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EDITORIAL: The appliance wars and government overreach

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OPINION:

When a blue jurisdiction (state or local) obsesses about what kind of appliances you have, they have pretty much raised the white flag on their day job. They can’t or won’t address crime, education, homelessness etc., so they make decisions about whether you can have gas stoves or gas water heaters in your home — decisions that rightly belong to homebuyers, home builders and homeowners.

Whether it is to distract, to satisfy their urge to make decisions for others or to virtue signal, it is an acknowledgment that they have failed.

It brings us directly to the question of who should make decisions about your new house and what kinds of appliances are in it. What authority does the government have to restrict personal choice in this arena?

Recently, state and local governments have used their police power to impose restrictions for the public good, like mask mandates. As recognized in Jacobson v. Massachusetts, “there are manifold restraints to which every person is necessarily subject for the common good.” While the “common good” is left undefined, it is most often centered around public safety, public health, morality, peace and quiet, law and order.

However, some states — like California and Massachusetts — have expanded the reach of police powers to things as different as aesthetics for telecom installations or betting on greyhound races. So, it is not a surprise that these states (and their local jurisdictions) are trying to use police powers to achieve climate change goals.

The tip of this particular spear is local bans on natural gas appliances. Where states or cities can’t lawfully ban natural gas connections, they cleverly (and often out of the public purview) alter the building codes to prohibit the service of natural gas.

In short, these municipalities — like Berkeley, California — are taking the ability of their citizens to choose what appliances they can have in their homes and businesses.

Like other municipalities enmeshed in this misguided effort, Berkeley sought to pass its own legislation because the federal government was not moving fast enough. Recognizing that they could not ban gas appliances without running afoul of federal and California state law, the city simply banned the gas piping needed for the appliances. While an interesting legal end run, it abuses the locality’s police powers.

Congress has wisely chosen not to pursue Team Biden’s aggressive climate change agenda. You’ll be shocked to learn that hasn’t slowed the bureaucracy at all. Last July, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm urged “state and local officials to step up” because they “are the only ones who can adopt and implement smart and ambitious building codes.”

Federal bureaucrats are active participants in debunked scare tactics regarding indoor air quality and supposed linkages between your gas stove and global climate change.

When governments are reduced to making decisions about appliances that you can have in your home, when they show complete disregard for the energy bills people pay (natural gas is much cheaper than alternatives), and when the federal bureaucracy is in on the game, you have to think it is just a matter of time before they meet resistance from consumers and voters.

The questions remain. Why are local and state governments dictating what appliances citizens can buy? Why can’t we make those decisions for ourselves? At what point do citizens decide that enough is enough?

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burhanpur: Dhar, Burhanpur Declared As Drinking Water Scarce Areas | Indore News

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INDORE: Summer is yet to knock the doors, but many parts of Nimar region have started facing water crisis. Dhar and Burhanpur districts have been declared as drinking water scarce areas until June 30 or till receiving sufficient rains. Bracing itself for the drinking water crisis in the summer, Dhar and Burhanpur district administration has also ordered different measures.
All 13 development blocks and as many as 802 villages of Dhar are fluorosis-affected while availability of clean drinking water to meet the demand is already a challenge in the district. With the collector Pankaj Jain declaring Dhar as a drinking water scarce area, local administration has put a ban on using water of different sources including tube wells, rivers, dams, canals, streams, springs, lakes, reservoirs, and wells for irrigation, industrial and such other purposes.
According to the collector, water sources can be acquired for maintaining the availability of drinking water in the affected area while tube well/borewell mining in the water scarcity area has been prohibited for any purpose without the permission of the authorized officer.
On proving violation of the said order, there is a provision of punishment including imprisonment of two years or fine or both under section 9 of Madhya Pradesh Peya Jal Praikshan Adhiniyam, 1986.
On Saturday, Dhar collector reviewed different works proposed and being carried out under ‘Jal Jeevan Mission’ and ‘Jal Nigam’ and instructed the officials concerned to speed up the same. He also ordered to lodge an FIR against the contractors, who fail to start/complete the assigned work in the given deadline.
Situation is however better in Burhanpur, where collector Praveen Singh has put a ban on digging tube-wells without permission of the officials concerned.
“A pipeline is being laid from Tapti River to supply tap water to all around 40,000 households under Burhanpur municipal corporation. Testing of the same is scheduled in May this year” Singh told TOI, adding that Burhanpur is expected resolve drinking water crisis in months.
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Why has air quality been sidelined in the fight against COVID?

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Why did it take so long for COVID to be recognised as an airborne disease?

CREDIT: This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared on The BMJ

The world is finally coming to terms with the realisation that transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is airborne. First came the modelling studies, sizing up airborne particles, their trajectories, and viral load; then came examples from the real world, filling the gaps in the models and confirming that the pandemic virus is chiefly spread through tiny, aerosolised, respiratory particles.

Trying to validate this by detecting live virus, however, is fraught with technical difficulties – hence, the frenetic attempts at measuring the quantity of infectious virus in breath, as well as revisiting knowledge on ventilation sciences. Although keeping your distance, wearing a mask and getting vaccinated have provided much protection, one intervention that would have a significant impact is adequate indoor ventilation.

Healthcare, homes, schools, and workplaces should have been encouraged to improve ventilation at the very beginning of the pandemic, but tardy recognition of the airborne route by leading authorities in 2020 stalled any progress that could have been made at that stage. This was compounded by controversies over the terms ‘droplet’ and ‘aerosol’ as the definition of these dictates different infection prevention strategies, including type of mask.

Inserting the term ‘ventilation’ into a COVID-19 policy document might appease readers, but ensuring people get enough fresh air in indoor environments seems to have fallen by the wayside. Why is this? Can we establish the reasons for this, seemingly lethargic, response to improving indoor air quality?

In order to answer, it is imperative to understand three fundamental principles of infection prevention and control. Firstly, most pathogens are invisible, secondly, you know the system has failed only when there is an outbreak and, finally, you cannot always identify a specific cause, making it difficult to implement the most appropriate intervention. Infection control relies on a bundle of measures that are assumed to cover most transmission routes, explaining initial misguided emphasis on droplets and surface risk, rather than unconstrained aerosol.

Nebulous air

Common sense dictates so much of what is done for infection control, since most funding bodies consistently prioritise the most immediate, urgent, or commercially beneficial societal problems. Furthermore, current guidelines tend to focus on solid bodies, such as people, surfaces – both hard and soft, equipment and water. Air is, literally, nebulous. Just as cleaning was the Cinderella of infection control during the past decade or so (methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus sorted that out), we must now confront the neglected, but substantive, role of air in transmitting infection. It is fair to say that air could be the final medium to define and standardise within the infection control itinerary.

Another major compelling reason that air quality has been side lined is cost. Most buildings are neither designed nor well operated from the air quality aspect, with energy conservation and thermal comfort at the top of the list of requirements. Pumping in adequate amounts of fresh outside air, however engineered, will challenge running costs as well as carbon status. 

Outdoor air generally differs from indoor air in terms of temperature and humidity, and conditioning outdoor air needs significant energy. While evolving green technologies might be able to offset some of these increased energy requirements, any revision or upgrade of existing systems is a big undertaking – and enormously expensive. Additionally, ventilation is usually controlled by building operators and owners, not necessarily individuals, and the former are not yet mandated by law to improve ventilation in public venues.

Ventilation and air cleaning systems are noisy, drafty and require fine tuning and regular maintenance. Even simple window opening invites discussion over chill, airflow, and security. There are some standards for indoor air quality, notably through proffered air changes, but these, chiefly, concern specialist healthcare environments such as operating theatres. Indeed, existing ventilation standards hardly consider the risk of airborne infection in non-specialist public spaces at all.

Miasmic uncertainty

So where are we now with indoor air quality? Clearly, better ventilation requires planning and investment, but who is going to ensure this, and how should it be done? Upgrading internal air quality for billions of indoor environments in the world needs solid research, funding, and mandated standards; those that we currently have are variable or are applied inconsistently. We have established public health strategies for foods and water and even pollution, but air quality inside most public venues in our communities resembles nothing more than miasmic uncertainty.

As with all major shifts in scientific understanding, tackling the final medium requires courage, investment and political support for both scientists and policy makers. The same applies to business and industry, which are already producing a range of air cleaning technologies and equipment.

We cannot ignore airborne transmission any longer, however difficult or costly it may be to control. It is time to accept the fact that most people acquire SARS-CoV-2 by breathing in contaminated air. Window opening is a start, but it is not a panacea for COVID-19 or, for that matter, any other airborne viruses in the 21st century.

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Millions of dollars spent upgrading air quality during COVID-19

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Mar. 6—The air-borne, contagious nature of COVID-19 has seen southwest Ohio schools focusing on improving building air quality not only for this pandemic but for those possible in the future.

Schools in the northern Cincinnati and Greater Dayton areas have been collectively spending millions of dollars — much of it from federal COVID-19 relief money — on improving air quality since the months following the onset of the pandemic in March 2020.

Overall, Ohio school districts plan to spend about $500 million of the state’s total $6.5 billion in federal COVID money to upgrade ventilation systems, said Mandy Minick, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Education.

The motivations are tied to pandemic prevention measures painfully learned two centuries ago.

In the 1800s when London tamped down a cholera outbreak, a bacterial disease usually spread in water, it did so by upgrading its sewer system.

Similarly, some of the world’s top building scientists are now arguing that ventilation and filtration system upgrades are necessary to cut down now on airborne diseases like COVID-19 and perhaps others in coming years.

In an editorial published last year in the academic journal Science, these experts called for a radical shift in our thinking: “Building ventilation systems must get much better,” they wrote.

Bryan Schenk, the healthy building leader at Waibel Energy Systems, pointed out that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ranks indoor air quality as one of the top five most urgent environmental risks to public health, and not just because of COVID-19.

Schenk said the pandemic has simply brought attention to indoor air quality from outside the building industry. On top of fostering occupants’ health, increasing a building’s clean air can boost productivity and focus.

“In schools, that means improved performance on tests and other screenings for students, as well as increased attendance,” Schenk said. “For teachers, that means improved performance and the ability for students to stay engaged with lessons for longer periods. In an office setting, that means improved productivity throughout the workday.”

Story continues

Many of the public school systems in Butler and Warren counties have newer buildings, such as Fairfield Schools, which in 2017 opened three new schools simultaneously, all featuring state-of-the-art heating, ventilation and air condition systems.

For Fairfield and other districts such as Talawanda and Middletown — with a new middle school and two renovated schools — improving air quality was largely a matter of upgrading air filters and adjusting newer air flow systems to bring in more fresh air to buildings.

“We have not upgraded our HVAC systems, the increase air flow was accomplished by increasing outside air fans to run 24 hours a day,” said Gina Gentry-Fletcher, spokeswoman for the 10,000-student Fairfield Schools.

Fairfield Schools have spent approximately $51,614 in advanced air filters since July 2020.

At Talawanda Schools, Treasurer Shaunna Tafelski said the district is using federal ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) monies for “upgrades at Talawanda Middle School currently for HVAC, improvement of air quality etc.”

Tafelski said due to the school’s age it “qualifies it to allow Talawanda to use ESSER funds,” which are estimated to total $600,000.

And planned window replacements at the middle school are projected to cost about $188,000, also covered by ESSER funds, she said.

Elizabeth Beadle, spokeswoman for the 6,300-student Middletown Schools, said federal COVID-19 school relief funds have also been used to upgrade air quality in some of schools.

“We installed a bi-polar ionization air cleaning system in all of the primary air handlers at Rosa Parks Elementary as a component of the building addition in the summer of 2021 using ESSER funding,” said Beadle.

“The project was completed in early September and it was designed as a pilot to determine if it would be an effective additional layer of protection to traditional media filtration already in place in the building HVAC system,” she said.

A century ago, it was standard practice to circulate more outdoor air in buildings to fight airborne infections, said William Bahnfleth, an architectural engineering professor at Pennsylvania State University, chair of the ASHRAE Epidemic Task Force and a signatory on the Science editorial.

“At some point, we assumed that medicine could pretty much take care of infectious diseases. You could be vaccinated against some of the worst things,” Bahnfleth said. “After the pandemic, we need to rethink and do something about addressing infection and risk mitigation with new (air) quality standards.”

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NGOs, civil society groups call for banning use of plastic in Rohingya camps

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Local NGOs and civil society groups in Cox’s Bazar have called for banning use of plastic in the Rohingya camps.

At a press virtual press conference today, Cox’s Bazar Civil Society and NGO Forum (CCNF), a network of local NGOs and CSOs, said authorities should prioritize restoring the environment that is facing degradation due to excessive use of plastic and extraction of underground water in the camps.

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Some one million Rohingyas live in the camps, and since the biggest influx in 2017, large parts of the forest and hills in Ukhiya and Teknaf were destroyed.

Nazrul Islam of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolan said excessive plastic use and groundwater extraction in the overcrowded camps are becoming major threats to the environment.

The NGOs should be creative in innovating alternatives to plastic use, he said. He also suggested preserving surface water to reduce dependence on groundwater.

Nazrul Islam also suggested bringing water from the Naf river and setting up water treatment plant for purification and drinking.

Rezaul Karim Chowdhury of COAST Foundation demanded partnership policies from international actors for sustainable local civil society building in Cox’s Bazar, instead of the UN and international NGOs reigning in the management of humanitarian assistance to the Rohingyas.

“The partnership policy should be practiced in a transparent manner without conflict of interest,” he said, adding that local NGOs should be informed of their weaknesses if they are not selected as a partner.

Hamidul Haque Chowdhury, chairman of Ukhiya, demanded that all humanitarian agencies ensure participation of local government leaders during project preparation and implementation.

He expressed concern over terminating a higher number of local people from the jobs by humanitarian agencies.

Hamidul Haque urged for special parliamentary focus on Rohingya response management.

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Water in mobile home park near Muscatine has state’s highest ‘forever chemicals’

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The drinking water of a mobile home park near Muscatine that serves about 100 people contains the highest concentrations of toxic chemicals that persist indefinitely in the environment that have been detected so far by a new state survey.

The water of Kammerer Mobile Home Park, which is just south of Muscatine in a low-lying area near the Mississippi River, is contaminated with trace amounts of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances — commonly known as PFAS or “forever chemicals” — according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

The Iowa DNR’s tests of dozens of community drinking water supplies across the state have found detectable amounts of the chemicals in 10 of those water sources so far, but none have been as high as Kammerer’s.

That water had a combined concentration of the two most-studied PFAS of 29 parts per trillion. That’s less than half of the current federal safety threshold of 70 parts per trillion — which is under review and is likely to be revised downward — but it exceeds the safety levels established by several states.

It’s unclear whether any of the mobile home park’s residents are aware of the situation.

“They didn’t exceed anything with the (federal) health advisory — that’s the point at which we would require a public water supply to notify their customers,” said Roger Bruner, supervisor of the Iowa DNR’s water quality bureau that is conducting the statewide survey.

The owner of the mobile home park, Tim McCleary, did not respond to a request to comment for this article.

Iowa DNR records show the park draws water from a 140-feet-deep well that is highly susceptible to surface contamination because of the porous sediment in the area. There are a number of industrial sites nearby and an airport. Firefighting foams that contain PFAS, which have been used at airports, have been prime sources of contamination in other areas of the state.

Bruner said the precise source of contamination of the Kammerer drinking water is unclear because the state’s testing program is not designed to identify it.

“That would take quite a robust site investigation,” he said.

Other state tests have shown that the drinking water of several Mississippi River towns have PFAS, and that the river itself is contaminated.

Studies have shown that PFAS — used to make non-stick and stain-resistant products, among others — can accumulate in people’s bodies over time and are tied to a number of ailments, including cancers, liver damage, immunodeficiencies and abnormal infant and childhood development, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Bruner said more drinking water systems in Iowa will be tested by the Iowa DNR this year.

This article first appeared in the Iowa Capital Dispatch.

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Wikwemikong Nursing Home COVID-19 outbreak ended

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Resident Rita Wemigwans gets her COVID-19 vaccine.

WIIKWEMKOONG—The COVID-19 outbreak at the Wikwemikong Nursing Home is now over.

“We declared the outbreak over on Tuesday, February 22, after about three weeks,” stated Cheryl Osawabine-Peltier, administrator of the nursing home, late last week. “When the outbreak was first declared, public health had said to expect that it would be in place for about three weeks.”

Ms. Osawabine-Peltier told The Expositor that during the time the outbreak was declared, “all of our residents, except for one, tested positive (for COVID).” In total, 17 staff had tested positive over the course of the outbreak.

A release from the Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory (WUT) pandemic response team, dated February 23 states that council approved their recommendations from the pandemic response team. “We are pleased to inform the community of good news. The outbreak at the Wikwemikong Nursing Home has been declared over as of February 22. Along with this news and after careful consideration with the support of the pandemic response team and Naandwechige-Gamig Wikwemikong Health Centre, Wiikwemkoong will no longer be considered in an outbreak. This allows us to move into step two of the WUT easing of restrictions plan, effective February 22. Additionally, as of March 1, we will no longer require proof of vaccination for all settings, including programming, events and activities within Wiikwemkoong.”

“The term ‘outbreak’ has caused notions of fear, panic, limitations and restrictions in Wiikwemkoong. The definition had the potential to impose restrictions for a long period of time, and the term’s removal allows Wiikwemkoong to continue to adapt and coexist with COVID-19. The term ‘outbreak’ will be removed for the WUT policies and plans related to COVID-19, including the outbreak section in the WUT easing of restriction plan. The current outbreak section will become step one which will impose restrictions when the active COVID-19 cases overwhelm the capacity of our pandemic response teams.”

However, it was noted, “even though we are no longer considered to be in an outbreak, this does not mean that the COVID-19 pandemic is over. Public health measures such as properly wearing a mask, washing/sanitizing your hands, continual disinfecting of common areas/surfaces, physical distancing, daily self-monitoring, and contract tracing will continue. We are strongly encouraging our community members to get vaccinated as it is the best form of protection from experiencing several symptoms of COVID-19 and its variants.”

It was explained that step two of the WUT easing of restriction plan includes: all public buildings will be at  50 percent capacity  and/or up to 25 people maximum; outdoor gatherings (non-sporting) of up to 100 people; no restriction on the number of participants for outdoors sports and leagues; for all programming, events and activities, the organizer must present a safety plan to the pandemic response  team and be granted approval; regardless of vaccination status, residents  travelling outside of the Robinson-Huron Treaty Territory are required to self-monitor for 10 days, and it is recommended to be tested seven days after returning to the community. “If you develop symptoms after returning home, isolate immediately and call Wikwemikong Health Centre (WHC) to book COVID-19 testing and speak to a nurse.”

As of February 1, a COVID-19 outbreak had been declared at the nursing home. Ms. Osawabine-Peltier told The Expositor at the time that 43 residents had as of that date tested positive (of a total of 57 residents), as well as seven staff members.

“While we begin to open in Wiikwemkong, we must remain diligent in our efforts to keep each other safe,” the pandemic response team release continues. “Please continue to follow all the public health measures and get vaccinated. Our pandemic response teams, including our community health nurses (CHN), continue to humbly serve Wiikwemkoong. Please be kind and patient to our CHNs.”

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Air quality solutions at The Health & Safety Event

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INTERNATIONAL EQUIPMENT rental and solutions specialist Ashtead Technology will be attending The Health & Safety Event in April 2022 with TSI Instruments, who they have worked with for over 15 years.

As a Gold Channel Partner with TSI, Ashtead Technology offers rental and purchase options for an extensive range of TSI’s advanced air quality & dust monitoring equipment. They will be showcasing this equipment range at the event, including the newest series of ventilation meters. 

The importance of measuring air quality parameters in the workplace

On top of existing COSHH Regulations, the rise of COVID-19 has led to the Health & Safety Executive stressing that workplaces should be using NDIR monitors to identify poorly ventilated areas.

However, natural ventilation isn’t enough to improve indoor air quality. Poor ventilation is known to be only one of many contributing factors of poor air quality that can lead to issues such as Sick Building Syndrome, and that’s why monitors such as the TSI AirAssure and TSI IAQ-Calc 7545 can pick up on a range of parameters and not just CO2.

Airborne pollutants, low humidity and the presence of ozone are all contributing factors to bad air quality, and are much harder to identify unless measured with accurate equipment. On top of this, understanding what is happening outside of your buildings helps you to build up a full picture.

Josh Thomas, Ashtead Technology’s senior sales manager says, “TSI AirAssure and BlueSky units can be used with TSI Link, a cloud platform to enable even more remote monitoring features, to guide you in decision-making, and to tell a story of your building’s air quality from inside to outside.

“Staying informed with accurate and effective monitoring data by measuring air quality parameters means that you can make critical, informed decisions to maintain certain standards and identify safer working practices, reducing the risk of any potential infections or illnesses.”

Designed for both indoor and outdoor applications, the 6-channel BlueSky monitor employs a laser-based light scattering particle sensor. It is designed to simultaneously and continuously measure four particle mass concentrations as well as temperature and relative humidity.

The AirAssure 8144-4 measures formaldehyde, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, carbon dioxide and temperature/relative humidity, particulates and barometric pressure.

Smaller and handheld monitors are also available to rent or purchase from Ashtead Technology, such as the TSI Q-Trak, TSI IAQ-Calc, TSI DustTrak models and more.

Working in conjunction with TSI, Ashtead Technology offers maintenance and calibration services for the TSI range of air quality and dust monitoring equipment. 

The benefits of equipment rental

Renting is a great way to top up your equipment during peak demand when you need more equipment or your equipment is being used on other projects.

Renting equipment can reduce downtime while owned equipment is away for calibration or repair, ensuring that your air quality monitoring tasks can continue with no sudden stops.

When booking your maintenance and calibrations through Ashtead Technology, you can easily obtain a rental replacement.

Renting equipment also means that you can get your hands on equipment from the same or next day, instead of lead times that can take weeks when purchasing.

Rent or purchase environmental, health & safety monitoring equipment from Ashtead Technology

Ashtead Technology’s dedicated sales and technical team can work with you to identify the best solution to meet your air quality & dust monitoring requirements, as well as a broad scope of environmental, health and safety monitoring applications.

For further information, visit www.enviro.ashtead-technology.com and see them on stand 4/Q72 at The Health & Safety Event.

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Has Ohio reached the COVID-19 endemic. What role did the Arnold play?

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It’s been two years, but surely you remember March of 2020 well. 

You may even recall shaking your head in disbelief on the 5th of the month when The Arnold Sports Festival became Ohio’s first major event forced to ban most spectators and partly cancel as fears of coronavirus spread.

Here we are nearly two years after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020.

More:What does the coronavirus do to your body? Everything to know about the infection process

Perhaps by chance, on the recommendation of Columbus Public Health, the city of Columbus is expected to lift its indoor mask mandate a day after The Arnold, “the largest multi-sport event in the world,” wraps up today. 

The move follows the announcement of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new COVID-19 guideline allowing most Americans to go maskless indoors.

How did we get here? 

Ohio Health director Dr. Amy Acton and Gov. Mike Gov. DeWine on March 20, 2020

The 2020  Arnold was just the start of a nightmare that upended livelihoods and left millions without family members. 

The setback, heartbreak and disappointment that began two years ago once seemed out the realm of possibility.

It really couldn’t be all that bad.

Surely government officials — including Gov. Mike DeWine, Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther and Dr. Amy Acton, then the director of the Ohio Department of Health — were being too caution, going overboard. 

More:Theodore Decker: As mask debate heats up, common decency falls by the wayside

It was that bad and the hospitalizations and deaths that followed show they didn’t go overboard. 

Protesters stand outside the Statehouse Atrium where reporters listen during the state's coronavirus briefing in April 2020.

Despite a backlash that grew over time and at points verged on violence, officials followed the science.

  • DeWine declared a state of emergency  March 9, 2020 after three people in Ohio tested positive for the virus. 
  • When a fifth case was reported just three days later, DeWine and Acton ordered schools to close, banned nursing homes and state psychiatric hospitals from having visitors and  prohibited gatherings of more than 100 people. 
  • In the days that followed, restaurants were ordered closed to dine-in customers. Bars, movie theaters, indoor water parks, indoor trampoline parks, barbershops, tattoo parlors, beauty shops, bowling alleys, fitness centers, gyms and recreation centers were ordered to close. 
  • Families and friends were told not to gather with those who did not share their homes. 
  • Non-essential businesses were ordered to shut and stay-at-home orders were issued.
  • Toilet paper, disinfecting wipes and hand sanitizer became must-hoard items. Before the year ended, self-quarantine, social distance, herd immunity, PPE, flattening the curve and ‘Wine with DeWine’ became common utterances.   

Have we reached the endemic? 

A new variant could come along to set us back again, but many experts expect COVID-19  is entering an endemic phase. According to Yonatan Grad, Harvard University associate professor of immunology and infectious disease,s that would not means the virus has vanished, but that enough people have gained immunity from vaccination or natural infection. 

At a press conference, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the CDC’s director, cited the nation’s arsenal of tools to fight COVID-19 as the reason for the new guidance. They include COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters, broader testing, higher quality masks, access to new treatments and improved ventilation equipment. 

 “Over 200 million people have received a primary vaccine series and nearly 100 million have been boosted and millions more have had prior disease. With widespread population immunity, the overall risk of severe disease is now generally lower,” she said. “Now, as the virus continues to circulate in our communities, we must focus our metrics beyond just cases in the community and direct our efforts toward protecting people at high risk for severe illness and preventing COVID-19 from overwhelming our hospitals and our healthcare systems.”

Columbus native Michael Francois strikes a pose during his performance during the 1995 Arnold Schwarzenegger Classic at the Veterans Memorial. Francois, on his 30th birthday, won the $100,000 first place award and the Most Muscular Man award.

Masks were recommended for people living in areas of substantial or high transmission under the CDC’s old guidelines.

The agency’s new guidance considers hospitalizations, the number of beds occupied by COVID patients, hospital capacity and caseloads. 

Under the new metrics, 70% of Americans live in areas of low or medium risk, according to the CDC. 

Face coverings on public transportation are still required until at least March 18 when the mandate is set to expire. . 

Is this the new normal?  

This feels different, but it has felt different before. 

Mask mandates have been lifted and other precautions were dialed back before, only to be reinstated due to outbreaks of the COVID-19 variants Omicron and Delta.   

There is hope that we’ve turned a corner. 

More than 20,000 masked spectators were expected to attend The Arnold, which draws athletes from around the globe to compete in 60 sports.  

“It’s a testament that we can host large, safe events in Columbus and shows the state, country and even an international stage that things are happening in Columbus,” Brian Ross, president of Experience Columbus, told the Dispatch last week.  

 Time has proven that officials were right to tell Arnold organizers to cancel the expo in 2020.

There have been 950,000 American deaths – nearly 37,000 Ohioans included — from that virus that spreads person-to-person and can inflict severe damage to cells and tissue that line the air sacs in lungs. 

More:Fact check: COVID-19 can cause worse lung damage than smoking

We cannot stress enough that we are not out of the woods. 

Cumulative Covid-19 deaths per capita are higher in the U.S. than other large, high-income countries, according to a New York Times analysis of data. 

Those countries include Germany, France, Belgium, Sweden, Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia, Sweden and Japan.

Coronavirus is still among us — Ohio on Wednesday reported 1,171 new COVID-19 cases — but as President Joe Biden said as part of his State of the Union address Tuesday, severe cases are at their lowest nationwide point since July.

Lenny Wicks trains at Metro Fitness in Worthington, Ohio on February 28, 2022. Lenny will compete in the Mens Classic Pro for the first time as a professional at the Arnold Classic this weekend.

The nation has reached “a new moment in the fight against COVID-19” that’s closer to normalcy, Biden said before TV cameras and a room full of mostly maskless lawmakers. 

More:Biden touts Intel project in State of the Union as Ohioans contend with inflation

Time will tell if we are really at that moment in the fight. 

We cannot predict the future, but we can follow the science and hope this episode will soon be behind us. 

What do you think about the where we are in the COVID-19 pandemic?

Should Columbus drop the mask mandate? Do you feel safe without yours? Is it simply time to move on?  Let us know in a letter to the editor of 200 words or less. Email letters to [email protected]. Include your full name, city of residence and a daytime phone number for consideration. 

Editorials are The Dispatch Editorial Board’s fact-based assessment of issues of importance to the communities we serve. These are not the opinions of our reporting staff members, who strive for neutrality in their reporting.

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Ukraine Public Health: Preventing acute intestinal infectious diseases with potential water supply issues

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NewsDesk @bactiman63

The Public Health Center of Ukraine published the following last week concerning the potential risk of water supply issues in the current situation in the country:

Image/Robert Herriman

Due to the possibility of disconnecting centralized water supply systems to avoid shortages of drinking water, local authorities together with enterprises, institutions, organizations are obliged to take immediate measures to create a strategic supply of drinking water of guaranteed quality in the area.

  • Prohibit the use of well and tap drinking water without laboratory confirmation of its quality, even for domestic use, due to possible chemical and microbial contamination.
  • Organize points of delivery and bottling of drinking water.
  • To transport and store drinking water, use tank trucks and tanks, as well as temporarily supplied water mains from artesian wells.
  • Operation of wells is possible under the conditions of laboratory control of water quality by territorial centers of control and prevention of diseases.
  • Ensure rehabilitation of mine wells (catchments) and disinfection of water in them.
  • Through the media, the Internet is constantly informing the public about the dangers of using water from untested decentralized and centralized water supply systems for drinking and other purposes.

While local authorities are working to provide drinking water in the regions, it is important for the population to monitor the location and schedule of drinking water supply.

Before you are sure of the quality of drinking water, you can use only well-boiled water.

To cook, be sure to use tested drinking water, use heat treatment (cooking, frying, baking). Wash vegetables and fruits thoroughly with boiled water, then sprinkle with boiling water.

If you suspect the development of signs of infectious diseases (fever, fever, dizziness, headache, abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea, runny nose, cough, yellowing of the skin, sclera, eye rashes, rashes, abscesses, etc.) seek medical attention immediately, do not allow self-medication because the course of many infectious diseases is variable and may be unusual.

 

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