been closed off to the public for periods of time, or access has been restricted. Schools have closed, and their ability to reopen and remain open for the entire school year is in question. Taxes have been postponed or waived.
Governors are the top of the state government. They don’t have absolute power, but some of them have been more eager to issue executive orders than others. Those orders can determine when bars can open, or they can determine whether people must wear masks to buy groceries.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear have been more active in issuing such orders than has West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice. DeWine has the Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati metro areas to deal with. Beshear has Lexington and Louisville. The virus has been most active in heavily populated areas — the kind West Virginia does not have.
Justice has done an acceptable job during the pandemic so far. He’s had to balance constituencies that want everything shut down and for everyone to wear masks against those who want an open economy where mask-wearing is optional. The fact he’s running for reelection couldn’t have made those decisions easier.
There is one decision, however, where Justice made the wrong choice. That is his refusal to call a special session of the Legislature to determine how to spend $1.25 billion in money appropriated by Congress for virus relief measures.
Most members of the House of Delegates want a special session so the Legislature can appropriate the money. That’s how the system normally works. It’s what the state constitution requires. The governor proposes how the state allocates the money it collects in taxes, but the final decision results from compromise between the governor and legislators.
Justice’s original plan to take $100 million of federal relief money and use it for road projects was the result of questionable judgment. It shows why the Legislature’s input is necessary.
But Justice and Senate President Mitch McConnell oppose having a special session. They don’t want politics getting involved in how that $1.25 billion is spent. Imagine — Jim Justice is the only person at the Capitol who is above politics and can be trusted to disburse $1.25 billion among the agencies and institutions that have been adversely by the virus.
A special session needn’t be long, as decisions are normally made beforehand and refined during the legislative process. Agencies should know by now how much money they will need to continue their missions into the fiscal year that has just begun.
Voters didn’t put Justice into office to be a one-man show for an entire year. Emergency powers are for emergencies. As the pandemic has worn on, it has become time for the Legislature to reassert its power of the purse. It’s why legislators were elected. That and to decide which of Justice’s executive orders should be ratified by the public officials closer to voters and specific regions that have been affected by the virus in different ways.
It’s time for a special session. No, it’s past time.
Online: https://www.herald-dispatch.com