pandemic
Former COVID-19 czar: The virus ‘new normal’ points to larger public health mission
With COVID-19 still a public health reality but no longer considered a public health emergency, it’s time for policymakers, health care systems and the public to think more broadly about public health, a former White House COVID-19 czar said Thursday. There is a new normal, said Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the school of public […]
Students blocked from campus when COVID hit want money back. Some are getting refunds.
Thousands of college students will get hundreds of dollars in compensation as colleges and universities move this summer to settle multimillion-dollar lawsuits stemming from canceled classes and activities during COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns. While some of the class-action suits against the colleges and universities are still in litigation, and still others dismissed, several major cases have […]
For the mothers the pandemic has left behind
Moms are tired. Bone-tired. That’s the word that comes up again and again whenever I talk to other mothers these days. No matter how strong you think you are, the last few years have taken a crushing toll. Everyone bears the scars of the pandemic in different ways. But there have been so many other […]
Preparation for pandemics, natural disasters updated in bill passed by U.S. Senate panel
WASHINGTON — A U.S. Senate committee approved legislation Thursday that would update how the federal government prepares for and then responds to pandemics and natural disasters. The broadly bipartisan legislation moved through the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee following a 17-3 vote after members adopted two bipartisan amendments. Republican Sens. Rand Paul of […]
Pandemic debt, childcare responsibilities exacerbates struggles for women | Monday Morning Coffee
The Family Voices Amplified survey, which polled 637 women from over 15 different cities across the United States, found that the majority of participants have had to take on debt since the COVID-19 pandemic due to a reduction in working hours due to increased caregiving responsibilities.
App aims to connect Pennsylvanians experiencing homelessness with resources
The app, known as Finding Your Way in PA, allows users to “search for and request assistance with services and resources in their current location, local communities, and throughout Pennsylvania to connect them with helpful supports,” according to the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
The pandemic prompted people to move, but many didn’t go far | Analysis
In the year after the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020, moves out of city centers increased from the year before, as did moves into rural and suburban areas, according to a Stateline analysis of postal change-of-address forms. But the trend slowed considerably during the second year of the pandemic.
Pa. Rep. Wild sets sights on addressing U.S. supply chain vulnerabilities
Rep. Susan Wild, D-7th District, along with 24 other Democratic representatives, plan to send a letter to Congressional leaders Thursday, “calling for additional legislative action on [sic] to ease supply chain bottlenecks and help lower costs for their constituents.”
Pa. General Assembly votes to terminate Wolf’s COVID-19 emergency declaration
(*This story was updated at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, 6/10/21, to include comment from Rep. Kevin Boyle, D-Philadelphia.) For the first time in 15 months, Pennsylvania is no longer operating under a COVID-19 emergency declaration. Using its newly expanded emergency powers, the GOP-controlled Legislature voted to end Gov. Tom Wolf’s pandemic disaster declaration this week. […]
Emily Dickinson is the unlikely hero of our time | Opinion
As the world continues to endure the ravages of COVID-19, another ghost of Dickinson steps into view. This one, about 40 years old, seems by turns vulnerable and formidable, reclusive and forward. She carries the dead weight of crises beyond her control, but remains unbowed by it.
COVID-19 pandemic contributes to increase in overdose deaths, state health officials say
Since the creation of the Opioid Command Center in January 2018 during the height of the opioid crisis, drug overdose-related deaths have fallen by nearly 20 percent in Pennsylvania, according to Barishansky. However, the trend has been flatlining since the middle of last year, continuing into 2020 and coinciding with the spread of COVID-19 -- data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that overdose deaths increased by nearly 6 percent from April 2019 to April 2020.
Lawmakers beef up school safety grant fund to pay for masks, gloves in pandemic
A competitive grant program created in the wake of a deadly school shooting is set to receive a record-high windfall of state and federal aid this year, which lawmakers say will help schools confront a new kind of threat in the fall: the spread of COVID-19. A series of bills that state lawmakers advanced Thursday […]