Vermont reporters provide a roundup of top news takeaways about the coronavirus, a push to add to the state's Threatened and Endangered Species List and more for Thursday, Oct. 7.
Want VPR's daily news in podcast form? Get up to speed in under 15 minutes with The Frequency every weekday morning. How about an email newsletter? Add our daily email briefing to your morning routine.
While Vermont's pandemic state of emergency has ended, the delta variant is now circulating around the state. Click here for the latest on new cases, and find the latest vaccination data online any time.
Vermont health officials reported 287 new COVID-19 infections Thursday.
It's the state's second-highest number of new cases in a single day so far in the pandemic, eclipsed only by the 330 cases reported three weeks ago on Sept. 15.
There were 48 cases each in Chittenden, Orleans, and Washington counties.
The health department also says one more Vermonter has died from the virus, the 328th coronavirus fatality in the state so far.
Hospitalizations number 35, including eight people in intensive care.
To date, 88.4% of eligible Vermonters are at least partially vaccinated, while 79% are fully vaccinated.
Matthew Smith
Just about anyone who received a Pfizer COVID019 vaccine more than six months ago is eligible for a booster
The state of Vermont is encouraging people who are eligible for a vaccine booster shot for protection against COVID-19 to get one.
Human Services Secretary Mike Smith says he'd like to see more Vermonters get the booster shot. Currently, the booster is available to people who received the Pfizer vaccine more than six months ago.
There's a broad list of who is eligible for the booster, including those 65 andolder, people over the age of 18 who have certain health conditions, members of minority groups, and people who could be exposed to the virus through their work.
Smith says the definition of who is eligible includes "just about anybody that's over 18."
Brittany Patterson
Cases drop among college students
The number of college students testing positive for COVID-19 has fallen to its lowest level yet this semester.
Mike Pieciak is commissioner of the state's Department of Financial Regulation, which analyzes the bulk of Vermont's COVID-19 data.
He says 95% of Vermont's nearly 30,000 college students are fully vaccinated.
In the past week, only 19 students tested positive.
"Again, just a good indication that when you have a 95% vaccinated population you see the cases stay very low even when cases are more elevated in the communities in which those colleges are located," Pieciak said.
But while college students have a high level of vaccination, Pieciak says only about 55% of Vermonters between the ages of 18 and 29 are fully vaccinated.
Bob Kinzel
New York state's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers goes into effect Thursday
New York state's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all health care workers means hospice and home health care workers in the state have to get at least one dose of a vaccine by Thursday, or face the prospect of losing their job.
North Country Public Radio reports the mandate extends to workers at mental health facilities in November.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said those without at least one dose of the vaccine could be terminated.
A vaccine mandate for other healthcare workers took effect last week, and so far, more than 92-percent of workers having gotten vaccinated.
Matthew Smith
N.H. governor calls for removal of state representative from legislative fiscal committee over spread of misinformation
Republican Gov. Chris Sununu is calling for the removal of GOP state Representative Ken Weyler from his position as head of the legislative fiscal committee because of misinformation he is sharing about COVID-19.
A Democratic committee member released a statement Monday saying Weyler claims that live creatures with tentacles are entering people's bodies through the vaccine and that technology is placed in it to control people's thoughts.
Sununu said Monday he has "repeatedly expressed" to House Speaker Sherman Packard the need to remove Weyler from his leadership position.
Weyler did not comment. Packard didn't immediately respond to an email.
The Associated Press
Some Vermont superintendents are voicing concern over a new COVID-19 testing program.
The Scott administration recently announced the plan, called "Test to Stay," which would allow students who are close contacts of a COVID-19 case to take an antigen test to avoid quarantine.
But administering the program on top of other responsibilities seems like a logistical challenge to Julie Regimbal, superintendent of the Missisqoui Valley School District.
"We don't have anyone in any of our schools where we don't have people substituting for everything," Regimbal said. "The principals are subbing, all the teachers are subbing for each other there's a staffing crisis."
Secretary of Education Dan French said this week that his agency lacks the personnel to help districts.
Regimbal says she's waiting for more details on the plan to come from the state, expected next week.
Anna Van Dine
A program that provides nearly 20,000 meals each week for Vermont families will continue through the end of the year.
The Everyone Eats program pays local restaurants to prepare meals for Vermonters facing food insecurity.
It was originally scheduled to end in September, says Jean Hamilton, the statewide coordinator.
"We realized both that the pandemic is not going to go away that quickly the economic impacts will be here for longer than we imagined," Hamilton said. "But also, we just didnt anticipate the impact of delta and the numbers would go back up."
Hamilton says funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency enabled the partnership between restaurants and meal distribution sites to keep going.
She anticipates increased need for meals this winter.
Lexi Krupp
The leaders of both chambers of Vermont's Legislature will hold a press conference on Oct. 16, to apologize for the state's role in the eugenics movement.
In the first half of the 20th century, state-sponsored programs tried to change the gene pool in Vermont through sterilizing and institutionalizing Indigenous people, French-Canadians, and people who were mixed-race, poor or disabled.
Don Stevens is chief of the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk -Abenaki Nation.
Speaking Wednesday on Vermont Edition, he said the apology is a good first step. But he also wants to see more policies that actively improve the lives of Abenaki Vermonters.
"We're still Vermonters, right? We're still incorporated in the community. So how are they actually focusing on our needs?"
The public apology will take place on the State House steps in Montpelier.
Listen to the full episode.
Mikaela Lefrak
Sen. Bernie Sanders is calling on his West Virginia colleague, Joe Manchin, to specifically outline what programs should be cut in order to reduce the size of the so called 3.5 trillion dollar "social" budget bill.
The bill, which includes new money for child care, paid family leave, climate change, affordable housing, and Medicare, is tied up in the Senate because Manchin and Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema say it's too expensive.
At a D.C. press conference Wednesday, Sanders said it's time for Manchin to get specific.
"So Sen. Manchin has a right to fight for his point of view he has not only a right to be heard, he has a right to get some compromises he's a member of the Senate," Sanders said. "But two people do not have the right to sabotage what 48 want and what the president of the United States wants. That, to me, is wrong."
Senate Democratic leaders are hoping to resolve this issue in the next few weeks.
Bob Kinzel
Congressman Peter Welch says federal regulators need to hold Facebook accountable for the authenticity of information on their web site.
This week, a former employee and whistle blower told Congress she is aware of efforts by Facebook to develop algorithms that encourage political conflict and promote information that's harmful to young people.
Facebook has denied the charges.
Welch says one way to make Facebook more transparent is to make the company responsible for information that they post.
"Right now, Facebook can publish anything it wants. They're not considered a publisher. Whereas, if that was in the local newspaper, that paper could be sued for libel and that's one possible way to go, so that there would be some self monitoring by the Facebooks of the world," Welch said.
Welch says he supports efforts to create a new federal regulatory agency to provide oversight.
Bob Kinzel
The Eastern Meadowlark has been recommended for Threatened status, under Vermont's Threatened and endangered Species Rule.
The listing would give the yellow-breasted grassland bird special protections.
The most recent published data show its distribution in Vermont shrank by 55% over the last quarter century.
But Kevin Tolan, a staff biologist with the Vermont Center for Ecostudies, says the picture may be more dire. He oversaw a more recent survey, to count Eastern Meadowlarks this past summer.
Tolan says preliminary data show about 90 breeding pairs remain in Vermont.
"And combine that with how rapidly they're declining ... The difference between going from 100 birds to 25 birds could be five years, or it could be 20 years, depending on the population size we're estimating now," Tolan said.
Members of the public can email comments to the Agency of Natural Resources until Oct. 13.
Abagael Giles
Abagael Giles compiled and edited this post.
Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message or tweet us @vprnet.
See the original post here:
- Ridding the Race of His Defective Blood Eugenics in the Journal, 19061948 | NEJM - nejm.org - March 4th, 2024 [March 4th, 2024]
- The Progressive Ideas That Fueled America's Eugenics Movement | Bradley Thomas - Foundation for Economic Education - March 4th, 2024 [March 4th, 2024]
- Few People Know The Real Story About North Carolinas Eugenics Program - Only In Your State - March 4th, 2024 [March 4th, 2024]
- University Art Museums Become Unlikely Homes for These Portraits - The New York Times - October 23rd, 2023 [October 23rd, 2023]
- Real-world Influences of Frank Herbert's 'Dune' - Dune News Net - October 23rd, 2023 [October 23rd, 2023]
- Everything you don't know about neurodiversity The Mass Media - The Mass Media - October 23rd, 2023 [October 23rd, 2023]
- Details of Japans experiment with eugenic sterilization released - BioEdge - July 26th, 2023 [July 26th, 2023]
- Give more people with learning disabilities the chance to work ... - EurekAlert - July 26th, 2023 [July 26th, 2023]
- 'They Cloned Tyrone' ending explained - Mashable - July 26th, 2023 [July 26th, 2023]
- Failing Learning Disabled People: The Contradictions of 1945 ... - Byline Times - July 26th, 2023 [July 26th, 2023]
- What happened during Marc Tessier-Lavigne's tenure as Stanford ... - Palo Alto Online - July 26th, 2023 [July 26th, 2023]
- Planned Parenthood: 'Virginity is a social construct' - The Christian Institute - July 26th, 2023 [July 26th, 2023]
- Is evolutionary biology racist? Why Evolution Is True - Why Evolution Is True - July 26th, 2023 [July 26th, 2023]
- Beware the anti-democratic liberal centre - Morning Star Online - July 26th, 2023 [July 26th, 2023]
- Unveiling the dark past: eugenics and its role in legitimising racism - Epigram - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Guardians of the Galaxy 3 Has the MCU's Scariest Villain - CBR - Comic Book Resources - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Fox News in Spanish bombards viewers with right-wing propaganda - MSNBC - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- The Reproductive Movement Must Reclaim Its Radical Roots and Be ... - Literary Hub - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- 3 judges who chipped away abortion rights to hear federal abortion pill appeal - ABC News - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Eugenics: Definition, Movement & Meaning - HISTORY - HISTORY - January 22nd, 2023 [January 22nd, 2023]
- Iris flower data set - Wikipedia - December 28th, 2022 [December 28th, 2022]
- Canadas policies are a death sentence for disabled people. The country must reckon with its modern eugenics - Toronto Star - December 28th, 2022 [December 28th, 2022]
- Op-Ed: Eugenics is making a comeback. Stop it in its tracks - Los ... - November 23rd, 2022 [November 23rd, 2022]
- Eugenics, Anti-Immigration Laws Of The Past Still Resonate Today ... - November 21st, 2022 [November 21st, 2022]
- Eugenics: Its Origin and Development (1883 - Present) - Genome.gov - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- 150000 Black Women Were Forced Into the Eugenics Program - History of Yesterday - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- 20 million black babies have been aborted since Roe v. Wade. Where is the equity in that? - Washington Examiner - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- What Is a 'Healthy' Cereal, Anyway? - Lifehacker - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- Eugenics and Scientific Racism - Genome.gov - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Eugenics Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- The shameful support of eugenics by the Lewiston Evening Journal - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Understanding "longtermism": Why this suddenly influential philosophy ... - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- NYU Local: Women's Health: Involuntary Sterilization Then and Now - Government Accountability Project - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- A Desire to Cure, Not to Punish: Women Physicians and Eugenics in the American West, 19001930 by Jacqueline D. Antonovich - Smith College Grcourt Gate - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- In unaired portions of Tucker Carlson interview, Ye made antisemitic remarks, spoke of fake children infiltrating his home - The Hill - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Black women and reproductive freedom meet a crossroad in the fight for abortion rights - Afro American - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- The difference between race and ethnicityand why it matters - Fast Company - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Letter to the Editor Removal of Luther West's name is just - North Wind Online - October 11th, 2022 [October 11th, 2022]
- Behind the Shield: The Power and Politics of the NFL - Boing Boing - October 11th, 2022 [October 11th, 2022]
- I Lived In An Asylum Turned Childrens Institution, Said To Be Haunted By Its Horrifying Past. - HuffPost - October 11th, 2022 [October 11th, 2022]
- The Evolution of Godless Practices: Eugenics, Infanticide, and Transhumanism - The Epoch Times - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- Disability campaigners accuse government of 'back-door eugenics' as families struggle to survive inflation - Morning Star Online - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- Fox News host predicts that clean energy will lead to eugenics - Media Matters for America - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- Rockwell Kent at the Fleming: Art into hands of many, rather than the few - Rutland Herald - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- Review: 'Amsterdam' is a star-filled comedy that loses its way - Star Tribune - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- Pros & Cons of Eugenics | Healthfully - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- History Highlight: Proponents of eugenics, population control, and ... - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- 31 days of horror movies: 2007s Frontiers is a masterpiece of French Extremity - 1428 Elm - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- Explaining Church Teaching on IVF The Torch | Boston College's Catholic Newspaper - The Torch - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- The Vaccine That Could Cure America: Reversing Roe - The Chattanoogan - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- Takeaways from Episode 1 of The U.S. and the Holocaust - - St. Louis Jewish Light - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- Lloyd Benes: Challenging 8 arguments that support unrestricted abortion - Loveland Reporter-Herald - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- 11 Disability Rights Activists on Where the Fight for Justice Stands - Teen Vogue - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- What Ballot Initiatives Will Californians Face in the Nov. 8th Election? - California Globe - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- The U.S. and the Holocaust. Revisiting America's Role | THIRTEEN - New York Public Media - MetroFocus - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- A new University of Virginia board member once brought a eugenicist to campus. Students are angry. - Higher Ed Dive - September 11th, 2022 [September 11th, 2022]
- World Wars, Eugenics, Mass Extinctions: Would You Believe Were Talking About Splatoon? - Kotaku Australia - September 11th, 2022 [September 11th, 2022]
- Freaks Controversy Explained: Was Tod Browning's 1932 Horror Movie Exploitative Or Progressive? - /Film - September 11th, 2022 [September 11th, 2022]
- Eugenics Wars | Memory Alpha | Fandom - August 30th, 2022 [August 30th, 2022]
- Behind the Scenes: The U.S. and the Holocaust - GBH News - August 30th, 2022 [August 30th, 2022]
- The 32 Most Anticipated TV Shows of Fall 2022 - TIME - August 30th, 2022 [August 30th, 2022]
- BSO and GBH Host 'An Evening With Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, And Sarah Botstein' at Symphony Hall Next Month - Broadway World - August 30th, 2022 [August 30th, 2022]
- Paper: Train future psychologists to dismantle racism, injustice in society - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign - August 30th, 2022 [August 30th, 2022]
- Croydons Pearson feels the pressure in MasterChef kitchen - Inside Croydon - August 30th, 2022 [August 30th, 2022]
- SCOTUS Claims Abortion Proponents Are Motivated by Eugenics and Eliminating the 'Unfit'But History Says Otherwise - Ms. Magazine - August 6th, 2022 [August 6th, 2022]
- Birth of the Abortion Industrial Complex: Eugenics Evolves - Capital Research Center - August 6th, 2022 [August 6th, 2022]
- Mendels genetic revolution and the legacy of scientific racism - Peoples Dispatch - August 6th, 2022 [August 6th, 2022]
- When Sperm And Eggs Are Monetized, Existence Is Transactional - The Federalist - August 6th, 2022 [August 6th, 2022]
- Historian shares history of the dark ending of the diverse Malaga Island community - Press Herald - August 6th, 2022 [August 6th, 2022]
- Why We Are Not 'In This Together' - LA Progressive - August 6th, 2022 [August 6th, 2022]
- How Close Are We to War with China? | Guests: Rep. Chris Stewart & Eric Schmitt | 8/2/22 - The Glenn Beck Program - iHeartRadio - August 6th, 2022 [August 6th, 2022]
- STAM: Alma Adams, eugenics and radical abortion The North State Journal - North State Journal - July 29th, 2022 [July 29th, 2022]
- Moving from Rights to Justice: Uprooting Ableism and Cultivating Disability Justice - Next City - July 29th, 2022 [July 29th, 2022]
- Body politics: the secret history of the US anti-abortion movement - The Guardian - July 29th, 2022 [July 29th, 2022]
- 'The View' will tap Alyssa Farah Griffin as permanent co-host following Meghan McCain exit, sources say - FOX Bangor/ABC 7 News and Stories - July 29th, 2022 [July 29th, 2022]
- There's a straight line from eugenics to 'biblical family values' to white supremacy and the anti-abortion movement - Baptist News Global - July 7th, 2022 [July 7th, 2022]
- Viewpoint: In response to historical misuse of genetics to defend eugenics, some egalitarians call for defunding. Here's why that's not the solution -... - July 7th, 2022 [July 7th, 2022]
- To Be or Not to Be a Mother: A Timeless Question with New Urgency - Justia Verdict - July 7th, 2022 [July 7th, 2022]
- Another point of view - Arkansas Online - July 7th, 2022 [July 7th, 2022]
- A Vasectomy Historian on Why Male Sterilization Won't Solve the Abortion Problem - MEL Magazine - July 7th, 2022 [July 7th, 2022]