Western business leaders remain optimistic about Vietnam’s economic prospects despite a new surge of coronavirus cases that has prompted renewed lockdowns, especially in hard-hit neighborhoods in and around the central city of Da Nang.Vietnam had been one of the world’s most successful countries in containing the virus, with no new cases for 99 days until the new outbreak began on July 25. Since then there have been more than 900 new cases and 21 fatalities, prompting a new round of strict measures to contain the spread of the virus.“People are just staying at home and nobody is leaving the street, we had a blood test yesterday and a temperature check every morning and I cried a bit yesterday,” said Jessie Tran, a Vietnamese website designer living in one virus hot zone in Da Nang.An empty street in Da Nang, Aug. 17, 2020. (Hugh Bohane/VOA)Economists are warning that the outbreak could lead to a setback in the nation’s fairly rosy projections for short-term economic growth, according to Kenneth Atkinson, the founder of the international accounting firm Grant Thornton and vice president of the Tourism Advisory Board (TAB) in Vietnam.“I think it is too early to say but already one of the advisory committees from the policy research institute said to the prime minister, this could throw us into negative growth from the current projections of the 2 to 4% GDP growth for 2020,” said Atkinson, a dual citizen of Britain and Vietnam.Nevertheless, Atkinson told VOA he is not too worried because he believes Vietnam will remain an attractive destination for international companies wishing to relocate from China because of the U.S.-Chinese trade war.“The way Vietnam dealt with the first wave of COVID has given people a lot of confidence in the country and it can only accelerate that process that it has already started and I think Vietnam from that perspective comes out of this very well,” he said.Locals wearing masks on the street in Da Nang, Vietnam, Aug. 17,2020. (Hugh Bohane/VOA)In the meantime, normal commerce has screeched to a near halt in Da Nang, a coastal city popular with tourists because of its pristine beaches. Those beaches are now virtually empty, and authorities have closed all but essential businesses such as pharmacies, hospitals, ATMs and supermarkets.Medical experts are still uncertain about the source of the new outbreak, which Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long has attributed to a new strain of the virus although that has yet to be confirmed by scientists.Vietnam’s borders have been almost totally closed since March apart from a few flights repatriating Vietnamese from abroad, who could have brought the virus with them.A medical worker arrives to test residents in Da Nang, Aug. 17, 2020. (Hugh Bohane/VOA)Suspicion is also focused on 40 Chinese nationals who were illegally smuggled into Vietnam in April. Two Vietnamese citizens were detained on July 27 on suspicion of organizing the illegal entry and are being questioned by police.Local authorities are now acting to test Da Nang’s entire population of about 1.1 million people. Tien Son Sports Center, in Da Nang’s city center, has been converted into a field hospital and will be able to hold up to 2,000 patients.About 100 people were working frantically earlier this month to finish the task, according to a security guard who gave his name as Mr. Long.In the city’s Ngu Hanh Son neighborhood, close to My Khe beach, one street was completely locked down beginning July 30 after at least one case was detected there. The street, An Thuong 15, was cordoned off while guards and medics in hazmat suits inspected the area. The barricades were removed only a few days ago, to the delight of residents.The windows light up the Muong Thanh Hotel in Da Nang, Aug, 17, 2020. (Hugh Bohane/VOA)Despite the strict measures, most expatriates living in Da Nang give the government credit for acting swiftly and effectively to contain the virus, both earlier this year and during the current surge of cases.“I am scared but I am less worried knowing that the community I live in is so accepting of the rules and regulations enforced by the government, which are there to keep us safe,” said Eva Monique McDonough, a Canadian citizen, who teaches English and studies Vietnamese.Tran, the website designer, agreed that the Vietnamese government is trying its best to handle the outbreak and that the lockdown measures are crucial to containing it.
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Month: August 2020
NASA Scientists Monitor Changes in ‘Dent’ in Earth’s Magnetic Field
NASA scientists say a small but significant “dent” in Earth’s magnetic field is expanding and splitting and continuing to weaken intensity, which could impact low-orbit satellites circling the globe.According to scientists, Earth’s magnetic field acts like a protective shield, blocking and trapping charged particles — or radiation — from the sun that could otherwise cause harm but are more likely to affect electronic equipment, like satellites.But the “dent,” or weak spot, in the magnetic field over South America, known to scientists as the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA), allows radiation to penetrate Earth’s surface. The scientists have observed no ill effects to daily life on the planet. But they have observed the anomaly is moving westward and appears to be splitting.Scientists say Earth is a bit like a bar magnet with north and south poles that represent opposing magnetic polarities and invisible magnetic field lines encircling the planet between them.Earth’s magnetic field is generated from its outer core, 1,800 miles below the surface, comprised of molten iron and other metals that are constantly churning and acting like a giant generator – known as geodynamo — that generates electric currents that produce the magnetic field. Because of the constant motion, the magnetic field is not perfectly aligned throughout the globe, nor is it perfectly stable.Scientists say these fluctuations, along with the tilt of Earth’s magnetic axis, are what causes the SAA. Because of the radiation it allows, the region can be hazardous to satellites that pass through it. They can short-circuit a satellite’s onboard computer or cause other glitches.Scientists will monitor the changes in the SAA because it tells them about changes in the Earth’s core and how its dynamics influence other aspects of Earth’s systems.
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Students Protest Tuition Hikes as Universities Continue Online
Most U.S. universities are returning to online learning in their fall schedules as the coronavirus pandemic continues, and students are challenging paying full tuition. Many universities are operating hybrid models — combining courses in person and courses online — while others are remaining online only for the 2020-2021 academic year. As of July 29, 23.5% of nearly 3,000 U.S. universities and colleges are planning for fully in-person or primarily in-person classes, 14% are proposing hybrid models, and 30% are planning for a fully online or primarily online fall semester, according to data from The Chronicle of Higher Education and Davidson College’s College Crisis Initiative. The abrupt shift to virtual learning this spring proved to be a challenge for students, professors and faculty. Many students protested the quality of online classes during the spring semester, noting difficulty in retaining information and a lack of fair access in areas where internet connections are not reliable or high-speed. Students Give Online Learning Low MarksMany call on universities to end the semester earlyTuition reduction Students have asked universities for reduced tuition in exchange for online courses.“Universities should not be allowed to charge students full price for remote learning!” tweeted Khalib Owen, a junior at the University of the Arts in Center City, Philadelphia.UNIVERSITIES SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO CHARGE STUDENTS FULL PRICE FOR REMOTE LEARNING !!!!!!!— Godiva ☭ (@leebyyy) June 30, 2020 Owen’s tweet garnered over 1 million likes and over 240,000 retweets, with thousands of students sharing their viewpoints in the comment section and some attaching petitions to lower tuition costs for their universities. Institutions such as Dartmouth College, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst continue to charge full tuition. Meanwhile, Williams College announced a major tuition cut.The president of Williams announced on the university website that it would reduce its comprehensive fee, which includes tuition, room and board, by 15% for the 2020-2021 academic year. This makes the 2020-2021 comprehensive, or published, fee $63,200, while the 2019-2020 comprehensive fee was $72,270. “This reduction recognizes the fact that the pandemic and associated challenges are requiring us to cancel Winter Study as well as fall athletics competition and many student activities, among other opportunities that we usually encourage families to expect as part of their student’s education,” the letter said. Princeton University also announced a 10% discount to tuition for all undergraduate students during 2020-2021, according to its website. The university said all undergraduate education would be fully remote for the fall semester on Aug. 7.Both Williams and Princeton did not charge activities fees for the 2020-2021 academic year. Georgetown University also announced a 10% reduction for students who are not invited to live on campus. Students invited back to campus will be charged the previously announced tuition for the fall, but housing and dining charges will be reduced by 20% “to count for the shorter length of the semester.” John Hopkins University announced a 10% decrease for undergraduate tuition following a semester change to fully online classes. Meanwhile, the University of Michigan, the University of Southern California and Northwestern University have hiked their tuition 1.9%, 3.4% and 3.5% respectively because of financial losses during the pandemic. Students have disapproved of the increases and have sent the universities online petitions or open letters. “Not only is @UMich demanding students pay full tuition for a semester that will be mainly remote, but they’ve also proposed a tuition hike. … In what world is this giving “all individuals an equal opportunity to thrive” as @DrMarkSchlissel stated his mission was for DEI?” tweeted Ruqayya Ahmad, a master’s degree candidate at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan.not only is @UMich demanding students pay full tuition for a semester that will be mainly remote, but they’ve also proposed a tuition hike… in what world is this giving “all individuals an equal opportunity to thrive” as @DrMarkSchlissel stated his mission was for DEI?— Ruqayya (@ruqayyya) June 29, 2020 Graduate students at Johns Hopkins University’s Krieger School of Arts & Sciences are also petitioning for rollbacks.Lawsuits Some students have taken legal action. Harvard University law student Abraham Barkhordar sued the university over tuition prices, as classes remain online for the fall semester. “I decided to sue Harvard because while they did make some effort … the first semester we were online to mitigate things, they just have not lowered tuition,” he told ABC News in an interview. Several students, including those at Brown University, Georgetown University and Emory University, have filed class action lawsuits seeking reimbursement for the spring semester.WATCH: US Students File LawsuitsSorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 11 MB480p | 15 MB540p | 19 MB720p | 34 MB1080p | 70 MBOriginal | 257 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioMaster’s candidates at New York University Stern School of Business are protesting a 3.5% tuition hike and are asking for a 5% to 10% reduction because of the shift to remote education. Students are also considering taking off the fall semester if classes go remote. In a survey by the Yale Daily News, 52.8% of respondents said they would “likely or definitely” take a leave of absence if the semester was fully online. Twenty-six percent said they would “likely or definitely” take a leave of absence if the semester was to follow a hybrid semester format. “If fall is online I might have to take a semester off because I can’t do this again,” tweeted Grace Pauly, a junior at Florida State University. If fall is online I might have to take a semester off cause I can’t do this again.— g baby (@gracempauly) July 6, 2020Students abroad are also taking action, demanding refunds or reductions for the fall. Unimpressed by Online Classes, College Students Seek Refunds The class-action lawsuits have been filed against prestigious private schools and large public universities alikeIn South Korea, numerous universities filed a class action lawsuit against the Ministry of Education, demanding partial refunds because of learning disruptions during the pandemic.The National University Student Council created a student group called the Movement for Tuition Refunds, where an estimated 3,500 students from 42 universities have participated in the lawsuit, according to local news sources. After student protests and meetings with student leaders, Konkuk University, a private university in Seoul, became the first institution to enact a partial refund. The university agreed to an 8.3% cut in tuition for the fall semester, according to the Yonhap News Agency. JeonBuk National University in Jeonju became the first national university to refund 10% of spring semester tuition, according to YTN. The Korean Council for University Education announced that almost 40% of universities in South Korea will partially refund tuition fees. In the Philippines, the National Union of Students of the Philippines called for the Philippines Department of Education to reject tuition hike applications. “But for the National Union of Students of the Philippines, the broadest and longest existing alliance of student councils in the country, no tuition and other fees increase will be reasonable while ordinary Filipinos are suffering from the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” read a statement from the NUSP. Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Canada, also drew disapproval from students because of its tuition hike, especially for international students. International tuition for the engineering school rose by almost 13%, and international students explained they feel like “cash cows” because of the hike, according to CBC News. Tuition freeze Some universities have frozen tuition fees or have created COVID-19 relief funds and scholarships to assist with financial needs for students. Massachusetts Institute of Technology is freezing tuition despite an earlier hike and is offering a $5,000 grant to all undergraduate students to offset their annual costs. All undergraduate students will also be offered at least one semester of a paid research, teaching or service opportunity, carrying a stipend of up to $1,900. All Minnesota state colleges and universities said they would freeze tuition fees for fall, keeping rates at the same level charged for the previous fiscal year. The University of Maryland also announced a freeze for tuition, room and board for the 2020-2021 academic year. The College of William & Mary initially adopted a 3% tuition increase for incoming in-state undergraduates but rolled back on their decision and ensured that all tuition and mandatory fees stay flat. Tufts University has a COVID-19 Emergency Fund of which dependent students can receive up to $1,000 and independent students $1,800. Duke University announced three kinds of COVID-19 relief funds, with seed funding of $9 million from the university to provide assistance for members of the university and local communities.
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Trump Eyes White House Funeral Service for Brother, Robert
President Donald Trump is eyeing a White House funeral service later this week for his younger brother, Robert, who died over the weekend in a New York hospital.”We’re looking at Friday. And we may do just a small service right here at the White House,” Trump told reporters Monday as he departed Washington on a trip to the Midwest.The president said such a service would be a “great honor” for his sibling.”I think he’d be greatly honored. He loves our country. He loved our country so much. He was so proud of what we were doing and what we are doing for our country,” Trump said.Robert Trump, a businessman, died Saturday after being hospitalized in New York. He was 71.President Trump announced his brother’s death in a statement Saturday that referred to his sibling as “my best friend” and promised they “will meet again.”Trump had visited his brother in the hospital on Friday; White House officials had described him as seriously ill. The cause of death has not been released.Trump discussed his brother’s death during a nationally broadcast interview Monday.”This was not a great weekend. It’s very hard. You knew it was going to happen, but still when it happens it’s a very tough thing,” the president said on Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends.” “He was a great guy. He was a tremendous guy. He was my friend. I guess they say best friend, and that’s true. And losing him, not easy.”Trump said Robert Trump had always supported him and there was no rivalry between them.”There was not an ounce of jealously … he was my biggest fan,” Trump said.
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Mauritius Copes With Split Japanese Ship That Spilled Oil
Work began Monday to remove the two pieces of a grounded Japanese ship that leaked tons of oil into the protected coast of the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius and broke apart.
Tug boats will pull the bow — the smaller part of the shipwrecked MV Wakashio — out to sea and allow it to sink, according to environmental experts on the island. The larger part of the ship will be dragged off the coral reef where it ran aground and towed away, possibly to India for salvage.
“When the ship split in two, there was further leakage of oil, but it appears most of that fuel was on the other side of the coral reef and was in the high seas,” Sunil Dowarkasing, an environmental consultant and former parliament member in Mauritius. “With the sea currents, we don’t know if the new leakage will stay outside the lagoon or not.”
Oil barriers were in place and a skimmer ship to scoop up the fuel was nearby.
The Mauritius government has closed off the coastal area of the eastern part of the island, where thousands of civilian volunteers worked for days to try to minimize damage to the Mahebourg lagoon and protected marine wetlands polluted by the spilled fuel.
Only officials and hired workers are permitted to work in the coastal area and the waters surrounding the grounded ship.
Experts from France, Japan and the United Nations are also involved in the clean-up work.
“Now, we must rely on the government as our only source of information about the situation, so we are only getting one side of the story,” Dowarkasing said.
“We know that the damage to the area is substantial,” he told The Associated Press. “The mangroves are heavily impacted by the fuel. The extent of the damage to the coral reefs will only be known much later, but it is expected to be serious.”
The Wakasio ran aground a coral reef on July 25. After being pounded by heavy waves, the vessel cracked and it starting leaking oil on August 6. The damaged ship spilled more than 1,000 tons of its cargo of 4,000 tons of fuel into the turquoise waters of the Mahebourg Lagoon, one of the island’s most pristine coastal areas.
Most of the remaining 3,000 tons of fuel had been pumped off the ship in the past week as environmental groups warned that the damage to coral reefs could be irreversible.
The Mauritius government is under pressure to explain why immediate action wasn’t taken to empty the ship of its fuel before it began to leak. Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth earlier blamed bad weather for the slow response.
Owner Nagashiki Shipping has said “residual” amounts of fuel remained on the ship after pumping. It is investigating why the ship went off course. The ship was meant to stay at least 10 miles (16 kilometers) from shore. The company has sent experts to help clean up the damage.
The Mauritius government is seeking compensation from the company.
After the government declared an environmental emergency, thousands of volunteers rushed to the shore to create makeshift oil barriers from tunnels of fabric stuffed with sugar cane leaves and even human hair, with empty plastic bottles tucked in to keep them afloat.
The island nation of some 1.3 million people relies heavily on tourism and already had taken a severe hit due to travel restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic.
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Japanese PM Visits Hospital Amid Speculation About His Heath
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited a hospital Monday for what sources say was a follow-up to his regular checkup, although the visit generated renewed worries about his health. Video from TV Tokyo showed a black car believed to be carrying Abe pulling into Keio University Hospital in Tokyo. The prime minister’s office declined to comment on the hospital visit, saying it was not on his official schedule. Abe has been on a summer break recently, as has much of Japan. Abe, 65, has had health concerns before. He was forced to step down in 2007 after just one year in office due to complications from ulcerative colitis. He says the condition is now under control with medication. Although Abe sometimes goes to his summer home in the countryside about this time of year, he has stayed in Tokyo amid widespread concerns about the coronavirus pandemic, according to Kyodo. Abe, Japan’s longest-serving leader, is in his second tenure as prime minister.
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US Tightening Restrictions on Huawei Access to Technology, Chips
The Trump administration announced on Monday it will further tighten restrictions on Huawei Technologies Co, aimed at cracking down on its access to commercially available chips.
The U.S. Commerce Department actions, first reported by Reuters, will expand restrictions announced in May aimed at preventing the Chinese telecommunications giant from obtaining semiconductors without a special license – including chips made by foreign firms that have been developed or produced with U.S. software or technology.
The administration will also add 38 Huawei affiliates in 21 countries to the U.S. government’s economic blacklist, the sources said, raising the total to 152 affiliates since Huawei was first added in May 2019.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told Fox Business the restrictions on Huawei-designed chips imposed in May “led them to do some evasive measures. They were going through third parties,” Ross said. “The new rule makes it clear that any use of American software or American fabrication equipment is banned and requires a license.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the rule change “will prevent Huawei from circumventing U.S. law through alternative chip production and provision of off-the-shelf chips.” He added in a statement “Huawei has continuously tried to evade” U.S. restrictions imposed in May.
Huawei did not immediately comment.
With U.S.-China relations at their worst in decades, Washington is pushing governments around to world to squeeze Huawei out, arguing it would hand over data to the Chinese government for spying. Huawei denies it spies for China.
The new actions, effective immediately, should prevent Huawei’s attempts to circumvent U.S. export controls, Commerce said.
It “makes clear that we’re covering off-the-shelf designs that Huawei may be seeking to purchase from a third-party design house,” one Commerce Department official told Reuters.
A new separate rule requires companies on the economic blacklist to obtain a license when a company like Huawei on the list acts “as a purchaser, intermediate consignee, ultimate consignee, or end user.”
The department also confirmed it will not extend a temporary general license that expired Friday for users of Huawei devices and telecommunication providers. Parties must now submit license applications for transactions previously authorized.
The Commerce Department is adopting a limited permanent authorization for Huawei entities to allow “ongoing security research critical to maintaining the integrity and reliability of existing” networks and equipment.
Existing U.S. restrictions have already had a heavy impact on Huawei and its suppliers. The May restrictions do not fully go into effect until Sept. 14.
On Aug. 8, financial magazine Caixin reported Huawei will stop making its flagship Kirin chipsets next month due to U.S. pressure on suppliers.
Huawei’s HiSilicon division has relied on software from U.S. companies such as Cadence Design Systems Inc and Synopsys Inc to design its chips and outsourced the production to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) , which uses equipment from U.S. companies.
TSMC has said it will not ship wafers to Huawei after Sept. 15.
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Opposition Candidate Says Ready to Lead Belarus
Belarusian opposition politician Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya says she is ready to become the leader of the country following a disputed election that ignited massive protests after longtime President Alexander Lukashenko was declared the winner.Lukashenko on Monday rejected holding another vote but indicated he was willing to consider sharing power, but not under pressure from street protests. His opponent in the election spoke in a video message released from Lithuania. “We all want to leave this loop that we found ourselves in 26 years ago. I am ready to take on the responsibility and become the national leader in this period,” Tsikhanouskaya said. “With the goal of calming the situation and entering into a normal period, freeing political prisoners, and in the shortest time creating the conditions and legislative base to organize new presidential elections. Real, honest and transparent elections, that will be unequivocally accepted by the international community.”Russia Could Step In to Help Embattled Belarus Leader Amid Massive Protests, Accusations of Rigged Election Kremlin says Putin, Lukashenko agree on Moscow assistance to ‘maintain security’ in Belarus Tsikhanouskaya also called on the Belarusian military to join the protesters.On Sunday, as many as 200,000 protesters marched in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, far outnumbering the crowd of Lukashenko supporters who also marched. The protest march began near Victory Park in central Minsk and was the biggest demonstration in the history of the former Soviet republic.Lukashenko Declared Winner in Belarus Election for 6th Straight Term Protests erupted challenging the results; rights groups say one person was killed, dozens injured, and several hundred arrests were made Thousands of factory workers went on strike Monday to protest what they called “rigged” elections. Some of them heckled Lukashenko as he spoke to workers during a visit to a tractor factory. He said there will be no new election “until you kill me.” The country’s Central Election Commission said that after all ballots were counted in the August 9 election, Lukashenko took 80.23% of the votes and Tsikhanouskaya took 9.9%.She entered the race after the arrest of her husband, blogger and would-be opposition candidate Siarhei Tsikhanousky.Hundreds of Thousands March in Belarus200,000 March Against Pres. Lukashenko and his longtime authoritarian rule after another allegedly stolen presidential electionTsikhanouskaya said she would never accept the results before fleeing to Lithuania for what she said was her children’s safety.Lukashenko took power after Belarus declared independence from the Soviet Union and has been president since 1994.Lukashenko told military chiefs Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin offered “comprehensive help” to “ensure the security of Belarus.”The Kremlin said in a statement that both presidents agreed the “problems” in Belarus would be “resolved soon” and the countries’ ties would strengthen.
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Politics Slows Flow of US Virus Funds to Local Public Health
As the novel coronavirus began to spread through Minneapolis this spring, Health Commissioner Gretchen Musicant tore up her budget to find funds to combat the crisis. Money for test kits.
Money to administer tests. Money to hire contact tracers. And yet even more money for a service that helps tracers communicate with residents in dozens of languages.
While Musicant diverted workers from violence prevention and other core programs to the COVID-19 response, state officials debated how to distribute $1.87 billion Minnesota received in federal aid.
As she waited, the Minnesota Zoo got $6 million in federal money to continue operations, and a debt collection company outside Minneapolis received at least $5 million from the federal Paycheck Protection Program, according to federal data.
It was not until Aug. 5 — months after Congress approved aid for the pandemic — that Musicant’s department finally received $1.7 million, the equivalent of $4 per Minneapolis resident.
“It’s more a hope and a prayer that we’ll have enough money,” Musicant said.
Since the pandemic began, Congress has set aside trillions of dollars to ease the crisis. A joint Kaiser Health News and Associated Press investigation finds that many communities with big outbreaks have spent little of that federal money on local public health departments for work such as testing and contact tracing. Others, like in Minnesota, were slow to do so.
For example, the states, territories and 154 large cities and counties that received allotments from the $150 billion Coronavirus Relief Fund reported spending only 25% of it through June 30, according to reports that recipients submitted to the U.S. Treasury Department.
Many localities have deployed more money since that June 30 reporting deadline, and both Republican and Democratic governors say they need more to avoid layoffs and cuts to vital state services. Still, as cases in the U.S. top 5.4 million and confirmed deaths soar past 170,000, Republicans in Congress are pointing to the slow spending to argue against sending more money to state and local governments to help with their pandemic response.
“States and localities have only spent about a fourth of the money we already sent them in the springtime,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday. Congressional Democrats’ efforts to get more money for states, he said, “aren’t based on math. They aren’t based on the pandemic.”
Negotiations over a new pandemic relief bill broke down last week, in part because Democrats and Republicans could not agree on funding for state and local governments.
KHN and the AP requested detailed spending breakdowns from recipients of money from the Coronavirus Relief Fund — created in March as part of the $1.9 trillion CARES Act — and received responses from 23 states and 62 cities and counties. Those entities dedicated 23% of their spending from the fund through June to public health and 7% to public health and safety payroll.
An additional 22% was transferred to local governments, some of which will eventually pass it down to health departments. The rest went to other priorities, such as distance learning.
So little money has flowed to some local health departments for many reasons: Bureaucracy has bogged things down, politics have crept into the process, and understaffed departments have struggled to take time away from critical needs to navigate the red tape required to justify asking for extra dollars.
“It does not make sense to me how anyone thinks this is a way to do business,” said E. Oscar Alleyne, chief of programs and services at the National Association of County and City Health Officials. “We are never going to get ahead of the pandemic response if we are still handicapped.”
Last month, KHN and the AP detailed how state and local public health departments across the U.S. have been starved for decades. Over 38,000 public health worker jobs have been lost since 2008, and per capita spending on local health departments has been cut by 18% since 2010. That’s left them underfunded and without adequate resources to confront the coronavirus pandemic.
“Public health has been cut and cut and cut over the years, but we’re so valuable every time you turn on the television,” said Jan Morrow, the director and 41-year veteran of Ripley County health department in rural Missouri. “We are picking up all the pieces, but the money is not there. They’ve cut our budget until there’s nothing left.”Politics And Red Tape
Why did the Minneapolis health department have to wait so long for CARES Act money?
Congress mandated that the Coronavirus Relief Fund be distributed to states and local governments based on population. Minneapolis, with 430,000 residents, missed the threshold of 500,000 people that would have allowed it to receive money directly.
The state of Minnesota, however, received $1.87 billion, a portion of which was meant to be sent to local communities. Lawmakers initially sent some state money to tide communities over until the federal money came through — the Minneapolis health department got about $430,000 in state money to help pay for things like testing.
But when it came time to decide how to use the CARES Act money, lawmakers in Minnesota’s Republican-controlled Senate and Democratic-controlled House were at loggerheads.
Myron Frans, commissioner of Minnesota Management and Budget, said that disagreement, on top of the economic crisis and pandemic, left the legislature in turmoil.
Then following the police killing of George Floyd, the city erupted in protests over racial injustice, making a difficult situation even more challenging.
Democratic Gov. Tim Walz favored targeting some of the money to harder-hit communities, a move that might have helped Minneapolis, where cases have surged since mid-July. But lawmakers couldn’t agree. Negotiations dragged on, and a special session merely prolonged the standoff.
Finally, the governor divvied up the money using a population-based formula developed earlier by Republican and Democratic legislative leaders that did not take into account COVID-19 caseloads or racial disparities.
“We knew we needed to get it out the door,” Frans said.
The state then sent hundreds of millions of dollars to local communities. Still, even after the money got to Minneapolis a month ago, Musicant had to wait as city leaders made difficult choices about how to spend the money as the economy cratered and the list of needs grew.
“Even when it gets to the local government, you still have to figure out how to get it to local public health,” Musicant said.
Meanwhile, some in Minneapolis have noticed a lack of services. Dr. Jackie Kawiecki has been providing help to people at a volunteer medical station near the place where Floyd was killed — an area that at times has drawn hundreds or thousands of people per day. She said the city did not do enough free, easy-to-access testing in its neighborhoods this summer.
“I still don’t think that the amount of testing offered is adequate, from a public health standpoint,” Kawiecki said.
A coalition of groups that includes the National Governors Association has blamed the spending delays on the federal government, saying the final guidance on how states could spend the money came late in June, shortly before the reporting period ended. The coalition said state and local governments had moved “expeditiously and responsibly” to use the money as they deal with skyrocketing costs for health care, emergency response and other vital programs.
New York’s Nassau County was among six counties, cities and states that had spent at least 75% of its funds by June 30.
While most of the money was not spent before then, the National Association of State Budget Officers says a July 23 survey of 45 states and territories found they had allocated, or set aside, an average of 74% of the money.
But if they have, that money has been slow to make it to many local health departments.
As of mid-July in Missouri, at least 50 local health departments had yet to receive any of the federal money they requested, according to a state survey. The money must first flow through local county commissioners, some of whom aren’t keen on sending money to public health agencies.
“You closed their businesses down in order to save their people’s lives and so that hurt the economy,” said Larry Jones, executive director for the Missouri Center for Public Health Excellence, an organization of public health leaders. “So they’re mad at you and don’t want to give you money.”
The winding path federal money takes as it makes its way to states and cities also could exacerbate the stark economic and health inequalities in the U.S. if equity isn’t considered in decision-making, said Wizdom Powell, director of the University of Connecticut Health Disparities Institute.
“Problems are so vast you could unintentionally further entrench inequities just by how you distribute funds,” Powell said.’Everything Fell Behind’
The amounts eventually distributed can induce head-scratching.
Some cities received large federal grants, including Louisville, Kentucky, whose health department was given $42 million by April, more than doubling its annual budget. Because of the way the money was distributed, Louisville’s health department alone received more money from the CARES Act than the entire government of the city of Minneapolis.
Philadelphia’s health department was awarded $100 million from a separate fund from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Honolulu County, where cases have remained relatively low, received $124,454 for every positive COVID-19 case it had reported as of Aug. 9, while El Paso County in Texas got just $1,685 per case. Multnomah County, Oregon — with nearly a quarter of its state’s COVID-19 cases — landed only 2%, or $28 million, of the state’s $1.6 billion allotment.
Rural Saline County in Missouri received the same funding as counties of similar size, even though the virus hit the area particularly hard. In April, outbreaks began tearing through a Cargill meatpacking plant and a local factory. By late May, the health department confirmed 12 positive cases at the local jail.
Tara Brewer, Saline’s health department administrator, said phone lines were ringing off the hook, jamming the system. Eventually, several department employees handed out their personal cell phone numbers to take calls from residents looking to be tested or seeking care for coronavirus symptoms.
“Everything fell behind,” Brewer said.
The school vaccination clinic in April was canceled, and a staffer who works as a Spanish translator for the Women, Infants and Children nutritional program was enlisted to contact trace for additional coronavirus exposures. All food inspections stopped.
It was late July when $250,000 in federal CARES Act money finally reached the 11-person health department, Brewer said — four months after Congress approved the spending and three months after the county’s first outbreak.
That was far too late for Brewer to hire the army of contact tracers that might have helped slow the spread of the virus back in April. She said the money already has been spent on antibody testing and reimbursements for groceries and medical equipment the department had bought for quarantined residents.
Another problem: Some local health officials say that the laborious process required to qualify for some of the federal aid discourages overworked public health officials from even trying to secure more money and that funds can be uneven in arriving.
Lisa Macon Harrison, public health director for Granville Vance Public Health in rural Oxford, North Carolina, said it’s tough to watch major hospital systems — some of which are sitting on billions in reserves — receive direct deposits, while her department received only about $122,000 through three grants by the end of July. Her team filled out a 25-page application just to get one of them.
She is now waiting to receive an estimated $400,000 more. By contrast, the Duke University Hospital System, which includes a facility that serves Granville, already has received over $67.3 million from the federal Provider Relief Fund.
“I just don’t understand the extra layers of onus for the bureaucracy, especially if hundreds of millions of dollars are going to the hospitals and we have to be responsible to apply for 50 grants,” she said.
The money comes from dozens of funds, including several programs within the CARES Act. Nebraska alone received money from 76 federal COVID relief funding sources.
Robert Miller, director of health for the Eastern Highlands Health District in Connecticut, which covers 10 towns, received $29,596 of the $2.5 million the state distributed to local departments from the CDC fund and nothing from CARES. It was only enough to pay for some contact tracing and employee mileage.
Miller said that he could theoretically apply for a little more from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but that the reporting requirements — which include collecting every receipt — are extremely cumbersome for an already overburdened department.
So he wonders: “Is the squeeze worth the juice?”
Back in Minneapolis, Musicant said the new money from CARES allowed the department to run a free COVID-19 testing site Saturday, at a church that serves the Hispanic community about a mile from the site of Floyd’s killing.
It will take more money to do everything the community needs, she says, but with Congress deadlocked, she’s not sure they’ll get it anytime soon.
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Sons Use E-books to Help Virus-Stricken Dad, Other Patients
Geoff Woolf gave his sons a love for literature. When he got sick with COVID-19, they turned to books to help him — and others.
The 73-year-old retired lawyer was hospitalized in London in March, and within days he was on a ventilator in intensive care. Unable to visit, his family could only watch from afar with frustration and dismay.
Then sons Nicky, a 33-year-old journalist, and Sam, a 28-year-old actor, had an idea: Maybe literature could help him and other patients.
“He always said if he was in hospital for a long time, he would be able to deal if he had a book,” Sam said.
The brothers loaded an e-reader with Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” — “his comfort read,” according to Sam — and played it for their unconscious father.
Doctors said, “‘We can’t tell you he’ll definitely hear it. But we also can’t tell you he won’t,’” Sam said. “There is power in hearing a voice.
The brothers set out to acquire more devices for other patients. As they came to terms with the likelihood of losing their father, they saw the project, which they named Books for Dad, as a legacy.
Nicky and Sam recruited a team of volunteers to load e-readers, donated by audiobooks company Audible, with content, including classic novels, thrillers and podcasts. They delivered an initial batch of 20 — disinfected and individually bagged — to the hospital treating their father, along with single-use headphones donated by British Airways. Soon they were distributing dozens more to other hospitals around the U.K.
Books for Dad is a boon to hospitals looking for ways to keep patients stimulated. Often patients are too sick to read a physical book, and some don’t have their own electronic devices. Even if they do, patchy WiFi can hamper audio and video streaming.
Lisa Anderton, head of patient experience at University College London Hospital, said the “brilliant” initiative can help both coronavirus and other patients.
Hospitalization is stressful even in the best of times, and the ability to “pop your headphones on and just listen to something that takes you somewhere else, I think really changes how people feel and how people cope with what can be an alien as well as a very busy environment,” Anderton said.
From the initial donation, Books for Dad has kept growing, and the brothers plan to distribute 5,000 e-readers to British hospitals over the next six months and add books for children and young adults to their content.
As the project expanded, Geoff Woolf had secondary infections, organ failure and a major stroke. Doctors began to discuss the possibility of switching off life support.
Then, after almost four months of hospitalization including 67 days on a ventilator, he began to improve. In late July he was discharged from Whittington Hospital, workers applauding as he was wheeled out of the ward en route to a specialized neurological hospital where his recovery continues.
His sons know he has a long road ahead.
“But considering the place where he was, which was ‘Goodbye,’ it is remarkable that he has come back to a state where he is aware, he understands what’s going on,” Sam said. “Communication is very difficult. But he has comprehension, and with comprehension there’s the capacity for a life worth living.”
What the brothers once thought would be a project honoring a life cut short has now become a legacy of their love for their father, they said.
“And how much his love of literature meant to us,” Nicky added, “and how meaningful it was to be able to pass that on to other people.”
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Рай совдепії із безкоштовною освітою, яка насправді була платною. Міфи пропаганди
Рай совдепії із безкоштовною освітою, яка насправді була платною. Міфи пропаганди.
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Хабаровск идет по стопам Беларуси
Хабаровск идет по стопам Беларуси.
36 дней подряд, 6-е выходные подряд – это все про Хабаровск, который продолжает выходить и требовать справедливость в отношении Сергея Фургала. И с событиями в Беларуси российская повестка заметно ушла в тень. Но ведь события у соседей могут послужить примером, что когда граждане едины и видят несправедливость – они способны добиться своих целей, главное поддержка всей страны
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Эрдоган оторвал пукину трубу. Турция променяла газпром на азербайджанский газ
Эрдоган оторвал пукину трубу. Турция променяла газпром на азербайджанский газ.
По данным ФТС, в июне в Турцию было прокачано всего 2 миллиона кубометров газа – в 1127 раз меньше, чем в январе, и 585 раз меньше, чем в тот же месяц год назад
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Сырьевой коллапс: роснефть и газпром летят в тартарары имени обиженного карлика пукина
Сырьевой коллапс: роснефть и газпром летят в тартарары имени обиженного карлика пукина.
Нет времени на раскачку, сказала правящая верхушка путляндии в 2020 году, и бросилась в экономическую пропасть
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Прозрел обиженный карлик пукин: путляндии выставляют счёт за Грузию и Азербайджан
Прозрел обиженный карлик пукин: путляндии выставляют счёт за Грузию и Азербайджан.
Спустя два дня после предъявления США счёта путляндии за Грузию ей также выставила Турция счёт за Азербайджан. Формально это счёт Армении, но реально – обиженному карлику пукину
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Asian, European Markets Begin Trading Week Mostly Higher
Global markets are mostly higher Monday despite bad economic news from Japan. Japan’s Nikkei index dropped 0.8% after a report the country’s economy shrank 7.8% between April and June, the worst second-quarter numbers ever posted by the world’s third-largest economy. Elsewhere in Asia, Australia’s S&P/ASX index also finished 0.8% lower. The KOSPI index in South Korea is down 1.2%, while Taiwan’s TSEC is up 1.2%. In late afternoon trading, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is up 0.6%, Shanghai’s Composite index is 2.3% higher, and Mumbai’s Sensex is up 0.1%. European markets are off to a strong start, with Britain’s FTSE index, the CAC-40 index in France, and Germany’s DAX index all up 0.3%. In commodities trading, gold is trading at $1,963.20 an ounce, up 0.6%. U.S. crude oil is selling at $42.17 per barrel, up 0.3%, and Brent crude is up $44.89 per barrel, up 0.2%. All three major U.S. indices are trending upward in futures trading.
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Israeli Guards Shoot Disabled Palestinian
Security guards shot a Palestinian man in the legs Monday at the Qalandiya checkpoint near Jerusalem after the man failed to respond to the guards’ orders to stop, according to an account in the Jerusalem Post. The Post said the man apparently had a “hearing and speech impairment.” Border guards helped the man get medical attention. Michael Zats, an advocate for reforming the way security forces treat people with disabilities, told Army Radio, “Security forces don’t always know how to internalize the person in front of them and don’t identify the nuances.” Zats said there are a number of cases demonstrating that public spaces can be “threatening for people with disabilities.” The Joint List and Meretz said the shooting of the disabled man is part of the pattern of “the daily violation of the rights of the Palestinians.”
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Google Pushes Back Against Proposed Australian Law Over News Content
Google is warning that Australians’ personal information could be “at risk” if the digital giant has to pay for news content. A proposed law would require firms like Google and Facebook to pay Australian news organizations for the content that appears on their websites. The law was drafted last month after months of negotiations between the Australian government and the two tech giants broke down. In an open letter posted online Monday, Melanie Silva, Google’s managing director for Australia and New Zealand, said Australians’ personal data could be turned over to big media firms if the law is enacted, which would help them automatically inflate their search ranking. Silva also said the law would make such free services such as Google Search and YouTube “dramatically worse” and could lead to Australians paying for such services. Rod Sims, the chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, dismissed Google’s claims as “misinformation.” He said the proposed law does not require Google to turn over user’s personal information, or charge for its search services.The open letter was published as Australian regulators begin the last week of gathering public consultations and comments on the proposed law. Australian media companies have seen their advertising revenue increasingly siphoned off by firms like Google and Facebook in recent years.
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US Expert: Recovered COVID Patients Could Be Immune for a Year
A U.S. disease expert says COVID-19 survivors may expect to be immune from another case for as long as one year. Former Food and Drug Administration official Dr. Scott Gottleib appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation Sunday to talk about new findings by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that say a three-month immunity is a certainty. “But it’s probably the case that you’re going to have a period of immunity that lasts anywhere from six to 12 months. It’s going to be highly variable. Some people will have less immunity, some people will have slightly more. But it’s good news that they’re able to document that people have really sterile immunity. They’re not going to get reinfected for at least three months and probably longer than that after infection.” But Gottlieb cautioned that the COVID-19 is called the novel (new) coronavirus for a reason – there is still much that doctors don’t know about it. With the U.S. closing in on 170,00 coronavirus deaths, experts at the University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics predict that number will hit 186,000 by September 1 and more than 390,000 by December 1. Health officials have not been able to convince enough people to wear masks and practice social distancing to slow the spread of the disease.A man wearing a face mask walks across the street in Los Angeles, Friday, Aug. 7, 2020.U.S. scientists say they have isolated infectious particles of the coronavirus as far as 4.8 meters away from hospitalized patients. The scientists said the widely accepted 2-meter social distancing advice provides a “false sense of security” and could result in large groups of people being exposed to the disease. The study, conducted at the university of Florida Health Shands Hospital, has not been peer reviewed. The Italian cruise ship MSC Grandiosa will began a voyage to the Mediterranean on Sunday, after it and four sister cruise ships were idled by the coronavirus pandemic in Civitavecchia, one of the world’s busiest ports. The five ships can hold a total of 26,000 people. The four other ships will also resume operations soon, positioning Italy as the epicenter of the effort to resume cruises worldwide.
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Japan’s Economy Shrinks at Record Pace as Pandemic Hits Spending
Japan was hit by its biggest economic contraction on record in the second quarter as the coronavirus pandemic crushed business and consumer spending, keeping policymakers under pressure for bolder action to prevent the recession from deepening.While the economy is emerging from the doldrums after lockdowns were lifted in late May, many analysts expect any rebound in July-September growth to be modest as a renewed rise in infections keep consumers’ purse-strings tight.Gross domestic product (GDP) shrank an annualized 27.8% in April-June, government data showed Monday, marking the biggest decline since comparable data became available in 1980.It was the third straight quarter of contraction and slightly bigger than the median market forecast for a 27.2% drop.”The big decline can be explained by the decrease in consumption and exports,” said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute.”I expect growth to turn positive in the July-September quarter. But globally, the rebound is sluggish everywhere except for China.”Private consumption, which accounts for more than half of Japan’s economy, plunged 8.2% for the quarter, as lock-down measures to prevent the spread of the virus kept consumers at home.The drop, which exceeded analysts’ forecast of a 7.1% fall, was the biggest quarterly decline on record.Capital expenditure declined 1.5% in the second quarter, less than a median market forecast for a 4.2% fall.External demand, or exports minus imports, shaved a record 3.0 percentage point off GDP, as the pandemic dampened global demand, the data showed.Japan has deployed massive fiscal and monetary stimulus to cushion the blow from the pandemic, which hit an economy already reeling from last year’s sales tax hike and the U.S.-China trade war.While the economy has re-opened after the government lifted state of emergency measures in late May, a worrying resurgence in infections cloud the outlook for business and household spending.
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