Sunday, August 02, 2020

Taney County stops publishing COVID-19 exposures- Every public place should be considered a public exposure

(From the Taney County Health Department)

Throughout this pandemic, Taney County Health Department has been providing the public with lists of places symptomatic individual visited. 

We did this to help residents gauge their risk of exposure and to alert them that they should monitor for symptoms if they had been at that location. 








Currently, community spread in Taney County is so expansive that we are only learning about a very small fraction of public exposures. 

Because the pandemic has reached a point that every public place should be considered a public exposure, we will no longer be publishing patient itineraries in press release.

Saturday, August 01, 2020

Seven new Newton County COVID-19 cases, number under isolation continues to decline

Newton County Health Department noted seven new COVID-19 cases in a posting on its Facebook page Friday evening.

The county has had 840 coronavirus cases. The number of people who are hospitalized was up from five to six, but the number under isolation, which stood at 387 only two days earlier, is sharply down, falling to 287 Thursday then to 244 Friday.



 





The county has had six COVID-19 deaths.

The statistics do not include the portion of Newton County that is located in the Joplin city limits.


Jasper County reports nine new COVID-19 cases, number hospitalized up to 20

The Jasper County COVID-19 total stands at 1,272 after nine new cases were added, according to statistics posted Friday on the Jasper County Health Department Facebook page.

The number of people under isolation increased from 62 to 64 over the 24-hour reporting period, with the number hospitalized increasing from 19 to 20.








The county has recorded six coronavirus deaths.

The statistics do not include the portion of Jasper County that is located in the Joplin city limits.


Parson response to student's comment that kids might get sick and die: "I hope that's not the case"

When Missouri schools return to class later this month, many older teachers and staff and those with pre-existing health conditions will be at risk of contracting COVID-19.

"There's nothing you can do to say everything's all right. It might not be," Gov. Mike Parson told reporter Dia Wall of Kansas City's Action 41 News.

"If the virus gets there, it can affect them."








Wall spoke with children who were eager to return to school, but fearful of what could happen.

One student said, "A lot of kids might got sick and die."

Parson offered a reassuring, "Well, I hope that's not the case."


Carl Junction Superintendent outlines district's back-to-school plan


 

Bulldogs Back to School from Carl Junction School District on Vimeo.


Ten more COVID-19 cases, 935 new cases in Missouri

Two days after cracking the 2,000 mark for one day for the first time with 2,084 new COVID-19 cases, the state of Missouri's total fell for the second straight day, as the Department of Health and Senior Services posted 935 new cases and 10 deaths earlier today.

The state has recorded 51,258 coronavirus cases and 1,253 deaths.









Joplin High School officials review new start date, changes for fall semester

In this Jet HD video, Joplin High School Principal Steven Gilbreth reviews the changes that are in store for students when they return for the 2020-2021 school year.

At a Joplin R-8 Board of Education special meeting Thursday night, the board moved the starting date back to August 24 and adopted a program under which students will attend in-person half of the time while participating in virtual learning the other half.







Joplin records eight COVID-19 cases in 24 hours

The city of Joplin reported new COVID-19 cases Friday, bringing the total to 390.

The city's COVID-19 dashboard shows the number hospitalized dropped slightly from 24 to 22, while the number of people under quarantine rose from 101 to 102.

The number of actives cases held steady at 39.

The city has had 15 deaths.

Springfield Chamber endorses Amendment 2

(From the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce)

The Chamber is encouraging its members to vote "yes" on Amendment 2 on the August 4, 2020 ballot.

After following a well-established internal process for committee review and recommendation, the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce is endorsing Constitutional Amendment 2, which will appear on the August 4 ballot. 

Amendment 2 would provide additional resources to ensure more Missourians have access to health care. 

The expansion of Medicaid is anticipated to have positive effects on job creation, economic growth, and on the health and productivity of Missourians, all while protecting rural hospitals, and the impact on southwest Missouri specifically would be significant. 








The issue has also been endorsed by the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Missouri’s other major metro chambers (Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce and St. Louis Regional Chamber).

We are currently losing out on federal funds that would benefit Missouri; if Amendment 2 passes, the state stands to benefit significantly from increased federal investment coming back the state. Missouri would join 37 other states that have expanded their Medicaid program to help address the cost of uncompensated care.

The ballot issue was reviewed by the Chamber’s Legislative Policy Committee. The process included presentations from speakers supporting and opposed to Amendment 2. In addition, the Chamber’s legislative policy position has supported Medicaid expansion with transformation for many years. Although a constitutional amendment is not the preferred method – addressing this issue legislatively would have allowed for expansion of the program while also implementing enhanced efficiency and efficacy – Amendment 2 offers a path forward at this time to improved health care coverage and outcomes while also increasing jobs and economic growth in the state.

Jason Smith: President Trump's leadership has us close to defeating COVID-19

(From Eighth District Congressman Jason Smith)

The mainstream media has a dilemma. While they want to inform the American people about the progress on finding a vaccine for the coronavirus, they are also met with the harsh reality of violating their biggest rule: don’t say anything nice about Donald Trump. 

It’s been their mantra since he announced his candidacy for president, and in the years since they have demonstrated time and time again that they will not hesitate to focus on any negative thing they can tie to President Trump. 

However, even the most left leaning of media outlets is having trouble finding ways to not report on the President’s successes in finding a cure for the coronavirus. Just this week, The Washington Post—perhaps second only to The New York Times in their loathing of President Trump—had to finally write an article acknowledging the record pace we are on to find a vaccine and the fact that two different drugs have gone into final stages of human trial. 








Unfortunately, they couldn’t muster the energy to mention our President’s name more than once in the entire story, even though the reality is we are on a record setting pace to deliver hundreds of millions of doses of a new vaccine to the American public by January 2021.

Since the start of this year, when Washington Democrats were distracted with their obsession to impeach President Trump, we have gone from having never heard about COVID-19 to just on the cusp of defeating it. 

This achievement is the result of painstaking work to meld the innovative brilliance of American ingenuity, spirit and entrepreneurialism, the knowledge and expertise of the scientific community, together with the power of the American public. 

Since the coronavirus outbreak began, the President has committed himself to harnessing the full power of the public and private sectors to deliver a safe and effective vaccine quicker than ever before. The operation—Operation Warp Speed—set out with the highly ambitious goal of making 300 million doses of a safe and effective vaccine available by January 2021. 

Given the United States is already in the final stages of human trials, the President’s leadership and laser focus on this issue deserves the lion’s share of credit for getting close to achieving this lofty goal. 

This week, on the heels of the great news about vaccine development, even the media’s lauded alarmist—Dr. Anthony Fauci—noted that a vaccine answer for the American public is possible this fall. President Trump has made this possible by cutting through the red tape often associated with the slowdown of cures and medicines. He has allowed for the manufacturing of millions of doses of potential vaccines even before final medical approval, meaning once lifesaving medicines and treatments are approved, they will be ready in an instant for the American public.

Additionally, just because there are two human vaccine trials in final stages, does not mean President Trump is easing up. He continues to remove regulations which were hurting rural Americans from communicating with their doctors during these difficult times, such as now allowing telehealth over the phone, something I directly spoke with his Administration about. 

Additionally, he is using all available means to ensure other therapeutics and diagnostics are developed, manufactured, and distributed to the American public in unprecedented time and scale in response to the coronavirus. 

One example is his decision to launch the Coronavirus Treatment Acceleration Program which is getting new treatments to patients as quickly as possible. A number of promising therapies, including Remdesivir, have been identified and are already in use. It’s clear the President’s leadership deserves more credit for the successes in finding a vaccine and other cures than the left leaning media, already working on their Biden-Obama endorsements, will ever give our President.

Unlike the head in the sand, hide in the basement approach from Democrat leaders, President Trump wants to get the American people back on the path of success. Let’s not forget that before this coronavirus arrived on our shores from China, President Trump had ushered in the greatest economy in two generations. 

His business skills and unrelenting deregulation agenda helped to unleash our economy that was bound under the weight of the bloated bureaucracy of the Obama-Biden administration. Those same former White House heads now say that if they are back in power their first act will be to raise taxes on 82% of middle-class families by over $1,000, while also increasing small business taxes by 20%. That’s not the direction we want or deserve for our country. We want our country to move forward, not fall behind.

Under President Trump and his Operation Warp Speed, the United States is rounding the corner on defeating the coronavirus. I’m comforted knowing President Trump is in charge of our nation’s recovery. 

He has consistently shown his willingness to defy Washington’s preconceived notions and fight for the values he believes in. Whether it’s the economy, trade deals with adversarial nations, global institutions, or the coronavirus, President Trump has always put the American people and their priorities ahead of political and corporate interests. That’s the story the mainstream media doesn’t want you to hear, but that I’m committed to fighting for.