Drug-overdose death rates were more common among service-industry employees before pandemic, but not afterward

By Allison Rogers

University of Kentucky

Drug-overdose deaths spiked following Kentucky’s Covid-19 stay-at-home and business-closure orders in 2020, but the industries that suffered the most overdose deaths were surprising, according to research conducted by the Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center at the University of Kentucky College of Public Health.

In the years leading up to the study, Kentucky’s service-industry employees experienced the most drug-overdose deaths. However, workers outside service industries were more likely to die by drug overdose in the months following the Covid-related shutdowns of 2020, the researchers found.

The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Injury Prevention in 2023 and funded by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Graph by Kentucky Injury Prevention Research Center

Analyzing drug-overdose death certificates and toxicology tests from 2018 through 2021, researchers found a significant increase in deaths rates for both sectors. In 2019, the rate per 100,000 employees was 46.7 and 45.7 for service and non-service industries, respectively. In 2021, those rates were 76.2 and 81.9.

Service occupations with the highest drug-overdose death rates were restaurant wait staff (10%), cooks (7%), landscaping and groundskeeping workers (6%) and auto-service technicians and mechanics (6%). Among non-service-industry jobs, overdose deaths occurred most often among construction laborers (15%), carpenters (7%) and freight, stock and material movers and hand occupations (7%).

From 2018 through 2021, there were 1,789 drug overdose deaths among service-industry workers in Kentucky, compared to 2,838 for non-service workers.

Terry Bunn, lead author of the study and director of the injury-prevention center, said “Service-related industry employees may have been more resilient and adaptable to changes in employment status compared to non-service-related industries and could find employment in other essential industry sectors during the pandemic such as the home improvement and building materials industry and the grocery store industry sector.”

Fentanyl was the most commonly identified drug in overdose deaths in both industry groupings, with 44% of identified substances among service-related industry deaths and 48% of identified substances among non-service-related deaths. The second most common drug with elevated frequencies detected in drug-overdose deaths was methamphetamine, with 24% of identified substances among service-related industry deaths and 28% of identified substances among non-service-related industry deaths.

Bunn hopes the results will alert employers in all industries to the need for a plan to handle on-site drug overdoses and substance use. “It is important for businesses to know about local community resources for timely linkage to substance use disorder treatment and to recovery support services as well as availability of on-site naloxone,” she said.

Election prompts a look at Beshear's pandemic restrictions, and Cameron's challenges to them; Kentucky fared better than feared

Gov. Andy Beshear, right, and Dr. Steven Stack, the state’s public-health commissioner, at a news conference in the governor's Capitol suite in May 2020. (Photo by Sarah Ladd, Kentucky Lantern)

By Sarah Ladd
Kentucky Lantern
     
On March 6, 2020, a Kentuckian tested positive for the novel coronavirus, Covid-19, and Gov. Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency.

The United States had been under a public health emergency for more than a month by then. Five days after Kentucky’s first confirmed case, the World Health Organization said COVID-19 was officially a pandemic.

The NCAA canceled March Madness rather than “contribute to spread” of the virus. The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art shuttered temporarily. NASCAR suspended racing.

We had entered a time like nothing Americans had experienced since the flu epidemic of 1918. In other words, it was “uncharted territory,” said Dr. Paul McKinney, the University of Louisville’s interim dean of the School of Public Health and Information Sciences, in a September interview with the Kentucky Lantern.

Over the next three years, around 2 million Covid-19 tests came back positive in Kentucky. More than 19,000 Kentuckians died.

Beshear issued more orders, including restricting mass gatherings, closing schools and releasing some medically at-risk prisoners.

Now some Republicans are urging Kentuckians to make Beshear a one-term governor based on his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Andy Beshear has failed us,” says an ad by Republican nominee and Attorney General Daniel Cameron. “He locked our schools and unlocked our jails. We can do better.”

A pro-Cameron PAC is running ads accusing a “criminal coddling governor” of having unleashed dangerous criminals on Kentuckians.

To help voters navigate the criticisms, the Lantern is looking back at the pandemic, a time of economic upheaval, rapidly changing guidance and rampant misinformation.

‘Flying blind’

At the beginning, the response to Covid-19 was “a blunt instrument,” said UofL’s McKinney, “because what could we do at that point? We had no antiviral medications to use, we didn’t have a vaccine. We didn’t have adequate testing; we didn’t have enough (personal protective equipment) to go around. All we had was basically the ability to trace contacts of people who were exposed and to … implement social distancing.”

Tim Veno, CEO of an organization of nursing homes and assisted living facilities in Kentucky, agreed.

“We were pretty well flying blind,” he said. “We had no test or any way to determine who may or may not have had Covid.”

Until the science caught up, social mitigation was the only option.

In March 2020, Beshear, who had been governor three months, issued a variety of recommendations and orders based on guidance from public-health authorities, meant to slow the virus’ spread.

Almost as quickly, Attorney General Cameron began challenging some of the orders in court.

Not all of Beshear’s orders were restrictive. He streamlined the process for out-of-state nurses to work in Kentucky, suspended evictions and expanded eligibility for unemployment benefits.

The unemployment system was quickly overwhelmed by the influx of applications, and people waited months for help. Meanwhile, Louisville’s WDRB reported that Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman texted the head of the Office of Unemployment Insurance to get attention to her hairdresser’s application, as well as that of a “friend of a friend.” The administration maintained that there was no abuse of power.

Beshear also began holding daily, virtual news conferences, broadcast across the state, to share information about the virus. Health experts praised this move, but it rankled some of his political opponents.

And, he encouraged Kentuckians to light their homes green in memory of those lost to Covid-19.

Spring 2020: A ‘somber’ experience

When Beshear recommended that schools close for a few weeks, Louisville high-school freshman Spandana Pavuluri, now 18, remembers thinking the time would be “just like an extended spring break.” Two weeks to catch up on homework, nothing more.

Before the end of March, though, the virus closed all public-school buildings in the U.S., according to Education Week.

The extended remote learning and loss of social connections in a pivotal time of her life “hit me like a truck,” Pavuluri said, describing the time as “somber.”

Her bedroom, where she did school, became a “place of … stress,” not relaxation. The “really social person” was suddenly very alone, a sentiment reflected back to her from other students in research she helped conduct with the Kentucky Student Voice Team.

On top of school closures, in April 2020, Beshear halted elective surgeries so medical staff and supplies could be fully employed in addressing Covid-19. He closed the Natural Bridge and Cumberland Falls state resort parks and suspended overnight stays at other resort parks.

When several individuals sued the state challenging Beshear’s restrictions on interstate travel, Cameron took their side in court. A federal judge in a different case ruled that parts of the travel order were unconstitutional. Beshear lifted it before Memorial Day.

The state shut down visits to nursing homes except in end-of-life situations. Leaders feared that visitors would bring Covid-19 to the most vulnerable.

“That, of course, was devastating to some families,” said Veno, president and CEO of LeadingAge Kentucky.

“After that, we mobilized very quickly in setting up remote communication, iPads and other connected devices so that we could immediately, at least, at the very minimum, allow residents and families to talk via the internet,” Veno said. “Those were all very difficult decisions to make.”

Despite “some political blowback” from those moves, Veno said, “in my view, that action saved lives.”

 
On churches, did the governor go too far?

After Beshear banned gatherings of more than 10 people, and a religious revival in Hopkins County was linked to at least 28 cases of the virus and two deaths, some churches kept holding in-person services.

Maryville Baptist Church in Bullitt County gathered on Easter Sunday despite the order. The pastor found nails in the parking lot before the service. And attendees found notices placed by state troopers on their windshields telling them to quarantine.

The church and Tabernacle Baptist Church in Nicholasville sued Beshear. As attorney general, Cameron joined their lawsuits.

Two federal district judges ruled that Beshear’s ban on religious gatherings was unconstitutional and that the churches could hold in-person services while observing precautions against spreading the virus. But the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals disagreed, allowing the restriction on in-person services to stand. The appeals court did block Beshear’s ban on drive-in services.

By then Beshear had agreed to allow places of worship to gather. But many chose to wait. The Rev. Kent Gilbert, pastor of historic Union Church in Berea, told the Lexington Herald-Leader at the time, “No pastor wants to race back to church to do more funerals.”

Todd Gray, the executive director of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, told the Lantern that the denomination’s pastors and church leaders “made their own decisions” about protecting congregants. They “sought to be good citizens working in cooperation with recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and from Frankfort,” he said.

The theological belief that Christians must gather together also factored into some congregations coming back to in person services “as quickly as possible,” said Gray.

“While most Kentucky Baptist churches sought to cooperate with the governor’s recommendations as much as they could,” Gray said, “most, if not all, believed the governor went too far when he specifically targeted churches while some businesses such as liquor stores remained open.” Beshear's order did not mention churches.

Politicizing a pandemic

In May 2020, angered over the shutdowns, protesters opposed to Covid-19 restrictions hanged Beshear in effigy outside the state Capitol and marched to the governor’s mansion demanding he resign.

Attached to the effigy was a sign with the words “sic semper tyrannis,” Latin for “thus ever to tyrants,” the motto of Virginia, which John Wilkes Booth famously said after shooting President Abraham Lincoln.

Republicans and Democrats alike decried those actions. Secretary of State Michael Adams, a Republican, tweeted at the time that “The words of John Wilkes Booth have no place in the Party of Lincoln.”

There were other protests of the shutdowns and social-distancing and masking measures. Misinformation was rampant, including a claim that the pandemic itself was a hoax. The politicization of the pandemic made it harder for health care workers do their jobs, they said.

“It was extremely difficult for hospitals,” said Deborah Campbell, the vice president for clinical strategy and transformation at the Kentucky Hospital Association.

In early 2021, when vaccines became available, Kentucky gave first priority to health care workers and staff in long-term care and assisted-living facilities followed by those over 70, first responders, K-12 school personnel and child care workers.

Many, including some health care workers, refused vaccination against the virus. Once vaccines were mandated by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, those who refused the shots could no longer work in hospitals, Campbell said.

“It was terribly painful. It was painful for the staff, it was painful for the hospital leadership,” Campbell said,  but precautions did save lives. They also kept hospitals running better than if no mitigation measures had been in place.

Fewer sick people “means more staff were not sick and able to take care of patients in the hospital, which means they got better care, which means they did better,” she said.

Still, health-care workers often bore the brunt of people’s anger.

Some hospital visitors and even patients treated health care workers in a “demoralizing” way, said Campbell. They spit on and cursed them.

“People were threatened. Workplace violence increased in our hospitals, particularly around visitation, and any personal-freedom restrictions,” Campbell said. “Those visitation restrictions were heart-wrenching. But at some point … I think it was pretty clear it was the right thing to do.”

Veno said that in his 20 years working in health care, “I’ve never seen this kind of public reaction, anti-vaccination reaction as I saw with Covid.”

All of this helped feed burnout and exacerbated an already worsening medical workforce crisis.

 
On the economy

About 18% of Kentucky’s businesses had to close because of a government mandate during 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s similar to the nationwide share of about 19%.

The state designated workers as “essential” and “nonessential” to determine which employers could stay open with more flexibility. Grocery workers, for example, were deemed essential. Jewelry and clothing stores were not.

The designations remain a sore spot for some. Cameron has said he wants to make Beshear “not essential” come Election Day.

The Kentucky Center for Economic Policy reported in May that the state lost 294,900 jobs in just the first two months of the pandemic. Businesses permanently closed left and right. Thousands across the country shuttered.

“In the three years since, Kentucky has experienced a remarkable recovery,” Kentucky Policy said. It reported Kentucky had 53,800 more jobs than before Covid-19 hit the state.

Cameron said in October that, had he been governor at the time, he would not have closed small businesses and health spaces like chiropractor’s offices. He criticized what he called “inconsistency” in Beshear’s decisions.

“There are a lot of small businesses right now that have not been able to recover,” Cameron said. “Several of them closed their doors for good.”

Prisons: a ‘public health failure’

Among other steps to stifle Covid-19’s spread, Beshear closed restaurants to in-person traffic, suspended out-of-state travel for state employees, and stopped prison visits.

Beshear commuted the sentences of 1,870 inmates who were medically vulnerable and who had not been convicted of violent or sexual offenses and were withing six months of their release date.

Cameron and his allies have criticized Beshear’s pre-release vetting. They’ve cited data from the Administrative Office of the Courts that shows about half of 1,700 commutation recipients were charged with another crime by July 2023.

The Courier Journal of Louisville and the Herald-Leader have reported, though, that many of those re-offenders would have been free to commit their alleged subsequent crimes because their original prison sentences would have expired by then anyway. Beshear says they were "the vast majority."

Prison Policy Initiative, a Massachusetts-based national nonprofit that researches criminalization in the United States, reported in April that Kentucky’s overall incarceration population decreased 13% from January 2020 to December 2021. The national average in that perios was 15%.

Wanda Bertram, a communications strategist with Prison Policy Initiative, says the real mistake by Kentucky and most states was not releasing more prisoners — despite warnings that prisons would become “hotbeds for coronavirus spread” and “endanger not just people who are inside and people who are working inside but also the entire community that surrounds the prison.”

Kentucky, like most states, continued to imprison people for technical violations of probation and parole, Bertram said. “We actually did prove that mass incarceration probably added at least half a million Covid cases nationwide in the summer of 2020 alone,” she said.

In 2021, Bertram's group gave states letter grades based on their treatment of incarcerated populations during the pandemic. Kentucky, along with many others, received an F.

“Beshear’s commutations of 1,800 incarcerated people is a bright spot in what, otherwise, I would consider to be a complete public health failure when it comes to protecting incarcerated people and the communities that surround prisons,” Bertram said.

Kentucky had the nation’s third highest rate of Covid infections and deaths among prisoners from March 2020 to June 2021, according to the Marshall Project, which collaborated with The Associated Press to keep track. The numbers are an undercount because inconsistent testing caused infections to go undiagnosed, especially early in the pandemic, according to the report.

During those 15 months, Kentucky prisons recorded 7,909 cases — 6,503 cases per 10,000 prisoners, lower than only Michigan and Arkansas — and 48 deaths, or 39 per 10,000, lower than only Nevada and New Mexico.

Eight state prison staff in Kentucky died of Covid-19, the Department of Corrections said earlier this month.

Learning loss

By the start of the 2020-21 academic year, four states had ordered schools to open in person, but in Kentucky most schools continued remote learning. In November, a deadly “third wave” struck and Beshear announced that public and private K-12 schools would close.

Danville Christian Academy and Cameron challenged the school closing order and won before U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove. But the Sixth Circuit U.S Court of Appeals upheld Beshear’s order, saying it treated all schools, religious or otherwise, the same.

The appeals court took note of one of Beshear’s justifications: “Kentucky leads the nation in children living with relatives other than their parents — including grandparents and great-grandparents, who are especially vulnerable” to the virus. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case.

By early 2021, a year into the pandemic, most Kentucky schools had returned to in-person instruction.

Some research suggests school closures helped keep Covid-19 transmission lower than if the doors had stayed open, but children suffered from the disruption in their education.

Many children suffered learning loss during remote and hybrid classes in 2020 and 2021 across the country, according to a 2022 study at Harvard University’s Center for Education Policy Research.

In Kentucky, reading and math proficiency dropped during the pandemic when comparing 2018-19 assessments with 2021-22 data.

At the time of that October 2022 report, Education Commissioner Jason Glass said “The Covid-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on our students and our schools as they continue to recover from the interrupted learning that occurred over the past two years.”

Cameron has said that should he be elected governor, he will institute a “catch-up” plan with tutoring to bring kids up to speed.

Looking back at her high-school experience, Pavuluri, now a piublc-policy student at Vanderbilt University, says that despite the disruptions in her education, school closures and other restrictions were worth it.

Because her mother is a geriatrician who works with older adults, she felt more empathy toward people at higher risk. “That was always in my mind and Covid was something I feel like I took pretty seriously,” she said. “I didn’t necessarily have someone very … immunocompromised in my family. (But) I think I really … empathize with the students who do.”

“There was obviously … negatives to the experience,” she added, “but I think just the massive negative would have been to … lose someone.”

In 2021, Harvard Medical School researchers found that while most children who contracted Covid-19 were only mildly symptomatic or had no symptoms at all, they could still carry the virus on to others. 

How did Kentucky compare to other states?

Kentucky is famously one of the sickest states — ranked third most unhealthy by Becker’s Hospital Review in January ahead of only West Virginia and Mississippi.

“Everyone had a reason to expect that we would be absolutely devastated” by Covid, said UofL’s McKinney.

Kentuckians suffer high rates of heart disease, diabetes and cancer. And the state’s population is shifting older. All these factors mean a lot of Kentuckians went into the pandemic with at least one “comorbidity” — a pre-existing condition putting them at higher risk for Covid-19 complications and death.

“Among our neighbor states, we were much more vulnerable than almost all of them,” said McKinney.

And yet CDC mortality data, which only includes 2020 and 2021, shows Kentucky’s death rate was lower than Tennessee’s and West Virginia’s, and higher than those of Indiana, Ohio and Virginia.

McKinney credits measures “implemented by the leadership and state” for saving Kentucky lives.

A study published in April in the international medical journal The Lancet took into account age and health when comparing states. and found that Kentucky’s death rate was lower than the national average.

Kentucky’s unadjusted Covid-19 death rate from January 2020 through July 2022 was 472 deaths for every 100,000 residents, higher than the national average. After adjusting for age and comorbidities, the rate was 341 deaths per 100,000 population, lower than the national rate of 372.

The state with the lowest adjusted death rate was Hawaii (147 per 100,000 residents). The highest was Arizona (581 per 100,000).

In April 2020, professors in the University of Kentucky's Gatton College of Business and Economics released research estimating that the state would have been much worse off without social-distancing measures early in the pandemic.

UK did not make those researchers available to the Lantern for this story. At the time, they estimated Kentucky would have had 45,000 Covid-19 cases by April 25, 2020, had the state not closed communal businesses like gyms and restaurants. Instead, the state had around 4,000.

The researchers also estimated that, a month into the pandemic, those actions saved about 2,000 lives.

A more comprehensive study by The Royal Society in London examined the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions like social distancing and mask wearing during across the globe.

The August 2023 report found that social strategies like mask wearing and physical distancing helped reduce virus spread. However, scientists found that this was most true when powerful variants like Delta and Omicron, which were particularly good at evading protective barriers, weren’t spreading.

McKinney asked, “Could they have … relaxed restrictions more rapidly? Could they have … let us get to a normal life faster? That’s a tough call. You have to play it a little bit by ear. And, again, you’re trying to probably err on the side of protection of human life.”

He added, “Everything’s clearer in hindsight. . . . I think that the leadership of both the commissioner of public health and the governor, who worked closely together in implementing policy, the primary concern was preservation of lives.

“Freedom of the population is very important. But if you’re dead, you can’t be free. So if you preserve life first, and then . . . worry about how tight the controls have to be later. I think that was the general plan: to be as tight as possible to hopefully stop the progress of the virus.” 

Lessons for the future

Kentucky’s response to Covid-19 wasn’t perfect, experts say, and there is much the state can learn from it for the future.

For example, Kentucky needs more vigorous respiratory-virus surveillance, automated data reporting and well-maintained stockpiles of personal protective equipment.

The ability to produce vaccines quickly will ease government reliance on social mitigation measures as well, McKinney said.

Kentucky — and the nation — will need to guard against complacency, McKinney said. Although “hopefully” there won’t be another pandemic in the near future, “there’s no guarantee.”

Kentucky also must rebuild its health-care workforce. The pandemic “taxed” health care workers “beyond belief,” said Veno, with LeadingAge. And the staffing challenges this caused continue.

Pavuluri said leaders must keep in mind that students need social connections, mentorship and relationships. Many lacked that during NTI learning and will need it for the next public health crisis, she said.

And, even though the emergency years of the Covid-19 have ended, “staffing remains a huge problem,” said Campbell, with the state hospital association.

“We are incredibly concerned as hospitals and the hospital association about trying to increase the pipeline and retain the staff that we have,” she said.

Before the pandemic hit, she said, there was already a concerning trajectory of an aging nursing workforce. “Then we had Covid, which caused burnout.”

Looking to the future, climate change is a concern.

“Warming of the climate will affect … a lot of disease transmission,” McKinney said. “If winter weather that wipes out the mosquito population every year did not do so, and they survived and thrived and carried something like malaria … throughout that time, it would be … a big concern, obviously, for the nation.”

Covid-19 is shifting more into an annual flu-like nuisance, public health experts have said. People will still get sick, but the science is there to manage large waves.

For now, many facilities are still using universal precautions–like wearing personal protective equipment–during outbreaks. They also use screening tools to keep the spread low.

“Make no mistake about it,” said Veno, of LeadingAge. “We’re still dealing with Covid, and we’re going to be dealing with Covid for quite some time.”

Jamie Lucke and McKenna Horsley contributed to this story.

Recovery in the Workplace Conference encouraged Kentucky employers to hire people who are in recovery from addiction

More than 150 attended the Recovery in the Workplace Conference. (Ky. Chamber of Commerce photo)

By Melissa Patrick

Kentucky Health News

A June 21 conference to encourage Kentucky businesses to offer second-chance employment to Kentuckians who are in addiction recovery featured stories of success, with advice and resources to help. 

Mark LaPalme, founder and CEO of Isaiah House, a treatment and recovery center, told Kentucky Health News that efforts to help people in recovery involves not only creating a healthy recovery community, but also placing them in healthy communities as part of their next steps. 

"So the first thing that we need to do is instill hope, because that gets them through the next day," LaPalme said. "I think the next thing that we've got to do is work on helping them define their purpose in life. And that involves everybody, you know. . . . So hope, opportunity, purpose, employment and education are really those holistic things that make it all work."

Isaiah House was presenting sponsor of the fourth annual Kentucky Chamber of Commerce Kentucky Recovery in the Workplace Conference in Lexington.

LaPalme encouraged employers to give people in recovery a second chance, saying they are dedicated and articulate "and they will absolutely be your best employees because they're appreciative, they're faithful, and they know that they've been given that second chance or that third chance. So they turn out to be your best employees." 

Van Ingram, executive director of the state Office of Drug Control Policy, opened the conference with an overview of the recent report that showed 2,250 Kentuckians died from a drug overdose in 2021, 14.6% more than in 2020. 

"These are people that didn't have to die," he said. "This is a preventable death. Statistically, six people will die today in the state. . . . We have got to do more."

Ingram discussed several programs supported by his office, including the Chamber's three-day "Fair Chance Academy" to help employers foster second-chance employment. The program  graduated its first class in June, which included 20 business leaders with 20,000 employees. He said "That is huge!"

He also noted recent legislation aimed at getting people in recovery back to work, including one to create "Recovery Ready Communities" that will create a list of programs and services a community needs to support people in recovery, like access to recovery and treatment care, and recovery housing and transportation access. 

"That's how we're going to beat this addiction [crisis], one community at at a time," he said. 

Ingram also pointed to a new law for a pilot program to let low-level offenders in 10 counties who have a substance-use disorder to choose treatment instead of incarceration: "It's a chance for us to show the General Assembly and to show the state that treatment will yield better outcomes than prison."

Morgan Kirk, director of the Kentucky Chamber Foundation Workforce Recovery Program, spoke to the need to get this population back into the workforce, noting that Kentucky ranks 43rd in workforce participation. 

Kirk walked through a list of programs offered by the foundation, including the Kentucky Transformational Employment Program, authorized in 2020 to lessen the risk of liability to employers who hire or retain people with substance-use disorders. So far, she said, 70 businesses have signed up for the program, representing nearly 13,000 employees who could be affected. 

"It's the right thing to do, but it is so good for your business to do this," Kirk said. "We see statistically what a difference it can make when you hire someone who's in recovery or with justice involvement and how much they want to show the gratitude and just show up and be an amazing employee for you." 

Advice from businesses that offer second-chance hiring

A persistent theme among businesses that already offer second-chance hiring is the need for "wrap-around services," such as transportation, housing, and flexibility in traditional workplace policies. 

Rob Perez, founder and owner of Lexington's DV8 Kitchen, which is based on second-chance hiring, talked about his company's journey. One key lesson, he said, was to not be driven by the traditional, transactional rules of business, but to adopt a business model that focuses on relationships.  

"We have gotten to the point where relational leadership is paying dividends," he said, ticking off a list of "amazing results" among its bakery employees, all of whom are in recovery, including an 11-month average tenure, which he called "huge in the restaurant business." 

Jamie Johnson of Dorman Products stressed the need for employers to educate themselves and their employees about the misconceptions around substance-use disorders. In addition, he said his company offers peer support services and created its own Narcotics Anonymous program and allowed some flexibility in scheduling for their employees to attend.

“Don’t fool yourself into believing you’re insulated from this problem because over 70 percent of those struggling with a substance-use disorder are currently working,” Johnson said. “You are a fair chance employer; it’s just whether you admit it or not.”

Rena Sharpe, COO of Goodwill Industries, said her company offers career coaching for their employees and companies that contract with them. Another Goodwill program allows an employee who relapses to sign an agreement saying they are seeking treatment and their job will be waiting on them when they're able to return. 

Patrick Bryant, recruitment manager at AppHarvest, and Johnson talked about creating a culture that invites this population to apply for a job. Bryant stressed that it's important for people to be able to look at your "career page" and know they are welcome to apply. 

"There's a lot of people out there with criminal records or in addiction recovery and they're ashamed. They're scared. They don't want to come forward, " he said. "But if you give them that opportunity . . . invite them by having it on your career page that you're a fair chance employer, that's going to help them take the first step." 

Support systems, well-paying jobs needed

Alex Elswick, founder of Voices of Hope and assistant extension professor at the University of Kentucky, talked about his "privilege" of having all kinds of "recovery capital," resources and supports, available to him. His parents' church found him a home, one of his father's patients found him a job, and he was able to see a therapist. 

“There’s really nothing special about my addiction, but in so many ways there’s something special about my recovery. Because I had access to the things I needed." 

Elswick expanded on the value of being offered that first job after coming out of recovery.

"I didn't deserve it. I didn't earn it. It wasn't based on an illustrious CV or resume. I didn't even have a resume," he said. "But somebody gave me an opportunity and it made all the difference in my life because as soon as I had a job, I had benefits. I had health insurance and since I had health insurance, I could meet with a therapist." 

Lisa Lourie, owner and CEO of Spy Coast Farm, said she supports her employees from the Blackburn Correctional Facility with some basic items before they leave the facility by making sure they have appropriate clothing to come to work in. Further, she said she ensures that they had housing and transportation. 

Kim Moore, founder and CEO of Joshua Community Connectors, a grant-funded community building project in Louisville that works on issues of mental health, housing and employment, also talked about the value of support systems in her road to long-term recovery.  She has been sober for 24 years, according to her short biography. 

"I stand here today . . . because I had supportive services," she said. "I'm who I am because people believed in me, people pushed me." 

LaPalme opened the conference by talking  about the need for second-chance employees to have well-paying jobs. He also said it is time to get rid of the "scourge" in the treatment industry of hiring interns who have gone through the residential part of a program and paying them less than the minimum wage and calling it a stipend, a practice not allowed at Isaiah House. He said the practice keeps them "tied to food stamps and keeps them on Medicaid." 

Moore also talked about the need for well-paying jobs, saying that you have to pay a person more than they can make selling drugs if you want them to move away from that lifestyle.

Pandemic state of emergency would end March 7 under a resolution the state Senate sent to the House on a party-line vote

Sen. Donald Douglas (Legislative photo) 

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

The Senate has sent the House a resolution to end the Covid-19 state of emergency in Kentucky on March 7.

Senate Joint Resolution 150, sponsored by Republican Sen. Donald Douglas of Nicholasville, would end the state of emergency that Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear declared on March 6, 2020. In January, the legislature set it to expire on April 15. 

The resolution would end "all subsequent executive orders, emergency administrative regulations, suspensions of statutes, and other directives which rely upon the declaration of emergency."  

And it says the governor "shall not" declare a new Covid-19 state of emergency "based upon the same or substantially similar facts and circumstances as the original declaration" without the prior approval of the General Assembly. 

The resolution passed the Senate Thursday, Feb. 24. on a party-line vote of 28-8. Including Douglas, the resolution has 18 sponsors. 

While presenting the bill on the Senate floor, Daniels acknowledged that when the virus was first announced, there were many unknowns that drove decision-making, but he said it quickly turned political. 

"Instead of proceeding down a purely medical path, it seems that politics took a major role and  sometimes even the lead," said Douglas, a physician. "The emergency seemed to be more about emotion and feeling and a lot less about objectivity and facts."  

He said the focus has been on cases and deaths, without an understanding that "many more people recovered without issue," causing our citizens to be "terrified." As of Feb. 25, there have been 1.3 million Covid-19 cases in Kentucky and 13,758 deaths attributed to it, most in people over 60. However, as many as a third of people with Covid-19 have reported lingering effects.

Douglas noted that the state of emergency led to cancellation of elective medical procedures, business shutdowns, loss of jobs, mask mandates and travel restrictions, and said "the Kentucky State Police were directed to target church attendees."

When Douglas presented the bill in committee, he said Beshear ordered police "to pull the attendees of the church out of the church.” That is not true. Beshear ordered police to go to parking lots of churches that held in-person services on Easter 2020 and place notice on cars saying that attendees were in violation of his order against mass gatherings and should quarantine themselves for 14 days.

Douglass also cited a Johns Hopkins University meta-analysis of 24 studies that looked at the effects of lockdowns on Covid-19 deaths. The researchers found lockdowns in the U.S. and Europe reduced Covid-19 mortality by an average of 0.2 percent; that shelter-in-place orders reduced mortality by 2.9%; and that there was no broad-based evidence of noticeable effects from non-pharmaceutical interventions. 

The study concluded, "While this meta-analysis concludes that lockdowns have had little to no public-health effects, they have imposed enormous economic and social costs where they have been adopted. In consequence, lockdown policies are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument."

Douglas said, "It is time to move to normalcy." He said the March 7 date would give Beshear time to file any administrative regulations that are needed and ensure that the lawmakers are still in session when the emergency ends.

He added that it is not his intent to decrease or interfere with any federal funding, but Sen. Morgan McGarvey, D-Louisville, said it remains unknown if the resolution would affect federal funding such as the additional nutrition benefits that have been made available to children and families.

Sen. Karen Berg, D-Louisville, also spoke against the resolution, saying it is premature because the percentage of Kentuckians testing positive for the virus remains too high and only 60% of eligible Kentuckians have received even a single dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

When Berg spoke, the positive-test rate was around 10%, after being above 30% for much of January. Early in the pandemic, public-health officials said caution is required when the rate is above 5%. 

Vaccination rates are also slowing. Over the last seven days, the average number of Covid-19 vaccinations in Kentucky was 2,508 per day, the lowest since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began gathering reliable data in January 2020. Most of the shots were boosters. State and CDC data show that 64% of the total population have received at least one dose of a vaccine, 56% are fully vaccinated and 43% of the eligible population is boosted.

Sen. David Yates, D-Louisville, asked his colleagues, “Why are we doing it? This doesn’t change anything. . . . I actually cannot wait until I can join in support of it, but what is the rush? I vote no.”

Gov. Andy Beshear said on Feb. 21, "We don't have any state restrictions left . . . and we haven't in a long time."

Douglas, who won a special election in November, is running in the May 17 primary election against Andrew Cooperrider of Lexington, who flouted Beshear's restrictions and led protests against them.

Beshear says he'll wait for full-week data on virus case numbers to determine need for more action; 7-day avg. rose 12% in a day

Washington Post chart, adapted by Ky. Health News; click here for interactive version.

By Melissa Patrick and Al Cross
Kentucky Health News

Gov. Andy Beshear reiterated Thursday that his administration will look at calendar-week coronavirus trends when making decisions about any additional actions to combat a possible resurgence of the virus, the prospect of which has been raised by two days of increases in the seven-day average of new cases.

For the second time this week, Beshear asserted that case numbers were declining when they were not. Wednesday's report showed 351 new cases, raising the seven-day rolling average by 20, to 188 per day. That was the largest daily increase in more than two months, except on June 8, when hundreds of delayed cases were reported. The state reported 244 new cases Tuesday, raising the average to 168. Except on two days when it rose by one case, the average had declined every day for three weeks.

The state did not post a report Thursday, saying that the federal reporting system was not updated. The state Covid-19 website says a report will be posted Monday through Friday by 4:45 p.m. At about 1:15 p.m., Kentucky Health News pointed out to Beshear that Wednesday 's report showed a 12 percent increase in the seven-day average. The seven-day positive-test rate also increased Wednesday, to 1.92%.

Asked what sort of numbers would prompt additional action, Beshear said the state is not getting "real numbers" on Saturdays and Sundays, which means it takes several days into the week for the numbers to level out. For months, the state has used Monday-through-Sunday figures to define the pace of the pandemic.

Health Secretary Eric Friedlander noted that those numbers have declined for many weeks, and he expects next week's numbers to be stable. 

Beshear said the trend would have to be be "concerning enough" to take any additional actions, especially as vaccinations increase. In the past seven days, they have totaled 6 percent more than the previous seven days, when the daily average dropped below 10,000. It is now slightly above that.

Vaccinations have generally declined since mid-April, when the average was around 40,000 a day, the major exception being mid-June, with the June 4 announcement of drawings for big prizes for vaccinated people. The first was held Thursday; announcements are set Friday, after confirmation of eligibility.

Beshear also said the state must consider what it would ask of people who have done all they can to to protect themselves in order to protect those who have been unwilling to protect themselves with vaccination. 

The drawings offer $1 million each for three residents who have received at least one dose of a vaccine, and 15 education scholarships for children between the ages of 12 and 17 who have received at least one shot. 

Beshear said Thursday "I am convinced" that the incentives have spurred interest among those who had not been vaccinated, and added that he expects that interest to increase after the state gives out the first round of prizes. The next two drawings will be held July 29 and Aug. 26, with announcements on July 30 and Aug. 27. Click here for more information. 

Despite Beshear's stated belief, vaccination numbers don't indicate that the incentive has had a huge impact; 98,000 fewer Kentuckians have been vaccinated since the incentive was announced four weeks ago than in the four weeks preceding the announcement.

In the last four weeks, Friedlander said, almost 122,000 people have gotten a shot. In the four weeks prior to the announcement, going back to May 7, 220,000 had gotten a shot, according to data from the Lexington Herald-Leader's Coronavirus Tracker. 

The state vaccine dashboard shows 2.19 million Kentuckians have received at least one dose of a vaccine, which amounts to 49% of the total population, 60% of adults, and 83% of seniors.

“These are scientific miracles,” Friedlander said. “If we get vaccinated, we drive down these rates; we drive down hospitalizations. This is the most effective thing you can do. Get vaccinated. . . . It is the way we return to normal."

State graph, adapted by Kentucky Health News; click on it to enlarge

Health experts say vaccination is becoming more important as the more contagious Delta variant spreads. Beshear said is scarier than earlier variants, but if you are fully vaccinated with the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, you are 88% safe against it. Friedlander urged unvaccinated Kentuckians to wear masks because they have no protection otherwise. 

Vox, in an article that details why the Delta variant appears to be so dangerous, reports that in the U.S., it accounts for 20% of new cases and is on track to become dominant variant -- and that the way to quash it is following public-health measures that many are tired of: vaccinations, masks, and social distancing.

Beshear pointed to research reported in The New York Times suggesting that the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines may offer immunity for multiple years. The study did not include the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. He said these findings are important, especially as scientists work to determine whether vaccinated people will need boosters. 

The governor said vaccinated Kentuckians do not need to wear a mask in most situations, in keeping with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's guidance. 

Team Kentucky All-Stars: Beshear recognized two high-school students for their efforts to get senior citizens vaccinated: Jacqueline Teague and Amelie Beck, of Louisville, who are co-founders of VaxConnectKY. 

Beshear said they have helped nearly 1,000 seniors sign up for a vaccine appointment, planned a vaccine clinic for their school, and are using this platform to encourage students to sign up. He added that VaxConnectKY was recently recognized by Scientific American magazine and Prince Harry when Teague won the Diana Award named after Princess Diana.

Jobs: Beshear announced nine high-tech Kentucky companies will receive a total of $900,000 in state matching grants to support high-paying jobs and technology development, with several of them related to health, including:  Active Therapy Systems LLC in Nicholasville, a project that involves physical therapies for people with Parkinson’s disease; Adelphi Technology LLC in Bowling Green, which is developing a compact gas analyzer that has a broad range of potential applications, including the detection of bacterial infections from the air near a wound; HealthTech Solutions Inc. OmniLife in Lexington, which will address the need for an efficient communications software technology for organ procurement organizations and transplant centers;  Kentucky Imaging Technologies LLC in Louisville , which is working to combat colorectal cancer by developing a system that more accurately detects polyps in a patient’s colon; MEMStim LLC in Louisville, which is working on a project that involves cochlear implants; and Wild Dog Physics LLC in Lexington, which is working on a project that involves improved cancer care. 

Educational supports: Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman awarded $15 million in grants to 150 local Family Resource and Youth Service Centers from the second round of the Governor's Emergency Education Relief Fund 2. The money is to be used for early childhood education, childcare and family crisis and mental health counseling. Coleman said the need for these services is great, noting that they had received 215 applications for this grant.

Kentucky still ranks 37th in well-being of children in latest Kids Count Data Book, but isn't progressing as much as other states

By Melissa Patrick

Kentucky Health News

The annual Kids Count Data Book on children's well-being, released June 21 by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Kentucky Youth Advocates, again ranks Kentucky 37th in the nation for the overall well-being of its children. 

The latest data are for 2019, and are largely compared with data from 2010. The report rates children's overall well-being through 16 indicators in four major domains: health, economic security, education and family and community. 

Overall, Kentucky saw improvement in 11 of the 16 indicators, did worse in three of them and stayed the same on one. One measure did not show a comparison. 

“Though the commonwealth made progress on a number of indicators of child well-being between 2010 and 2019, rankings show we are not making progress as quickly as other states – and that progress is in jeopardy unless federal and state policymakers act boldly to sustain the beginnings of pandemic recovery efforts,” Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, said in a news release. 

Nearly one in four Kentuckians are children. Here's a look at each domain.

Charts from Kids Count Data Book; to enlarge any one of them, click on it.

Health: Kentucky's health ranking improved this year, to 35th. Last year's report ranked Kentucky 42nd after changing one of the domain's indicators to measure childhood obesity instead of youth alcohol and drug abuse. The last report to use the original indicator was in 2019, when the state ranked 25th for health. 

The report says 37 percent of Kentucky's children were either overweight or obese in 2018-19, the same as in 2016-17. The national rate is 31%. Kentucky has the highest childhood obesity rate in the nation. 

Kentucky continues to have a low rate of children without health insurance, 4%. The national average is 6%. The news release reports that about  45,000 Kentucky children remain uninsured.

Another indicator of children's health is the rate of babies born weighing less than 5.5 pounds. That is 8.7% in Kentucky, where it has hovered for years. 

Education: Kentucky ranked 30th in the report's Education domain, down from 27th last year. 

The best news in this category is that 91% of Kentucky high-school students graduate on time. 

The bad news is that the share of preschool-age children not in preschool increased to 60% in 2017-19, from 57% in 2009-11. And the share of fourth-graders not proficient in reading inched up to 65% in 2019, from 64% in 2009. 

And though the share of eighth graders who are not proficient in mathematics improved to 71% in 2019, from 73% in 2009, that still means only 29% of the state's eighth graders are proficient in math. 

Economic well-being: Kentucky ranks 40th in economic well-being, with all four indicators showing improvement since 2010. 

The percentage of Kentucky children in poverty dropped to 22% in 2019, from 26% in 2010; children whose parents lack secure employment dropped to 31% from 37%; and teens who are not in school and not working dropped to 8% from 11%. 

Also, the percentage of children living in households with a high housing cost burden dropped to 23% in 2019 from 32% in 2010.  A high housing-cost household is defined as one where more than 30% of monthly household pre-tax income is spent on housing-related expenses, including rent, mortgage payments, taxes and insurance.

Family and Community: Kentucky ranked 43rd in the family and community domain, down from 41st in last year's report. 

Kentucky improved in three family-and-community indicators, including children living in high-poverty areas (15%), children living in families where the household head lacks a high school diploma (11%) and teen births.

The number of teen births in Kentucky continues to drop. In 2019, there were 25 births per 1,000 females aged 15-19. In 2010, that number was 46 per 1,000. The national average is 17 per 1,000. 

The percentage of children living in single-parent homes increased to 36% in 2019, from 35% in 2010. 

Impacts of the pandemic

"We cannot talk about child well-being in any meaningful way in this moment — or address the considerable challenges America’s children and families now face — without discussing the effects of the coronavirus," Lisa M. Hamilton, president and CEO of The Annie E. Casey Foundation, writes in the foreword to the report. 

To capture the impact of the last year, the Data Book takes a look at information collected in the Household Pulse Survey, which the report says was conducted in multiple waves since the onset of the pandemic by the Census Bureau and is the only source of robust national and state data related to the pandemic. 

“The supplemental pandemic-era survey data highlighted in the Data Book gives us a clearer picture of how families are faring today, including the disproportionate impact the pandemic has had on families of color," said Brooks. 

Key findings about Kentucky children in the supplemental report include: 

• In 2020, one in five (20%) Kentucky adults with children in their household had little or no confidence in their ability to make their next rent or mortgage payment, with the highest rates experienced by Black families (40%) and Latinx families (30%). By March 2021, the statewide rate was at 15%, suggesting the beginnings of a recovery. 
• 15% of Kentucky households with children reported sometimes or often not having enough food to eat throughout 2020 – a family stressor that hit Black households (26%) and a combination of smaller racial groups (American Indian, Alaska Native, Pacific Islander, Native Hawaiian and those of more than one race) the hardest (29%). This statistic only slightly improved overall in March 2021 to 13%.
• More than one in four (26%) Kentucky adults living in households with children felt down, depressed, or hopeless in 2020, with only slight improvement (22%) by March 2021.

Brooks, of Kentucky Youth Advocates, said, “The commonwealth can and will bounce back from the ripple effects of the pandemic, and a key component of that is ensuring kids and families have the resources to meet basic needs and overcome daily challenges.”

Brooks praised the state's leaders for supporting children during the pandemic, by supporting child care, using federal funds to address the pervasive "digital divide," and ensuring schoolchildren have access to food while learning at home through the pandemic EBT program. 

KYA wants Congress to make the expansion of the child tax credit permanent, and wants Kentucky to enact its own refundable earned-income tax credit; to focus on increasing access to high-quality child care; to use federal funds to improve school-based mental-health supports for students; to expand school-based nutrition programs; to allow state employees 12 weeks of paid family leave after the birth or adoption of a child; and to double down on efforts to support families involved in the child welfare system. 

The Kids Count Data Center provides current and trend data for child well-being indicators related to each of the four domains in the report, at both a state and county level. It also offers a feature to create customized tables, maps, bar charts and graphs.

Coronavirus vaccinations being delivered at an increasing rate; Beshear says state incentives are helping, not sure how much

Washington Post graphic, adapted by Ky. Health News; interactive chart and methodology are here.

By Al Cross

Kentucky Health News

Vaccination for the coronavirus is on the rise in Kentucky, as the state's seven-day rolling average of daily shots has risen to more than 16,500 after falling below 10,000 per day two weeks ago.

At his first regular non-pandemic press conference yesterday, Gov. Andy Beshear said more than 437,000 vaccinated Kentuckians had signed up for lottery-style sweepstakes drawings for three $1 million prizes and 15 postsecondary education scholarships.

Asked how much impact he thought the incentives were having, Beshear said they are having an effect, but "I admit it's hard to tell how much of an impact they're making, because we don't know how many people would be signing up otherwise."

He said he would like to see more vaccinated 12-to-17-year-olds enter the scholarship drawing than the 23,080 who have signed up. He said the state is doing better among adults that Ohio did in its first two weeks of similar incentives, but not as well as Ohio did with young people. He said his son Will, who turned 12 Tuesday, got vaccinated Wednesday.

State chart shows cumulative vaccination numbers. Click it to enlarge.

Beshear said he hoped the first of three drawings, to be held July 2, would stimulate more interest. Noting the signup numbers, he said, "Those are the best odds you're ever gonna get at winning a million dollars or getting a free ride to higher education." Sign up at Vaccine.ky.gov by July 1 for the first drawing. Signing up also makes you eligible for the later drawings.

Private groups are also offering incentives. Beshear noted that vaccinated people can get free tickets to the weekly Troubadour Concert Series at Cardome in Georgetown, sponsored by High Bridge Springs Water and Wild Health, which will be on hand to provide vaccinations.

Beshear said he is the first Kentucky governor to have a standing schedule of press conferences, to be held each Thursday at 12:30 ET.

"After 15 long months of fighting the pandemic and hosting more than 250 news conferences to keep Kentuckians to keep Kentuckians up to date, I know that making sure you have an opportunity to hear regularly from your governor or other state leaders is important. And we cannot forget we're still fighting this pandemic."

Pandemic-related issues came up in questions at the event.

Asked why he thinks the state has a significant labor shortage, Beshear said part of the reason is the extra unemployment benefits of $300 a week that most Republican governors have ended and that businesses in Kentucky have asked him to end. But that was the last reason he cited; the others were a shortage of child care and reluctance of people to take jobs that require face-to-face contact with the public at a time when less than half the population has had a vaccination.

But he said he is working on a "back to work bonus incentive" that he hopes to announce next week, and he said in response to another question that there is a possibility he could end the $300 weekly benefit before its federal funding expires at the end of September. The Kentucky Chamber of Commerce asked May 28 that Beshear end it by July; 30 days' notice is required to stop it.

Republicans have been hammering on the Democratic governor about the Beshear said he is "trying to thread the needle. . . . I'm the first to say that we can't have everybody looking for a job at the end of September."

Beshear said the state still has $200 million in federal relief money to help people pay rent and utilities, more than two-thirds of the $297 million it received. He said that surprises him, since so many people were financially affected by the pandemic. The money can pay 12 months of back bills and three months forward.

Daily numbers: The state reported 255 new cases of the coronavirus Thursday, lowering the seven-day rolling average to 216 cases per day, the lowest since last July 4, just before a surge in cases began. The average has dropped by more than 100 in the last week.

The daily new-case rate for the last seven days is 3.83 per 100,000. Counties with rates more than double that rate are Webster, 21 per 100,000; Perry, 20.5; Elliott, 17.1; Graves, 15.3; Hopkins, 11.5; Livingston, 10.9; Mason, 10; Fleming, 9.8; Carter, 9.1; Breathitt, 9; Union, 8.9; Bracken, 8.6; Knox, 8.3; Gallatin, 8.1; Grant, 8; and Letcher, 8.

    

The share of Kentuckians testing positive for the virus in the last seven days is 2.06 percent, about where it has been for more than a week.

Hospitalization numbers continue to decline slowly or remain fairly stable. Kentucky hospitals reported 229 Covid-19 patients Thursday, 66 of them in intensive care and 36 of those on a ventilator.

The state reported three Covid-19 deaths Thursday, bringing its toll to 7,178. Deaths are also declining; over the last 14 days, they have averaged 7.2 per day; in the last seven days, the average is 5.7 per day.

Ky. was more successful than most adjoining states at avoiding both Covid-19 deaths and pandemic-related unemployment

Forward Kentucky table; for an interactive version with sortable columns, click here.

By John Schaaf

Republished from Forward Kentucky

As the U.S. marks one year of the Covid-19 pandemic, Kentucky and the other 49 states have experienced relentless arguments about the best way to deal with the virus: “Implement no restrictions and let people decide for themselves” vs. “Implement restrictions to help people protect themselves and others.”

The result of these competing positions is a national landscape of confusion, as each state developed its own approach and had different levels of success. Some states have a lower rate of Covid deaths or a lower rise in unemployment rates, but few states succeed in both.

According to year-long measurements, Kentucky was more successful than its seven adjoining states in keeping its rate of Covid deaths lower while also holding down its unemployment-rate increase.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, about 5,000 Kentuckians have died from the virus, or 111 per 100,000 residents, according to information compiled by The New York Times from state and local health officials.

From pre-pandemic December 2019 to high-pandemic December 2020, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says Kentucky’s unemployment rate rose from 4.3 percent to 6 percent, up 1.7 percent.

Indiana’s unemployment increase was .6 percent lower than Kentucky’s, but the Hoosier State’s death rate in the pandemic is 189 per 100,000. If Kentucky had Indiana’s death rate, our state would have lost about 3,510 more lives to Covid-19.

Likewise, unemployment in Ohio (up 1.4 percent) and West Virginia (up 1.2 percent) increased less than in Kentucky, but Covid deaths in Ohio have occurred at 150 per 100,000 and in West Virginia at 130 per 100,000, both considerably higher than in Kentucky. At Ohio’s rate, 1,755 more Kentuckians would be dead.

Three of our adjoining states have fared worse by both the death and unemployment measures. Illinois ranks close to Indiana in deaths at 182 per 100,000, and the state’s unemployment increase (3.9 percent) is more than twice Kentucky’s increase in the same year.

Likewise, Tennessee’s COVID death rate is 168 per 100,000 and unemployment increased 3.1 percent since the pandemic started. Missouri’s death rate is 140 per 100,000, while the state’s unemployment rate increased by 2.4 percent, so both states’ numbers are significantly worse than Kentucky’s.

Virginia is the only one of our neighboring states with both numbers close to Kentucky’s levels. With a death rate that’s a bit higher than Kentucky’s (112 per 100,000), Virginia has experienced a 2.2 percent increase in unemployment, one-half percent more than Kentucky.

Beshear's Facebook post shows generally stable virus numbers; comments on it reveal support, skepticism and unhappiness

Ky. Health News graph; click it to enlarge. New cases reflect unadjusted initial daily reports.

By Al Cross
Kentucky Health News

Measures of the novel-coronavirus pandemic remained generally stable Sunday, as Gov. Andy Beshear made only a Facebook post giving the day's numbers.

The state reported 1,509 new cases, marking the fifth consecutive Sunday that the number has been lower than the previous Sunday. Reporting on Sundays and Mondays is limited due to less testing and lab work on weekends; on top of that, this is the end of a four-day holiday weekend for most people.

The share of Kentuckians testing positive for the virus in the past seven days is 8.06 percent, which is also the average of the last four days.

The number of Covid-19 patients in Kentucky hospitals continued to decline, to 1,504, the lowest total since 1,442 on Nov. 16. Intensive-care units had 411 of those patients, about the average of the last 10 days. ICU patients on ventilators totaled 217, about the average of the last five days.

The state attributed the deaths of 21 more people to Covid-19, for a total of 2,555, but did not publish the usual list of deaths by gender, age and county.

Counties with 10 or more new cases were: Jefferson, 169; Fayette, 101; Henderson, 64; Boone, 63; Daviess, 60; Kenton, 56; Hardin, 43; Bullitt, 41; Calloway, 40; McCracken, 37; Pulaski, 36; Boyd, 34; Warren, 34; Boyle, 32; Letcher, 32; Campbell, Henry  an Lincoln, 25; Shelby, 23; Nelson, 22; Christian and Wayne, 21; Graves and McCreary, 20; Breathitt, 18; Madison, 17; Franklin, 16; Carter, 15; Grayson, 14; Scott, 13; Meade and Taylor, 12; Elliott, Floyd and Oldham, 11; and Clark and Union, 10. 

African Americans' share of Kentucky coronavirus cases and Covid-19 deaths continue to decline. The state's latest daily report says 9.5% of cases and 9.8% of deaths are among Blacks, who are about 8.5% of the state's population.

Not-always-social media: Beshear's Facebook post at around 3 p.m. generated more than 400 comments by 5 p.m. Most were favorable, but some reflected skepticism and unhappiness.

"I guess these fake numbers will get better every day until inauguration day," one man wrote, prompting several replies, such as "Yeah, just like it was gonna disappear after Election Day!" and "What a heartless thing to say. People are losing loved ones. I hope you don’t have to experience that to start believing it."

To the numbers of cases, the sick and the dead, one man replied, "Great, now what about unemployment? That’s just as important as these numbers are."

Many defended Beshear. One said, "Some people refuse to listen and they have caused the senseless deaths of others."

That brought this reply: "Just as the governor did not cause unemployment, permanent shuttering of small businesses, and collateral damage to students through online education, the people who refused to listen did not cause 'the senseless deaths of others.' The pandemic virus caused each. Playing the blame game helps no one." And that brought this rejoinder: "Those not doing what it takes to slow transmission of the virus are most definitely to blame for the deaths."

In other coronavirus news Sunday:

• The smaller-than-expected initial supplies of vaccines are nothing unusual and should not keep most Americans from being able to get the vaccine by late April, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on CNN's "State of the Union: "I believe we'll catch up with the projection."
• State Rep. Thomas Huff, R-Shepherdsville, said on Facebook that has spent the past week in intensive care after testing positive the virus, the Courier Journal reports, adding that Huff "has expressed doubt on the validity of Covid-19 data and has been seen without a mask in the Capitol."
• "President Trump on Sunday abruptly signed a measure providing $900 billion in pandemic aid and funding the government through September, ending last-minute turmoil he himself had created over legislation that will offer an economic lifeline to millions of Americans and avert a government shutdown," reports Emily Cochrane of The New York Times. "The signing was a sudden reversal for the president, who last week appeared poised to derail the bill. But the move came after two critical unemployment programs lapsed, guaranteeing a delay in benefits for millions of unemployed Americans."

Poll taken Oct. 7-15 gave Beshear 66% approval for his work on pandemic, found 60% support state law mandating masks

Graphs from Spectrum Networks

By Al Cross
Kentucky Health News

Kentuckians polled Oct. 7-15 gave Gov. Andy Beshear good grades for handling the coronavirus pandemic and supported the idea of a state law to require wearing of masks in public.

The poll, released Oct. 21, found that 37 percent of Kentucky adults strongly approved Beshear’s handling of the crisis, with another 28% saying they somewhat approved, for total approval of 66%, with addition of decimals. Beshear's overall approval rating was 63%.

Though Beshear is the most powerful person in state government, only 53% approved of the overall state-government handling of the pandemic, rating it excellent or good, while 41% rated it fair or poor. That could reflect perception of other statewide constitutional officers, such as Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who has sued to void Beshear's emergency orders. The poll did not ask opinions of Cameron's work on the pandemic; only 33% said Beshear's orders have overstepped the authority state law gives governors.

Local governments' response to the pandemic won approval, 51% to 42%, but only 34% approved the response of the Trump administration, while 60% disapproved. "Republicans were the only group in which at least half gave the federal response a passing grade, with 55% approving," Spectrum reported.

The poll found that 45% said President Trump's comments about masks and social distancing had made them less favorable toward him, while 24% said they had improved their favor for him.

Asked if they agreed or disagreed with the statement, "There should be a state law in Kentucky mandating that masks be worn at all times in public," 60% agreed, 37% strongly; and 33% disagreed, 10% strongly. Republicans were about evenly divided on the idea, while Democrats were strongly in favor of it. Beshear, who issued a mask mandate in July, is a Democrat.

The poll was taken by Ipsos Group for Spectrum Networks, which operates digital information systems, including cable news channels with state newsrooms. It surveyed 1,001 Kentucky adults online and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Asked to name the main problems facing Kentucky, 50% named covid-19, 39% mentioned drug addiction, and 34% said unemployment. Other results in double digits were: 24% health care, 22% crime and violence, 19% racial injustice, 17% education, 13% affordable housing.

Beshear recommended in early August that in-person schooling be delayed until Sept. 28, but left decisions up to local officials. Overall, Kentuckians approved of his approach, 53% to 37%. Asked if schools should have started the year with in-person learning, only 31% said yes and 62% said no.

The poll asked several questions about management of schools in the pandemic; 58% of adults said their local school district was doing a good job, while 27% said it wasn't. Among those who have a child in the house the split was 60%-30%, and 51% said they did not think their child would be safe attending school in person, while 44% said they would.

Asked about the statement “My child is falling behind in school because of covid-19,” they were evenly split. "Working parents, 59% of whom agreed with the statement, were among those most concerned about their children’s progress in school," Spectrum reported. "Meanwhile, only 35% of those who are out of work believe their children are falling behind."

Kentuckians were pandemic's economic effects have made it hard for them to pay their bills; 43%. said they have had trouble with that and 52% said they had not. Half of those making under $50,000 a year reported trouble, as did 55% of those with a child in the home. "The problem is particularly acute among those living in urban areas, 55% of whom cited problems with bills," Spectrum reported. "The number falls to 44% in rural areas and 33% in the suburbs."

Other results of the poll included:

• "All colleges and universities in Kentucky should be closed and only offer virtual classes:" 59% agree, 32% disagreed.
• "I feel comfortable dining inside a restaurant:" 46% agree, 48% disagreed.
• 3% said they had been tested and diagnosed with covid-19, and 7% said they suspected that they have it, or have had it.