Argus Leader, Sioux Falls, May 1
Noem’s path forward ignores the obvious. None of this is normal.
At least it’s not “Meth. We’re on it.”
That may be the best that can be said for Governor Kristi Noem’s recently unveiled “Back to Normal” plan, the very title of which underplays the long-term COVID-19 challenge facing South Dakota and the country.
We all chafe at the extended limits on our movement, at our inability to gather and socialize with friends and loved ones. Prolonged confinement and the lack of available options to let off steam are driving sharp increases in mental health problems and domestic violence.
The economic implications are equally dire, as Sioux Falls business owners clamor for restrictions to ease so they can begin the path to recovery or, in some cases, keep from closing their doors for good.
But the “normal” that most of us enjoyed only a few short months ago won’t be snapping smartly back into place anytime soon. We can’t achieve the relative relief of even a “new normal” until an effective vaccine is developed and widely administered. Even then, a great deal of work remains to be done.
So what is the plan in the meantime? It depends on who you ask. The problem with a lack of statewide direction, whether with restrictions or the removal of them, is that municipalities and businesses are left to their own accord to make serious public health decisions. Those decisions affect not just them but everyone their citizens or customers come in contact with if something goes awry.
We agree that it’s possible to phase in more “normal” flow of social and business structures, such as opening parks and some work spaces with proper safety guidelines. But these steps should include standardized procedures for implementation and monitoring, not a vague series of frequently asked questions.
In order to live with the virus in our midst, we need to continue to improve our understanding of how to reduce infections and protect the people and places that are most vulnerable.
Noem acknowledges as much, but to a limited degree. “A big requirement of (how we could get back to normal) is that I have the ability to aggressively test from border to border across the entire state of South Dakota,” she said last week.
At the “Back to Normal” press briefing, Secretary of Health Kim Malsam-Rysdon said that the state’s current capacity of 3,000 tests per day will ramp up to 5,000 per day in the coming weeks. Unfortunately, that’s well short of the recommended rate to “help ensure a safe social opening (and) fully re-mobilize the economy,” according to Harvard University’s bipartisan “Roadmap to Pandemic Resilience” report.
The governor added that the number of tests conducted each day in the state is determined by doctors ordering the test for their patients and isn’t decided by the state. Only symptomatic South Dakotans are being tested, and her “Back to Normal” plan calls for more of the same. That’s not the kind of comprehensive epidemiological approach our state should take moving forward.
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease director Anthony Fauci says that “somewhere between 25 percent and 50 percent” of those infected with COVID-19 may never show symptoms or become sick yet can still transmit the virus to others.
For those who do eventually fall ill, the average delay from infection to symptom onset is five days. More of the virus is shed in earlier stages of the infection. That’s why experts emphasize the need to test not only people showing symptoms but also - at minimum - continue to randomly test samples of the general population.
Though the spike of the Smithfield outbreak and variances in the number of daily tests obscure the trend line, infections continue unabated, controlled only by mitigation efforts. Our testing rates, however, are going down. That’s a baffling juxtaposition given the testing capacity Noem’s administration says we possess, especially as we inch closer to the projected mid-June peak infection rate.
Meanwhile, the governor promises a continuation of her laissez faire tactics. “I am not announcing any new government programs, more red tape, more prescriptive phases or tight controls. That is not South Dakota. Rather, the plan I’m unveiling today puts the power into the hands of the people where it belongs,” Noem said.
The problem is that we will need coordinated systems in place to help us live with the virus more safely. Temperature checks, serology tests and increased contact tracing to contain clusters cannot be left up to individuals or individual businesses. As the Smithfield outbreak shows, heralding “personal responsibility” and urging businesses to “innovate” isn’t necessarily sufficient to impel changes in corporate behavior, especially with social and economic urgencies at play.
The governor press briefings also regularly include a litany of other too-familiar phrases. We can’t stop the virus. People will be infected. We’ve flattened the curve. Our hospitals will not be overwhelmed by the surge. Such statements sidestep other important considerations. We want to slow the spread not just to maintain adequate health system capacity, but to give researchers time to identify better treatments as well as find a vaccine. Each passing day reveals another devastating way that COVID-19 lays waste to the human body.
The need to craft a continuing public-private partnership between state health officials and our major health systems is paramount, particularly as we look to avoid anticipated viral flareups in the coming fall and winter months. That doesn’t mean more high-profile collaborative panders to the White House such as the hastily conceived statewide hydroxychloroquine trial. There are too many unknowns still to be uncovered about COVID-19; we need to prepare for a full range of outcomes.
The pandemic doesn’t present a simple tug-of-war between the economy and public health. The two are intertwined; neither can thrive without the other. People will not flock to restaurants, malls and sporting events unless they have a degree of confidence that they are not jeopardizing their health or that of their loved ones.
As stated earlier, full confidence won’t come until a vaccine arrives. In the meantime, a carefully crafted and well-articulated statewide plan that leans on enhanced testing, monitoring and mitigation would be the best way to restore confidence that “normal” is within reach.
Until then, we’re left to figure it out on our own.
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Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan, April 30
A message for 2020 grads: Look around
The news this week that Yankton High School has scheduled a “virtual graduation” for its seniors on May 17 - with COVID-19 having taken care of the real thing - snapped me briefly out of the blur that’s been this plague year by making me realize that graduation time is here again.
In any other spring, every high school and college would be gearing up right now for this ritual, the solemn culmination of years of hard work and the pinnacle of so many memorable experiences.
One tradition of the graduation season is the commencement address, in which featured speakers impart wisdom and life lessons to graduates who, let’s face it, are probably barely listening since they already have one foot out the door. But we do it anyway, if for no other reason, to provide some filler and create a little squirmy anticipation before diplomas are dispensed.
However, this is a different time - a nervous, empty moment unlike anything we’ve seen before, a time when the virtual and the distant must occasionally stand in for the real.
Even so, this commencement season still makes me think of the messages graduates ought to hear. While I can’t remember anything that was said at my own graduation, I’ve covered enough of these addresses to have picked up on a few common strands along the way.
To be fair, though, I believe any commencement address that one might imagine for this year would be criminally ignoring the reality of these times if it didn’t include the words, “Well, THIS sucks …”
Then again, I also think there’s really no need at all for this year’s graduates to hear commencement speakers serving up life lessons.
Instead, all the kids need to do is look around.
Many commencement addresses point out that life is full of unexpected twists and turns. Hey, welcome to 2020! The pandemic has derailed everything, but people are generally coping with it and making the adjustments (some of them quite difficult) that they need to make. For their part, students have been learning online and, in the process, getting a good taste of working independently and focusing on tasks that aren’t overseen by teachers hovering directly in front of them to explain everything. This has required some discipline and initiative, and that’s the foundation upon which a successful life is built.
Some graduation speeches emphasize devoting time to family. With everyone hunkered down and spending a ton of time with their own family members - mostly because there’s nowhere else to go - the grads-to-be are cultivating this valuable skill by default, if not under protest.
Many graduation speeches herald the importance of charity and giving to the community. We’re seeing a lot of that these days. Last week, I shot photos at a food distribution event held in the YHS parking lot. Several volunteers were there to help the participants maneuver their vehicles around the pylons and get to where they needed to go, and then more volunteers helped load boxes of food for people who have been hit hard by the economic downturn. Meanwhile, other volunteers are doing other important deeds at this time; in fact, they’re doing them ALL the time. The need never goes away, and neither do the opportunities.
Some commencement speakers advise graduates to “cherish the good times.” That’s self-explanatory, although the “good times” bar has been lowered lately to include pretty much anything before mid-March.
And on it goes …
Typical graduation speaker: “Try new things.” In my case, I’ve discovered how to turn a bandanna and some rubber bands into a double-ply face mask. Check.
Typical graduation speaker: “Life is full of obstacles.” Yep.
Typical graduation speaker: “Never stop learning.” Me again: I’ve learned the correct way to thoroughly wash my hands and how to measure about six feet of distance almost instantly by sight. So there’s that.
Typical graduation speaker: “Don’t forget your old school.” I’m fairly certain this year’s graduates aren’t going to forget the empty, isolated limbo that should have been their cherished last quarter of their senior year, and they may even start missing their old schools a lot sooner than past graduates.
Finally, commencement speakers always let you in on the ultimate, most practical truth about any graduation exercise: It isn’t an end but a beginning. That has never, ever been truer than this year. The “end” arrives in such an uncertain, clumsy, anticlimactic void, and the beginning must now blossom from this wreckage. And it will. That’s a lesson these graduates should not soon forget.
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Madison Daily Leader, April 28
Great time to improve meatpacking plants
We’re most familiar with the situation at the Smithfield Foods plant in Sioux Falls, but other meat processing plants around the country have been shut down due to coronavirus outbreaks.
JBS Pork Processing in Worthington, Minnesota, and Tyson Fresh Foods in Waterloo, Iowa, have also closed indefinitely. Together, the three plants account for about 15% of the nation’s pork production.
There is a substantial ripple effect of these huge plants closing, in both directions. Hog farmers who supply the plants now have fewer - and usually farther - places to go, and some have euthanized healthy pigs. On the other side, stores that have empty meat shelves have lower sales.
There are others affected.
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other agencies are working on plans to return the plants to production. They include sanitization, social distancing, personal protective equipment, enhanced testing and more.
While company officials work on those, we’d urge them to keep in mind the possibility of other improvements they could make. There may be new innovations for processing equipment, new modern procedures for cutting, new methods for receiving hogs and shipping finished goods.
We also believe there are lean (no pun intended) manufacturing processes that could increase efficiency. There may be better human resource practices that could improve safety or morale.
The focus of safely returning the plants to operation is the priority now. But the creative thinking that goes into that process could very well yield other improvements that would make the plants much better in the long term.
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