Friday, July 31, 2020
Conservative propaganda has crippled the U.S. coronavirus response
Ryan Cooper THE WEEK
Illustrated | iStock
July 30, 2020
Why does the United States have the worst coronavirus outbreak in the developed world? Part of the answer is surely that our basic state functions have been allowed to rot, or been deliberately destroyed, over the years. State capacity and competence have been shown around the world to be a key factor in whether nations can get a handle on the pandemic.
But another reason is conservative media. A small but nevertheless very loud and angry minority of Americans have had their ability to reason dissolved in a corrosive bath of crack-brained propaganda.
The flood tide of conservative lunacy is so overwhelming that it can be hard to process or even notice. A dozen things that would be a major scandal in any other rich country, or the U.S. itself in previous ages, fly by practically every day.
Let's review a few events just from the start of this week.
On Monday, President Trump retweeted a viral video in which crackpot doctors falsely asserted that hydroxychloroquine was a "cure for COVID," and that masks were not necessary to contain the virus. Among others, the video featured Dr. Stella Immanuel, who has previously claimed "gynecological problems like cysts and endometriosis are in fact caused by people having sex in their dreams with demons and witches," and "the government is run in part not by humans but by 'reptilians' and other aliens," reports The Daily Beast.
On Tuesday, Twitter temporarily suspended the accounts of Donald Trump, Jr., and Kelli Ward, a former doctor and the chair of the Arizona Republican Party, for sharing the same video. (Arizona currently has probably the worst coronavirus outbreak in the country.) The president defended Immanuel at a press conference that day.
On Wednesday, Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-Texas), a frequent Fox News guest who has stubbornly refused to wear a mask while in the Capitol building, tested positive for COVID-19. He told his staffers the news in person, inside the House's Rayburn office building. An anonymous aide reported that workers in the office had previously been "berated" for wearing masks.
And that is only a tiny portion of the radioactive sludge that has been pumping through the veins of the Republican Party and the conservative propaganda machine. For instance, Sinclair Media Group, an extreme right-wing media conglomerate that owns local TV stations reaching about 40 percent of the country, recently recorded an interview with another conspiracy crackpot, Judy Mikovits. She falsely alleged that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, had actually created the coronavirus, and that the same lab had created the Ebola virus that caused the 2014 outbreak. As journalist Judd Legum explains, the resulting outrage eventually pushed Sinclair into canceling the planned airing of the segment on its stations last week — but not before it had been widely published online. And that's just one of dozens of instances of Sinclair pushing dangerous coronavirus misinformation.
In raw political terms, this is strange behavior indeed. Trump's catastrophic mishandling of the pandemic has badly harmed his approval rating — and he craves approval more than anything else — yet he keeps repeating conspiracy nonsense that will only enable the spread. He plainly can't help himself, and neither can the millions of propaganda-drunk followers who eagerly create, repeat, and share this stuff.
On some level, it makes sense. Inflammatory accusations get attention. Narratives about some secret evil conspiracy are exciting and interesting, and also provide a more compelling explanation for vast events than boring, mundane reality. Perhaps most importantly for American conservatism, conspiracy hogwash is the only way to reconcile the belief that Donald Trump is the heroic savior of history with his monstrously incompetent performance — it must be because Deep State villains are undermining him at every turn.
Most of those other factors, however, would also be true in other rich countries. While there are fringe websites and various conspiracy loons in all of them, none have this problem to nearly the same degree, much less a full-blown crackpot as the leader of the country. Our ultra-consolidated media industry, which gives enormous sway to a handful of right-wing media barons like Rupert Murdoch and Christopher Ripley, probably enables it. The structure of behemoth social media companies, which have little incentive to police dangerous misinformation, and are so large that they probably couldn't do it well even if they tried, probably enables it further.
Whatever the reason, the conservative propaganda machine is going to make this country very difficult to govern so long as it continues to operate in its current fashion. Just as economic markets do not work when they are under the thumb of monopolist robber barons, perhaps it is time to bring some regulation back to the marketplace of ideas.
Ryan Cooper THE WEEK
Illustrated | iStock
July 30, 2020
Why does the United States have the worst coronavirus outbreak in the developed world? Part of the answer is surely that our basic state functions have been allowed to rot, or been deliberately destroyed, over the years. State capacity and competence have been shown around the world to be a key factor in whether nations can get a handle on the pandemic.
But another reason is conservative media. A small but nevertheless very loud and angry minority of Americans have had their ability to reason dissolved in a corrosive bath of crack-brained propaganda.
The flood tide of conservative lunacy is so overwhelming that it can be hard to process or even notice. A dozen things that would be a major scandal in any other rich country, or the U.S. itself in previous ages, fly by practically every day.
Let's review a few events just from the start of this week.
On Monday, President Trump retweeted a viral video in which crackpot doctors falsely asserted that hydroxychloroquine was a "cure for COVID," and that masks were not necessary to contain the virus. Among others, the video featured Dr. Stella Immanuel, who has previously claimed "gynecological problems like cysts and endometriosis are in fact caused by people having sex in their dreams with demons and witches," and "the government is run in part not by humans but by 'reptilians' and other aliens," reports The Daily Beast.
On Tuesday, Twitter temporarily suspended the accounts of Donald Trump, Jr., and Kelli Ward, a former doctor and the chair of the Arizona Republican Party, for sharing the same video. (Arizona currently has probably the worst coronavirus outbreak in the country.) The president defended Immanuel at a press conference that day.
On Wednesday, Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-Texas), a frequent Fox News guest who has stubbornly refused to wear a mask while in the Capitol building, tested positive for COVID-19. He told his staffers the news in person, inside the House's Rayburn office building. An anonymous aide reported that workers in the office had previously been "berated" for wearing masks.
And that is only a tiny portion of the radioactive sludge that has been pumping through the veins of the Republican Party and the conservative propaganda machine. For instance, Sinclair Media Group, an extreme right-wing media conglomerate that owns local TV stations reaching about 40 percent of the country, recently recorded an interview with another conspiracy crackpot, Judy Mikovits. She falsely alleged that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, had actually created the coronavirus, and that the same lab had created the Ebola virus that caused the 2014 outbreak. As journalist Judd Legum explains, the resulting outrage eventually pushed Sinclair into canceling the planned airing of the segment on its stations last week — but not before it had been widely published online. And that's just one of dozens of instances of Sinclair pushing dangerous coronavirus misinformation.
In raw political terms, this is strange behavior indeed. Trump's catastrophic mishandling of the pandemic has badly harmed his approval rating — and he craves approval more than anything else — yet he keeps repeating conspiracy nonsense that will only enable the spread. He plainly can't help himself, and neither can the millions of propaganda-drunk followers who eagerly create, repeat, and share this stuff.
On some level, it makes sense. Inflammatory accusations get attention. Narratives about some secret evil conspiracy are exciting and interesting, and also provide a more compelling explanation for vast events than boring, mundane reality. Perhaps most importantly for American conservatism, conspiracy hogwash is the only way to reconcile the belief that Donald Trump is the heroic savior of history with his monstrously incompetent performance — it must be because Deep State villains are undermining him at every turn.
Most of those other factors, however, would also be true in other rich countries. While there are fringe websites and various conspiracy loons in all of them, none have this problem to nearly the same degree, much less a full-blown crackpot as the leader of the country. Our ultra-consolidated media industry, which gives enormous sway to a handful of right-wing media barons like Rupert Murdoch and Christopher Ripley, probably enables it. The structure of behemoth social media companies, which have little incentive to police dangerous misinformation, and are so large that they probably couldn't do it well even if they tried, probably enables it further.
Whatever the reason, the conservative propaganda machine is going to make this country very difficult to govern so long as it continues to operate in its current fashion. Just as economic markets do not work when they are under the thumb of monopolist robber barons, perhaps it is time to bring some regulation back to the marketplace of ideas.
Heffernan: Rep. Louie Gohmert, and the rest of Congress' reluctant maskers, are beyond irrationalVirginia Heffernan,
Los Angeles Times Opinion•July 31, 2020
\Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) with his bandana around his neck during a House Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday. (Matt McClain/ Associated Press)
There are no intelligent grounds for rejecting masks. They’re simple and cheap, and they protect humans against a vicious disease that has caused more than 660,000 deaths across the world.
Refusing to wear a mask is like supporting the fire against the fire department. It’s like openly sneezing into a packed elevator. It’s stupid. It’s also kind of disgusting.
But that didn’t stop Herman Cain — the accomplished businessman and onetime presidential hopeful, who died of COVID-19 on Wednesday — from rejecting masks. Before he headed to President Trump’s June rally in Tulsa, Okla.,he tweeted jubilantly that “masks will not be mandatory for the event” because “PEOPLE ARE FED UP!”And the stupidity of refusing to mask up did not stop Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert from appearing bare-faced around the Capitol recently. This kind of infantile rebellion is pathetic.
On Capitol Hill on Tuesday, when the House Judiciary Committee heard testimony by Atty. Gen. William Barr, some reluctant maskers had to be reminded by the committee chairman, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), to keep their masks on. Though Gohmert insisted he wasn’t among those admonished by the chair, he could be seen maskless intermittently during the hearing, and a video surfaced that showed him, along with Barr, entering the hearing room without masks.
Now it turns out that Gohmert is infected. In advance of a planned trip to Texas with President Trump on Wednesday, Gohmert took a test: Positive. He wasn't allowed on the plane.
This is bad news. Gohmert is the 11th known member Congress to contract the coronavirus. The others are all Republicans, except for Rep. Ben McAdams (D-Utah).
Trump’s national security advisor, Robert O'Brien, also came up positive this week. O’Brien joins a long list of White House and W.H.-adjacent personnel who have contracted the virus, including a cafeteria employee, a personal assistant to Ivanka Trump, members of the Secret Service, a military aide to the president, Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary, and Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is the consort of Donald Trump Jr. and a high-profile member of Trump’s reelection campaign.
Gohmert appears to be uniquely uninformed about the pandemic — and indifferent to his own health. Of his diagnosis, Gohmert told Texas television station KETK, "I can't help but wonder if by keeping a mask on and keeping it in place, I might have put some germs — some virus — onto the mask and breathed it in," Gohmert said.
So Gohmert gave himself COVID-19 because he already had it. How is this person a member of Congress?
Gohmert is at least consistent with his idiocy. In early March, a slate of conservative lawmakers, including Gohmert, was exposed to an infected person at a meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference. The event provided its own kind of contact tracing, and a passel of Trumpite luminaries, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), chose to quarantine out of what Cruz at the time called “an abundance of caution.”
But not Gohmert. He opted for a dearth of caution. He “took no action,” in the language of a GovTrack report charting COVID-19 in Congress.
Since then, Gohmert claims he has been getting tested regularly, and he has been seen occasionally wearing a bandana. He seems to have gotten swabbed Wednesday chiefly because the president requires a clean bill of health for anyone who comes near him. Trump, of course, nearly always forgoes a mask. (Trump also claimed Tuesday that most of America is “corona-free.” Yeah, no.)
Gohmert reported in a video on his website that he was first given the “quick test” for what he, like many anti-Asian bigots, calls the “Wuhan virus.” When that came back positive, he was retested with “the swab that goes way up in your sinuses” (In fact, it goes in the cavity between the nose and the mouth). It too was positive.
Ordinary Americans, of course, don’t get such speedy results. We’re stuck with our country’s non-testing non-program, which, as Bill Gates told CNBC on Wednesday, is a "complete waste" because results take too long. It's nearly useless as a public — or personal — health measure.
Which is why the majority of Americans don’t get cute with the pandemic. We’re wearing masks and observing social distancing, whatever our politics.
The Republican leadership that appears to be on tilt must bewilder their constituents. Most of the members of Congress who have suffered with the virus — and all whom are anti-mask — come from currently hard-hit red states. Gohmert’s state of Texas, though it has shown some signs of improvement, recorded 8,800 new confirmed cases on Thursday.
That anyone plays down the importance of masks is disturbing. But it’s staggering that denialism comes from people in high places. How hard can it be: Stay clean and healthy, and keep your snot, saliva and other excretions to yourself. Do anti-maskers like Gohmert also reject soap and toilet paper?
At this stage in the coronavirus lottery, the rejection of masks expresses nothing so much as a death wish, which makes it not just irrational but unusual. Most of us want to stay alive as long as possible. Common to all animals, this baseline preference for life over death is nonpartisan, non-ideological, noncontroversial.
Here’s wishing Gohmert a speedy recovery — of both his health and his senses.
@page88
The tragic consequences of anti-mask paranoia
July 30, 2020
Ryan Cooper
Herman Cain, the former pizza mogul and brief frontrunner in the 2012 Republican presidential primary, has died of COVID-19. It is not known for sure where he contracted the virus, but he came down with symptoms nine days after attending President Trump's campaign rally in Tulsa on June 20, and posted a picture online of himself there in a group of people without masks.
Here’s just a few of the #BlackVoicesForTrump at tonight’s rally! Having a fantastic time!#TulsaRally2020 #Trumptulsa #TulsaTrumprally #MAGA #Trump2020 #Trump2020Landslide pic.twitter.com/27mUzkg7kL
— Herman Cain (@THEHermanCain) June 20, 2020
In other news, Bill Montgomery, the 80-year-old co-founder of the conservative student group Turning Point USA, has also died of COVID-19. It has not been reported where he might have come down with the virus, but the other founder of TPUSA, Charlie Kirk, has repeatedly spread misinformation about the pandemic in general and masks in particular. On Kirk's podcast last weekend, he stated he refuses to wear a mask, and falsely suggested that doing so might make you sicker. The official TPUSA Twitter account deleted a tweet mocking mask-wearing after Montgomery's death.
The whole conservative movement has been trying to deny, downplay, and disregard this pandemic from the start. The resulting collateral damage now includes several prominent figures in their own ranks. But even that might not be enough to convince them to shift direction — 66-year-old Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-Tex.) recently tested positive, but he suggested on TV that it might have been from wearing a mask. Ryan Cooper
Jim Jordan explodes when asked to put on a mask, pivots to 'unmasking' of Michael FlynnKathryn Krawczyk,
The Week•July 29, 2020
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has successfully twisted a public health concern into a conservative conspiracy theory — but not the one of the dozens of COVID-19 conspiracies one might expect.
During a Wednesday hearing with the country's four biggest technology companies, Jordan used his questioning time to claim Google tried to help Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Penn.) was up next, and started her questioning by saying she would pivot from "fringe conspiracy theories" to anti-trust questions. Chaos predictably ensued.
"We have the email, there is no fringe—" Jordan interrupted before committee chair Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) cut him off. "Put your mask on," Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) chimed in. Jordan then used Raskin's request to pivot to a favorite conspiracy: "You want to talk about masks? Why would the deputy secretary of the treasury unmask Michael Flynn's name?"
"Put your mask on!"
Shouting breaks out among members of the House subcommittee during tech hearing, after Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon suggests Rep. Jim Jordan is pushing "fringe conspiracy theories" https://t.co/83sKht0bRx pic.twitter.com/E6fEZKT6tO
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 29, 2020
Jordan's outburst came just hours after Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) tested positive for COVID-19 and then walked around the House office building knowing he had it. Jordan was also reminded, albeit more gently, to put on his mask during a Tuesday hearing with Attorney General William Barr. Gohmert was also at that hearing, and one of his aides — and other Republican staffers — have since anonymously complained about the lack of mask compliance among their congressmembers.
Ever since PM came out, Ive gotten a flood of emails from republican staffers who say they too are being forced to come to the hill without a mask now.
If you’re one of those people, email me or dm me.
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) July 29, 2020
Los Angeles Times Opinion•July 31, 2020
\Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) with his bandana around his neck during a House Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday. (Matt McClain/ Associated Press)There are no intelligent grounds for rejecting masks. They’re simple and cheap, and they protect humans against a vicious disease that has caused more than 660,000 deaths across the world.
Refusing to wear a mask is like supporting the fire against the fire department. It’s like openly sneezing into a packed elevator. It’s stupid. It’s also kind of disgusting.
But that didn’t stop Herman Cain — the accomplished businessman and onetime presidential hopeful, who died of COVID-19 on Wednesday — from rejecting masks. Before he headed to President Trump’s June rally in Tulsa, Okla.,he tweeted jubilantly that “masks will not be mandatory for the event” because “PEOPLE ARE FED UP!”And the stupidity of refusing to mask up did not stop Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert from appearing bare-faced around the Capitol recently. This kind of infantile rebellion is pathetic.
On Capitol Hill on Tuesday, when the House Judiciary Committee heard testimony by Atty. Gen. William Barr, some reluctant maskers had to be reminded by the committee chairman, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), to keep their masks on. Though Gohmert insisted he wasn’t among those admonished by the chair, he could be seen maskless intermittently during the hearing, and a video surfaced that showed him, along with Barr, entering the hearing room without masks.
Now it turns out that Gohmert is infected. In advance of a planned trip to Texas with President Trump on Wednesday, Gohmert took a test: Positive. He wasn't allowed on the plane.
This is bad news. Gohmert is the 11th known member Congress to contract the coronavirus. The others are all Republicans, except for Rep. Ben McAdams (D-Utah).
Trump’s national security advisor, Robert O'Brien, also came up positive this week. O’Brien joins a long list of White House and W.H.-adjacent personnel who have contracted the virus, including a cafeteria employee, a personal assistant to Ivanka Trump, members of the Secret Service, a military aide to the president, Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary, and Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is the consort of Donald Trump Jr. and a high-profile member of Trump’s reelection campaign.
Gohmert appears to be uniquely uninformed about the pandemic — and indifferent to his own health. Of his diagnosis, Gohmert told Texas television station KETK, "I can't help but wonder if by keeping a mask on and keeping it in place, I might have put some germs — some virus — onto the mask and breathed it in," Gohmert said.
So Gohmert gave himself COVID-19 because he already had it. How is this person a member of Congress?
Gohmert is at least consistent with his idiocy. In early March, a slate of conservative lawmakers, including Gohmert, was exposed to an infected person at a meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference. The event provided its own kind of contact tracing, and a passel of Trumpite luminaries, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), chose to quarantine out of what Cruz at the time called “an abundance of caution.”
But not Gohmert. He opted for a dearth of caution. He “took no action,” in the language of a GovTrack report charting COVID-19 in Congress.
Since then, Gohmert claims he has been getting tested regularly, and he has been seen occasionally wearing a bandana. He seems to have gotten swabbed Wednesday chiefly because the president requires a clean bill of health for anyone who comes near him. Trump, of course, nearly always forgoes a mask. (Trump also claimed Tuesday that most of America is “corona-free.” Yeah, no.)
Gohmert reported in a video on his website that he was first given the “quick test” for what he, like many anti-Asian bigots, calls the “Wuhan virus.” When that came back positive, he was retested with “the swab that goes way up in your sinuses” (In fact, it goes in the cavity between the nose and the mouth). It too was positive.
Ordinary Americans, of course, don’t get such speedy results. We’re stuck with our country’s non-testing non-program, which, as Bill Gates told CNBC on Wednesday, is a "complete waste" because results take too long. It's nearly useless as a public — or personal — health measure.
Which is why the majority of Americans don’t get cute with the pandemic. We’re wearing masks and observing social distancing, whatever our politics.
The Republican leadership that appears to be on tilt must bewilder their constituents. Most of the members of Congress who have suffered with the virus — and all whom are anti-mask — come from currently hard-hit red states. Gohmert’s state of Texas, though it has shown some signs of improvement, recorded 8,800 new confirmed cases on Thursday.
That anyone plays down the importance of masks is disturbing. But it’s staggering that denialism comes from people in high places. How hard can it be: Stay clean and healthy, and keep your snot, saliva and other excretions to yourself. Do anti-maskers like Gohmert also reject soap and toilet paper?
At this stage in the coronavirus lottery, the rejection of masks expresses nothing so much as a death wish, which makes it not just irrational but unusual. Most of us want to stay alive as long as possible. Common to all animals, this baseline preference for life over death is nonpartisan, non-ideological, noncontroversial.
Here’s wishing Gohmert a speedy recovery — of both his health and his senses.
@page88
The tragic consequences of anti-mask paranoia
July 30, 2020
Ryan Cooper
Herman Cain, the former pizza mogul and brief frontrunner in the 2012 Republican presidential primary, has died of COVID-19. It is not known for sure where he contracted the virus, but he came down with symptoms nine days after attending President Trump's campaign rally in Tulsa on June 20, and posted a picture online of himself there in a group of people without masks.
Here’s just a few of the #BlackVoicesForTrump at tonight’s rally! Having a fantastic time!#TulsaRally2020 #Trumptulsa #TulsaTrumprally #MAGA #Trump2020 #Trump2020Landslide pic.twitter.com/27mUzkg7kL
— Herman Cain (@THEHermanCain) June 20, 2020
In other news, Bill Montgomery, the 80-year-old co-founder of the conservative student group Turning Point USA, has also died of COVID-19. It has not been reported where he might have come down with the virus, but the other founder of TPUSA, Charlie Kirk, has repeatedly spread misinformation about the pandemic in general and masks in particular. On Kirk's podcast last weekend, he stated he refuses to wear a mask, and falsely suggested that doing so might make you sicker. The official TPUSA Twitter account deleted a tweet mocking mask-wearing after Montgomery's death.
The whole conservative movement has been trying to deny, downplay, and disregard this pandemic from the start. The resulting collateral damage now includes several prominent figures in their own ranks. But even that might not be enough to convince them to shift direction — 66-year-old Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-Tex.) recently tested positive, but he suggested on TV that it might have been from wearing a mask. Ryan Cooper
Jim Jordan explodes when asked to put on a mask, pivots to 'unmasking' of Michael FlynnKathryn Krawczyk,
The Week•July 29, 2020
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has successfully twisted a public health concern into a conservative conspiracy theory — but not the one of the dozens of COVID-19 conspiracies one might expect.
During a Wednesday hearing with the country's four biggest technology companies, Jordan used his questioning time to claim Google tried to help Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Penn.) was up next, and started her questioning by saying she would pivot from "fringe conspiracy theories" to anti-trust questions. Chaos predictably ensued.
"We have the email, there is no fringe—" Jordan interrupted before committee chair Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) cut him off. "Put your mask on," Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) chimed in. Jordan then used Raskin's request to pivot to a favorite conspiracy: "You want to talk about masks? Why would the deputy secretary of the treasury unmask Michael Flynn's name?"
"Put your mask on!"
Shouting breaks out among members of the House subcommittee during tech hearing, after Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon suggests Rep. Jim Jordan is pushing "fringe conspiracy theories" https://t.co/83sKht0bRx pic.twitter.com/E6fEZKT6tO
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 29, 2020
Jordan's outburst came just hours after Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) tested positive for COVID-19 and then walked around the House office building knowing he had it. Jordan was also reminded, albeit more gently, to put on his mask during a Tuesday hearing with Attorney General William Barr. Gohmert was also at that hearing, and one of his aides — and other Republican staffers — have since anonymously complained about the lack of mask compliance among their congressmembers.
Ever since PM came out, Ive gotten a flood of emails from republican staffers who say they too are being forced to come to the hill without a mask now.
If you’re one of those people, email me or dm me.
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) July 29, 2020
Teachers facing an in-person school year make wills, retire or plan strikes
Michael Sainato,The Guardian•July 31, 2020
Michael Sainato,The Guardian•July 31, 2020
Photograph: Octavio Jones/Getty Images
School districts around the US are set to begin reopening in August, many with in-person classes, five days a week, despite coronavirus cases rising in many parts of the country.
But the school reopenings have teachers around the US fearful for the safety of themselves, students, staff and family members, with teachers and unions saying that proper protections and protocols have yet to be implemented.
Some teachers have even drawn up wills ahead of classes beginning, others have retired from the profession and teachers unions have said they will sanction strike action for members who deem that they are being forced to take potentially deadly risks.
Related: School reopenings: what can the US learn from other countries' experiences?
“Educators are afraid because proper policies are not being put in place to protect them,” said Alicia Priest, president of the Oklahoma Education Association. The Oklahoma state board of education has only issued guidelines for school districts, and voted down a proposal on 23 July to issue a mask mandate in schools across the state.
“The OEA offers members through our personal legal services program a free will. The requests for those free wills are up over 3,000% in the last few weeks,” Priest added.
A report published by the Kaiser Family Foundation on 10 July found 1.47 million teachers in the US – some 24% of the profession – are at greater risk of serious illness if infected with coronavirus because they have conditions that make them vulnerable.
Yet Florida has issued an order mandating all schools must open in August in-person, five days a week. The Florida teachers union responded to the order with a lawsuit.
“We are letting the community down by pretending we can open safely. The districts cannot do what is necessary according to CDC guidelines,” said Stacy Rene Kennett, a kindergarten teacher in Immokalee, Florida, who is expected to begin attending in-person training for school reopenings on 4 August.
Amy Scott, an IB language arts high school teacher in Miami, Florida for 44 years, decided to retire one year early due to the coronavirus pandemic and the instability of the upcoming school year.
“I dreaded it. I wanted to extend it as long as possible because I love kids and teaching,” said Scott. “But then came coronavirus and I realized all the difficulties of holding brick-and-mortar classrooms and the danger involved to teachers, students and the community spread and I didn’t want to end my 45 years of teaching in such a frustrating environment.”
In Arizona, which was designated a global pandemic hotspot in early July, reopening decisions have been left to individual school districts.
“There is no consistency across the state,” said Marisol Garcia, a middle school teacher and parent in Phoenix who currently serves as vice-president of the Arizona Educators Association. “We are left to our own devices to figure out how to keep our families safe and ensure our students are safe”
Garcia explained current class loads in Arizona make social distancing impossible in districts where in-person learning is permitted, as she had no less than 31 students in each class last school year, and it remains unclear if any schools will face repercussions for not following guidelines for coronavirus protections. She also warns many of her colleagues may retire early.
In Georgia, state agencies have issued guidelines for school reopenings, deferring decisions to school districts on when and how schools reopen in the coming weeks.
Several school districts outside of metro areas in Georgia are reopening in August with in-person classes, five days a week, leaving teachers there concerned over safety protections as coronavirus case rates have been rising around the state over the past several weeks.
“We’re very concerned that when we’re once again in school buildings, children, educators, and their family members will become sick and perhaps die,” said Lisa Morgan, president of the Georgia Educators Association.
According to Morgan, several school districts in Georgia that are reopening in person, five days a week, are not following CDC guidelines, with no mask mandates, large classroom sizes making social distancing impossible, and responsibility for extra cleaning measures placed on teachers to carry out.
Even as schools are expected to reopen in the coming weeks around the US, school districts and teachers are scrambling to create plans for restarting schools, whether classes are conducted in person, virtually, or a hybrid of in-person and remote learning.
“The country is asking teachers and children to lead the way, yet no one seems to know what direction we’re headed,” said Angela McKeen, a high school science teacher in Clarksburg, West Virginia. “My concerns at this point are for my students. Can we prevent huge outbreaks? Can students effectively learn in such fluid situations? Can teachers effectively reach their students at not just their places academically, but also emotionally during this time?”
Teacher unions have raised the possibility of walking off the job unless comprehensive safety plans are implemented for schools to reopen.
The head of the Colorado Education Association recently said teachers may refuse to report to work as schools are set to reopen in the state in August if teachers’ criteria for school reopenings aren’t met.
The union cited a survey of nearly 10,000 members, where about eight out of 10 teachers asserted they would be willing to refuse to work if teachers aren’t provided a voice in how safety protocols are implemented, such as mask mandates and social distancing procedures.
“We don’t want schools to be epicenters of outbreak in our community. It would crush any student or staff member if they brought coronavirus into school,” said Ernest Garibay, a high school math teacher in Jefferson county, Colorado, and local union representative.
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School districts around the US are set to begin reopening in August, many with in-person classes, five days a week, despite coronavirus cases rising in many parts of the country.
But the school reopenings have teachers around the US fearful for the safety of themselves, students, staff and family members, with teachers and unions saying that proper protections and protocols have yet to be implemented.
Some teachers have even drawn up wills ahead of classes beginning, others have retired from the profession and teachers unions have said they will sanction strike action for members who deem that they are being forced to take potentially deadly risks.
Related: School reopenings: what can the US learn from other countries' experiences?
“Educators are afraid because proper policies are not being put in place to protect them,” said Alicia Priest, president of the Oklahoma Education Association. The Oklahoma state board of education has only issued guidelines for school districts, and voted down a proposal on 23 July to issue a mask mandate in schools across the state.
“The OEA offers members through our personal legal services program a free will. The requests for those free wills are up over 3,000% in the last few weeks,” Priest added.
A report published by the Kaiser Family Foundation on 10 July found 1.47 million teachers in the US – some 24% of the profession – are at greater risk of serious illness if infected with coronavirus because they have conditions that make them vulnerable.
Yet Florida has issued an order mandating all schools must open in August in-person, five days a week. The Florida teachers union responded to the order with a lawsuit.
“We are letting the community down by pretending we can open safely. The districts cannot do what is necessary according to CDC guidelines,” said Stacy Rene Kennett, a kindergarten teacher in Immokalee, Florida, who is expected to begin attending in-person training for school reopenings on 4 August.
Amy Scott, an IB language arts high school teacher in Miami, Florida for 44 years, decided to retire one year early due to the coronavirus pandemic and the instability of the upcoming school year.
“I dreaded it. I wanted to extend it as long as possible because I love kids and teaching,” said Scott. “But then came coronavirus and I realized all the difficulties of holding brick-and-mortar classrooms and the danger involved to teachers, students and the community spread and I didn’t want to end my 45 years of teaching in such a frustrating environment.”
In Arizona, which was designated a global pandemic hotspot in early July, reopening decisions have been left to individual school districts.
“There is no consistency across the state,” said Marisol Garcia, a middle school teacher and parent in Phoenix who currently serves as vice-president of the Arizona Educators Association. “We are left to our own devices to figure out how to keep our families safe and ensure our students are safe”
Garcia explained current class loads in Arizona make social distancing impossible in districts where in-person learning is permitted, as she had no less than 31 students in each class last school year, and it remains unclear if any schools will face repercussions for not following guidelines for coronavirus protections. She also warns many of her colleagues may retire early.
In Georgia, state agencies have issued guidelines for school reopenings, deferring decisions to school districts on when and how schools reopen in the coming weeks.
Several school districts outside of metro areas in Georgia are reopening in August with in-person classes, five days a week, leaving teachers there concerned over safety protections as coronavirus case rates have been rising around the state over the past several weeks.
“We’re very concerned that when we’re once again in school buildings, children, educators, and their family members will become sick and perhaps die,” said Lisa Morgan, president of the Georgia Educators Association.
According to Morgan, several school districts in Georgia that are reopening in person, five days a week, are not following CDC guidelines, with no mask mandates, large classroom sizes making social distancing impossible, and responsibility for extra cleaning measures placed on teachers to carry out.
Even as schools are expected to reopen in the coming weeks around the US, school districts and teachers are scrambling to create plans for restarting schools, whether classes are conducted in person, virtually, or a hybrid of in-person and remote learning.
“The country is asking teachers and children to lead the way, yet no one seems to know what direction we’re headed,” said Angela McKeen, a high school science teacher in Clarksburg, West Virginia. “My concerns at this point are for my students. Can we prevent huge outbreaks? Can students effectively learn in such fluid situations? Can teachers effectively reach their students at not just their places academically, but also emotionally during this time?”
Teacher unions have raised the possibility of walking off the job unless comprehensive safety plans are implemented for schools to reopen.
The head of the Colorado Education Association recently said teachers may refuse to report to work as schools are set to reopen in the state in August if teachers’ criteria for school reopenings aren’t met.
The union cited a survey of nearly 10,000 members, where about eight out of 10 teachers asserted they would be willing to refuse to work if teachers aren’t provided a voice in how safety protocols are implemented, such as mask mandates and social distancing procedures.
“We don’t want schools to be epicenters of outbreak in our community. It would crush any student or staff member if they brought coronavirus into school,” said Ernest Garibay, a high school math teacher in Jefferson county, Colorado, and local union representative.
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Tropical Storm Isaias sets a new hurricane-season record as it triggers blackouts and flooding in Puerto Rico
ALAS POOR PUERTO RICO
Satellite imagery of Tropical Storm Isaias from the morning of July 30 shows it directly above Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
NOAA/NESDIS/STAR GOES-East
Tropical Storm Isaias gathered force on Thursday morning, causing widespread power outages in Puerto Rico.
The storm is headed toward Florida.
It's the earliest named storm starting with "I" in history — names go in alphabetical order — in an already record-breaking hurricane season.
Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Tropical Storm Isaias has already broken a record: It's the earliest named storm starting with "I" ever to form in a hurricane season. Because storms are named in alphabetical order each season, that means nine tropical storms have already formed — the first time that's happened before August 1 since the US began recording hurricane data in the 19th century.
The season's first hurricane, Hanna, made landfall in southern Texas on July 25, with wind speeds reaching 90 mph.
The difference between a tropical storm and hurricane is wind speed: A tropical storm's winds blow at a sustained 39 to 73 mph, whereas a hurricane's winds are 74 mph or greater.
As of 5:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, Isaias had made landfall at the Dominican Republic and was moving northwest at 20 mph. Its sustained wind speeds are hitting 60 mph.
Forceful winds and rain associated with the storm hit Puerto Rico on Thursday morning, where 312,500 people have lost electricity, according to Weather.com, and about 150,000 have lost water service. The storm was expected to drop 4 to 8 inches of rain on the island, with some areas receiving up to 10 inches.
NOAA/NESDIS/STAR GOES-East
Tropical Storm Isaias gathered force on Thursday morning, causing widespread power outages in Puerto Rico.
The storm is headed toward Florida.
It's the earliest named storm starting with "I" in history — names go in alphabetical order — in an already record-breaking hurricane season.
Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Tropical Storm Isaias has already broken a record: It's the earliest named storm starting with "I" ever to form in a hurricane season. Because storms are named in alphabetical order each season, that means nine tropical storms have already formed — the first time that's happened before August 1 since the US began recording hurricane data in the 19th century.
The season's first hurricane, Hanna, made landfall in southern Texas on July 25, with wind speeds reaching 90 mph.
The difference between a tropical storm and hurricane is wind speed: A tropical storm's winds blow at a sustained 39 to 73 mph, whereas a hurricane's winds are 74 mph or greater.
As of 5:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, Isaias had made landfall at the Dominican Republic and was moving northwest at 20 mph. Its sustained wind speeds are hitting 60 mph.
Forceful winds and rain associated with the storm hit Puerto Rico on Thursday morning, where 312,500 people have lost electricity, according to Weather.com, and about 150,000 have lost water service. The storm was expected to drop 4 to 8 inches of rain on the island, with some areas receiving up to 10 inches.
Tropical Storm Isaias looms over Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic on July 30.
NOAA/NESDIS/STAR GOES-East
Puerto Rico has already seen flooded roads, felled trees and landslides.
Continued rain and wind could go on to produce "potentially life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides across Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, northern Haiti, the Turks and Caicos, and the Bahamas," according to the National Hurricane Center.
NOAA/NESDIS/STAR GOES-East
Puerto Rico has already seen flooded roads, felled trees and landslides.
Continued rain and wind could go on to produce "potentially life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides across Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, northern Haiti, the Turks and Caicos, and the Bahamas," according to the National Hurricane Center.
The probable path for Tropical Storm Isaias, along with current weather warnings and expected arrival times.
NOAA/NWS
Isaias is forecast to move north toward the US. Heavy rains and winds up to 70 mph are expected in southern Florida by Saturday evening, potentially causing flash floods. The storm could become a hurricane by the time it nears Florida, but it's not likely.
Florida is currently battling one of the US's largest coronavirus outbreaks, with more than 460,000 total cases and 6,500 deaths. Florida's Division of Emergency Management announced Wednesday that it would close state-run COVID-19 testing sites at 5 p.m. ET on Thursday, "out of an abundance of caution to keep individuals operating and attending the sites safe."
The shutdowns could exacerbate existing testing delays and bottlenecks. Some South Florida residents say they've waited two weeks for test results, and some labs have cut back on the sites they service, according to the Florida Sun-Sentinel.
NOAA/NWS
Isaias is forecast to move north toward the US. Heavy rains and winds up to 70 mph are expected in southern Florida by Saturday evening, potentially causing flash floods. The storm could become a hurricane by the time it nears Florida, but it's not likely.
Florida is currently battling one of the US's largest coronavirus outbreaks, with more than 460,000 total cases and 6,500 deaths. Florida's Division of Emergency Management announced Wednesday that it would close state-run COVID-19 testing sites at 5 p.m. ET on Thursday, "out of an abundance of caution to keep individuals operating and attending the sites safe."
The shutdowns could exacerbate existing testing delays and bottlenecks. Some South Florida residents say they've waited two weeks for test results, and some labs have cut back on the sites they service, according to the Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Tropical Storm Isaias' expected path, along with the expected arrival time of winds and probable wind speeds.
NOAA/NWS
Officials from many hurricane-prone states have been discussing how to incorporate COVID-19 precautions into hurricane emergency planning since early June. South Carolina's Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC), for example, has been working to provide shelter options for residents with specific medical needs, like ventilators.
"We, like much of the nation, have never conducted a hurricane operation during a pandemic, but we know that together, with our partners and with the help of all South Carolinians, we will be resilient in the face of these new challenges," Marshall Taylor, General Counsel for the DHEC, said in a June press release.
Isaias' winds and rain are expected to hit South Carolina by early Monday morning.
Read the original article on Insider
NOAA/NWS
Officials from many hurricane-prone states have been discussing how to incorporate COVID-19 precautions into hurricane emergency planning since early June. South Carolina's Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC), for example, has been working to provide shelter options for residents with specific medical needs, like ventilators.
"We, like much of the nation, have never conducted a hurricane operation during a pandemic, but we know that together, with our partners and with the help of all South Carolinians, we will be resilient in the face of these new challenges," Marshall Taylor, General Counsel for the DHEC, said in a June press release.
Isaias' winds and rain are expected to hit South Carolina by early Monday morning.
Read the original article on Insider
Why some Americans say they'll never wear a mask — and what that says about the U.S.
Crystal Hill Reporter,Yahoo News•July 29, 2020
Some Americans may never wear a mask
While the vast majority of public health experts now agree that wearing face masks could halt the worsening coronavirus pandemic in its tracks, some Americans continue to resist that guidance.
More than two dozen states now have rules requiring residents to wear masks in stores and public areas. Big-box retailers like Target and Walmart have mandated that shoppers don a face covering to frequent their establishments. But the more that masks become embedded in everyday life, the more some people continue to push back. Fueled by mistrust of mainstream information, inconsistent messaging and concerns over the legality of mask mandates, there are some groups across the country that are organizing in protest of mask orders.
Broadcast on social media, confrontations over mask orders continue to erupt inside local businesses, with some turning violent.
“The majority of people seem to be following the recommendation, but research [shows] that there’s a small group of people who, when they feel like they’re being controlled, will respond by acting out,” Vaile Wright, senior director of Health Care Innovation at the American Psychological Association, told Yahoo News. “That might look like breaking the law or, in this case, not following medical recommendations.”
This behavior, Wright says, is influenced by a sense of distress and a lack of understanding of why the masks are necessary. It was also made worse by the fact that officials at the World Health Organization, in an effort to ensure that face masks went first to frontline health care workers, declared that masks were not recommended for everyone.
“You’ve got this huge sense of distrust of the government,” Wright said, “whether it’s local or federal. You’ve got distrust in the science. And then you have this really unfortunate situation where the science changed — science does that, especially in certain situations that are so novel and uncertain, but that’s really confusing for people.”
By a large margin, the U.S. has more confirmed COVID-19 cases (4.3 million) and deaths from it (nearly 150,000) than any other country, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Yet for months, as the number of cases and the death toll have continued to rise, public health experts have issued more unified guidance that wearing a mask can help the country contain the pandemic.
Crystal Hill Reporter,Yahoo News•July 29, 2020
Some Americans may never wear a mask
While the vast majority of public health experts now agree that wearing face masks could halt the worsening coronavirus pandemic in its tracks, some Americans continue to resist that guidance.
More than two dozen states now have rules requiring residents to wear masks in stores and public areas. Big-box retailers like Target and Walmart have mandated that shoppers don a face covering to frequent their establishments. But the more that masks become embedded in everyday life, the more some people continue to push back. Fueled by mistrust of mainstream information, inconsistent messaging and concerns over the legality of mask mandates, there are some groups across the country that are organizing in protest of mask orders.
Broadcast on social media, confrontations over mask orders continue to erupt inside local businesses, with some turning violent.
“The majority of people seem to be following the recommendation, but research [shows] that there’s a small group of people who, when they feel like they’re being controlled, will respond by acting out,” Vaile Wright, senior director of Health Care Innovation at the American Psychological Association, told Yahoo News. “That might look like breaking the law or, in this case, not following medical recommendations.”
This behavior, Wright says, is influenced by a sense of distress and a lack of understanding of why the masks are necessary. It was also made worse by the fact that officials at the World Health Organization, in an effort to ensure that face masks went first to frontline health care workers, declared that masks were not recommended for everyone.
“You’ve got this huge sense of distrust of the government,” Wright said, “whether it’s local or federal. You’ve got distrust in the science. And then you have this really unfortunate situation where the science changed — science does that, especially in certain situations that are so novel and uncertain, but that’s really confusing for people.”
By a large margin, the U.S. has more confirmed COVID-19 cases (4.3 million) and deaths from it (nearly 150,000) than any other country, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Yet for months, as the number of cases and the death toll have continued to rise, public health experts have issued more unified guidance that wearing a mask can help the country contain the pandemic.
3M brand N95 particulate respirators. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Still, some Americans — like Kansas resident Daniel Dieker, who avoids wearing masks except at doctors’ offices — aren’t entirely convinced that masks work.
“I don’t think the masks are effective at all,” Dieker, 34, told Yahoo News via Facebook. He said he knows of only one person with a confirmed case of the coronavirus. That person had mild symptoms, Dieker said. “I’m not concerned about COVID-19 because everything I see adds up to inflated numbers and overhyped panic. I believe it’s no worse than a new influenza strain.”
Dieker didn’t identify specific sources for that view, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says influenza and COVID-19 are caused by different viruses. Instead, Dieker pointed to what he described as misreported case numbers, inaccurate tests and mainstream news articles he believes are untrue.
“If I’m lied to several times,” he said, “why would I continue to believe the source of the lie, especially when the narrative doesn’t add up?”
Masks are also uncomfortable, Dieker said.
Dr. Steven Taylor, a psychiatrist at the University of British Columbia and the author of the 2019 book “The Psychology of Pandemics,” attributes the aversion to masks to several factors. Covering your face is not the norm in American culture, Taylor said, so it can be difficult for people to adjust to wearing one all the time. Also, he noted, some political leaders have taken the virus more seriously than others, sending mixed messages to the public.
President Trump, for instance, falsely said on Tuesday that large portions of the country are “corona-free,” and has vacillated between telling citizens to wear masks and sharing misinformation that downplays the importance of face coverings.
Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday. Having often resisted wearing a mask, Gohmert said in an interview that he “can’t help but wonder” if wearing a mask and trying to keep it in place caused him to breathe in the virus.
Still, some Americans — like Kansas resident Daniel Dieker, who avoids wearing masks except at doctors’ offices — aren’t entirely convinced that masks work.
“I don’t think the masks are effective at all,” Dieker, 34, told Yahoo News via Facebook. He said he knows of only one person with a confirmed case of the coronavirus. That person had mild symptoms, Dieker said. “I’m not concerned about COVID-19 because everything I see adds up to inflated numbers and overhyped panic. I believe it’s no worse than a new influenza strain.”
Dieker didn’t identify specific sources for that view, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says influenza and COVID-19 are caused by different viruses. Instead, Dieker pointed to what he described as misreported case numbers, inaccurate tests and mainstream news articles he believes are untrue.
“If I’m lied to several times,” he said, “why would I continue to believe the source of the lie, especially when the narrative doesn’t add up?”
Masks are also uncomfortable, Dieker said.
Dr. Steven Taylor, a psychiatrist at the University of British Columbia and the author of the 2019 book “The Psychology of Pandemics,” attributes the aversion to masks to several factors. Covering your face is not the norm in American culture, Taylor said, so it can be difficult for people to adjust to wearing one all the time. Also, he noted, some political leaders have taken the virus more seriously than others, sending mixed messages to the public.
President Trump, for instance, falsely said on Tuesday that large portions of the country are “corona-free,” and has vacillated between telling citizens to wear masks and sharing misinformation that downplays the importance of face coverings.
Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday. Having often resisted wearing a mask, Gohmert said in an interview that he “can’t help but wonder” if wearing a mask and trying to keep it in place caused him to breathe in the virus.
President Trump wears a face mask at Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies in Morrisville, N.C., on Monday. (Evan Vucci/AP)
This is not the first time Americans have resisted wearing masks during a public health crisis.
“In 1919 in San Francisco, there was an attempt by the authorities to make masks mandatory” during the so-called Spanish flu, Taylor said. “That caused the creation of the Anti-Mask League. The reasons they offered back then to not wearing masks are the same as the ones we’re seeing today. The people in the Anti-Mask League said, ‘We’re not going to wear masks because we don’t think they’re effective. And they’re an infringement on our civil liberties.’ So everything old is new again.”
The resistance to wearing masks may stem from America’s culture of individualism, which prioritizes personal freedom above practically everything else.
Michele Gelfand, a cross-cultural psychologist and professor at the University of Maryland, says the country’s response to the pandemic has much to do with what she calls its “loose” culture, compared with “tight” countries, such as Germany and Singapore, with a stricter adherence to social norms.
In a Boston Globe op-ed in March, Gelfand described U.S. culture’s “decentralized, defiant, do-it-your-own-way norms that make our country so entrepreneurial and creative and also deepen our danger during the coronavirus crisis.”
“It’s harder for people to accept when you have to become more strict,” Gelfand, the author of “Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire Our World,” told Yahoo News.
Her article, published before the number of COVID-19 cases would skyrocket here, warned that the U.S. must “tighten up” to survive the coronavirus.
“I was trying to nudge the American public about the fact that our loose entrepreneurial spirit is really important and we don’t want to give that up,” she said, “but that under times of threat, we really need to start becoming more strict in terms of social rules in order to survive.”
For John Bruski, a 47-year-old pastor from St. Paul, Minn., the mask mandates and COVID-19 restrictions are about submission.
“It is a symbol of your silence,” he told Yahoo News via Facebook. “This whole thing has been about shutting down our voice. No gathering, essentially attacking churches, no family gatherings. Close the restaurants so you can’t gather. Close or control everything that has to do with our voices and relationships.”
This is not the first time Americans have resisted wearing masks during a public health crisis.
“In 1919 in San Francisco, there was an attempt by the authorities to make masks mandatory” during the so-called Spanish flu, Taylor said. “That caused the creation of the Anti-Mask League. The reasons they offered back then to not wearing masks are the same as the ones we’re seeing today. The people in the Anti-Mask League said, ‘We’re not going to wear masks because we don’t think they’re effective. And they’re an infringement on our civil liberties.’ So everything old is new again.”
The resistance to wearing masks may stem from America’s culture of individualism, which prioritizes personal freedom above practically everything else.
Michele Gelfand, a cross-cultural psychologist and professor at the University of Maryland, says the country’s response to the pandemic has much to do with what she calls its “loose” culture, compared with “tight” countries, such as Germany and Singapore, with a stricter adherence to social norms.
In a Boston Globe op-ed in March, Gelfand described U.S. culture’s “decentralized, defiant, do-it-your-own-way norms that make our country so entrepreneurial and creative and also deepen our danger during the coronavirus crisis.”
“It’s harder for people to accept when you have to become more strict,” Gelfand, the author of “Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire Our World,” told Yahoo News.
Her article, published before the number of COVID-19 cases would skyrocket here, warned that the U.S. must “tighten up” to survive the coronavirus.
“I was trying to nudge the American public about the fact that our loose entrepreneurial spirit is really important and we don’t want to give that up,” she said, “but that under times of threat, we really need to start becoming more strict in terms of social rules in order to survive.”
For John Bruski, a 47-year-old pastor from St. Paul, Minn., the mask mandates and COVID-19 restrictions are about submission.
“It is a symbol of your silence,” he told Yahoo News via Facebook. “This whole thing has been about shutting down our voice. No gathering, essentially attacking churches, no family gatherings. Close the restaurants so you can’t gather. Close or control everything that has to do with our voices and relationships.”
People wear protective face masks outside Dunkin' Donuts in New York City. (Noam Galai/Getty Images)
Bruski said he believes the mandates are “wrong and unconstitutional,” a claim echoed by mask opponents and some attorneys general. But state laws generally give governors broad powers to make decisions in the interest of public health, despite whether residents believe them to be necessary.
“No one’s saying you have to believe that this is real,” Gerard Magliocca, a constitutional scholar and law professor at Indiana University, told Yahoo News. “You just have to wear a mask. I don’t think any court is going to say a mask requirement is invalid unless you go the route of saying, ‘There's nothing in state law that says that you can require people to wear masks at all.’”
Experts warn that the same issues surrounding mask compliance could create problems for promoting a vaccine.
“We know that vaccination nonadherence is already a big problem for seasonal influenza,” said Taylor, who has been conducting public surveys on the topic. “It’s going to be even worse for getting the vaccine against SARS-CoV-2. And that’s because it’s an unknown virus. The vaccine doesn’t have a track record yet. People are concerned about the safety and efficacy of a vaccine and worry that the whole process is being rushed. So that’s the next big challenge ahead.”
Dieker echoed those concerns, saying he would not get a vaccine until it was widely tested and approved for effectiveness and safety. “The rushed process makes it easier for issues to be missed,” he said. Bruski told Yahoo News he is not an “anti-vaxxer” but would not take the vaccine because he believes it’s “totally unnecessary” and probably wouldn’t work anyway.
“I think it’s the same psychological process that you see for masks,” Wright said. “Again, this sense of not wanting to feel controlled by others in what already feels like an uncontrollable situation.”
Public health experts have said that the way to effectively promote mask use is to offer consistent messaging that persuades, not forces, people to take precautions for themselves and their community.
“It’s really about depoliticizing masks in general,” Wright said, “and instead making the messaging about doing this as a way to protect your country, to protect you and to protect your community. And that as citizens, that comes with a certain amount of freedoms and price, but it also comes with responsibility. And in this case, that responsibility is to protect the public health.”
Bruski said he believes the mandates are “wrong and unconstitutional,” a claim echoed by mask opponents and some attorneys general. But state laws generally give governors broad powers to make decisions in the interest of public health, despite whether residents believe them to be necessary.
“No one’s saying you have to believe that this is real,” Gerard Magliocca, a constitutional scholar and law professor at Indiana University, told Yahoo News. “You just have to wear a mask. I don’t think any court is going to say a mask requirement is invalid unless you go the route of saying, ‘There's nothing in state law that says that you can require people to wear masks at all.’”
Experts warn that the same issues surrounding mask compliance could create problems for promoting a vaccine.
“We know that vaccination nonadherence is already a big problem for seasonal influenza,” said Taylor, who has been conducting public surveys on the topic. “It’s going to be even worse for getting the vaccine against SARS-CoV-2. And that’s because it’s an unknown virus. The vaccine doesn’t have a track record yet. People are concerned about the safety and efficacy of a vaccine and worry that the whole process is being rushed. So that’s the next big challenge ahead.”
Dieker echoed those concerns, saying he would not get a vaccine until it was widely tested and approved for effectiveness and safety. “The rushed process makes it easier for issues to be missed,” he said. Bruski told Yahoo News he is not an “anti-vaxxer” but would not take the vaccine because he believes it’s “totally unnecessary” and probably wouldn’t work anyway.
“I think it’s the same psychological process that you see for masks,” Wright said. “Again, this sense of not wanting to feel controlled by others in what already feels like an uncontrollable situation.”
Public health experts have said that the way to effectively promote mask use is to offer consistent messaging that persuades, not forces, people to take precautions for themselves and their community.
“It’s really about depoliticizing masks in general,” Wright said, “and instead making the messaging about doing this as a way to protect your country, to protect you and to protect your community. And that as citizens, that comes with a certain amount of freedoms and price, but it also comes with responsibility. And in this case, that responsibility is to protect the public health.”
Black holes are hiding movies of the universe in their glowing rings
A faint fuzzy glow around the first black hole image last year baffled astronomers. Now we know what it contains – and it’s more bizarre than we ever imagined
Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24732930-700-black-holes-are-hiding-movies-of-the-universe-in-their-glowing-rings/#ixzz6TlccJ1ZB
UK temperatures broke records in 2019 as climate change took hold
ENVIRONMENT 31 July 2020
By New Scientist and Press Association
Cambridge recorded the UK’s hottest temperature ever in 2019
Joe Giddens/PA
Last year saw a series of record high temperatures as climate change exerts “an increasing impact” on the UK, the Met Office has said.
Its latest annual State of the UK Climate report shows how the country continues to warm, with 2019’s average temperature 1.1°C above long-term 1961-1990 levels.
The most recent decade has been 0.9°C warmer across the UK than the 1961-1990 average, the report said.
Last year was most notable for breaking records, with the UK recording its hottest temperature ever as the mercury soared to 38.7°C at Cambridge University Botanic Garden on 25 July.
That wasn’t the only temperature high seen in 2019, with a new winter record of 21.2°C set on 26 February, at Kew Gardens in London, the first time 20°C has been reached in the UK in a winter month.
No cold temperature records were set last year, the report said.
The changing climate is also bringing other extremes, with flooding hitting parts of Lincolnshire in mid-June, parts of the Pennines and northern England in late July, and South Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire in November 2019.
All of the 10 warmest years in the UK in records dating back to 1884 have occurred since 2002, with 2019 coming in outside the top 10, in 12th place.
And the Central England Temperature series, the longest continuous temperature record in the world, which has data for an area of central England stretching back to 1659, provides evidence that the 21st century so far has been warmer overall than the previous three centuries, the Met Office said.
Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2250468-uk-temperatures-broke-records-in-2019-as-climate-change-took-hold/#ixzz6TlcApj00
ENVIRONMENT 31 July 2020
By New Scientist and Press Association
Cambridge recorded the UK’s hottest temperature ever in 2019
Joe Giddens/PA
Last year saw a series of record high temperatures as climate change exerts “an increasing impact” on the UK, the Met Office has said.
Its latest annual State of the UK Climate report shows how the country continues to warm, with 2019’s average temperature 1.1°C above long-term 1961-1990 levels.
The most recent decade has been 0.9°C warmer across the UK than the 1961-1990 average, the report said.
Last year was most notable for breaking records, with the UK recording its hottest temperature ever as the mercury soared to 38.7°C at Cambridge University Botanic Garden on 25 July.
That wasn’t the only temperature high seen in 2019, with a new winter record of 21.2°C set on 26 February, at Kew Gardens in London, the first time 20°C has been reached in the UK in a winter month.
No cold temperature records were set last year, the report said.
The changing climate is also bringing other extremes, with flooding hitting parts of Lincolnshire in mid-June, parts of the Pennines and northern England in late July, and South Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire in November 2019.
All of the 10 warmest years in the UK in records dating back to 1884 have occurred since 2002, with 2019 coming in outside the top 10, in 12th place.
And the Central England Temperature series, the longest continuous temperature record in the world, which has data for an area of central England stretching back to 1659, provides evidence that the 21st century so far has been warmer overall than the previous three centuries, the Met Office said.
Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2250468-uk-temperatures-broke-records-in-2019-as-climate-change-took-hold/#ixzz6TlcApj00
Air pollution targets breached at more than 1,300 sites in England, say campaigners
Friends of the Earth says "failing to fix air pollution costs lives" and urges even more investment in cycling and walking.
Wednesday 29 July 2020 UK
CLIMATE CHANGE
Image:High NO2 levels can affect health as well as contributing to climate change
More than 1,300 sites across England are breaching nitrogen dioxide (NO2) air quality targets, according to Friends of the Earth.
NO2 has been linked with an increased risk of respiratory and lung problems and can also cause significant problems for people with asthma. It is mostly emitted by road vehicles.
Friends of the Earth, which examined local authority data, said the number of places exceeding the target was "shocking" - with the emissions also contributing to climate change.
The worst place for NO2 is not in a city, but a section of the A35 that passes through the village of Chideock in West Dorset.
More than 1,300 sites across England are breaching nitrogen dioxide (NO2) air quality targets, according to Friends of the Earth.
NO2 has been linked with an increased risk of respiratory and lung problems and can also cause significant problems for people with asthma. It is mostly emitted by road vehicles.
Friends of the Earth, which examined local authority data, said the number of places exceeding the target was "shocking" - with the emissions also contributing to climate change.
The worst place for NO2 is not in a city, but a section of the A35 that passes through the village of Chideock in West Dorset.
Image:Chideock Hill in Dorset tops the list of highest average annual NO2 levels. Pic: Google
It recorded an average annual of 97.7 ug/m3, more than double the government's Annual Air Quality Objective of 40.
The full list compiled by the group is as follows:
1. Chideock Hill, West Dorset - 97.7
2. Station Taxi Rank, Sheffield - 91.7
3. North Street Clock Tower, Brighton - 90.8
4. Neville Street Tunnel, Leeds - 88
5. Strand, City of Westminster - 88
6. Walbrook Wharf, City of London - 87
7. Hickleton opp Fir Tree Close, Doncaster - 86
8. Marylebone Road, City of Westminster - 85
9. Euston Road, London Borough of Camden - 82.3
10. Hickleton, John O'Gaunts, Doncaster - 82
Traffic emissions are the main air pollution threat, but industrial and domestic producers also add to the problem.
Vehicles emit a wide range of pollutants in addition to NO2, mainly carbon monoxide but also particulate matter.
Friends of the Earth said there had been a slight improvement on its last annual audit, when 1,591 locations were breaching N02 objectives, but insisted "failing to fix air pollution costs lives".
"The government must also end its damaging fixation on building more roads," said the group's Simon Bowens.
It recorded an average annual of 97.7 ug/m3, more than double the government's Annual Air Quality Objective of 40.
The full list compiled by the group is as follows:
1. Chideock Hill, West Dorset - 97.7
2. Station Taxi Rank, Sheffield - 91.7
3. North Street Clock Tower, Brighton - 90.8
4. Neville Street Tunnel, Leeds - 88
5. Strand, City of Westminster - 88
6. Walbrook Wharf, City of London - 87
7. Hickleton opp Fir Tree Close, Doncaster - 86
8. Marylebone Road, City of Westminster - 85
9. Euston Road, London Borough of Camden - 82.3
10. Hickleton, John O'Gaunts, Doncaster - 82
Traffic emissions are the main air pollution threat, but industrial and domestic producers also add to the problem.
Vehicles emit a wide range of pollutants in addition to NO2, mainly carbon monoxide but also particulate matter.
Friends of the Earth said there had been a slight improvement on its last annual audit, when 1,591 locations were breaching N02 objectives, but insisted "failing to fix air pollution costs lives".
"The government must also end its damaging fixation on building more roads," said the group's Simon Bowens.
Image:The taxi rank at Sheffield train station is second on the list
"You can't justify this by planning to phase out polluting petrol and diesel vehicles and replace them with electric ones. We need to go much further than just getting out of one type of car and into another.
"Investment in better cycling and walking should be part of a fair and green post-coronavirus economic recovery plan aimed at creating a cleaner, fairer future."
The group produced its list of pollution hotspots using the most recent Air Quality Annual Status Reports (ASRs) submitted to government.
The reports are compiled using the previous year's data, meaning in most cases the most up to date data was collected in 2018.
"You can't justify this by planning to phase out polluting petrol and diesel vehicles and replace them with electric ones. We need to go much further than just getting out of one type of car and into another.
"Investment in better cycling and walking should be part of a fair and green post-coronavirus economic recovery plan aimed at creating a cleaner, fairer future."
The group produced its list of pollution hotspots using the most recent Air Quality Annual Status Reports (ASRs) submitted to government.
The reports are compiled using the previous year's data, meaning in most cases the most up to date data was collected in 2018.
Image:The Strand recorded the worst average NO2 levels in London
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs told Sky News the government had already committed to spend nearly £4bn to help improve air quality and boost cleaner transport.
A spokesperson said: "Air pollution has reduced significantly since 2010 - emissions of nitrogen oxides have fallen by 33% and are at their lowest level since records began.
"But we know there is more to do, which is why are taking urgent action to curb the impact air pollution has on communities across England through the delivery of our £3.8bn plan to clean up transport and tackle NO2 pollution.
"This includes providing £880m in funding and expert support to local authorities to improve air quality, and to introduce Clean Air Zones to further clean up the air we breathe."
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs told Sky News the government had already committed to spend nearly £4bn to help improve air quality and boost cleaner transport.
A spokesperson said: "Air pollution has reduced significantly since 2010 - emissions of nitrogen oxides have fallen by 33% and are at their lowest level since records began.
"But we know there is more to do, which is why are taking urgent action to curb the impact air pollution has on communities across England through the delivery of our £3.8bn plan to clean up transport and tackle NO2 pollution.
"This includes providing £880m in funding and expert support to local authorities to improve air quality, and to introduce Clean Air Zones to further clean up the air we breathe."
IEEFA: Despite the talk, Shell and Total are still investing much more in fossil fuels than renewables
The supermajors’ aim of net zero carbon emissions by 2050 cannot be reached without exiting fossil fuel assets
July 23, 2020 (IEEFA) – While Shell and Total are shifting towards renewable energy technologies, around 90% of their capital continues to be spent on fossil fuels, finds a new report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).
To reach their own stated targets, IEEFA estimates that Shell and Total each needs to shift at least $10bn per annum (or 50% of total capital expenditure) from oil and gas exploration and invest into accelerating their renewable strategies.
Ranking among the most significant contributors to the build-up of greenhouse gases, report author Clark Butler says both Shell and Total are well short of their publicised sustainable energy targets without a major shift of investment from fossil fuel assets to renewable energy.
“Total is unlikely to meet its 2025 goal of 25 gigawatts of installed renewable energy on its current trajectory,” says Butler. “And Shell’s immediate plan to spend $6bn on renewable energy generation by the end of 2020 will also fail.”
Total, the world’s fourth largest oil and gas company, has pledged to be net-zero in Europe (only) by 2050, and to reduce its carbon emissions intensity by 60% or more by 2050. Similarly, Shell plans to reduce its net carbon footprint by 65% by 2050.
“It is difficult to see how either company will achieve the massive transformation in carbon intensity they aim for without a fundamental shift away from oil and gas investment,” says Butler.
“Shell and Total together are responsible for more carbon emissions than Germany, the world’s sixth largest emitter. It is impossible for them to be net zero unless they invest more in zero emissions energy and less in fossil fuels.
“At the very least Total and Shell need to direct more than half of their capital investment each year to zero carbon investment if they are to reduce their carbon intensity in line with their own stated targets.
“This will at least tip the balance of investment in favour of renewables over fossil fuels and will scale them up towards renewable competitors like NextEra and Iberdrola.”
Butler says Total is almost halfway to its 2025 objective of 25GW and has successfully acquired large-scale renewable infrastructure development capacity.
“No other major oil company is growing renewables this fast,” says Butler. “But Total’s announcement last week of US$15 billion of debt financing dwarves its investment this year in zero carbon energy.”
“Shell is in an even worse position. It will need to increase its current level of activity by orders of magnitude to meet its renewables capital investment target of $2-3 bn per year from 2021.”
In contrast, the supermajors’ renewable competitors are way ahead of the curve.
Spain’s largest energy group, Iberdrola, told the market it would invest €32bn in renewables between 2018 and 2022. At its February 2019 shareholder update, that amount was increased to €34bn.
Butler notes Iberdrola’s share price performance over the last two years (up 53%) compared to Total (down 35%) and Shell (down 52%) confirms the market’s confidence in its strategy.
“In many ways, Iberdrola is the energy company Total and Shell say they want to become,” says Butler.
“An investor might well ask, why invest in Shell or Total to gain exposure to renewable energy when I could invest in NextEra, Ørsted or Iberdrola, given these firms are far more advanced in the transition?
“Investors may avoid the supermajors altogether unless they demonstrate serious progress towards their stated goals.”
About IEEFA: The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) examines issues related to energy markets, trends, and policies. The Institute’s mission is to accelerate the transition to a diverse, sustainable, and profitable energy economy.
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