Recent editorials from West Virginia newspapers:
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April 28
The Parkersburg News and Sentinel on a careful approach to reopening daycares:
It will be impossible to relax COVID-19-related restrictions on people and businesses without taking some risks. But remaining locked into our homes and out of our workplaces cannot continue. That would prove disastrous.
So Gov. Jim Justice is right to begin thinking about how to ease away from the restrictions in West Virginia. One of his ideas needs to be approached with extreme caution, however.
Justice introduced a timeline of sorts on April 27. It is contingent upon three days in a row of fewer than 3% of COVID-19 tests coming back positive.
Justice’s step two is, in a way, obvious and smart. At the same time, it is laden with the risk of re-firing the coronavirus epidemic.
With public schools closed, many parents cannot go to work even if their employers are permitted to resume operations. Not everyone can work from home. Our most critical businesses, manufacturers, require on-site, hands-on employees.
But if the children are not in school, someone has to stay home to care for them. Justice’s solution is to begin reopening daycare facilities.
You may wonder about that one, as daycare facilities are very similar to schools in terms of spreading disease.
But there are some perhaps crucial differences. One is that the typical daycare center has far fewer children in one place.
Justice’s plan includes testing for daycare workers, as well as possibilities such as taking the temperatures of children and parents patronizing the centers.
That may not be enough.
Justice is to be applauded for understanding that West Virginia simply cannot go on as we have for the past several weeks. Good for him, too, for recognizing the challenge to working parents of having their children cared for during the day.
But widespread reopening of daycare centers will have to be handled VERY carefully to avoid a resurgence of COVID-19 that sends us all back to square one.
Online: https://www.newsandsentinel.com
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April 28
The Herald-Dispatch on the phased approach to reopening West Virginia’s economy:
Is the lockdown that has put thousands of West Virginians out of work for more than a month over? No, but the end could be in sight.
Gov. Jim Justice on April 27 announced his plan for allowing many businesses and offices to re-open if the state continues to show a statewide coronavirus infection rate of less than 3% sustained for three consecutive days.
The plan has a three-week rollout, with a week’s notice being given before re-openings can begin.
The first week is directed at health care and allows hospitals to resume outpatient services and elective procedures. Dentists and physical therapists may re-open. The second week allows hair and nail care places and pet grooming services to re-open with certain restrictions. Outdoor dining and church services may resume.
The third week allows government buildings, specialty retail stores and parks, gyms, hotels and dine-in restaurants to re-open.
The plan still forbids sports activities, concerts and other events involving gatherings of more than 25 people.
Justice said the re-opening could be slowed or canceled if the daily positive test results go above 3%.
This plan gives hope to people who want to resume their normal activities, but it seems long and drawn out. If the go-ahead were to be given this week, we’re still talking mid- to late May before some stores re-open. And waiting until the third week before opening parks? People are ignoring that order as it is.
Another problem is that it’s a statewide plan. Some counties have been hit harder by COVID-19 than others. Those that have escaped the worst of the outbreak are bearing the same burdens as those where the infection rate is worse.
Add to that point the fact that most of West Virginia’s 55 counties border on other states, and the differing re-opening schedules among states will give economic advantages to some counties and disadvantages to others.
There are two schools of thought on when the shutdown of the economy should end. Some people want to take things slowly. An increasingly vocal group says the shutdown was put in place to flatten the curve of infections and to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients. They say that mission has been accomplished, so it’s time for the lockdown to end. The second group appears to have gained more influence.
Justice’s plan is one of several being offered by the nation’s governors in reaction to people being fed up with being told to stay home. Governors are listening to their constituents. People whose lives and livelihoods have been upended by the lockdown want it to end. They want to go back to work. They want to get a haircut. They want to go back to church.
Some states are re-opening. Those that have had relatively few COVID-19 deaths or infections can do that. Others, such as New York, have been hit far harder and will have to take things more slowly.
West Virginia is in the middle, but its populace is more likely to favor re-opening than sheltering in place indefinitely.
Memorial Day weekend - the traditional start of summer - is less than four weeks away. People now have hope that their lives will begin returning to normal by then. A lot could depend on how patient people will be with the governor’s plan and how patient he will be with them.
Justice’s plan indicates he is listening to West Virginians who want their lives to begin returning to normal. His plan takes things more slowly than many people would like, but it can be modified if people cooperate and things go well.
At least it’s a start.
Online: https://www.herald-dispatch.com
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April 24
The Charleston Gazette-Mail on the need for federal assistance in addressing a state budget shortfall:
For a while now, Gov. Jim Justice has been publicly pinning his hopes on covering a projected $350 million shortfall in West Virginia’s budget with federal relief funds for the economic stall out caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Unfortunately, the latest round of funding expressly forbids state governments from doing just that. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., recently suggested states should just seek bankruptcy protection rather than look for a federal bailout. Republican and Democratic governors have been loudly critical of McConnell’s idea, with good reason.
Justice is hopeful things will change, saying in his press briefing he couldn’t go into the “inside baseball” of it all, but he had reason to believe there will be more relief funding that will help the states out. West Virginians probably wouldn’t mind hearing whatever details the governor chose not to go into. A vague promise that everything will be OK after the federal government denied states from using aid to fix their budgets isn’t very reassuring.
Such funding is certainly vital in a place like West Virginia, where the government provides so many crucial services and employs so many people. Bankruptcy would be devastating to a state economy that was hardly booming before the pandemic came along.
The most galling thing about McConnell’s bankruptcy idea was the reasoning behind it, which he gave during a radio interview earlier this week, saying he didn’t want future generations to be indebted because money had to be borrowed to keep state governments whole now. McConnell certainly had no compunction about saddling future generations with unreal debt when he was approving corporate tax cuts that have ballooned the federal deficit to record highs. McConnell is fine with debt if it’s helping wealthy donors and soulless corporations, but not when it comes to keeping governments afloat so they can provide vital services.
McConnell is probably going to have to rethink that strategy, because powerful governors on both sides of the aisle are furious. Here’s hoping McConnell redoes the political calculus, and that Justice’s belief in a fix to give states relief funds is founded in reality.
Online: https://www.wvgazettemail.com
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