Omaha World-Herald. Jan. 8, 2021.
Editorial: Vaccinating all Nebraskans, regardless of citizenship status, is sound health policy
In spreading its harm, COVID doesn’t stop to check a Nebraskan’s citizenship status. In offering much-needed protection against the virus, the vaccinations now beginning in Nebraska mustn’t either.
Achieving the needed level of herd immunity will be crucial in 2021 if Nebraska is to succeed in ending the virus threat. Nebraska would grievously undercut that effort if the state denied vaccinations to noncitizens, who are as vulnerable to COVID as anyone else. Limiting vaccinations would put all Nebraska communities at risk, given how 2020 demonstrated the virus’s ability to spread to communities large and small.
It’s encouraging that the Ricketts administration has clarified this situation, saying there will be no citizenship checks as vaccinations proceed. That is sound policy for Nebraska as the state works to contain this extraordinary health threat.
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Lincoln Journal Star. Jan. 7, 2021.
Editorial: Closing gap will lead to healthier state
Public health has always been about a lot more than the most recent virus – even when that virus is responsible for a pandemic.
Public health involves wellness, education, access to care and much more. A recent statewide reporting project by 10 of the state’s largest newspapers – Unhealthy Nebraska – focused on what Nebraskans as a population must do to become healthier. We have the tools, argues Dr. Ali Khan, dean of the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s College of Public Health, to be the healthiest state in the U.S. Last year we ranked 17th. Because of COVID, no new rankings were released this year.
Not surprisingly, drinking, obesity and smoking are all areas where the state can improve, according to the study by America’s Health Rankings.
More disturbing is how disparities based on race or ethnicity impact our communities in areas like premature death rates and infant mortality. “How do we challenge racism and lead to better health outcomes for these individuals? The healthier the community, the fewer inequities,” Khan told one reporter.
Another piece of this puzzle is education. The state’s chief medical officer, Dr. Gary Anthone, told another reporter, “With more education, people have more opportunities for better health. … More access to health care, they’re more likely to live in healthier neighborhoods and have social and psychological benefits that come with having a higher income.”
This idea has been borne out in Lincoln in Place Matters, a study by the Community Health Endowment, done in 2015, 2017 and 2019. By examining health and lifestyle characteristics by census tract, the survey links outcomes to racial, ethnic, economic and geographic variables.
For example, Place Matters found that the average person in areas near downtown lived to age 69. The average resident on the southeast edge of town lived to 89. In general, the higher the level of poverty, the lower the level of health.
Drinking less and exercising more involve individual decisions. Public policy can give people a nudge, but it can’t make us act. But targeted strategies can remove the “inequities” Khan mentioned. For example, Place Matters findings suggest that special programming and state health care coverage changes led more expecting mothers to seek prenatal care. And that care started another generation off on a healthier foot.
We have watched COVID spread rapidly across communities of color, even as it’s touched every corner of every community. The way we make everyone healthier and safer is by improving education and access to quality health care for those most in need.
It’s clear that we are only as healthy as the least healthy among us.
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Kearney Hub. Jan. 9, 2021.
Editorial: Fischer, Sasse kept their oath
Today we express our appreciation to Deb Fischer, Nebraska’s senior representative in the U.S. Senate. Like our state’s junior senator, Ben Sasse, Fischer upheld her oath to defend the U.S. Constitution and voted to affirm the decision of the Electoral College naming Joe Biden as the winner of the presidential election. Fischer’s decision and that of Sasse put democracy ahead of party loyalty for Nebraska’s two Republican U.S. senators.
In explaining her decision, Fischer noted that she had voted twice for President Trump and that she supported him in many of his efforts to make the nation more secure and prosperous. “However, the president’s legal team failed to make the case in court to any judge, including some appointed by President Trump, or to criminal investigators, that widespread voter fraud existed sufficient to overturn election results in any state,” Fischer said.
Fischer said if Congress had not affirmed the Electoral College, it would have disenfranchised millions of U.S. voters who picked Biden over Trump.
It’s unthinkable that any politician would favor negating the will of a strong majority without due cause.
Although Fischer believes Congress would be out of line deciding how each state ought to conduct its elections, that’s the tack Rep. Adrian Smith took. The lawmaker who represents Nebraska’s GOP-dominated 3rd Congressional District was among the 140 House members who opposed the Electoral College results. Smith said he took that extreme action because it concerned him how some states conducted their elections.
Really? Apparently the congressman from Gering had forgotten that just a few weeks earlier the U.S. Supreme Court tossed out a lawsuit brought by the state of Texas alleging that irregularities in Georgia contributed to Biden’s victory. The Supreme Court declined to hear the Texas case, saying Texas had no standing. In other words, Texas had no business telling another state how to conduct its elections.
In the end, Congress affirmed the Electoral College results of 306-232 that Biden had won the presidency. The vote affirmed that elections are for states to control, not the federal government, and that, based on 60 failed lawsuits, the Trump campaign failed to expose wrongdoing sufficient to reverse the election.
If Smith still believes the federal government ought to tell states how to conduct elections we suggest he wait a few weeks. By then the fog of this controversial week will have cleared, and Smith and his like-minded colleagues can take a deep dive into election procedures.
If Smith sincerely believes there are problems, he should study all 50 states, not just the handful whose electoral votes put Biden over the top.
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