The morning meeting with Al Tompkins is a daily report by Poynter on story concepts and other contexts timely to journalists, written by senior professor Al Tompkins. Check in here to have it delivered to your inbox every morning of the week.
In a Bay Area community, indoor mask orders are back as COVID-19 cases skyrocket. But the CDC hasn’t said much about mask orders or even recommendations, even though only about three hundred counties — 14 percent of the U. S. population — have been in the U. S. population. U. S. Department: You now live in the CDC’s “high” infection category. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said, “This is something we’re active in at CDC. In the meantime, what I mean is that you don’t have to wait for the CDC to put on a mask.
The Wall Street Journal said: Santa Clara moved Thursday to what the CDC considers the focal point of the COVID-19 network, based on data on cases and hospitalizations, meaning the firm says other people wear masks in enclosed public places. Just like Los Angeles County, the largest in the country.
You can see from the CDC’s most recent map that major COVID outbreaks are stretching from coast to coast.
(CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION)
CBS reported:
According to the agency’s weekly update, 13. 7% of Americans in communities now rank as “high” levels of the COVID-19 network, up from 4. 9% of the population last week. Another 38. 1% of Americans are in “medium” spaces and 48. 2% in “low” spaces.
More than 10 counties with more than one million inhabitants are now at this “high” level:
New York Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett and Education Commissioner Betty Rosa issued a letter saying schools deserve to encourage students and teachers to wear masks again. The letter read:
The number of laboratory-confirmed flu cases has nearly tripled in the past 3 weeks, and flu hospitalizations have more than doubled. one of the leading causes of death in the United States. In response, we are calling for a community approach, adding schools, to take precautions this holiday and winter season that can prevent the spread of respiratory viruses and young children, the elderly, and those with underlying physical conditions.
The most recent outbreak of COVID-19 is worrisome because one of the variants in the stream escapes immunotherapy drugs so well that the FDA has stopped approving antibody treatment for patients.
And it turns out Americans have slowed down booster shots even more. CDC figures show that the average speed of newly administered COVID boosters has now decreased 66% since its peak in mid-October.
Read more:
ABC News: Hospitals at capacity with flu, RSV, COVID
San Francisco Chronicle: Bay Area County Movies at the Top of the Range
France24: Cases rise after China relaxes COVID restrictions
Palm Beach Post: COVID and flying are spreading across Florida
Kansas City Star: Kansas and Missouri Hospitals Close to Capacity
Nearly 30,000 other people recently hospitalized in the U. S. U. S. They have tested positive for COVID-19, which since Thanksgiving, the COVID-19 positivity rate has exceeded 30%.
Four strains of the COVID-19 virus are spreading in the U. S. The chart is straight this week.
(CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION)
Political reports:
“The scenario in hospitals is bleak,” said David Scrase, secretary of the New Mexico Department of Health and Human Services. about having access to vaccines and also treatments, if you test positive for coronavirus. “
Just over thirteen percent of Americans over the age of five have gotten their updated booster shot since its launch in September, adding up to about one-third of seniors, the organization’s likely maximum of hospitalization, according to the CDC. nursing home cases have also increased by more than 30% since Thanksgiving.
It makes sense that when hospitals are with COVID-19 cases, home births increase. And they did. While home births still account for less than 2% of all births, the CDC states:
The percentage of home births in the United States increased from 1. 26% (45,646) in 2020 to 1. 41% (51,642) in 2021, an increase of 12% and the point since at least 1990. Increases ranging from 10% to 21% were seen for the 3 largest racial and Hispanic groups. The percentage of home births for all women increased between 2020 and 2021 for a maximum of months, peaking in January 2021 at 1. 51%.
(CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION)
These CDC maps show where the major occurred:
(CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION)
The Washington, D. C. City Council just approved single bus rides, and if the mayor (which is still uncertain), the district will enroll in a small and developing number of cities that will offer no-fare rides. Axios has compiled a story about the movement that is not yet a trend but will be attractive to follow.
If Washington relaxes, Alexandria, Virginia, whose DASH bus network brought loose service last year, and Kansas City, Missouri, which began offering “zero-fare” bus rides in 2020.
Kansas City delights in wonderful success.
In a recent survey of riders, nearly 90% “said they used buses more thanks to fare 0,” Next City reports.
“About 92% said it allowed them to buy food more often; 88% said they might see their physical care providers more easily or more often; 82% said it helped them get or keep a job.
From snowstorms to floods and tornadoes, nearly every region of America will revel in extreme weather this week. A winter typhoon is moving through the upper states, while the southern U. S. is moving through the upper states. The U. S. will again face tornado threats on Tuesday. As the formula moves east, it will bring snow and rain along the way. And in the back, some of the tornadoes can form after sunset, making them harmful and difficult to detect.
The host of the 2030 Winter Olympics has yet to be named because the International Olympic Committee fears that, due to climate change, some cities will not be bloodless enough. Salt Lake City, Sapporo, Japan and Vancouver, British Columbia are all options. However, the IOC can now ask potential host cities to find that potential cities competing with snow have had average to low temperatures in sub-zero February over the past decade.
Clark Merrefield is back with a report in the Shorenstein Center on Media’s Resources for Journalists, complete with concepts drawn from the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book. The Beige Book is a fantastic, underutilized resource that collects data from the 12 Federal Reserve banks across the country. The kind of information that gives you a high-level review of economic trends and a fundamental review of what some corporations are doing in those days.
Clark sent Morning Meeting readers those examples:
Idea for history: With restaurants facing “a further decline in profits due to higher credit card fees,” which were announced earlier in the year, how did local businesses respond in dominating their policy?Did they pass those prices on to consumers or are they opting for To absorb higher rates to a drop in sales?Did other types of restaurants, for example, casual rather than upscale, react differently?
Story tip: Applications have more for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the federal program that helps eligible families supplement their food budgets, “but staff shortages have made it difficult to process those applications. “How has the labor shortage, which has affected employers of all kinds over the past year, affected the delivery of important items for low-income families in District 2?
Story Idea: Use your knowledge of the types of calls to 211, a number anyone can call to connect to the net across the country, to sense the pressing desires of other people in your political area. In District 3, those calls were most commonly for assistance with housing issues, according to the Beige Book. Of the 31% of similar calls for housing assistance, 42% were for rental assistance, “as landlords continue to increase hiring. “
Idea for history: Nonprofit developers reported that the source of housing for low-income Americans would decline due to overall construction and labor costs. A structural touch in Ohio indicated fewer homes will be built in the coming months, not only because of higher costs, but because of “unpredictable costs. “
Idea for history: In recent weeks, in District 5, there was strong demand for high-end workplaces, “especially in suburban markets, as corporations paid to move to better workplaces to convince workers to return to the workplace. “What are the workplace incentives offered by employers?Do you want coffee makers?Decorative water games?On-site babysitting?Are these incentives enough to convince telecommuters to resume their commuting?
Story Tip: In District 6, it’s worth exploring an angle of the shortage of hard work: the lack of affordable child care and public transportation, “especially in rural areas. “These disorders “have worsened since the pandemic” and prevent other people from having jobs.
Clark has a lot of ideas. Go get them here.
The Beige Book is so called because, you know, it’s beige.
The New York Times reports the story of how thousands of top academics from across the country found themselves enrolled in military education courses they didn’t enroll in:
A review of JROTC enrollment knowledge collected from more than two hundred public records requests showed that dozens of schools made the program mandatory or directed more than 75% of students in a single grade into classrooms, adding schools in Detroit , Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Oklahoma City and Mobile. Alabama. A large majority of the schools with those higher enrollment numbers were served by a large proportion of non-white scholars and from low-income households, the Times found.
An imaginable motivation for this is money.
Schools also have a monetary incentive to push students into the program. The military subsidizes instructors’ salaries while requiring schools to maintain a secure enrollment point in order to carry out the program. In states that have J. R. O. T. C. legal. Upon graduation, some schools appear to have accumulated money during the course as an option to hire more teachers in subjects such as physical education or wellness.
There is so much discouraging news that we take the opportunity to thank the occasional encouraging developments. Ethiopia has ended a two-year war that is possibly coming to an end. The Ethiopian government and Tigrayan forces are eager to end the fighting, and a ceasefire remains in place so far. The fighting has killed thousands, displaced millions, and left many thousands facing starvation. The ceasefire allowed for the first life-saving relief shipments in the country.