Tag: COVID-19

Virginia Student Assessments Show Improvement but Still Below Pre-COVID Levels

Eric Burk

Standards of learning tests (SOL) for the 2021-2022 school year show improvement across most subjects from the previous academic year, but the administration is warning that there’s still an achievement gap compared to pre-COVID-19 levels. In a virtual press conference Thursday, Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) officials said that gap shows the impact of virtual learning.

“The research is becoming clearer and clearer: students whose schools were closed for in-person instruction suffered the most. Being in person for school matters,”  Superintendent of Public Education Jillian Balow said.

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Patients’ Average COVID-19 Average Hospital Stay Up During Omicron in Virginia

Eric Burk

The average length of stay for COVID-19 patients went up in the first quarter of 2022 according to the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association (VHHA).

“What we saw in the Omicron wave was that those coming into hospitals were staying longer for their COVID hospitalization with an average length of stay of ten-and-a-half days,” VHHA Vice President of Data Analytics, David Vaamonde said during a Monday presentation of hospital and emergency department visit trends.

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Ohio’s COVID-19 Federal Funeral Expense Funds More than Doubles Since January 1

The Center Square

The federal government handed out more than twice as much money in COVID-19 funeral reimbursements to Ohioans over the past seven months than it did from the beginning of the program in 2020 until January.

As of Aug. 1, FEMA has given more than $2.7 billion to fulfill 420,000 applications for help with funeral costs for pandemic-related deaths since Jan. 20, 2020. In Ohio, 18,860 of those have shared more than $122.2 million.

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New Government Spending Will Benefit Top Biden Adviser’s Consulting Clients

Admin

White House Senior adviser Anita Dunn has consulted for companies and trade groups that have benefited or stand to benefit from federal funding and is being forced to recuse herself from matters involving them, according to a financial disclosure.

Dunn has consulted through the public affairs firm SKDK during the past two years for the likes of Pfizer, AT&T, Micron and the American Clean Power Association, according to a filing reported on by CNBC Friday. Dunn, who founded the SKDK in 2004, is recused from working on issues related to past clients, a spokesman for the White House told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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University of Arizona Says Pandemic Is Not Over, Pushes Vaccines

Peter D'Abrosca

The President of the University of Arizona is still pushing COVID-19 precautions, despite the fact that even the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has significantly reduced its COVID-19 guidelines. 

“The pandemic is not over … though our situation is much improved over the start of last academic year,” University of Arizona President Robert Robbins said in an interview with the school newspaper. “While transmission of COVID-19 remains persistent around the nation, we have successfully navigated the past two years with continued innovation, support and cooperation from students, faculty and staff. We have the tools to continue our success and we know how to use them.”

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Arizona AG Brnovich and Coalition of States Fight Against Mask Mandates on Public Transportation

Rachel Alexander

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich joined 22 other states this week in filing an amicus curiae brief at the appellate level opposing the Center for Disease Control’s attempt to continue a mask mandate on public transportation, which includes airplanes and buses. He sued the CDC over the requirement with 20 other attorneys general in March.

“Upholding the law is especially important during times of emergency,” he said in a statement. “Federal overreach is most often attempted under the guise of addressing a crisis.”

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FBI Informants Involved in Whitmer Kidnapping Debacle Allegedly Smoked Weed, Shared Hotel Room with Accused Plotter

Admin

FBI informants in the case of the alleged 2020 plot to kidnap Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer purportedly shared a hotel room and smoking weed with a target, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr. are undergoing retrial on charges of planning to kidnap Whitmer from her vacation home in 2020 in response to her COVID-19 restrictions. They and two others were originally acquitted in April, with their defense arguing the FBI entrapped them, The Associated Press reported.

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COVID-Era High School Graduates Face Uncertain Futures in College

Admin

After nearly two years of unprecedented lockdowns, mandates, and other restrictions on daily life during the COVID-19 pandemic, hundreds of thousands of graduating high school students are preparing to head off to college without having learned nearly as much as they should have.

The Associated Press reports that such students are about to enter college significantly farther behind the academic standards of previous years, almost entirely due to the pandemic’s forced transition to “online learning,” a shortage of teachers, and mask and vaccine mandates that disrupted school life for millions of students across the country. Such students risk the possibility of being grossly underprepared for the level of work required by college, and could result in a massive spike in college dropouts in the coming years.

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Miyares Joins Amicus Brief Supporting Decision to Vacate Travel Mask Mandate

Eric Burk

Attorney General Jason Miyares joined an amicus brief opposing the Biden administration’s ongoing lawsuit over the CDC’s mask mandate for interstate travel. A district court vacated the requirement, but the CDC appealed, and the Health Freedom Defense Fund v. Biden case is now in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.

“Mask Mandates across the country have been lifted in virtually every aspect of daily life. For months, Americans have been traveling safely while making their own, autonomous decisions. The CDC mask mandate on public transportation, like air travel, is obsolete and no longer necessary – not to mention a clear example of federal overreach,” Miyares said in a press release.

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Booming Jobs Report Masks Uptick in Men Leaving the Labor Force

Admin

Women’s employment increased markedly from June to July, but the total number of employed working-aged men actually dropped in that same time span according to a July jobs report released Friday.

There were 170,000 fewer employed men in July than June, whereas 349,000 more women were employed in July, according to Yahoo Finance. Women’s unemployment dipped to 3.1% in July from 3.3% in June while the same figure for men remained steady at 3.2% from June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ July 2022 Employment Situation report found.

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Kentucky Senator Rand Paul Leads First Congressional Hearing on Gain-of-Function Research

Susan Berry, PhD

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) begins the first congressional hearing on gain-of-function research Wednesday, attempting to determine whether the National Institutes of Health (NIH) used taxpayer funds for gain-of-function experiments at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

“Before we even get to whether the virus came from a lab we have to explore were they doing gain of function research?” Paul told Fox News’ Brett Baier Tuesday.

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‘Misled the Public:’ Oversight Launches Investigation into Nursing Home COVID Deaths

The Center Square

Republicans on the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis and the House Oversight Committee have joined forces in an investigation over the thousands of nursing home deaths in New York state during COVID, saying New York Democrats ignored previous inquiries.

The controversy began in 2020 when thousands of New York nursing home residents died during the pandemic, drawing extra scrutiny to then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s policy of sending elderly patients recovering from COVID-19 into nursing homes.

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Community Violence Top Public Health Concern for Virginia Voters

Eric Burk

A Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association poll found that community violence and crime is the top public health concern for Virginia voters.

“In the public opinion survey from Mason-Dixon Polling and Strategy, 51 percent of respondents cited community violence and crime as the top public health concern for their families. Health care workforce shortages, which have been intensified as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, was the second most commonly cited public health concern with 25 percent of those polled listing it as their primary concern,” a VHHA release states.

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Jack Maxey: Hunter’s Laptop Reveals His Pre-COVID-19 Interest in Pandemic Tracker Metabiota

Neil W. McCabe

Neil W. McCabe, the national political editor of The Star News Network, interviewed Navy veteran and businessman Jack Maxey about his uncovering of Hunter Biden’s 2014 support of the San Francisco-based pandemic tracking and predictive analytics company Metabiota. Maxey said he was tipped off about Hunter and Metabiota by an American military intelligence operative.

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Mask Advisory, but No Mandate for Columbus as COVID-19 Cases Climb

The Center Square

Ohio’s largest city is not considering another mask mandate despite recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a growing number of COVID-19 cases.

The city of Columbus has issued a mask advisory, urging masks indoors and in crowded places, despite vaccine statues, until further notice, Columbus Public Health spokeswoman Kelli Newman said.

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COVID Expert Deborah Birx Says She ‘Knew’ Vaccines ‘Were Not Going to Protect Against Infection’

Admin

A former high-ranking federal COVID-19 adviser admitted this week that she “knew” the coronavirus vaccines “were not going to protect against infection,” a stunning declaration that comes roughly 18 months after the shots were first rolled out to the general public.

Dr. Deborah Birx, an infectious disease expert and a regular presence at the Trump White House during the early days of the COVID-19 crisis, made the admission during an interview with Fox News’s Neil Cavuto on Friday.

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CDC Says More than 20 Tennessee Counties Should Return to Wearing Masks

Peter D'Abrosca

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued nationwide guidance on mask wearing as community COVID-19 spread levels increase, and included seven Tennessee counties in its assessment. 

“COVID-19 Community Levels are a new tool to help communities decide what prevention steps to take based on the latest data,” according to the CDC. “Levels can be low, medium, or high and are determined by looking at hospital beds being used, hospital admissions, and the total number of new COVID-19 cases in an area.”

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Commentary: Study Provides More Evidence That School Mask Mandates Are Not Effective

Admin

A growing body of scientific evidence suggests that mask mandates did little to nothing to curb the spread of Covid-19. The latest research further undermines the controversial policy.

A new study analyzing a pair of schools in Fargo, North Dakota—one which had a mask mandate in place in the fall of the 2021-2022 academic year and one that did not—provides more evidence that mask mandates are ineffective public policy.

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The University of Virginia Will Not Say If 4.7 Percent Tuition Increase Will Be Reversed

Admin

All but one public university in Virginia are taking steps to address students’ tuition burden after a call to action from the governor. 

Earlier this year, Glenn Youngkin requested that the commonwealth’s public universities reverse their planned tuition increases, citing inflation.

The University of Virginia (UVA) is the only public university not to announce a plan to reverse its tuition increase. NBC29 reports that UVA students will see a 4.7% tuition and fee increase, raising rates for first-year in-state students to $14,878 and $50,348 for out-of-state students. 

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Commentary: After 18 Months of Biden, We Have Yet to Hit Bottom

Admin

Next week will mark one and a half years since Joe Biden became president on Jan. 20, 2021. On July 20, every American should look within and ask: “Am I better off than I was 18 months ago?”

To Biden’s credit, the unemployment rate has fallen from 6.4% when he took office to 3.6% in June. Today’s figure is a notch higher than the 3.5% joblessness that Americans enjoyed in February 2020, thanks to President Donald Trump’s Republican tax cuts, deregulation, energy dominance, and other pro-growth initiatives.

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Ohio Senator Advocates Policy Changes in Wake of Inflation Report

The Center Square

In response to this week’s news of the consumer price index rising to 9.1%, Republican U.S. Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio gave a blistering summation and offered direction to the Biden administration.

Portman said numbers provided for Ohio indicate residents are spending an additional $8,300 a year on energy needs, food and clothing. Jonathan Church at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, contacted by The Center Square, responded in an email for response to getting state-specific index numbers, “The CPI program does not produce state-level indexes.”

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Migrant Encounters at U.S.-Mexico Border Hit Another Historic High

Admin

The number of migrants encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border decreased in June, but remained at a historic high, according to numbers released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Friday.

CBP encountered 207,416 migrants at the southern border, a 14% decrease compared to May. There were 92,274 migrants immediately expelled under Title 42, the public health order activated during the COVID-19 pandemic, in June.

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Virginia Department of Health Eliminates Guidance for COVID-19 Exposed Individuals to Quarantine from School

Eric Burk

The Virginia Department of Health has eliminated a recommendation for asymptomatic COVID-19-exposed individuals in schools to quarantine. The updated COVID-19 guidance applies to K-12 education, child care, and camps, although individuals who test positive still need to isolate at home for at least five days.

“This revised guidance outlines that quarantine is no longer routinely recommended for asymptomatic individuals after exposure to COVID-19 infected individuals. In general masks are not routinely recommended in these settings, indoors or outdoors, except during isolation as specified below,” states the guidance, which applies to teachers, staff, and children.

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Study: Natural Immunity Is 97 Percent Effective Against Severe COVID After 14 Months

Susan Berry, PhD

A study has found that natural immunity following COVID infection provides protection against severe illness that is superior to that imparted by the COVID vaccines.

In a preprint article published at MedRxiv, Qatar researchers revealed they found people who survived COVID-19 infection, and were not vaccinated, had outstanding protection against severe COVID disease or death from COVID.

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Pennsylvania IFO Study: Labor Force Down by 120,000 Since Year Before COVID

Bradley Vasoli

A report released this week by Pennsylvania’s Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) indicates that 120,000 fewer residents are working or actively seeking work than in the year before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

The study showed the state’s labor force participate rate (LFPR) for those aged 16 and older to be 63 percent in May 2019 and to have declined to 61.9 percent one year later. That percentage has continued gradually decreasing — to 61.8 percent in May 2021 and to 61.7 percent two months ago.

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Amtrak Adds Second Daily Washington-Roanoke Round Trip

Eric Burk

Amtrak announced a new Washington, D.C.-to-Roanoke daily round trip Monday, adding to the already-existing round trip. The new trip leaves Washington at 8:05 a.m., arriving in Roanoke at 1:00 p.m., and the return leaves at 4:30 p.m., arriving back at 9:28 p.m, with stops in Alexandria, Manassas, Culpeper, Charlottesville, and Lynchburg. The existing train departs Roanoke for Washington at 6:32 a.m. and arriving in Washington at 11:34 a.m., while a return departs Washington at 5:00 p.m. and arrives in Roanoke at 10:06 p.m.

Fares for the 8:05 a.m. Roanoke-bound train and the 4:30 p.m. Washington-bound train currently start at $20 one-way.

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Chinese Officials Will Soon Strap Electronic Monitoring Bracelets to COVID Patients

Admin

Hong Kong’s Ministry of Health announced it will soon require COVID-19 patients to wear electronic monitors as the pandemic continues to spread throughout China, Chinese media reported Monday.

Beginning on Friday, Hong Kong will require COVID-19 patients in quarantine to wear electronic bracelets in order to prohibit them from visiting “high-risk” places, Lo Chung-mau, Hong Kong’s health minister told reporters, according to China’s i-Cable News. Lo is a cabinet member within the administration of Hong Kong’s new chief executive, John Lee, who allegedly won 99% of votes after enforcing Beijing’s National Security Law.

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Commentary: Airlines Feel the Pinch as Boomer-age Pilots Refuse the Vax Mandate

Admin

Remember the mandate to fire anyone who wouldn’t be coerced into getting vaccinated craze that consumed much of the first year of the Biden presidency?

Joe Biden is really hoping that you won’t.

Airline disruptions and cancellations are part of the ongoing “supply chain” crisis which is playing havoc with the U.S. and world economy. Sure would be nice to have some of those pilots, flight attendants and ground crew back at the airports now, wouldn’t it?  United Airlines alone claimed that 2,200 workers who received religious or medical exemptions from the vaccine would be placed on administrative leave or put into roles which did not touch customers.

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Source: More than 500 Unvaxxed Tennessee Guardsmen Enter No-Pay Status, Await Loss of Health, Life Insurance

Neil W. McCabe

A Tennessee National Guard source told The Tennessee Star that more than 500 guardsmen remain without a COVID-19 vaccine past Big Army’s June 30 deadline.

“The number that I got about a month ago was 400; however, I have now heard it is actually 585-some,” the source said.

These are straight-refusals, the source said, not guardsmen awaiting the adjudication of their request for a religious or medical waiver. Those guardsmen continue in their service until and when their cases are resolved.

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Virginia Traffic Fatalities Rose 16 Percent from 2019 to 2021

Eric Burk

Traffic fatalities in Virginia rose 16 percent from 2019, to 2021, according to traffic research nonprofit TRIP, which reports that nationally, fatalities rose 19 percent during that same period. 963 fatalities in 903 crashes occurred in 2021, up from 827 in 2019 and 847 in 2020, despite a decrease in total miles driven, according to DMV data.

“The dramatic increase in roadway fatalities during the pandemic spotlights a national public health crisis that states have been working to resolve for years,” American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Executive Director Jim Tymon said in the TRIP press release.

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Florida AG, FTC Taking Legal Action to Shut Down COVID-19 Scam Targeting Minority-Owned Small Businesses

The Center Square

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody and the Federal Trade Commission have taken legal action to shut down what they say was a fraudulent scheme perpetrated by a company targeting minority-owned small businesses.

They filed a joint complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida where Judge Marcia Morales Howard issued a temporary restraining order against the company, preventing it from doing any more business.

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Regulatory Relief for Home Health Care Becomes Permanent in Pennsylvania

The Center Square

Temporary regulatory relief for some health care workers during the pandemic has now become permanent, removing a burden of uncertainty and giving health groups more flexibility to care for patients.

The legislation gives home health care workers who aren’t physicians the ability to order or oversee orders for home health care and allows supervisory visits by registered nurses to be virtual.

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Ivy League Study: Boosters, COVID-19 ‘Rebounds’ Fuel Skepticism of Federal Narratives

Admin

As the nation’s most powerful and twice-boosted infectious disease doctor battles a COVID-19 “rebound” two weeks after testing positive, new research from the public health schools at Harvard and Yale suggests the boosted fared worse against the first Omicron subvariant than the non-boosted.

The FDA is so alarmed by the “waning effectiveness” of boosters, whose formulation is still based on the ancestral Wuhan strain, that it asked manufacturers Thursday to add a “spike protein component” from the fourth and fifth Omicron subvariants to this fall’s boosters.

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One Minnesota: Thousands Reported on Neighbors Using Tattle-Tale Hotline During Pandemic

Admin

A hotline set up by Gov. Tim Walz’s administration to monitor compliance with his 2020 stay-at-home order generated thousands of reports from Minnesotans who snitched on their neighbors for things like playing basketball in a park, walking their dogs, and throwing small parties.

The hotline was launched in March 2020 and law enforcement continued to monitor it until November, well after the stay-at-home order ended. In October 2020, it was used to alert authorities to a church service that didn’t fit with the governor’s “legal requirements.” This type of complaint was not uncommon.

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Gov. Bill Lee Inaction as COVID-19 Deadline Passes Angers Tennessee National Guard Members

Aaron Gulbransen

As the final days and hours passed leading to the mandate deadline that requires 100 percent COVID-19 vaccine compliance by all federal personnel, including Tennessee Army National Guard members, Governor Bill Lee appeared to deflect when he spoke about his actual role in deciding the fate of those guardsmen, who are about to be fired due to their refusal of the injections.

The Tennessee Star confirmed the authenticity of a message it previously obtained from Lee’s office, which read:

We take seriously the religious and personal exemptions requested by members who are not part of the 93% who are vaccinated in accordance with DoD policy. We have no plans to terminate these members based on their status and have asked DoD to approve their individual exemption requests.

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Governor Lee Says ‘We’ll See’ as Hundreds of Tennessee National Guardsmen Are Set to Be Fired over Vax Mandate

Aaron Gulbransen

Several outraged Tennessee National Guard members reached out to The Tennessee Star Wednesday morning immediately after Governor Bill Lee’s (R-TN) interview earlier in the day on Supertalk 99.7 on Nashville’s Morning News with Dan Mandis.

A message delivered by one guardsmen on behalf of several was simple: “We are even more outraged at Governor Lee’s lack of support and action than we were before he opened his mouth full of hot air on the radio. He doesn’t seem to care about us.”

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More than 100 Arizona Army National Guardsmen Unvaxxed as Big Army Mandate Deadline Looms

Neil W. McCabe

The Arizona Army National Guard stands with roughly 84 percent of its military personnel complying with Big Army’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate as the Army’s June 30 deadline for 100 percent compliance approaches.

“Out of approximately 5,000 Soldiers, the Arizona Army National Guard has 119 COVID-19 vaccination refusals,” said Maj. Kyle Key, the communications director for the Arizona National Guard.

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Commentary: America Is More Fragile Than the Left Understands

Admin
American flag hanging in the fall time

The Left has been tempting fate since January 2021—applying its nihilist medicine to America on the premise that such a rich patient can ride out any toxic shock.

Our elites assume that all our nation’s past violent protests, all its would-be revolutions, all its cultural upheavals, all its institutionalized lawlessness were predicated on one central truth—America’s central core is so strong, so rich, and so resilient that it can withstand almost any assault. 

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West Point Graduates Sign Letter Challenging Leadership of Military Academy

Admin

Several retired U.S. military officers signed a letter written by “Concerned Graduates of West Point and The Long Gray Line,” which objects to mandatory vaccinations, CRT instruction, progressivism and other “woke” sentiments in the military academy.

“We wanted to challenge the leadership of the Academy and the Defense Dept on their WOKE actions, CRT, Diversity training and the other discrepancies in the Academy,” retired Army Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely, told the Epoch Times.

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