COVID news from various sources: August 23

The COVID pandemic is one of the worst health crises the nation has ever faced. It’s aggravated by misinformation and denial at how potentially catastrophic the pandemic is.

News organizations tend to silo their coverage. As editor and publisher of the Cobb County Courier I think this danger to the public health is serious enough that it would be good to read information from as wide a range of reputable sources as possible.

So I’m going to run a sampler of news at the local, state, and national level.

Local COVID news

Two days ago the East Cobb News ran this article by Wendy Parker featuring the video of Cobb leaders urging residents to get vaccinated, along with other information about the response to COVID in the county.

The Marietta Daily Journal ran this article by Hunter Riggall polling candidates for the Marietta City Schools school board entitled “Marietta school board candidates sound off on mask mandates.”

This article from Georgia Health News on the fatigue suffered by hospital workers during this COVID-19 wave is really state news, but I included it in local news because one of its quoted sources is Wellstar’s Dr. Danny Branstetter, who has been at the forefront of getting the word out in Cobb County about the spread of COVID-19 from the very beginning of the pandemic. You should also bookmark Georgia Health News. They’re best known in Cobb County for alerting the public on the dangers of ethylene oxide here in the county from the Sterigenics facility near Smyrna.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution ran this article by Krystal Dixon on COVID-19 in the Cobb County School District after the numbers were released on Friday. Dixon covers Cobb and Dekalb schools systems for the AJC, and her coverage is worth regularly following.

Statewide in Georgia

The AJC also covered the crisis in hospitals in Georgia due to the pandemic, focusing on the nursing shortage in this article by Ariel Hart and Willoughby Mariano.

National

Three days ago the Washington Post ran this article on monoclonal antibody treatment, best know under the brand name Regeneron. The article states that while the treatment is effective, and although Eli Lilly’s version of the treatment was paused because it was ineffective against some COVID variants, not many patients have been prescribed it.

The Washington Post also publishes a good set of tools for tracking the virus, which you can access by following this link.

The New York TImes reports that the expected full approval of the Pfizer vaccine might spur vaccine mandates.

Reputable resources for COVID-19 information

Misinformation about COVID-19 is abundantly available. But fortunately, so is information from reputable sources. Here are a few links to information on COVID-19.