Not Remotely Ready
January 28, 2021
The Good News
- Mark Cuban launches generic drug company (Beckers)
- Bernie Sanders’ mittens, memes help raise $1.8M for charity (AP)
“Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” — John Dewey
Are Teachers Ready For In-Person Instruction? Not Remotely.
(Max Herman via Getty Images)
Education — including how to safely reopen America’s schools — will command much more attention in the Biden administration. First Lady Dr. Jill Biden has been an educator for over 45 years, and now she has a national platform. Dr. Biden announced what her first initiative would be even before moving into the White House. But the country remains in the throes of a raging pandemic, which brings us to the mishigas surrounding the reopening of our nation’s schools.
It’s been over 10 months since Covid-19 shut down schools for 50 million students nationwide. Since then attempts by school districts everywhere to return to in-person learning have been a nightmarish hodgepodge. Many schools forced to reopen closed again after coronavirus cases spiked. Hardest hit were schools least able to afford stringent safety precautions — those in low-income, marginalized communities.
Across the country, battles over safety conditions for reopening schools have pit teacher unions against district officials. The Chicago Teachers Union represents 25,000 public school educators. It’s been locked in negotiations with Chicago Public Schools for months over a plan to gradually reopen schools for the system’s 355,000 mostly Black and brown students. On Sunday, 71% of the rank-and-file union members voted to remain teaching remotely until a stronger health and safety agreement is reached. Regardless, the district ordered some 10,000 teachers to return to the classroom next Wednesday.
President Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos, declined to have her agency collect any national data on the number of coronavirus cases or outbreaks in schools, making it difficult to appropriately trace, isolate, or even understand the impact of school openings on the course of the pandemic, or the efficacy of various safety protocols.
President Biden called reopening schools a “national emergency,” and instructed federal agencies to begin collecting that data. It was just one of several executive actions related to education that he took last week, including one to fully reimburse schools for more PPE and another to expand testing and vaccine availability for teachers.
Data collected by Burbio, Apple’s digital master community calendar platform, estimates that as of late January, only 58% of students nationwide were in districts with at least some in-person learning. Biden said he wants to see most US K-12 schools open by April. It will be challenging, but there is emerging scientific consensus that given the right precautions schools can be safe, even when community spread is high. (MSN, NPR, Reuters)
AstraZeneca Disses EU When Doling Out Doses
(Andrew Aitchison via Getty Images)
- The EU is furious over reports that the UK/Swedish pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca would only be supplying 40% of its UK-manufactured vaccine doses it had promised to deliver to the bloc for January-March 2021.
- AstraZeneca blames the shortage on production issues at two EU plants, one in the Netherlands and one in Belgium, but the EU maintains that doses made in UK facilities should make up the shortfall. The EU says the contract it signed with the pharmaceutical giant in August for 300 million doses, with an option for 100 million more, clearly stipulates that the two main vaccine production factories in the UK are the primary manufacturing sites, and those in Belgium and the Netherlands are secondary.
- Furthermore, EU officials say EU money went into upgrading the facilities in the UK and that they fully expected it to be operational for them. Italy is among others in the 27-nation bloc threatening to sue over the delays, and the EU is threatening to restrict exports of vaccines made within the bloc. (BBC)
Rebels And Government Both Thirsty For All The Yemen Aid
- Yemen’s six-year civil war, between a US-backed Arab coalition supporting the internationally recognized government and the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels, has been catastrophic. More than 112,000 people have been killed, the infrastructure is wrecked, and the country is on the brink of famine. It is among the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.
- But a new report from a UN panel of experts says economic profiteering is fuelling war. The report estimates Houthi rebels diverted at least $1.8 billion in 2019 earmarked for the government to pay salaries and provide basic services to citizens. Meanwhile, the government implemented a scheme to illegally divert $423 million of Saudi money earmarked to buy rice and other commodities for the Yemeni people.
- The experts concluded that both the Houthis and the government are continuing to redirect the country’s economic and financial resources, and “appear to be indifferent” to the devastating effect it’s having on the people. (Al Jazeera)
Additional World News
- Israel military revising operational plans against Iran: General (Al Jazeera)
- UN global climate poll: ‘The people’s voice is clear – they want action’ (Guardian). First the Blue wave, soon a green one.
- Hungary, Ukraine top diplomats aim to defuse dispute over minority rights (Reuters)
- Turkey Offers Uncertain Refuge for Iranians Fleeing Persecution (NYT, $). Between a rock and hard place.
- On Holocaust Remembrance Day, Pope warns against new nationalism (Reuters)
- Government lawyer tells court M15 officers could authorize murder (Guardian)
- Nepal kicks off coronavirus inoculations with Indian vaccine (Reuters)
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The Purge: Anarchy… But Not The Movie
- In August, Republican officials in Ohio released a list of nearly 116,000 people they expected to purge from voter rolls after the November election because election officials in each of Ohio’s 88 counties had flagged them as “inactive.” Then 10,000 of those “flagged” voters went to the polls and cast ballots in the election.
- Voting rights advocates argue Ohio’s process essentially removes people from the rolls because they don’t vote, which is prohibited under federal law and is more likely to target minorities and the poor. Federal law requires states to regularly review their voter lists for ineligible voters, but Ohio has one of the most aggressive processes in the US for canceling registrations.
- A voter can be removed from the rolls if they don’t vote or undertake any political activity for six consecutive years, and fail to respond to a mailer asking to confirm their address after the first two years. The executive director of Ohio’s chapter of the League of Women Voters said the 10,000 people who voted means “there’s probably many more” who are still living and haven’t moved, but who’ve been removed from the rolls.
- Even so, the US Supreme Court upheld Ohio’s process in a 5-4 decision in 2018. (Guardian)
Listening, But Not Hearing
- The slogan “Defund the Police,” which Black Lives Matter demonstrators chanted last year while protesting the police killing of George Floyd, was used by opponents to castigate the racial justice movement and scare ordinary citizens.
- What some — though not all — supporters were calling for was the reallocation of many, or at least some, of a police department’s resources and responsibilities to non-policing forms of public safety and community support — like social services, youth services, housing, education, healthcare, and other community needs. (Others advocated, more radically, for abolition.)
- Over the Summer, Boston University conducted a nationwide survey of mayors who lead cities with more than 75,000 residents. Most of the 130 mayors who responded to the Menino Survey of Mayors, just released, said the racial justice protests were a force for good in their cities. However, a full 80% said they believed their police budgets last year were “about right,” and they did not support sweeping changes to the funding of their police departments. (NPR)
Additional USA News
- Biden Climate Orders Include Pause On Oil Leasing On Public Lands (NPR)
- Proud Boys leader was ‘prolific’ informer for law enforcement (Reuters). This Boy wasn’t too Proud to rat.
- The Reality Behind Biden’s Plan to Legalize 11 Million Immigrants (NYT, $). ‘Nobody knew immigration could be so complicated.’
- US private prison revenue under pressure from new Biden rules (Reuters)
- Boost for Trump as 45 Republican senators vote to dismiss impeachment (Guardian)
- Biden to place environmental justice at center of sweeping climate plan (WaPo, $)
- Recycling in America Is a Mess. A New Bill Could Clean It Up. (NYT, $)
- Biden rescinds ‘zero tolerance’ policy but judge blocks halt to deportations (Guardian). How intolerant of him.
Drilling Platforms Are Becoming Reefs, And Drilling Companies Don’t Mind Atoll
- There are over 12,000 offshore oil and gas platforms around the world, draining reservoirs of fossil fuels from below the sea. But as reserves run out, and too little fuel is being extracted to be profitable for operators, the question arises: what’s to be done with these enormous, now-defunct eyesores? Here’s something the US has been doing for almost four decades that marine scientists would like to see replicated in other parts of the world — transforming the rigs into artificial reefs.
- The National Fishing Enhancement Act of 1984 recognized the benefits artificial reefs provide, and encouraged states to draw up plans to turn defunct rigs into reefs. The five coastal states on the Gulf of Mexico – Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas – all have rigs-to-reefs programs. When oil companies cease drilling in these states, they decommission their platform by sealing the oil well. Then they can either choose to remove the entire platform or convert it into a reef by removing just the upper section of the structure.
- Reefing a platform is good for oil and gas companies because it’s significantly less expensive than total removal, saving the industry millions of dollars each year. The state benefits because half the companies’ decommissioning savings go to the state’s artificial reef program, which is then used for maintaining the underwater platforms, marine conservation, and education.
- So far more than 500 of these oil and gas platforms have been converted into artificial reefs. The conservation effort is so successful — with such an abundance of marine life present — that the platforms in the Gulf of Mexico have become hotspots for diving, snorkeling, and recreational fishing. (BBC)
Additional Reads
- New VA Program Investigates Outdoor Therapy For Veterans (NPR)
- Indonesia’s Most Active Volcano Erupts (NPR). The country’s most passive volcano wasn’t in the mood this week.
- How Mount Pleasant quietly became a national model for resisting gentrification (WaPo, $). It takes more than just banning CBD coffee joints
- Napoleon’s manuscript on victory at Battle of Austerlitz goes on sale (Guardian)
- Nia Dennis: US gymnast’s ‘black excellence’ routine goes viral (BBC)
- From ancient Egypt to Cardi B: a cultural history of the manicure (Guardian)