After at least 3 deaths in 7 months, weekly in small Western Ky. county alerts its readers to the dangers and details of fentanyl

Most of this week's front page; click it to enlarge.
Photo illustration is based on a DEA image. 

Kentucky Health News

After three fentanyl overdoses since June in Crittenden County, the first recorded in the county of 9,000 people, and another death in which fentanyl could have been a contributing factor, the local editor-publisher thought it was time to alert his readers to the danger.

"Considered by some as the grim reaper of recreational drugs, fentanyl has hit Crittenden County like a reaper’s scythe over last the few months," Chris Evans of The Crittenden Press began his story, which reported the deaths without the victims' names, noted that the county normally has about three overdoses of any drug in a year, then gave a rationale for the story and made it an implicit example to follow: "Observers say small communities like Marion should raise awareness or prepare to see more deaths in their neighborhoods."

Evans quotes local and state officials and writes, "Fentanyl is approximately 100 times stronger than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin. Illegal manufacturers often lack understanding, ability and precision to make fentanyl. It’s not a forgiving drug. One minuscule mistake is irreversibly deadly."

Dr. Christopher Kiefer of the state medical examiner’s office told him, “High-school-age kids might be swapping pills. That’s not uncommon. They might think they’re getting a mild painkiller pressed in a lab. They might think it’s Oxycodone or Lortab, but it ends up being fentanyl. You don’t have to be using a needle to die of an overdose. . . . It is a dangerous time right now because people don’t know what they’re getting,”

Crittenden County (Wikipedia map)

Evans adds, "The doctor further explains that fentanyl made and distributed on the black market can be dressed or disguised as just about anything. Someone may think they’re getting a pill from a friend’s mom’s medicine cabinet when it’s something far more sinister and deadly." He quotes Marion Police Chief Bobby West as saying that families and friends of drug users can be the best preventers of overdoses, and “Conversations need to be had about this drug and how it can kill you.”

Evans concludes, "The stark reality of this drug is that it can creep undected into any corner of society and become an instant killer. Now, it’s in Marion." His package also includes sidebars about synthetic opioids (fentanyl is one) and a quick-look box giving strete names for the drug, how it is used, what it does and what an overdose can look like: "Stupor, changes in pupil size, clammy skin, cyanosis, coma, and respiratory failure."

Evans has made this week's issue available online, here.

State's first detailed report on domestic-violence cases has a wealth of data on how courts and law enforcement handle them

The report's court data is by area development district, not by judge or county, but it has data on how individual law-enforcement agencies served emergency protective orders. (Map from report, adapted by KHN; to enlarge, click on it.)

Kentucky Health News

"Kentucky has long had a problem with domestic violence," the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. "A 2012 survey found that 45% of women and 35% of men" in the state have been victims of domestic violence, sexual violence or stalking, "according to a new report released Friday, marking the first time the commonwealth has ever tracked the data. Now the commonwealth will begin to dig into the details with a debut domestic-violence report that will set a baseline for police reports, protective orders issues, court cases and other information."

The 207-page report has a wealth of information about how domestic violence is handled by courts and law-enforcement agencies at regional and local levels. It covers the 14,199 charges and 8,867 arrests related to domestic violence in 2022, and the outome of the 19,986 petitions courts received for emergency protective orders in criminal and civil cases.

For example, it gives the average number of days that it takes individual law-enforcement agencies to serve EPOs on people accused of domestic violence or threats of violence, based on reports by the agencies. Statewide, the average is 2.22 days, but in many counties, especially in Appalachian Kentucky, service is much slower, perhaps putting potential victims at greater risk.

Law-enforcement agencies that averaged 10 days or more (excluding those with fewer than 10 EPOs served) to serve EPOs were: Adair County sheriff (12 days), Bell County sheriff (13), Breckinridge County sheriff (12), Calloway County sheriff (14), Corbin Police Department (19), Garrard County sheriff (15), Laurel County sheriff (10), Lawrence County sheriff (11), Martin County sheriff (11), McCreary County sheriff (15), Perry County sheriff (10), Rockcastle County sheriff (15), Spencer County sheriff (13), Wayne County sheriff (10), Whitley County sheriff (12), Williamsburg Police Department (10); and Wolfe County sheriff (13).

Agencies that averaged 7 days or more (excluding those with fewer than 10 EPOs served) were: Anderson County Sheriff's Department (8 days), Danville Police Department (8), Estill County sheriff (9), Fayette County sheriff (7), Franklin County sheriff (7), Grayson County sheriff (7), Harrison County sheriff (7), Jefferson County sheriff (7), Jessamine County sheriff (7), Knox County sheriff (9), Letcher County sherifff (7), Lincoln County sheriff (7), Marshall County sheriff (7), Pendleton County sheriff (8), Pulaski County sheriff (8), Russell County sheriff (7), and Todd County sheriff (9).

Data on how courts handle domestic violence is not given by judge, court or jurisdiction, but by the state's 15 area development districts.

It shows that judges in the Lincoln Trail ADD (Meade, Breckinridge, Grayson, Hardin, LaRue, Marion, Nelson and Washington counties) approved only 40 percent of the petitions for EPOs regarding domestic violence, and 31 percent of those for tempotrary interpersonal protective orders.

Judges in the Northern Kentucky ADD (Boone, Kenton, Campbell, Carroll, Gallatin, Owen, Grant and Pendleton counties) had the next lowest approval rates, 63 and 45 percent. The statewide averages, respectively, were 72 and 60 percent.

In divorce and other civil cases where domestic violence was alleged, judges in the Cumberland Valley ADD (Jackson, Rockcastle, Laurel, Clay, Knox, Whitley, Bell and Harlan counties) had the lowest approval rate, 16.9%. Lincoln Trail was second-lowest at 19.8%, just ahead of the Kentucky River ADD (Wolfe, Owsley, Lee, Breathitt, Leslie, Perry, Knott, and Letcher counties), at 19.9%.

In civil cases where other interpersonal violence was alleged, judges in the Gateway ADD (Bath, Montgomery, Menifee, Rowan and Morgan counties) had the lowest approval rate, 9.1%. The next lowest rate, 12 percent, was in the adjoining Fivco ADD (Boyd, Carter, Elliott, Greenup and Lawrence counties). It was 14.9% in the Cumberland Valley ADD.

Generally, judges in the Bluegrass, Purchase and Green River ADDs were the most likely to issue protective orders.

The report was required by a 2022 law sponsored by state Sen. Whitney Westerfield, a Republican from Christian County. "Before this report, domestic violence advocacy groups had used a newspaper clipping service to keep track of domestic violence homicides," the Herald-Leader reports.

Westerfield, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, learned of the lack of centralized reporting from Herald-Leader Opinion Editor Linda Blackford. “It’s just unacceptable,” he told her as the bill mved through the legislature. “We can’t make informed public policy decisions without good information.”

Observing 'Dry January' can bring lasting benefits, studies show

Photo illustration for The Washington Post by Linnea Bullion

People who observe "Dry January," abstaining from alcohol during the month, often drink less the rest of the year and show "striking improvements in their health," Anahad O'Connor of The Washington Post reports. The observance "is widely viewed as a temporary test of willpower — followed by a return to old drinking habits when the month ends. But according to research, that’s often not what happens."

Studies in the United Kingdom have shown that people who participate in sobriety challenges "frequently experience lasting benefits," O'Connor reports. "Often, they drink less in the long run and make other sustained changes to their drinking habits that lead to striking improvements in their health and well-being." One possible reason: a month "provides opportunities to form new habits — like turning down alcohol in social settings, which in the long run can be empowering. And taking a break from alcohol can trigger immediate health benefits, like weight loss, better sleep, and a boost to your mood and energy levels, which can reinforce the new habit."

Richard de Visser, a psychologist at Brighton and Sussex Medical School in England, who has studied the phenomenon, told O'Connor, “It becomes a reinforcing message instead of a punishing message. Instead of public health people wagging their fingers and saying, ‘Don’t drink, it’s bad for you,’ people do it and say, ‘I didn’t realize how good I would feel.’ They often don’t realize how much stopping drinking will improve their sleep, or their concentration, or even just their levels of energy in the morning.” But 11% of participants have a rebound effect, drinking more afterward.

The observance was started 10 years ago by Alcohol Change UK, a British nonprofit that has a website where you can sign up to get support, also available via a mobile app. "Last year, 130,000 people globally signed up to participate in Dry January," OConnor reports, offering other "tips that could increase your odds of success:" Do it with a friend. Find a new favorite drink that has no alcohol. Track how much money you save (which you can do on the app). "Manage your triggers; instead of meeting your friend at a bar after work, suggest going to a movie, taking a long walk, or having dinner at a restaurant instead."

UPDATE, Jan. 2: The New York Times recommends non-alcoholic wines.
Jan. 3: The Courier-Journal offers tips on how to be "sober curious" and still have fun.

As FDA moves to ban menthol cigarettes, Enquirer reveals how cigarette makers targeted Blacks in Cincinnati area and Knoxville

Kool's 1960s look

Cigarette makers targeted African Americans in Cincinnati and Knoxville as they pushed menthol brands 50 years ago, The Cincinnati Enquirer revealed Sunday in a story prompted by the Food and Drug Administration's move last month to ban menthol cigarettes, the choice of most Black smokers.

The phenomenon began "after a threat of regulation from the federal government caused tobacco companies to pull out aggressive youth-oriented marketing campaigns," the Enquirer's Brooks Sutherland reports. "The companies shifted to focus to another population. The new targets would become impoverished young Black males in urban cities."

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., which now has the bestselling menthol cigarette brand, Newport, targeted cities with new marketing and advertising approaches, including a new brand called Mr. Menthol "to compete with Kool, the dominant brand of menthol cigarettes at the time," Sutherland reports. The test markets were Cincinnati and Knoxville.

Kool, then owned by Louisville's now-defunct Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co., "began to focus on popular culture, particularly music, for its advertising," Sutherland reports. In 1975, it started the Kool Jazz Festival in Cincinnati and 11 other cities, with "iconic artists such as the O’Jays, the Isley Brothers (Lincoln Heights’ own), Harold Melvin, the Ohio Players and B.B. King in its first year."

Don Williams (Photo by Mark
Cesare, The Cincinnati Enquirer)

“I went down there and got me a couple packs; I started out smoking Kools,” Don Williams of Maysville told Sutherland. “They had the brand everywhere. They were giving out packs of cigarettes. People would come in, they’d give them a pack and if you don’t smoke, then you don’t take it.”

Williams added, “It got a lot of Black people to smoke.” The festival became the Cincinnati Music Festival in 1986.

Dr. O’dell Owens, interim Cincinnati health commissioner and former Hamilton County coroner, recalled "how smoking was much more than a habit to young Black males, particularly because of advertising and the coordination between tobacco companies and popular culture," Sutherland writes, quoting him: “When the guys would light up their cigarettes, it wasn’t just lighting a cigarette, it was how you did it,” he said. “You had to light your cigarette with style. . . . It was an event to light a cigarette, and so people said ‘Man, that’s cool.’ And young kids wanted to smoke.”

The FDA banned flavors in cigarettes in 2009, except menthols; their heavy use by Blacks has made such a move politically fraught. But the FDA's move "has been praised by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People," Sutherland notes. "According to an Interact for Health adult smoking survey, around 68% of Black smokers in the Cincinnati region smoke menthol cigarettes."

Kentucky's coronavirus positive-test rate goes above 7%; lack of home tests will make Thanksgiving riskier than it should be

New York Times map, adapted by Ky. Health News; click it to enlarge or here for interactive version.

By Al Cross

Kentucky Health News

The pandemic in Kentucky mostly plateaued Wednesday as the nation began a long holiday weekend offering many more opportunities for the coronavirus to spread, especially among the unvaccinated. And the untested.

"Thanksgiving is bound to cause a spike in America’s covid infections," says a headline on The Economist's website. The subhead on the story: "Blame resistance to getting jabbed and a lack of home testing," which could have made Thanksgiving gatherings safer.

"We need to flood the system with testing," Dr. Anthony Fauci told CBS News.

The Economist reports, "These kits are still hard to come by in local pharmacies, and they are costly. The Quidel QuickVue test is priced at $23.99 on Amazon, and the On/Go one at $34.99—and even then they are not available until after the holiday. A family of four would need to spend about $100 or more. By contrast, in Britain the National Health Service allows each person, every day, to order a pack of seven rapid tests free."

“In other countries, we see it’s become the norm for friends and family to get tested before a party, before dinner, before celebrations,” Leana Wen, former health commissioner of Baltimore, told The Economist. “We need to get to that point in this country.” She said the Food and Drug Administration is "letting perfect be the enemy of the good" with an approval process that is too stringent. 

On Wednesday the percentage of Kentuckians testing positive for the virus in the last seven days hit 7.05%, the first time it exceeded 7% in five weeks. It hit a low of 4.98% on Oct 31; the high was 14.16% on Sept. 8.

The state reported 2,144 new cases of the virus, two more than Tuesday but lowering the seven-day rolling average by 7, to 1,733 per day. Almost 26 percent of the new cases were in Kentuckians 18 and younger.

The state's seven-day infection rate ticked up slightly, from an average of 32.49 daily cases per 100,000 residents on Tuesday to a 32.62 average on Wednesday. Counties with rates more than double that rate were Robertson, 94.9; Powell, 92.5; Carroll, 72.6; Magoffin, 70.5; Harlan, 69.2; and Breckinridge, 67.

Kentucky hospitals reported 818 Covid-19 patients, 17 fewer than Tuesday, with 204 of them in intensive care (down 13) and 107 on mechanical ventilation (up 9). Eight of the 10 hospital regions had more than 80% of their intensive-care beds occupied, led by Lake Cumberland at 96%, with Covid patients in 16%.

The state reported 35 more Covid-19 deaths, raising Kentucky's pandemic death toll to 10,795.

Over the last 14 days, the state's new-case average has gone up 29%, more than the national gain of 25%, but its national ranking has gone down slightly, to 28th, because of steeper increases in other states, mainly to the north, where the weather has been colder and people are spending more time indoors.

So says The New York Times, which has changed its method of calculating averages to eliminate days on which states don't report cases, such as holiday weekends. Kentucky's next report will come Monday.

"The previous method displayed the average of the day and the previous six days of data," the Times explains. "In the new method, if the seven-day window includes days with no data reported, the period is extended to older days until it includes seven days of reported data."

UPDATE: Gov. Andy Beshear said on Facebook, "As we sit down at our Thanksgiving meals tomorrow, remember there are folks across the commonwealth with empty seats at the table because of this virus. Tonight, let's show compassion and light our homes green. We must never forget we're in this together."

Kentucky newspapers report more vaccination efforts

Sorry, high-resolution images are unavailable.

Kentucky newspapers continue to report extra efforts to increase coronavirus vaccinations in their communities, with news, opinion and advertising.

Some newspapers have created ads with their local health departments. One is The Anderson News in Lawrenceburg, edited and run by Ben Carlson for many years. He reports, "I’d like to think the campaign we conducted with our local health department had something to do with our county being among the top 10 most vaccinated in Kentucky," with 62% of residents and 75% of those 18 and older having had at least one dose of vaccine.

"The focus of the campaign was to have a cross-section of local people appear in the promos, ranging from high-school athletes to older white people, Hispanic people and black people. Seeing their friends and neighbors in these promos spoke directly to them, rather than just another voice from the health and medical communities telling them they need to be vaccinated," Carlson reports.

Stacie Barton, editor of the Leader-News in Muhlenberg County, reports, "Back in July, I sent a letter to county officials, medical leaders and others in our community, asking them to encourage our readers to get vaccinated against Covid-19. We had such a wonderful response! I have published op-eds and letters to the editor from our county judge-executive, several magistrates, the superintendent of schools, our state representative and our state senator, our hospital CEO and the head of hospitalists who is a front-line covid doctor, as well as a venerated local doctor who many trust. As we started to see the Delta wave hit us here in July, I figured what would be the worst thing to happen, if I just asked local leaders to lend their voices. Turns out, many were happy to do so. I truly believe local newspapers have a unique opportunity to share local, trusted voices with our readers at a time when this is needed most. I encourage others in a similar position to reach out to their local leaders and ask them to lend their voices as well. I was surprised how eager they were to help."

Barton didn't mention her own editorials, the latest of which asked "Who is responsible for public health?" and concluded, "It’s human nature to be skeptical of new things, whether it’s a novel coronavirus or a newly developed vaccine. In the case of this pandemic, these tendencies are being hijacked by people sowing confusion, distrust, fear and doubt. Those elected officials working against mandates to protect public health say they are fighting government overreach and protecting individual freedom, without offering any suggestions on how to help keep the public safe and well. Offering solutions is not on the agenda. But it’s also human nature to care for one another. People tend to want to do good by others. In tough times, we link arms to face the unknown. It’s time to protect each other and work together for the greater good. The responsibility belongs to all of us."

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."

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.”

Health foundation names Melissa Patrick, Kentucky Health News reporter, one of several Healthy Kentucky Policy Champions

Melissa Patrick

Melissa Patrick, the only staff reporter for Kentucky Health News, is one of several Kentuckians named a Healthy Kentucky Policy Champion this month by the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.

The foundation said in a news release that it recognized Patrick for "bringing attention to issues and policies that affect the health of Kentuckians, many of which are not covered by any other publication."

The release quoted Al Cross, editor and publisher of Kentucky Health News, as saying that her efforts and her "excellent grasp of Kentucky's health issues" and "dedication to the cause" help facilitate health advocacy in the state.

That is a key element of the award, which recognizes people and organizations engaged in improving the health of people in their communities and/or the state through policy change. 

"The commonwealth needs journalists like Melissa digging in the data, understanding the outcomes and root causes, and explaining proposed policy changes for concerned Kentuckians to turn to for objectivity and honesty in every story," said Mara Powell, chief communications officer at Kentucky Youth Advocates, in endorsing Patrick's nomination.

Cross said, "I believe we have offered the most comprehensive coverage of issues related to health in the legislature, and that is a direct result of Melissa’s dedication to the work. In the last session, for example, no one else really covered the issues of pharmacy benefit managers in Medicaid or the transformation of the state’s public-health financing system. Melissa has posed questions about health issues to dozens of legislators who wouldn’t have otherwise been questioned about them, and I believe her questioning of legislative leaders has elevated those issues on the General Assembly’s agenda."

Bonnie Hackbarth, vice president for external affairs at the Foundation (which provides an annual grant to Kentucky Health News), said  Patrick's "stories also give rural newspapers the tools they need to localize their stories; for example, a story about the top opioid-dispensing pharmacies in the state was localized by papers that could list the pharmacies in their own communities."

Patrick is in her sixth year of reporting for Kentucky Health News, a publication of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky. She has received several competitive fellowships, including the 2016-17 Nursing and Health Care Workforce Media Fellow of the Center for Health, Media & Policy, which allowed her to focus on and write about nursing workforce issues in Kentucky; and the year-long Association of Health Care Journalists 2017-18 Regional Health Journalism Program fellowship. She is a former registered nurse and holds degrees in journalism and community leadership and development from UK.

Patrick is now eligible for the Gil Friedell Health Policy Champion award, which comes with a $5,000 grant from the Foundation to be given to a Kentucky-based nonprofit of the winner's choice. The winner of the Friedell award will be announced later this month. Nominations for the Healthy Kentucky Policy Champion award are accepted at any time. See details on the Foundation's website here. 

Two of the champions announced this week were a student and a convenience-store chain employee recognized for their work against tobacco use by young people. Others helped block changes in Medicaid, are leading in rural health and urban health.

Kentucky newspapers offer editorial comment on acceleration of the pandemic and the governor's response to it

Kentucky's recent surge in coronavirus cases and covid-19 hospitalizations, and the governor's latest emergency orders in response, has prompted editorial commentary from several newspapers.

"November feels eerily similar to April and May, when covid-19 cases weren’t as numerous but the virus was just as furious," said The Daily Independent of Ashland. "Whether or not you agree with him, Gov. Andy Beshear has proven he’s not simply out to collect votes. He won’t shy away from making an unpopular decision, but he genuinely seems to base his actions upon how many lives might be saved."

The paper added, "The local economy will suffer, but, ideally, fewer people will be infected with the virus — and fewer will die. . . . We must band together as a community once again, just as we did in April and May, and support local businesses. If it’s not currently in your routine to do so, make it part of your daily habits. Think local, eat local (carry-out) and shop local (with a mask)."

The State Journal of Frankfort also endorsed Beshear's orders: "We firmly believe the governor is taking the steps necessary to slow an overwhelming increase in coronavirus cases and deaths in nearly every corner of Kentucky.

Noting Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Barr's criticism of Beshear's latest orders, the newspaper said, "What we have been asked to do during the last eight months — limiting our contacts, practicing social distancing and wearing face masks in public — is not difficult or political. Instead of creating division, we expect our leaders to work together toward the common goal of crushing the coronavirus."

On Nov. 18, the day that Beshear ordered in-person schooling to stop as of Nov. 23, the Bowling Green Daily News said "We believe the appropriate path forward is to continue trusting school officials to do everything in their power to make classrooms and school buildings as safe as possible. Some virus cases among staff and students are inevitable, but until it is definitively shown that the school environment itself is actively worsening the spread, we believe it is in any community’s best interest to maintain in-person teaching options for those who wish to use them."

The editorial cited "the advice of educators and mental health experts who are nearly uniform in noting that many students are harmed socially and academically by a lack of in-person instruction. Not only that, but a recent study by the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, as described in a report in the Daily News, offers a new round of data illustrating the burdens that remote instruction places on many working families, such as difficulty scheduling child care and accessing reliable internet service."

The Daily News hasn't opined on Beshear's latest moves, but its reliably conservative editorial page has criticized his previous orders.

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.

Voices from the coronavirus pandemic: Oral histories from just a few of the millions whose lives have been changed by it

Lori Wagoner at her work station in North Carolina (Photo by Eamon Queeney, The Washington Post)

As the coronavirus continues to surge across Kentucky and the nation, The Washington Post is continuing its series of oral histories from people affected in significant ways by the pandemic. Here are a few.

Becoming a defacto mask enforcer: Lori Wagoner, 63, never expected that her job as a retail clerk in a small North Carolina town would become so dangerous. But covid-19 has drastically changed her job responsibilities. After escalations with customers who refused to put on a map, Wagoner installed a doorbell and keeps the front door locked. And next to her, behind her register, is pepper spray. With the local sheriff’s office refusing to help enforce the mandate, she said, she is now acting as enforcer of the mask mandate.

A coroner’s tale: Michael Fowler delivers his story from Albany, Ga., population 77,000, where he’s in charge of examining deaths and keeping track of the numbers. Since March, cases have exploded, and his work has started to take a toll on him: “I don’t believe in getting hysterical. It doesn’t do any good. This is a numbers-and-facts job. But we have numbers and facts that are screaming out by themselves. I console people on the death of their relative one week and end up pronouncing them the next.”

A grocer’s account: Burnell Cotlon tells the stories of customers at the small grocery he started in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. It’s the only place to get fresh produce in his historically Black neighborhood; his customers have especially felt the pinch of job loss, since the pandemic largely shut down tourism in the city. Here’s one story: “She’d been having a hard time. She lost her income and needed groceries, so we started her on a tab. Then she caught the virus, and I delivered more groceries to her porch. She died last week, and a few days later, I went into the book to look at her tab. There are a few accounts closing like that now, and probably more coming. Hers was 72 dollars and 14 cents. I found her name and drew a line through it.”

One of the first: One of the most heartbreaking stories is about Indiana’s first covid-19 victim: Birdie Shelton from Indianapolis. Tony Sizemore, Shelton’s partner of close to a decade, blames himself for her death. He suspects she got the virus from her job, transporting rental cars, and says he should have made her quit, but “She liked to drive and we needed the money.” At first doctors didn’t know she had the virus; it was mainly in New York and Seattle then, and knowledge of it was still growing, he says: “Would it have gone any different if they knew what it was? Maybe. Or maybe they would have quarantined her right then, and I would have lost a few more days with her. See, I could analyze this to death. I’ll be doing this for the rest of my life.”

Reaching for a lifeline: Johnny Rivero of Tampa, Fla., relays his account of waiting in line at a food pantry for the first time in his life. A former maintenance worker who lost his job due to the pandemic, his family is slowly running out of savings; now they’re running out of food. His wife and daughter also lost their incomes due to the pandemic. The ending is bittersweet, with his delight at the fresh produce and the kindness of pantry workers, coupled with the reality that this food will last for three to four days.

Risking his life in a last-ditch effort to save others: Cory Deburghgraeve is a doctor in Chicago. His job of helping deliver high-risk babies quickly changed to full-time intubating covid-19 patients on the last leg of life. It's dangerous; when patients can no longer get enough oxygen on their own because of the disease, he sedates them and puts a breathing tube down their throats, inches from their mouths. For him, it’s especially dangerous because he has asthma, which puts him at higher risk of getting a severe version of covid-19.

A son comes home to his mother’s passing: Paul Swann delivers the story of his mother’s death due to covid-19 complications. Swann, who recently returned home from the military, serves as his mother’s primary caregiver in the run-up to her death in their home outside Syracuse, N.Y. It’s a heart-wrenching account of her pain and dementia-like symptoms and his struggle to keep her alive.

Guilt over a parent’s death: In Hartford, Conn., Francene Bailey falls ill with covid-19 and self-isolates in a bedroom within her multi-generational family home. Her mother later gets the disease and dies. Convinced she passed it to her mother, Bailey struggles with feelings of guilt and remorse.

Older, alone and at risk: 75-year-old Gloria Jackson self-isolates in her home in Minnesota, and talks about her feelings as being seen as disposable and in one of the highest-risk groups for death from covid-19.

If they’d seen what I saw: A New York paramedic who has responded to many calls from patients with covid-19, and so many deaths, is frustrated that people have stopped social distancing and carrying out other measures that could prevent more cases and deaths.

In front-page editorial, Louisville Courier Journal urges Beshear to order Kentuckians to wear face masks in public

In a very unusual move, the Louisville Courier Journal published a front-page editorial Wednesday asking Gov. Andy Beshear to require Kentuckians to wear masks in public places to thwart the spread of the coronavirus.

"Stop wagging your finger at the commonwealth, Gov. Beshear, urging all of us across Kentucky to please, pretty please, voluntarily wear a mask in public places," the editorial begins. "It’s time to make it mandatory. It’s time to acknowledge that we’re living in a covid-19 pandemic with no immediate promise of a vaccine; no signs of a swift end to its devastating course."

The editorial notes the record number of new cases found Tuesday and asks Beshear, "What more evidence must you be shown that it’s time for an executive order to make wearing a mask in public places a requirement? You have pointed to the fact that Kentucky remains on a 'plateau,' with new covid-19 cases ranging from around 100 to 300 a day. Tuesday’s update reveals we’re now closer to 400 cases than 300. We cannot wait until coronavirus cases are spiraling out of control as they are in some states. Look around, Governor. Kentucky is basically surrounded by states that are seeing red-hot increases."

The editorial notes public behavior: "Simply urging Kentuckians to wear face coverings is not enough. And it’s not working. Look around. It’s shocking how many people aren’t wearing masks. They aren’t wearing them in grocery stores or shopping malls or other public places. . . . Relying on Kentuckians to use their good judgment could be deadly. Too many people are putting their neighbors at risk."

Virus cases plummet in last 2 days; Beshear says will be 'really hard' to keep at 120/day; aims to get all black Kentuckians insured

Kentucky Health News chart shows the two-week trend is still up, but less steeply than last week.

As news develops about the coronavirus and its covid-19 disease, this item may be updated. Official state guidance is at kycovid19.ky.gov.

By Al Cross and Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

Gov. Andy Beshear reported Monday a marked drop in new coronavirus cases, reversing a nine-day trend of elevated case numbers.

He also announced what he said would be the first step to eliminate the health inequality among African Americans that has been "laid bare" by the pandemic, an effort to get every black Kentuckian covered by health insurance.

Beshear said only 70 new cases of the virus were reported in Kentucky on Sunday, and just 120 on Monday, with only one death each day. Sunday's number of cases was the lowest reported since Sunday, April 27, when 71 cases were reported. Sunday numbers are often lower due to limited reporting.

The two-day report followed a four-day period that had an average of 292 cases per day, which was part of a nine-day stretch with an average of 244. The increases drove up the estimated transmission rate of the virus in the state to seventh highest in the nation, by one measure.

Beshear said Kentuckians' increased number of contacts as their economy continues to reopen "is creating more cases. Now, those cases are still in a certain range that is manageable, but we will have to be watching as that continues. We still don't have enough data from the last several days to have a full conclusion."

Asked if he still feels comfortable with his strategy for reopening the state's economy, Beshear said, "I do. We are very carefully monitoring this. . . . Remember, when we had a two-week decline, it took us almost a week after that to truly see it."

He added, "I do worry that some aren't taking it a seriously as we should.  . . . We know that distance and masking work, and if people are unwilling to do those things, it makes it less safe."

Asked if he has decided that the state will have to live with a certain number of new daily cases for then foreseeable future, Beshear said it would be "really hard" to keep the number under 120 "in the near future, and as long as we are taking care of people, as long as we are protecting the long-term-care facilities, which we really need to, as long as we're ensuring there's not an outbreak like [one at a state prison], then we've got an opportunity to reopen our economy while dealing with this virus."

Among the new cases Sunday and Monday, 61 were in Louisville Metro and 48 were in Lexington. The state has had 11,476 people with the virus, 3,359 of whom have recovered and 472 of whom have died.

Noting that African Americans have accounted for 16.4 percent of the deaths, Beshear said, "Inequality here has resulted in death, and it's our job to do something about it. Let's make sure everybody has the means to see a doctor."

He said the one thing he can do immediately to address health inequality is “an effort to cover 100 percent of our individuals in our black and African American communities. Everybody. We’re going to be putting dollars behind it, we’re going to have a multifaceted campaign to do it.”

He offered few details, but suggested that the effort would look like the one that the administration of his father, Steve Beshear, conducted to sign up people for Medicaid and subsidized health insurance after expanding it under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. "The blueprints are out there on how to do it," he said. "There are multiple groups out there that have done this at different times."

About 5.8% of black Kentuckians had no health insurance in 2018, according to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. The statewide figure was 5.6%.

Beshear said two other areas for effort in the future will be quality and access. "You shouldn't have to take multiple buses to see a doctor," he said.

In other covid-19 news Monday:

Read more here: https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article243373171.html#storylink=cpy

• Since Thursday, 69 more residents and 34 employees at Kentucky long-term-care facilities have tested positive for the virus, making respective totals of 1,453 and 673. Six more resident deaths have been confirmed, for a total of 289; three employees have died of covid-19. Eleven more facilities have been added since Thursday to the list of those with at least one case.
• Health Secretary Eric Friedlander said no cases have been found in 22 percent of the 129 facilities where the state has completed testing of all residents and employees. He said about half the population has been tested, and at least half of the facilities will have been fully tested by the end of the week.
• Friedlander showed figures from a federal study showing that the national rates cases among of nursing-home resident and employees is almost double Kentucky's rate, and the rate of resident deaths is more than double. "Kentucky has done a good job, a very good job" protecting residents, he said. However, the federal agency "allows nursing homes to report only those covid-19 cases and deaths that occurred on or after May 1 – weeks after the pandemic began sweeping through nursing homes," reports Bob Seagall of WTHR in Indianapolis.
• State inspection records indicate that most Kentucky nursing homes were prepared for the pandemic after it began, Bailey Loosemore reports for the Louisville Courier Journal. "At least 154 of the state's 285 licensed nursing homes have received covid-19-focused infection-control inspections since late March, including eight facilities that have reported some of the highest numbers of cases." Only two "were cited for infection-related deficiencies," both "not properly wearing a mask." Two others received citations unrelated to the pandemic. Most covid-19 deaths in Kentucky have been of nursing-home residents.
• Asked about the recent coronavirus outbreak at Clays Mill Road Baptist Church in Jessamine County, Beshear said it should teach churches and other facilities that they "truly ready and that we take the guidance seriously" before reopening. "You ought to be asking them to wear masks, and you ought to be leading with it. You gotta make sure that you have the cleaning, that people are spaced out, that you don't just give lip service to these guidelines. . . . Put your credibility behind it."
• Lexington is going through a third round of increases in new daily coronavirus cases, but not because 10 nights of protests have spread the virus, public-health officials told the Lexington Herald-Leader. It is spreading “rapidly” in the city, local health-department spokesman Kevin Hall said, but “Based on our case investigations, the protests are not contributing to the rise in cases we’ve seen this week and the couple weeks prior.” Symptoms can appear two to 14 days after infection.
• Much of the increase is among Lexington's Hispanic and African-immigrant populations, the Herald-Leader's Beth Musgrave reports: "Approximately 17 percent of the 847 people who have tested positive for covid-19 are Hispanic, according to the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department figures. Fayette County’s population is 7% Hispanic."
• The thousands of jail inmates released to keep them from getting infected had a re-arrest rate identical to the 4.6 percent rate for jail inmates released during the same period last year, Chief Justice John Minton told a legislative committee, the Herald-Leader reports.
• Americans experienced more depression and loneliness during the early covid-19 pandemic, but those who were able to maintain frequent in-person social and sexual connections had better mental health outcomes, according to an Indiana University study. “This data reaffirms our understanding of the importance of human connection for mental health and well-being,” said the lead author, Molly Rosenberg. “It also suggests that these kinds of connections are not easily recreated with remote technology where direct touch is not possible.” The researchers don't say limits on contacts should be lifted, but call for an increase in mental-health services and better ways for interpersonal connection. 
• The state Department of Corrections says 105 of 982 inmates at the Green River Correctional Complex in Central City have not been retested for the coronavirus, almost a week after the deadline to do so, Jared Bennett reports for WFPL. Inmates have told loved ones that the facility ran out of test and do not know when more will arrive, but the department did not respond to a follow-up question about this, Bennett reports. After a spike in cases, the entire complex was tested for the virus, resulting in 363 inmates and 51 staff testing positive for the virus. The department reports that 192 inmates and 42 staff have since recovered, and three have died from it.
• A study in BMJ Open Diabetes and Research Care found that high blood sugar levels at the time of hospital admission is a good predictor of that a covid-19 patient will become critically ill or die.
• The New York Times tracks infection rates in each U.S. county over time. Here's a screenshot of the 20 counties with the most cases on its Kentucky chart as of 11 a.m. Monday:

Beshear lets restaurants reopen at 1/3 capacity May 22, though Ky. hasn't met benchmarks he set, following federal guidelines

As news develops about the coronavirus and its covid-19 disease, this item may be updated. Official state guidance is at kycovid19.ky.gov.

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

Gov. Andy Beshear moved up the date for Kentucky to begin the second phase of its reopening, announcing Thursday that Kentucky's restaurants can reopen May 22 at one-third capacity, and a goal of limited child care on June 15.

He said restaurants will be allowed unlimited outdoor seating as long as they keep tables six feet apart, the standard social-distance guideline.

"I know this isn't the capacity that our restaurants probably want, but the studies that we look at show that we've got to be really careful about this step," Beshear said at his daily briefing. "This allows it to be open for Memorial Day weekend, but please be careful. . . . This is the best compromise between public health and making sure we can restart this part of the economy."

Beshear has been under pressure from Kentucky restaurants, especially in Louisville, because Indiana has allowed its restaurants to reopen. He noted that Indiana and Tennessee have reopened restaurants, but said his conversations with Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine "were a big part of it." Ohio will open its restaurants before Kentucky does, and that would likely have brought the same sort of complaints from Northern Kentucky that have been heard in Louisville.

"We had planned it for a little bit later, but I think this is partial harm reduction," Beshear said. He also cited "the belief that those that we have worked with sincerely want to do this right and only want to re-open if they can do it right. Many will find that they won't be ready for that date. Don't rush."

He added that it's important for restaurants to meet their industry-specific guidance, which will be forthcoming, and the 10 state requirements for opening, including such things as thorough, repeated cleaning; mask-wearing; taking on-site temperature checks of employees; making sure there is adequate hand cleaning access; and having a testing plan for employees with elevated temperatures.

"These aren't easy," Beshear said, adding later, "If we're gonna do this, we're gonna do it safe."

Beshear also announced that movie theaters and fitness centers will be able to reopen June 1, campgrounds will be able to reopen June 11, and some child care with reduced capacity and potentially low-touch, outdoor youth sports on June 15. But he said that wasn't guaranteed.

“This is a goal, a goal, we are pushing for,” he said. “We want to have a safe plan for child care, knowing that it is such a challenge for folks. I will tell you that it will be significantly reduced capacity and it will be very monitored to make sure that it’s safe.”

The gradual reopening of businesses that will begin Monday has increased calls to reopen child-care centers, but Beshear has said that would be risky. Unemployed people who get called back to work but can't find child care will be allowed to keep getting unemployment benefits.

Beshear said bars and groups of 50 or more people may be able to open in July. Groups of 10 or fewer will be able to gather on May 25.

Beshear is accelerating his reopening of the state's economy, even though Kentucky hasn't met the benchmarks that he laid out about three weeks ago, Joe Sonka reports for the Louisville Courier Journal, weaving together several threads pursued by Kentucky Health News and the Lexington Herald-Leader in the last two weeks, and providing more research and analysis.

Bloomberg chart shows positive tests in red and pink,

and negative tests in grays. Flu-like illness is shown by
bars across bottom. Gray rectangle marks last two weeks.

"Covid-19 cases are not declining, testing capacity still lags behind the White House's recommendation and 500 new workers to conduct contact tracing are possibly weeks away from starting," Sonka notes, then digs into each of these measures in detail, adding two analyses that question whether Kentucky is jumping the gun: a Bloomberg analysis and a recent study by the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health & Wellness and the University of Louisville.

The study concludes that if Louisville was able to "practice stronger social-distancing strategies, we could safely open in early June. Therefore, taking new and more effective measures can make a manageable early-June opening more likely." It said "decreasing the current social-distancing measures without efforts in regard to testing, isolating, and contact tracing can move us to an unstable status which can be catastrophic."

Dr. Paul McKinney, director of U of L's Center for Health Hazards Preparedness and co-author of the study, told Sonka that Beshear’s reopening plan likely isn’t perfect, "but it's a very reasonable plan, I think, to do it in steps. . . . The good thing about the staged plan is that if you find we're going too fast, you put the brakes on there. Rather than saying 'We're closing everything down again,' no, 'We're just stopping where we are and not moving any further'."

Beshear said Thursday, "Our goal in having a gradual plan is to be able to pause. And that would be our first step. If we saw a spike, we would pause where we are. We would look at where we've seen them, what type of businesses that we have; we would try to be surgical on those areas."

The governor says another reason the state can start reopening is it will be able to test 2 percent of its population each month, as federal guidelines call for.

He spent a fair amount of time Thursday discussing the state's increased capacity for testing, saying it would soon be able to do 30,000 tests a week. So far the state has only confirmed tests of 81,391 people; Beshear said the actual number is higher, since some labs have not been reporting negative results.

Kentucky now has at least 72 covid-19 testing locations, listed on the kycovid19.ky.gov website. Beshear announced a new partnership with First Care Clinics, which can now provide tests at 13 locations across the state, seven days a week, at no cost.

"Folks, this is big news," Beshear said. "There’s now no excuse" to not get a test. "Now we all have the tools to do the right thing and protect one another."

Politics: Some think Beshear isn't moving fast enough. U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, an ophthalmologist by trade, told Louisville's WDRB-TV that the governor is “drunk with power” and the state is living under the “dictatorship of Beshear” when its economy needs to reopen completely.

Asked to reply, Beshear said, "There is still some partisanship and some politics going on right now; I'm just not doing it. . . . I look forward to getting to the day when we don’t have an emergency."

Prisons: Beshear's office said someone made a mistake by releasing a prison inmate before knowing the result of his coronavirus test, which turned out to be positive. Now Michael Gene Welch, who has no symptoms. is back at the Green River Correctional Complex for at least weeks -- until he can test negative for the virus twice in at least 24 hours, reports John Cheves of the Herald-Leader.

Welch's fiance, who picked him up and "spent hours in confined spaces with him Tuesday before returning home to her family — including her 84-year-old mother — wants to know how this went wrong," Cheves writes. Beshear spokeswoman Crystal Staley told him, "We are investigating the circumstances that led up to the release and will take any and all appropriate action.

Cheves also reports about the coronavirus outbreak at the Federal Medical Center in Lexington where local officials have said the "prison administrators have been unresponsive to questions" from both the mayor's office and the local health department and inmates tell him they are "sitting ducks."

In other covid-19 news Thursday:

• Beshear announced 208 new coronavirus cases in the state, for an adjusted total of 6,128. Counties with five or more new cases include: Jefferson, 45; Warren, 41; Fayette, 22; Daviess, 12; Kenton and Logan, nine each; Scott, eight; and Allen, six. Click here for the summary. 
• He said 356 Kentuckians are hospitalized with the disease, 199 of them in intensive care, and 2,177 have recovered. 
• Eleven more deaths were reported, raising the state's toll to 294. All were from from adjoining counties from Bowling Green to Louisville. Five were from tiny Edmonson County: two women, 80 and 97, and three men, 92, 89 and 86; a 73-year-old man from Warren County; two men in Butler County, 94 and 62; a Grayson County woman, 87; a Hardin County man, 66; and a Jefferson County man, 78.
• Beshear said eight of the deaths were in long-term-care facilities, which have lost 165 residents and two employees to covid-19. In all, 863 residents and 353 staff have tested positive for the virus, in 78 facilities. Click here for a list. 
• As of Wednesday, five facilities had 10 or more resident deaths from covid-19: Rosedale Green in Kenton County, with 20 deaths, and 63 residents and 22 staff with positive tests; Ridgewood Terrace Nursing Home in Hopkins County, with 19 deaths and 61 residents and 21 staff testing positive; Mills Health and Rehab in Graves County, 16 deaths and 65 residents and 31 positive staff; Treyton Oak Towers in Louisville, 15 deaths, 35 positive residents and 15 positive staff; and Jackson Manor in Annville, with 10 deaths, 40 positive residents and 20 positive staff. WKYT-TV reports there are now 12 deaths at Jackson Manor, owned by Signature HealthCare, the state's largest nursing-home operator. It also has Summit Manor in Columbia, which has had nine resident deaths and the only two staff deaths in the state, and 65 positive residents and 17 positive staff.
• Beshear said the Federal Emergency Management Agency will deliver a 14-day supply of personal protective gear to all certified nursing homes.
• He said the many deaths of people in long-term care may have made people think "this isn't something people of all ages can get," so he read the ages of younger people on the list of news cases: "39, 27, 36, 35, 26, 28, 38, 36, 26, 33, 32, 41, 34, 27, 25, 44, 3, 51, 39, 25, 41, 28, 25, 27, 39, 24, 29, 22, 35, 14, 15, 3, 34, 19, 28, 25, 16. So let’s make sure that we remember . . . that it’s still out there and it’s still dangerous, and misinformation can be deadly."
• Beshear announced that Kentucky will get $10.3 million for testing by 25 health centers funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration. Click here for a list. 
• He cautioned against covid-19 scammers, saying he has heard Kentuckians are getting calls threatening to disconnect utilities without immediate payment. He noted that he had issued a order prohibiting disconnections for non-payment and fees for late payments. If you suspect a scam, call the Consumer Protection Hotline at 888-432-9257 or fill out a complaint on ag.ky.gov/scams. 
• Dr. John Barton, a leading authority on high-risk obstetrics at Baptist Health in Lexington, told John Clay of the Herald-Leader that there is still much to learn about the effects of covid-19 and pregnancy, and his best advice is to use common sense. 
• UPS is giving $100,000 to the University of Louisville to fund promising research into blocking the coronavirus from infecting human cells. Mike Stunson of the Herald-Leader wrote about this research, which involves an aptamer, a synthetic DNA and originally developed as a cancer treatment, on April 22.
• Kentucky Health News has republished a column by Becky Barnes, editor of The Cynthiana Democrat, "I will wear a mask . . . for you." Barnes has worked at the paper for 44 years and in early March, when Harrison County had Kentucky's first case of covid-19, she published a special edition about it, giving information that dispelled rumors.
• The Cooperative Extension Service is providing guidelines to farmers to help them safely welcome immigrants with H-2A work visas back to their farms in the midst of the pandemic. "Producers know that if even one person in their operation contracts the virus, it could shutter their entire enterprise for at least two weeks," Katie Pratt reports for the University of Kentucky, noting that about 780 Kentucky producers hired more than 8,300 H 2-A workers in 2019. “The packets included covid-19 information and guidance, best health practices and producer guidelines, all translated into Spanish,” Beau Neal, agriculture and natural resources extension agent from Daviess County, told Pratt. “I also included some guidelines for the employers to maintain a healthy workplace environment for all H-2A employees. Doing this helps those employees and their coworkers stay safe and healthy, and to be on the same page as the producer in developing a plan moving forward to adhere to proper health guidelines in their work environment."

The story of a rumor is a cautionary tale for small towns in the time of the coronavirus

By Al Cross
Kentucky Health News

When a rumor becomes a news story, it often has a larger story to tell.

Such is the case in Grayson County, population 27,000, where local officials held a news conference to quash rumors on social media that an identified man who had tested positive for the coronavirus was not isolating himself at home, when in fact he was as soon as he got the test result.

The posts on April 11 and 12 "wrongly claimed the 52-year-old man — whose diagnosis was announced publicly the afternoon of April 11 — had been spotted throughout the county after his diagnosis," reported Rebecca Morris, editor of The Record, one of the county's two weekly newspapers.

County Judge-Executive Kevin Henderson (The Record photo) 

County Judge-Executive Kevin Henderson said at an April 13 news conference, “The Leitchfield Police Department, the sheriff’s office and health department — just about every law enforcement agency in the county was busy squashing rumors that were brought to our attention.” he said.

Morris reported, "In all, officials received between 200 and 300 complaints over the weekend, he said. Henderson said county officials had been told the man had been spotted inside Walmart and other stores. Yet when law enforcement and County Attorney Jeremy Logsdon reviewed surveillance videos Saturday and Sunday of the complaints 'all were false,' Henderson said."

“We have followed up on every call,” he said. “We’ve had people who said they saw the person out but it’s turned out to be a false report.” He added that several of the informants were asked to sign affidavits, but refused because their complaints turned out to be based on third-person information.

Not only did the man self-isolating since he got his results, he willingly gave his car keys to county officials, Henderson said. “That patient has cooperated with us 100 percent,” he said. “Quite honestly I feel sorry for him, because (he’s) received a lot of threats — just a lot of bad things happening to them right now. . . . If you want to do something for him, pray for him. Reach out to him and make sure he’s doing well. Some of your statements are pretty harsh (and) we’re better than that.”

Logsdon, the county attorney, said reports of people violating self-isolation and other rules are helpful — if they’re not false. “The audacity of some individuals in this time of crisis is mind-blowing,” he said, noting that making false reports or starting false rumors is a crime — especially when it’s done with the intent to bully or harass, The Record reported.

The episode may have been repeated in small towns across the country, and may be even likelier to be repeated as social-distancing rules are relaxed and health departments track down people who may have been exposed, and if they have, order them to self-isolate for 14 days.

Health Department Director Joshua Embry
(Photo by Matt Lasley, Grayson County News-Gazette)

Joshua Embry, the director of the Grayson County Health Department, "said there is no way to make people stay in their homes unless and until they test positive for the virus. Those who undergo covid-19 testing are encouraged to stay home until they get the results, but cannot legally be made to stay there in the absence of an executive order by Gov. Andy Beshear," Morris wrote.

"If someone tests positive, they are given an isolation order, signed by Embry representing the state, saying he or she cannot leave home. If someone is accused of breaking a self-isolation order, the health department and law enforcement will investigate the truth of the allegations, Embry said. Officials simply can’t act on hearsay, he said."

Referring to social-media criticism of local officials, Henderson said, “Please don’t beat up on our health department, please don’t beat up on our hospital — these folks are doing all they can possibly do. It’s not their fault. They are following the exact same guidelines that are sent down to us from Frankfort from the governor, and we’re trying to do the best we can.”