Hits and Misses
The last year has been profoundly stressful for health care workers. They’ve had to tend to COVID-19 patients while worrying about their own health and the health of their families. In the United States, more than 3,000 health care workers have died of the virus in the last 15 months. To help health care workers who might be grappling with burnout, depression or symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, the Pennsylvania Council for the Arts has announced a statewide partnership with the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania to offer music therapy to them. It will start in the southeastern part of the state and eventually make its way around the rest of Pennsylvania. This reminds us of what Henry David Thoreau once said: “When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe.”
Last week, President Biden announced that the United States will be purchasing 500 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine and donating them to lower-income countries, and that’s both compassionate and smart. If we can help the rest of the world get a handle on COVID-19, there’s less of a chance that a new, even more dangerous variant of the virus will reach our shores. If you want an indication how some parts of the world are lagging behind the United States and Europe in getting their populations vaccinated, consider the plight of Africa. The Associated Press reported last week that less than 1% of South Africa’s population had been fully vaccinated, and many health care workers were still awaiting shots. In Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, less than one-tenth of 1% of had been fully vaccinated. As many experts have pointed out, we won’t fully get COVID-19 under control until it’s under control all over the world.
When the COVID-19 pandemic was at its height, food banks across the country were hit with a tidal wave of people in need, many of whom had probably never imagined they would have to turn to a food bank for assistance. It was revealed last week that as the pandemic was raging, the Greater Washington County Food Bank was sitting on nearly $300,000 in undistributed food. None of it had expired, though some instant mashed potatoes were getting close to the edge, according to an internal inventory report. Kim Rogers, the county’s human services administrator, admitted to being surprised and puzzled about why so much food was stashed away. Officials with the food bank countered that they received no small amount of food, none of it had passed its sell-by date and no one in need had been turned away. Still, more should have been done to get it in the hands of those in need. Expired mashed potatoes would not have done anybody any good.
Lordstown, Ohio, was handed a crushing setback in 2019 when GM announced that it was shuttering the sprawling assembly plant that sits along the Ohio Turnpike, leading to the loss of more than 1,000 jobs. And that was on top of years of job losses that region has already sustained. The plant was purchased by Lordstown Motors, an electric truck manufacturer, offering some hope that the community would be able to rebound. The air is rapidly leaving that balloon, though. The CEO and chief financial officer of Lordstown Motors both resigned Monday, shortly after an announcement that the company did not have enough cash to start production and might have to close. If the end of the line is rapidly approaching for Lordstown Motors, let’s hope that some other entrepreneur or company sees the value of that plant and the products that could be made there, and the value of the workers they could hire.