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NEWS
On Aug. 21, the Kentucky Supreme Court said the state’s General Assembly can limit a governor’s powers.
PHOTO: UNSPLASH
Beshear Yanks Kentucky’s School Masking Order after Recent State Supreme Court Ruling
BY ALLISON BABKA
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has rescinded a statewide order for those in schools to mask up, just weeks after putting the order into place.
The Kentucky Supreme Court shared an opinion Aug. 21 that the state’s General Assembly could limit what a governor can and cannot do on his or her own.
In practice, Beshear can no longer set a mask order for the Commonwealth, despite COVID-19 cases overwhelming Kentucky hospitals. Instead, Beshear would need to call a special session of the General Assembly to discuss and pass a new state of emergency together, and then pass orders that result from the state of emergency.
The action essentially means that public health emergencies will be mitigated by committees of legislators instead of measures put forth by medical experts such as Dr. Steven Stack, commissioner for the Kentucky Department for Public Health. Stack and other medical personnel have been appearing at COVID-19 briefings with Beshear throughout the pandemic.
Beshear signed the order requiring everyone to wear a mask when in indoor areas within all educational settings on Aug. 10, saying that masking helps slow or reduce the transmission of COVID-19 (health experts agree, with many saying that the coronavirus is increasingly becoming more airborne). Beshear was not legally required to end the school masking mandate immediately but felt it was his duty to do so, given the Kentucky Supreme Court’s decision.
“The position we put forth, I still think is right. But we lost. I lost,” Beshear said on Aug. 23. “I can still work my tail off every day with the tools that I have to protect people.”
As of press time, a mask mandate enacted by the Kentucky Board of Education remains in effect for public schools throughout the state.
Republican legislators and Catholic school advocates in Kentucky largely have been against mask mandates from Beshear — a Democrat — even as the Commonwealth suffers through another sustained COVID-19 spike. Some have pressed the legalities of Beshear’s, or any governor’s, emergency powers.
In Ohio, a similar situation unfolded earlier this year with the passing of Senate Bill 122, which blocks the Ohio Department of Health and, by extension, Gov. Mike DeWine from enacting health protocols. Until June, DeWine largely had supported protective measures such as masking, capacity limits, physical distancing and curfews, and credits those actions with slowing the spread of COVID-19 within the Buckeye State.
Kentucky remains engulfed by COVID-19
The decision to limit the governor’s executive powers comes as Kentucky is sustaining a sharp, weeks-long spike in COVID-19 cases, largely attributed to the highly transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus. As of Aug. 28, all of Kentucky’s 120 counties are labeled as being high risk by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The virus has quickly spread throughout the state with little resistance, pushing healthcare workers to the brink.
In a report released Aug. 24, state and national agencies said that Kentucky had 18,157 new COVID-19 cases as of Aug. 20 — a 9% increase over the previous week.
On the same date, the positivity rate was 13.9%, a 1.2% increase. It was 9.77% on Aug. 2 and 1.79% in June (the positivity rate is the number of people who test positive out of all coronavirus tests performed).
There also were 3,684 COVID-related hospital admissions — a 26% increase — at a rate of 30 COVID cases per 100 hospital beds. The report adds that 20% of Kentucky’s hospitals are critically short-staffed due to the virus’s hold. Beshear said on Aug. 23 that up to 11 additional hospitals are experiencing nursing shortages.
During an Aug. 23 briefing, Beshear asked medical personnel to share what’s been happening in Kentucky’s facilities, saying that many hospitals are converting spaces into Intensive Care Unit overflow and discontinuing overnight surgeries to implement “modified disaster mode.”
“In the past three weeks, we have seen the number of COVID-19 patients in our healthcare organization quadruple. We are seeing younger patients that are sicker. They are filling up our hospital beds, backing up patients in the emergency department, and we are getting to the point where it’s going to be hard to deliver emergency care to those who need it,” said Dr. Jason Smith, chief medical officer of UofL Health. “I urge everyone in Louisville and the Commonwealth, please, step up and get the vaccine for yourself, your families and the communities around you.”
Additionally, Kentucky doctors are seeing more COVID-19 in children, with pediatric cases rising 400% over the previous month. On Aug. 18, there were 1,275 new cases in Kentucky among people 18 and younger.
Earlier in August, Dr. Scottie B. Day, physician-in-chief at UK HealthCare’s Kentucky Children’s Hospital in Lexington, said that though children hadn’t been hospitalized in large numbers with the original strain of COVID-19, things are different with the Delta variant now. He said that pediatric hospitalizations have increased week over week and pediatric COVID-19 deaths are twice the number of pediatric flu deaths reported by the CDC between 2019 and 2020.
Health experts urge vaccination
Doctors and infectious disease experts continue to emphasize vaccination against COVID-19 as the main way to bring relief to hospital staff and end the pandemic.
“There’s two reasons to be vaccinated. One is to protect you, and the other is to protect people around you,” said Dr. William Melahn, chief medical officer at St. Claire HealthCare. “Let me just point out a little bit of reality: If we had another disaster happen right now — even a small one — we don’t have any reserve left. So if we had a bus accident, an influenza outbreak or anything else, I’m not sure what we would do.”
Vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson have been deemed safe, receiving emergency use authorization for people as young as 12 years old.
Pfizer received full FDA approval for adults on Aug. 23. The approval from the FDA means that the Pfizer vaccine has gone through significantly more trials and researchers have examined more data. With this approval, businesses, schools, employers and other groups can mandate vaccination more easily, with many states already requiring a variety of vaccines for residents.
Pfizer is the first company to have applied for and received full FDA approval in the United States. Moderna also has applied and is being reviewed. Johnson & Johnson says it will submit its application later this year. All vaccine manufacturers will also continue to conduct trials and seek approval for use in teens and children.
But overall, COVID-19 vaccination rates within Kentucky and throughout the United States have plateaued, starting for the most part in May and June when many states lifted public health orders such as masking and venue capacity limits.
As of Aug. 20, only 55.3% of all Kentucky residents have had at least one dose of an authorized vaccine since vaccines first became available in phases at the start of the year; just 47.2% are fully vaccinated. According to the CDC, a “fully vaccinated” person is one who is two weeks past their second dose of a two-dose vaccine (Pfizer and Moderna) or two weeks after a singledose vaccine (Johnson & Johnson).
Most counties within Kentucky show COVID-19 first-dose vaccination rates of less than 50%, and some counties such as Robertson, Hickman and Christian have rates below 30%, according to Kentucky’s coronavirus dashboard.
Scientists warn that the Delta strain is much more dangerous than the original virus. People infected with Delta carry 1,000 times more of the virus, experts say, which makes it easier to transmit among others when speaking, singing, sneezing or breathing hard, particularly within indoor areas and regions with low vaccination rates. Health experts say that Delta is more than twice as easy to spread. New studies are showing that the virus is becoming even more airborne.
Unvaccinated individuals are at the highest risk for severe infection and substantial health issues from coronavirus, experts say, though some vaccinated individuals also are becoming infected due to Delta’s highly contagious nature. COVID-19 symptoms and rates are less severe in individuals who are fully vaccinated with a Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.
Find COVID-19 information and Kentucky vaccine locations at kycovid19.ky.gov.
CITY DESK Cincinnatians Can Open Their Homes to Afghan Refugees Through Special Airbnb Program
BY MAIJA ZUMMO
Cincinnatians are ready to help refugees from the current crisis in Afghanistan in a new way.
Global rental platform Airbnb is providing free temporary housing for 20,000 Afghan refugees across the world and making it easy for anyone to open their own house to those in need.
Via its Airbnb.org nonprofit arm, the company is posting information to Airbnb.org/refugees about how to begin hosting emergency stays. Anyone can help, regardless of if they are already an Airbnb host or not. Airbnb will waive all of its fees on free or discounted rates to refugees. While Airbnb, Brian Chesky (billionaire and CEO/founder of Airbnb) and others who donated to the Airbnb.org Refugee Fund sponsored the initial temporary housing call, this new program allows anyone in any community to step up. Those who can’t open your homes to guests still can donate to help cover the costs of other stays.
Learn more at Airbnb.org/refugees.
Cincinnatians can help house Afghan refugees through Airbnb.
PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER
Cincinnati Parks Giving Away Free Trees to Help Urban Tree Canopy
BY MAIJA ZUMMO AND DANNY WICENTOWSKI
For the 33rd year, Cincinnati Parks is giving away free trees as part of its ReLeaf effort to build the city’s tree canopy. “Tree canopy” is a term used to describe how many trees and how much coverage they provide in order to offset the “impacts of air pollution, urban heat island effect, residential energy demands and stormwater management,” says Cincinnati Parks. “Just one large canopy deciduous tree, such as an oak or sycamore, can help control 400 to 1,000 gallons of stormwater through canopy interception. This benefits homeowners by adding shade, beauty, reducing soil erosion, and managing flooding from rainfall.” Cincinnati Parks’ goal is to get every neighborhood in the city to 40% canopy coverage. In 2020, it was at 38%, according to the Cincinnati Park Board’s Division of Natural Resources. Last August, the city’s Office of Environment & Sustainability evaluated Cincinnati’s trees and how their existence — or lack thereof — was affecting the heat index in area neighborhoods. The report showed just how hot things can become in the region’s “heat islands,” which, when mapped, starkly overlap with lower-income neighborhoods and areas with larger Black populations. The region’s hottest areas featured roadways “with sparse vegetation,” the report noted, while tree-shaded neighborhoods “keep neighborhoods cool during summer heatwaves and lower the risk of heat-related illness for residents.” While the Office of Environment & Sustainability’s 2020 report itself and related press briefing described the heat distribution as “inequitable” and “disproportionate,” the actual context of the imbalance is only hinted at. While tracking heat islands, the 2020 heat map was visibly similar to those that track the city’s demographics, household income and history of redlining. The neighborhoods with minimal tree canopies are the ones that Cincinnati Parks is first highlighting in its 2021 tree giveaway. Residents in Mount Adams (31% canopy); Walnut Hills (33%); East End (30%); Avondale (37%); Lower Price Hill (20%); Queensgate (10%); West End (14%); Over-the-Rhine (13%); Downtown (7%); Corryville (14%); Pendleton (12%); Camp Washington (8%); Carthage (33%); Hartwell (37%); Roselawn (26%); Bond Hill (25%); Madisonville (36%); Oakley (26%); Evanston (31%); and Linwood (28%)
An Eastern Redbud in Cincinnati PHOTO: GREG HUME have been able to request a free tree to plant in their yard since Aug. 21. Applications for all other Cincinnati residents open at 8 a.m. Sept. 4. Planting must follow specific guidelines. Cincinnati Parks says it is ideal to place a tree in your backyard as well as “in community entryways, street triangles, areas near street intersections and public frontages along major streets.” Trees available this year — via a partnership with MadTree Brewing, Macy’s and Cincinnati Parks Foundation — include the Eastern Redbud, Sugarberry, Tuliptree, Swamp White Oak, Baldcypress, Red Maple, Allegheny Serviceberry, Pawpaw and Blue Beech.
For more info on Cincinnati Parks’ ReLeaf project or to request a free tree, visit cincinnatiparks.com.
