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By Al Cross, Publisher, Kentucky Health News

Director emeritus, Institute for Rural Journalism, University of Kentucky

For more than a dozen years, Kentucky Health News has provided news you can use, to help keep you and your family healthy, or get healthier. We have also kept Kentuckians up to date on their health-care system and things that affect it, including government actions.

Melissa Patrick and Al Cross of Kentucky Health News

We hope you appreciate our work, which is done mainly by a part-time reporter, Melissa Patrick, and funded by the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky. Now we have a way for you to show your appreciation and expand our efforts, with a contribution that will be matched — for a limited time.

Kentucky Health News has joined NewsMatch, the largest collaborative fundraising campaign to support independent, nonprofit journalism in the United States. Its annual matching-gift campaign runs through Dec. 31.

Through the end of the year, NewsMatch will double your donation to Kentucky Health News, up to $1,000 and a total match of up to $13,000. That amount would increase our budget by almost 30 percent and enable us to do more of our important work, such as covering health issues in the legislature.

No one covers health issues in Kentucky like we do, and the news coverage is badly needed, because Kentucky is a state with poor health status. One key to raising that status is reliable information, especially at a time when some health topics have become polluted with misinformation, even disinformation. You can count on us to bring you the facts, plus the opinions of qualified experts. We keep our opinions out of our news stories, which are republished by news outlets all over the state.

Please help us expand our work. Donate today by clicking here. All donations to the Institute for Rural Journalism's enrichment fund through Dec. 31 will go to support Kentucky Health News. If you or your organization would like to discuss how you might provide continuing support, email al.cross@uky.edu.

Amid misinformation, few adults put significant trust in any health institution or media to be accurate about health topics, poll finds

Many falsely believe that a dewormer can treat Covid-19.
(Photo by Dimas Ardian, Bloomberg, via Getty Images)

By Darius Tahir
KFF Health News

Around 3 in 10 Americans still believe ivermectin, a dewormer for animals, is an effective treatment for Covid-19. And few of them place significant trust in any form of news media or official institution to accurately convey information about health topics, from covid treatments and vaccines to reproductive health issues. So says a new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation, an independent source of health-policy research, polling and journalism.

The confusion about what’s true — and who’s telling the truth — is of critical importance to public health, experts in political science said. “Misinformation leads to lives being lost and health problems not being resolved,” Bob Blendon, a professor emeritus of public health at Harvard University, said in an interview. Blendon was not associated with the survey.

The KFF poll of 2,007 U.S. adults found that nearly a third said ivermectin was definitely or probably an effective treatment for Covid-19. It’s not. Numerous randomized controlled trials have found otherwise. But only 22% in the poll thought ivermectin was definitely ineffective.

A fifth of those polled thought it was definitely or probably true that the Covid-19 vaccine had killed more people than the virus itself. Under half, 47%, thought that claim was definitely false, which it is. And 30% of respondents thought parents should not be required to vaccinate their children against measles, mumps and rubella, which all states do.

The prevalence of vaccine misinformation is “alarming,” said Brendan Nyhan, a professor of government at Dartmouth College who has spent years studying the transmission of false information.

Lunna Lopes, a senior survey analyst at KFF and one of the poll’s authors, said the results show wide exposure to, but limited uptake of, false claims. “Just because they’re exposed to it doesn’t mean they’re buying into it,” she said. Still, the din of misinformation might leave the populace unsure what to believe. “You might be less trusting, and less likely to outright reject false information.”

The poll also found only grudging trust, at best, for media sources of all kinds and the federal government. The limited trust the survey recorded is colored by wide partisan gaps, noted Nyhan.

KFF Health News graph; for a larger version, click on it.

Respondents did not have “a lot” of trust in the information relayed by any news media institution. Just over a quarter had this high level of trust for local TV news, and that was the highest mark of the news media tested, which ran the ideological and stylistic gamut from MSNBC to The New York Times to Fox News and Newsmax. More people had just “a little” trust in each of these institutions.

For Blendon, the mildness of the trust is a problem. It suggests that “we are short” of trusted sources of news about health.

He said journalists and editors should consider that there’s “something about the way you’re presenting information that’s not seen as credible by viewers.” Seventy percent of those in the poll said news media don't do enough to limit the spread of health misinformation, and 69% said social-media companies weren't doing enough.

Blendon said the public conversation about these topics tends to focus on the often-extreme declarations and wild claims featured on social media and on corporate and government attempts to regulate the medium. 

While the poll shows Americans use social media quite frequently, they have very little faith in the health information they see there. No social media outlet enjoyed a double-digit percentage of respondents saying they had “a lot” of trust in it.

Even so, said Lopes, a significant slice of the public — about a quarter — turn to these platforms for health information and advice. “That stood out to us,” she said. Latinos and the young are especially likely to use the forums.

KFF Health News graph; for a larger version, click on it.

The picture is similarly bleak for official institutions. Around a quarter of respondents said they had “a great deal” of trust in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations. That dropped to a fifth when it came to the Food and Drug Administration. The Biden administration and Donald Trump lagged behind.

Asked about state and local public-health officials, 13% said they trusted them "a great deal" and 51% said "a fair amount, ranking their overall trust just behind the FDA and the CDC.

Those numbers, combined with the partisan gaps in trust, were especially discouraging for Nyhan. “They will be essential sources of information in future pandemics despite their errors and misjudgments during the pandemic,” he said of public-health institutions.

By far the most highly trusted source of health information? One’s own doctor. Forty-eight percent of respondents had a great deal of trust in their recommendations.

The survey, the KFF Health Misinformation Tracking Poll Pilot, was conducted May 23 through June 12, online and by telephone among a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults in English and Spanish.

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF.

Ky. Psychological Association to offer program May 11 for news media on strategies for coping when covering traumatic events

Mind Ecology graphic

In the wake of the mass shooting in Louisville on April 10, the Kentucky Lantern has worked with the Kentucky Psychological Association to create an event for people working in the news media to learn coping strategies, including how to get professional help when needed. 

The Zoom event will be held at 12 noon ET May 11. It will be led by Dr. Eric Russ with the association and is titled, "Stress, Trauma and Coping for Journalists and People Working in the Media." 

Journalists who would like to attend should register here.

'Addiction and the media: Stigmatizing language and best practices' virtual meeting May 17; free, but registration required

National Institute on Drug Abuse image

The HEALing Communities Study Learning Collaborative at the University of Kentucky is will offering an online session titled "Addiction and the media: Stigmatizing language and best practices" at 11 a.m. ET May 17.

The event is open to journalists, journalism students, community members, health-care professionals and interested coalition members, but requires registration. Click here to register. 

The featured speaker will be Carol Krause, senior advisor consultant to the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institutes of Health. Following her presentation, there will be a roundtable discussion with Terry DeMio, opioid-epidemic reporter with the Cincinnati Enquirer; Brittany Hurley, peer support specialist with Ramey Estep Regroup; and Alene Kennedy-Hendricks, assistant professor with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. 

The panelists will discuss best practices in reporting on addiction and the media's response to reducing stigma. One continuing education credit will be offered for registered nurses, advanced practice nurses, pharmacists, physicians, social workers and licensed clinical alcohol and drug counselors who attend.

The session resembles one held in Ashland in November 2019 at "Covering Substance Abuse and Recovery: A Workshop for Journalists," sponsored by Oak Ridge Associated Universities and the University of Kentucky's Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, publisher of Kentucky Health News.

"Nobody has the power to change language like us," Bishop Nash said at the workshop. A former health reporter at the Herald-Dispatch in Huntington, W.Va., a city that has been called the epicenter of the opioid epidemic, Nash said that once he understood the science of addiction and why it was important to not use stigmatizing language, it has been an easy switch. "It really requires a change of heart," he said. "When you get your heart wrapped around this issue, you really don't have to think about it."

The HEALing (Helping End Addiction Long Term) Communities Study is a four-year, $87 million study to see how tools for preventing and treating opioid misuse and opioid-use disorder are most effective locally. 

Findings from the study will establish best practices for integrating prevention and treatment strategies that can be replicated by communities nationwide. The goal of the study is to reduce opioid-related overdose deaths by 40 percent. Kentucky is one of four states chosen for the study.

Pope Francis sees an "infodemic," says access to accurate information about the coronavirus and vaccines is a human right

Pope Francis (Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images)

Pope Francis said Friday that an “infodemic” is spreading, defining it as “a distortion of reality based on fear, falsified or invented news.”

The head of the Roman Catholic Church said information based on scientific facts is a human right, and urged Catholic journalists to help people who were misled by false reports about the coronavirus and vaccines.

“To be properly informed, to be helped to understand situations based on scientific data and not fake news, is a human right,” the pope told members of the International Catholic Media Consortium on Covid-19 Vaccines.

He added that journalists and scientists should treat with respect those who believe falsehoods, and not put them in “ghettos.” "Instead, they should try to build bridges to those who need to hear scientific truths," Gaia Pianigiani reports for The New York Times.

Social media data show Americans pay little attention to Omicron variant even though it's one of most contagious viruses ever found

Graphs by Axios; to enlarge, click on the image.

"New data shows that the Omicron variant is not jumpstarting Americans' engagement in Covid news, despite indications that it may be one of the fastest-spreading variants to date," Sara Fischer and Neil Rothschild report for Axios. That matters because "a lack of widespread appreciation of the threat could hamper the response."

Americans' social-media interactions on news articles about the coronavirus have fallen from an average of 1,171 per article in March 2020 to 326 in December 2020, to 108 over the past three weeks. Engagement spiked when the Delta variant was first identified, but that hasn't happened with the Omicron variant yet, Fischer and Rothschild report.

The decline in news interactions likely stems from pandemic fatigue, and a perception that Omicron is no more dangerous than previous variants, University of New Haven political science professor Chris Haynes told Axios.

The reasons for not paying attention vary: Vaccinated people may believe there's not much more they can do or need to learn, while unvaccinated people may believe the coronavirus isn't a threat or is inevitable, Annenberg Public Policy Center director Kathleen Hall Jamieson told Axios.

But, Fischer and Rothschild note, "as the Omicron variant spreads, interest in Covid news could start to spike in coming weeks, especially as it pertains to holiday travel."

Reports of anti-vaccine preachers spur weekly newspaper to use its 'bully pulpit' and forswear 'neutrality in times of moral crisis'

Many Kentucky newspapers are making extra efforts to increase vaccination against the coronavirus, by fighting misinformation with the facts, and Kentucky Health News plans to continue highlighting them. Chris Evans, the editor and publisher of the only paper in Crittenden County, pop. 9,000, on the Ohio River in Western Kentucky, reported on what he and his wife Allison have done:

"The Crittenden Press has published a first-person article from a local M.D. encouraging vaccines; an article about a nurse practitioner whose husband was hospitalized and unvaccinated and she changed her tune on the vaccine in a hurry; and we have had a couple of recent op-ed pieces, too. Allison wrote a very well-received column a couple of weeks ago comparing it to smallpox and polio." (See below.)

The Press spotlighted the Covid-19 deaths of a local couple.

"Last week, we began a front-page feature where businesses and/or agencies, including local government, are encouraged to tell us how many of their folks are vaccinated. Then we publish what they tell us. City council went first. We have had good response to that so far. Today I attended the funeral of a husband and wife, both unvaccinated, who died last week. The wife previously worked for us for several years."

Evans concludes, "If Covid hasn’t hit your doorstep yet, it’s coming, and we have heard about pastors preaching against the vaccine from the pulpit. I told Allison today, they may have a big audience, but ours is bigger. You probably know that I am a church-going conservative, but it’s time to use my bully pulpit. I have been somewhat reluctant until now to stick my nose squarely into the middle of this, but I think it is time. I am reminded of the phrase in Dante’s Furnace that 'The darkest places of hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.'"

Here is the column by Allison Evans, headlined "Polio to Covid."

   Hopefully one day our grandchildren will have to Google-search 'Covid-19' to find a definition.
   If they do, this virus will have come to pass.
   Obviously that’s everyone’s daily prayer, that it will disappear from our society like polio, a disease I’ve tried to learn more about lately – more specifically the country’s reaction to the polio vaccine.
   Unlike the Covid-19 vaccine, apparently there was a greater public acceptance of and willingness to receive the polio inoculation.
   Some of today’s Marion residents were in elementary school back in 1955 when the polio vaccine was distributed. Talked to one recently who remembers walking as a group from school to the second-floor health office on East Carlisle Street. After climbing the stairs, students were given the vaccine, which was contained in a chewable sugar cube.

Allison Mick-Evans

   I’ve been wondering whether there was apprehension about the polio vaccine. Was the country divided about its validity, its efficacy? Were people reluctant to have their children vaccinated, were they on the phone talking about their neighbors’ willingness or unwillingness to accept an inoculation to prevent a horrible, debilitating disease that was affecting children at alarming rates?
   Here’s what I found. Surprisingly, it took 47 years from the time polio was identified until a vaccine was distributed. Because of limited technology at the time, scientists and medical professionals started from scratch to develop the vaccine. Since the 1980s, more than 90 percent of school-age children have been vaccinated for polio.
   The quick development of three Covid-19 vaccines was the result of years and years of research in the scientific archives on SARS vaccines. Because Covid and SARS are both coronaviruses diseases, scientists has a head start on dealing with the new strain, which led to the relatively quick creation of a Covid-19 vaccine.
   When it became available in 1955, people couldn’t get the polio vaccine fast enough. One of the reasons, historians say, was that Americans had a deep respect for science. A chorus of social media opinions did not exist back then to confuse the public. A campaign of disinformation and skepticism about the Covid vaccine has clearly created pockets of deep-rooted resistance, doubt and insecurity.
   Polio attacked children. Nearly 60,000 children in 1952 were infected and more than 3,000 died. By comparison, a year’s worth of Covid-19 data show 32 million cases in the U.S. and more than 573,000 deaths. Yet serious Covid illness, so far, is rare among children.
   Years worth of efforts by door-to-door volunteers acting on behalf of the March of Dimes helped Americans feel like they were helping toward the effort to eradicate polio. These are the individuals whose lives were greatly impacted by World War II and many were involved in the war effort not too many years earlier.
   By the time the polio vaccine was available in 1955, parents understood and accepted that the risks of contracting polio were a much greater threat than the risks of the vaccine.
   Sound familiar?
   We’re beginning to understand that about Covid, too. Even though individuals vaccinated for Covid-19 can contract and, unfortunately spread the virus, the risks of serious illness requiring hospitalization are lessened. A study in Georgia released last weekend pointed out that almost 90 percent of Covid hospitalizations were among the unvaccinated. Other data are bearing that out across the country.
   A friend in Louisville who works in the medical industry shared a conversation he recently had with a doctor. Standing outside one of Louisville’s largest hospitals, he pointed to the upper floors and said there were 100 seriously ill Covid patients up there. None of them were vaccinated.
  I’m always one to avoid uncomfortable topics or create controversy. I know there are varying opinions on the Covid-19 vaccine, but I think we’re beginning to see the life-threatening or life-altering effects of not being vaccinated.
   I understand the fear of the unknown. It’s a weakness I share. Being fearful of making the wrong decision is what creates hesitancy, sometimes with serious consequences.
   But we trusted scientists in the 50s to protect our children from polio. Science worked. And now it’s time to let science protect us again.
   The rollout of a life-saving vaccine is something we might only see once or twice in our lifetime. Hopefully no more.
   Folks in the '50s who trusted the process of eradicating polio should be our guide. It’s time we do the same so our kids and grandkids won’t live with Covid-19, but instead will need to Google it.
   Allison Evans is a third-generation owner of The Crittenden Press newspaper. She can be reached at allison@the-press.com.

Rural news media need to promote vaccination, not just by delivering facts to quash misinformation, but by example

By Al Cross
Director, Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, University of Ky.

Millions of Americans say they have decided not to get vaccinated to protect themselves, their families and their neighbors from the coronavirus, but polling and anecdotal evidence show that some will change their minds. News media have a role to play in that, especially in rural America, where vaccination rates are lower than the rest of the nation, sometimes dangerously lower.

Few vaccine-hesitant or -resistant people are likely to be persuaded by a news story or editorial urging vaccination, but it's important to keep delivering facts about the vaccines, because social media are awash with misinformation about them. And there's another way to promote the shots: lead by example.

That's what Alan Gibson, editor and publisher of the Clinton County News in Albany, did this week. On the back page of the newspaper is a "house ad" telling readers that the paper's entire staff of five is vaccinated and urging readers to do likewise.

Gibson told me he got the idea from the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce's "Covid Stops Here" campaign, which provides signs that businesses can download and print to display their level of vaccination, and lets them post their logos to do likewise.

Gibson knew his staff was fully vaccinated. "I thought, we should promote this," he said. Why? "We're one of the hardest-hit counties in the nation but we're one of the slowest to get vaccinated." And he thought it would be better to persuade by example than to lecture: "Do as I do, you know? I'm tired of arguing with people, because the arguments aren’t valid." He said it's worth the effort "if just one or two people look at it and say, 'I need to go ahead and do this.'"

Clinton County (Wikipedia map)

Gibson could be called a beacon in a wilderness. Only two other newspapers have their logos posted on the Kentucky Chamber site, and they're in the state's most highly vaccinated counties: The State Journal of Frankfort, in Franklin County, and The Woodford Sun, in Versailles; 79% and 77% of the adjoining Bluegrass counties' vaccine-eligible residents, respectively, are fully vaccinated. In Clinton County, where I grew up, it's only 38%.

As editor and publisher of Kentucky Health News, I send a weekly update to Kentucky editors. A few weeks ago, I told them, "There is no more immediately pressing public interest in this country than persuading people to get vaccinated, and local medical professionals and news media are more trusted than those at state and national levels. Please do your part. It's a slog, but if the heroes of public health can do it, so can we."

Public-health director asks people in his county to respect and trust people in health care, as they did when he was growing up

Joshua Embry

By Joshua Embry

In graduate school I wrote a paper about the violence that health-care workers experience at the hands of patients. I had witnessed such behavior while working in a hospital environment. I had also heard nurses talk about patients whom had physically assaulted them, put their hands on them in inappropriate places, threw things, or made inappropriate comments. At the conclusion of the paper, I was alarmed to see the amount of disrespect that was occurring in our nation’s hospitals by the very people who nurses and doctors sacrifice so much for.

I wrote this paper in 2016. Fast forward to today, as we struggle to break free from the grip of Covid-19, we see evidence that the disrespect has grown stronger.

As a child, I was taught to respect doctors, nurses, and those in the health-care field because they were knowledgeable and caring. After all, they had sacrificed countless hours in preparation, spent thousands of dollars to attend school, and crammed for exams that were nerve-wracking. However, something has shifted in our society. As evident today, a good portion of the American population trust social media more than their medical providers. Furthermore, they value the opinions of news organizations and politicians more than they value valid medical research and proven data.

How did we get here—and where did we go wrong? The answer to that question I am unsure of, to be honest. However, I do know that the disrespect shown toward our medical professionals must change if we want to continue to thrive as a society.

I worry about what the children of today are learning. They see some adults, those whom they trust to raise them up and show them how to best thrive, refusing medical advice and life saving vaccines because of something posted on social media or something they read by an online blogger. What will this do to future generations? Will they have any respect for healthcare providers? Will they trust the facts they are taught in school such as America is a democratic nation? What information will they hold valid—and refuse to acknowledge simply because a politician tells them not to believe it?

Health-care professionals are not perfect; like any field there, are those who practice medicine for the wrong reasons. However, the field itself, the field of medicine and science, must be respected and trusted. We need to transfer that respect and trust to future generations so that they can apply medical facts to their own lives and make the best decisions related to their health.

Winston Churchill said, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” Let’s give the future generations the opportunity we were given by our grandparents and parents. Let’s give them the opportunity to respect those who have given so much, in some cases their all, to provide medical care to those in need.

Joshua Embry is public health director of the Grayson County Health Department in Leitchfield. He wrote this for the Grayson County News.

Neurosurgeon in a county at high risk from the coronavirus gets local paper to share the facts about the virus and the vaccines

In a big Kentucky county with a low coronavirus vaccination rate, a critical infection rate and Covid-19 patients filling its intensive-care beds, a doctor reached out to his local newspaper to voice his concerns.

Dr. Amr El-Naggar

Neurosurgeon Amr El-Naggar, a native of Egypt, said "he understands the freedom of choice, but wanted every member of the public to truly consider what that freedom means," the Somerset Commonwealth Journal reports.

“I became a U.S. citizen 26 years ago, and one of the things that I learned is to appreciate freedom. This is the number one thing that I’m proud of. But I try to use my freedom in a correct way. I choose to live freely. I do not choose to die freely,” he said. “I have the freedom to take the vaccine or not. But I recommend you use your freedom to live and let your children live, and to enjoy the taste and smell of food and flowers. We do not have to give up those things that are gifts from God.”

In Pulaski County, only 40 percent of residents have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, the county's infection rate has put it in the state's "red zone" and is taxing Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital. 

“Two days ago, there were no open beds in the whole, and no ICU beds at all in the hospital,” El-Naggar said. “This condition waxes and wanes, but I’m aware there are big hospitals in the state that do not have any ICU beds at all. Beds are filling up very quickly. Much quicker than we did a year ago.”

In the interview, El-Naggar explained why unvaccinated people should get vaccinated even though the latest research shows that vaccinated people can still get and transmit the virus.

“The simple answer, my friend, is that ‘You get to live!’. . . If you are vaccinated, there is a chance you can get a breakthrough infection, but if you do you are going to probably get treated as an outpatient and still have your life. At worst you may be hospitalized for a few days, get treated then released!”

He said all the hospital's Covid-19 patients are unvaccinated, and “Many of them are young, and many are critical!” That's true all over the nation, he said.

“It is a statistical fact that the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines protect you from the virus in the order of 95%. It is also a statistical fact that about 95% of hospitalized Covid patients who require high levels of oxygenation and/or are on ventilators in critical care units are among the unvaccinated.”

El-Naggar also debunked myths about the vaccines' use of genetic material known as messenger RNA: “Our DNA, which is the main gene codes of our body, are in the nucleus of the cell. The cell has a nucleus in the middle, and is surrounded by this cytoplasm, sort of like if you have a house and have the big yard or farm around it. The DNA lives in the house, or the core. And it sends the messenger RNA out. The first thing it does is expel it out of the nucleus. It goes into the cytoplasm or the yard. But the messenger RNA does not have the ability to reenter the nucleus. In other words, it goes out into the yard of the farm, and it can never be allowed to enter into the house again.”

The doctor also said there is no evidence that the vaccines affect female fertility, and “People might be surprised to know that it is recommended that pregnant women be vaccinated. If a pregnant woman gets infected with the Covid Delta variant, it puts her at a high risk of developing a severe illness and increases the probability of hospitalization and critical-care needs.”

Appreciate Kentucky Health News? Please help support our work.

This is National Public Health Week, and if Kentucky Health News is dedicated to anything, it's public health, so it's a natural time to ask our readers to support our work.

We are made possible by grants from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, but that doesn't cover the cost of the time and effort devoted to us by our publisher, the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky -- now more than ever, due to the pandemic. To make an online donation to the Institute, go here, or send a check to 343 S. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Lexington KY 40506-0012.

Through our reporting and aggregation of others' reporting, we try to make Kentucky a healthier place by giving Kentuckians the information they need to make good lifestyle and health-care decisions. If you think we're doing a good job, let us know; if you think there are things we could do better, let us know that, too.

Our partners in this effort are the local news media that publish our stories or use them as foundation for their own reports. They need your support, too, because social media have eroded their audiences and advertising bases. They provide journalism, which practices a discipline of verification; journalists tell you how they know something, or attribute it, and they're mainly about facts, not opinion. Social media are more about opinion, and have hardly any discipline or verification. Who will you trust?

Trump helped get vaccines produced quickly, but he and some of his allies are complicating efforts to get people to take them

Fox News commentator Laura Ingraham, shown March 31, posted a story on Facebook from a right-leaning tabloid "that purported to show documents claiming that Chinese Communist Party loyalists worked at pharmaceutical companies" that made the vaccine, The Washington Post reports.

"President Trump and his allies have spent years stoking disinformation and doubt in official accounts about the election, the coronavirus, and other topics. Now those efforts are making it harder to rally support around his administration’s vaccine push," report Elizabeth Dwoskin and Josh Dawsey of The Washington Post.

The phenomenon has implications for Kentucky, because Trump carried the state by large margins: 29.8 percentage points in 2016 and 25.9 points in 2020. Though he lost, he has a large following and media allies.

Trump "has hailed his administration’s investments in vaccine development," but he "has a history of questioning vaccines" and has not committed to taking a vaccine, and misinformation experts told the Post that his "messaging that people should distrust authority has made it harder for the administration to take a victory lap over vaccine development," Dwoskin and Dawsey report.

White House spokesman Brian Morgenstern told the Post, “President Trump has repeatedly referred to the vaccines as ‘miracles’ and encouraged the American people to take them — including when he hosted an hours-long, live-streamed and nationally televised summit to educate the American people about the vaccine development and distribution process, build confidence in the safety and efficacy of the vaccines, and commemorate their creation as a national achievement that will save millions of lives.”

But Trump is only part of the puzzle, Dwoskin and Dawsey report: "Conspiracy theories about the vaccine are also brewing within Trump’s base, particularly among evangelical Christians and followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory, according to a report by the misinformation research group Zignal Labs."

The group "found that the most popular misleading story line about the coronavirus vaccine in recent weeks was about people who took the Pfizer vaccine developing the disease Bell’s palsy, which temporarily paralyzes muscles in the face," the Post reports. "An article from the Daily Mail, which reported that four volunteers who took the vaccine then developed the disease, garnered more than 179,000 shares on Facebook and 12,000 shares on Twitter, with an evangelical Christian community on Facebook contributing the single largest number of shares."

PolitiFact, a service of the Tampa Bay Times, says social-media users have exaggerated and distorted the story. "While the original Daily Mail story was accurate, and therefore allowed by the social-media companies, scientists have said that the number of people who developed Bell’s palsy — 4 in a group of 22,000 — is consistent with the number of people who have the disease in the actual population, and may have nothing to do with the vaccine, the fact-checking group said. The FDA is monitoring the issue," the Post reports. "At the same time, a popular Facebook meme appearing to depict the volunteers was actually recycling a photo from 2019."

Social-media chatter may be filling a vacuum left by Trump, who "has been somewhat absent from the conversation, frustrating aides who say that he could have a major impact on drumming up support for vaccination, say people familiar with the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters freely," Dowskin and Dawsey write.

"With so many Americans expressing doubt about the vaccine, aides say Trump could convince tens of millions of Americans — his most fervent supporters — that it was safe if he took it himself, the people said. But so far, he has not publicly announced plans to do so and has not held any major event to promote it. He has tweeted praising the vaccine, but he has eschewed any public appearances since its release to either take it or laud it."

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has said that Trump should not take a vaccine until 90 days after taking monoclonal antibodies when he contracted the virus in October. That will be Dec. 31. Asked about that on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday, Fauci said, "I would get him vaccinated; he is still the president of the United States, a critical person."

This story has been updated.

Online program for journalists about covering pandemic Oct. 22

The world’s biggest story in 75 years is also a local story for everyone: the coronavirus pandemic. It has posed special challenges for news organizations at a time when they were already challenged: the politicization of public health, pushback from audiences, confusing data, and pandemic fatigue – among audiences and journalists.

To help journalists with this story, the Bluegrass Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists will hold an online panel discussion, “Covering the Pandemic,” at 7 p.m. ET Thursday, Oct. 22. The panelists will be:

• Alex Acquisto, health reporter, Lexington Herald-Leader

• Jennifer P. Brown of Hopkinsville, who recovered from Covid-19 and wrote about it in her online newspaper, Hoptown Chronicle

• Ben Sheroan, editor, The News-Enterprise of Elizabethtown, who can speak to the pushback newspapers receive from their coverage of the pandemic

• Brian Neal, news director at Lexington’s WLEX-TV, who will address the fatigue factor experienced by journalists

• Susan Dunlap, executive director of the Office of Public Affairs of the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services, who will speak to the communications challenges of government agencies

The discussion will be moderated by Melissa Patrick, reporter for Kentucky Health News.

There is no charge to attend the program, which will be held via Zoom, but registration to receive the Zoom link is required. To register, send an email to john.nelson24@gmail.com.

The Society of Professional Journalists has stood for improving and protecting journalism since 1909. For more information, see www.spj.org or visit the Bluegrass SPJ Chapter’s page on Facebook.

Experts say we're still in first wave of pandemic; June 25 webinar to discuss pandemic, politics, protests and the economy

Kentucky cases (New York Times chart; click to enlarge it or click here for the interactive version.) 

Some pundits and news stories have seen or forecast a "second wave" of coronavirus cases in the U.S., but scientists generally agree that we're still in the middle of a rising first wave, driven by recent increases in the South and West. Click here (or read more below) about a June 25 webinar that will discuss the second wave of the pandemic and more.

"About 120,000 Americans have died from the new virus and daily counts of new cases in the U.S. are the highest they've been in more than a month," Mike Stobbe reports for The Associated Press. "Clearly there was an initial infection peak in April as cases exploded in New York City. After schools and businesses were closed across the country, the rate of new cases dropped somewhat." But that was more of a plateau, not a drop in cases, says disease researcher Caitlin Rivers of Johns Hopkins University, a leading tracker of coronavirus and covid-19 data.

Some areas have seen a drop in cases, but overall cases have increased. Deciding whether it's a first second wave is essentially a matter of semantics, but it matters because people may feel a false sense of security if they hear that the first wave has passed, University of Michigan flu expert Dr. Arnold Monto told Stobbe.

"Some worry a large wave of coronavirus might occur this fall or winter — after schools reopen, the weather turns colder and less humid, and people huddle inside more. That would follow seasonal patterns seen with flu and other respiratory viruses," Stobbe reports. "And such a fall wave could be very bad, given that there's no vaccine or experts think most Americans haven't had the virus."

The lingering pandemic is still weighing down the economy. While 2.5 million people have returned to work, unemployment claims remain near level because jobs are being lost at almost the same rate that the temporarily unemployed are returning to work, Lawrence Fuller writes for Seeking Alpha.

"The greatest risk to our economic recovery was that a second wave of coronavirus would hit us in the fall, forcing states to shut down a second time to contain it. That is no longer a risk, because a second wave is out of the question. The first wave never ended . . . due to the premature openings in states like Florida, Texas, Arizona and the Carolinas," Fuller reports. "This surely won't stop the younger crowd from crowding into bars and restaurants or partying on the beaches, but it will force the older crowd to curtail their activities, and they are the ones with the money. For an economy that is 70% dependent on consumer spending, that is a death knell."

Newswise will host a Zoom webinar at 2 p.m. ET June 25 to discuss the pandemic, the economy, recent protests and politics. The webinar is free and will take about an hour. Guests will include Anne Bailey, a history professor at SUNY Binghamton who specializes in African-American history; and Eli Rosenberg, an associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at SUNY Albany.

Columbia nursing home is latest Ky. hotspot for the coronavirus, making Adair County the latest hotspot for public concern

Signature HealthCare at Summit Manor, in Columbia, has 71 residents and about as many staffers.

A nursing home in Columbia is the latest hotspot for covid-19 among long-term-care facilities in Kentucky, making Adair County a hotspot of public concern.

At Summit Manor, 29 residents and four employees have tested positive for the coronavirus, said the Lake Cumberland District Health Department. There could be more because not all tests results were available Friday morning, department Director Shawn Crabtree said.

"Crabtree had announced six cases among residents Thursday, but the facility received additional test results later that day," Bill Estep reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader. "One woman from the nursing home died last week as a result of the disease, and several have been hospitalized."

As Adair County's only nursing home, "Many people in the community have ties to the facility through people staying there or working there," Estep notes. "Mike Keltner, the county emergency manager, said his grandmother is in the facility."

“It makes it rough,” Keltner said at a morning news conference with Crabtree and County Judge-Executive Gale Cowan, who said she has two relatives in Summit Manor.

“Everybody’s scared, and I understand that,” she said. “We’re all worried.”

The conference was videostreamed on Facebook and got a relatively large audience, because many people knew residents had been tested, and word of the outbreak (a new total reflecting 23 new cases) was posted on a mobile application of The Weather Channel Thursday night.

The Weather Channel broke the news.

The Adair County Community Voice, one of the county's two weekly newspapers, posted the app's notice on its Facebook page, saying, "At least officials are keeping the Weather Channel up to date. Apologies to our community. I assure you we have been making calls all day to get this information. #TooManySecrets"

Questioned by ACCV Editor-Publisher Sharon Burton at the Friday news conference, Crabtree said he didn't answer her inquiries because he wanted to notify family members of all 71 Summit Manor residents.

The formal name of the facility is Signature HealthCare at Summit Manor, reflecting ownership by a company that "has more than 100 long-term-care facilities in 10 states" and is "deferring to local officials to release information," Estep reports.

"Crabtree said Summit Manor was able to obtain tests for all residents and employees after an initial positive case last week," and "had been following guidance on social distancing and protecting residents and staff before the outbreak. Family members had not been allowed into the facility since about March 10, so Crabtree said the coronavirus may have been carried into the facility by an employee or health worker from outside."

Emma Rodgers, 83, died of covid-19
April 6, a few hours before test results
showed she had the disease. (via ACCV)

“That’s the way this disease works,” he said. “You can spread it before you know you have it.”

When the test results came back, Estep reports, "Local, district and state health officials held a conference call with Summit Manor and Signature HealthCare officials to work out a response and make sure the facility would have enough staff to care for residents, Crabtree said." The Community Voice reports him saying that one patient was sent to a hospital.

The Voice reports, "Crabtree read a statement from Summit Manor that said that they are forming three separate units within Summit Manor: one unit for patients who are covid-19-positive, one unit for patients whose test results aren’t back and another for those who have tested negative. The unit for positive covid-19 patients will have staff that only work in that wing and they will have a barrier from the rest of the facility. Supplies, food and staff who work on that unit will not be near other wings. In addition, an infection control physician and nurse will be monitoring this unit."

Estep reports, "He said other long-term care facilities need to consider issues such as setting up dedicated coronavirus areas and making sure they have room for people coming back from hospitals," and it's critical to prepare.

“By the time somebody tests positive,” Crabtree said, “you may already be in the middle of a very difficult situation.”