Teacher creates database of school closings, cases, deaths; Birx says wear a mask ‘inside, outside, every day’
As schools across the nation struggle to find a safe way to educate students in-person, a Kansas teacher has dedicated herself to tracking school closings, cases and deaths in a budding national database.
“I was seeing a lot of articles about schools that were opening up and issues already happening on Day 1,” Alisha Morris, who teaches theater in Kansas’ Olathe School District said. “As I was researching, I thought, oh my gosh, this is happening all over.”
The project comes amid a torrent troubling news about the prospects of safely reopening schools.
Experts have expressed skepticism that schools’ attempting to head off outbreaks using routine symptom screenings will have success. Nurses have described keeping kids safe at school an “uphill fight.” And — despite President Donald Trump’s push to open all schools — half of the Defense Department’s schools in America will not open for in-person learning. Meanwhile, Trump has unleashed a barrage of attacks on “universal” mail voting, as many states have put new emphasis on early voting by mail because many voters may not want to go to the polls in person because of the pandemic. However, Only nine states and the District of Columbia so far plan to automatically send ballots to all voters.
Here are some significant developments:
The U.S. Postal Service has warned almost every state that deadlines for early voting may mean some ballots cannot be delivered in time to be counted.
A saliva-based COVID-19 test developed by researchers at Yale in partnership and funding from the NBA and National Basketball Players Association was approved on Saturday for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Thousands of people will gather in rural South Dakota yet again as the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally enters its second and final weekend.
Mayo Clinic researchers reported a strong hint that blood plasma from COVID-19 survivors helps other patients recover, but it’s not proof.
Birx: ‘Wear a mask inside, outside, every day’
Trump’s top coronavirus adviser used a visit to Kansas to urge people to wear masks regardless of where they live.
“What’s really important for every Kansan to understand is that this epidemic that we have been seeing this summer is both urban and rural,” Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, said Saturday. “So we are really asking all communities, whether you are urban or rural communities, to really wear a mask inside, outside, every day.
“You can’t tell who’s infected,” Birx said. “Much of the spread is asymptomatic. I know we all want to believe that our family members cannot be positive. They are.”