masks

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

The Governor Or The School District? Who Has The Power To Say Kids Do Or Don’t Have To Wear Masks In School – It’s Not Clear

EDUCATION Jennifer Selin, University of Missouri-Columbia Legal battles over masks in schools are being fought across the country, including in Arkansas, California, Florida, Kentucky, Michigan, Oklahoma, Nevada and Texas. Rather than clarifying policy, these legal challenges have led to more confusion. As a new school year begins and COVID-19 hospitalizations rise across the country, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that students wear masks in school to help slow the spread of the coronavirus. This guidance, and schools’ responses to it, has resulted in an intense debate. Some parents argue that they should be able to decide when and where their children wear masks, whereas others argue collective health and safety concer...

CDC Says Vaccinated People Can Ditch Masks In Most Settings – Herd Immunity Appears Unlikely For COVID-19

14May

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS, VIDEO REELS

CDC Says Vaccinated People Can Ditch Masks In Most Settings – Herd Immunity Appears Unlikely For COVID-19

When COVID-19 first began spreading, public health and medical experts began talking about the need for the U.S. to reach herd immunity to stop the coronavirus from spreading. Experts have estimated that between 60% and 90% of people in the U.S. would need to be vaccinated for that to happen. Only about 35% of the population has been fully vaccinated, and yet the CDC said on May 14, 2021 that fully vaccinated people can lose their masks in most indoor and outdoor settings. An important question now arises: What happens if we don’t reach herd immunity? Dr. William Petri is a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Virginia who helps lead the global program to achieve herd immunity for polio as the chair of the World Health Organization’s Polio Research Committee. He answers q...

How Individual Rights And Government Regulation Are Both Necessary For A Free Society – Masks And Mandates

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SOCIETY

How Individual Rights And Government Regulation Are Both Necessary For A Free Society – Masks And Mandates

I’ve been thinking a lot, recently, about the tension between demanding “individual rights” – in the sense of deciding whether or not to wear a mask – and calling for more action on the part of our government to protect us from the coronavirus pandemic. I’m a political theorist, which means I study how communities are organized, how power is exercised and how people relate to one another in and between communities. I’ve realized – through talking to friends, and thinking about the protests against COVID-19-related restrictions that have taken place around the country – that many people do not understand that individual rights and state power are not really opposites. The laws and policies that governments enact set the framework for the exercise of our rights. So, inaction on the part of...

Wearing Masks Saves Lives, The Earlier You Start The Better, A New Data-Driven Model Shows

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS, VIDEO REELS

Wearing Masks Saves Lives, The Earlier You Start The Better, A New Data-Driven Model Shows

Dr. Biplav Srivastava, professor of computer science at the University of South Carolina, and his team have developed a data-driven tool that helps demonstrate the effect of wearing masks on COVID-19 cases and deaths. His model utilizes a variety of data sources to create alternate scenarios that can tell us “What could have happened?” if a county in the U.S. had a higher or lower rate of mask adherence. In this interview, he explains how the model works, its limitations and what conclusions we can draw from it. Computer scientist Biplav Srivastava provides a demo of the simulation to show that earlier policies to recommend mask-wearing make a bigger difference on the spread of the coronavirus. What does this computer model do? This is a nationwide tool which can show the effect that weari...

John Lewis and the masks Black preachers wear on the public stage

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Journalism

John Lewis and the masks Black preachers wear on the public stage

U.S. Congressman John Robert Lewis was a Black preacher, inescapably so. Like his spiritual mentor, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the long-standing congressman was an ordained Black Baptist minister. It meant that he not only knew how to parse legislative briefs but also ancient biblical texts and extrapolate wisdom from them to address social issues of great urgency. For Christians like Lewis, preaching, though not an end in itself, is a means by which God reminds a society of God’s concern for community wellness, life, human dignity and freedom in a less-than-perfect world. Preaching, in their understanding, tells the truth about suffering in the contexts of fear and death. Ultimately it declares that evil and despair have an appointed end. Because of this, as John Lewis said i...

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

Yes, Keep Wearing Masks. Here’s Why

With the advent of an infectious disease outbreak, epidemiologists and public health officials quickly try to forecast deaths and infections using complex computer models. But with a brand-new virus such as the one that causes COVID-19, these estimates are complicated by a dearth of credible information on symptoms, contagion, and those who are most at risk. My team at the Goldenson Center for Actuarial Research has developed a free, user-friendly computer model with a different goal. It demonstrates how infections and deaths progress daily over a three-month period depending on how people behave in the outbreak. This model allows the public to input data that demonstrate how changes in safety measures in their communities, including wearing face covering and social distancing, can signif...