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Hits and Misses

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The New York Times took note of Allegheny County’s rising rate of coronavirus infections this week, with Dr. Amesh Adalja, a Pittsburgh physician, pointing out to the newspaper that the sheer volume of people flooding into the city’s bars and restaurants after the region entered the green phase of reopening made it seem like “the entire city turned 21.” The fact that so many people seemed to believe that entering the green phase was a signal to return to normal life raises the issue of whether Pennsylvania’s color-coded steps to reopening need to be rethought. Bethany Hallam, a member of the Allegheny County council, thinks so. She told the Times, “To anybody from a 2-year-old to a 100-year-old, ‘green’ means go. We went green and everybody went wild. The world is not green until we have a cure or vaccine.” Maybe it’s time for the Wolf administration to consider creating a chartreuse phase between green and yellow?

Thousands upon thousands of Americans have lost their jobs as a result of COVID-19, and many have lost health insurance coverage as a result. Families USA, a nonpartisan consumer advocacy group, has released a study indicating that 5.4 million Americans lost coverage between February and May. That’s 1.6 million more than the 3.8 million people who lost coverage in the Great Recession of 2008 and 2009. The Kaiser Family Foundation is estimating that, once you factor in spouses and children who were covered through employer-based plans, a full 27 million Americans no longer have health insurance. While it’s unlikely that the system of employer-provided health insurance will be dismantled anytime soon, the overwhelming number of Americans losing coverage should be a spur for needed reforms. These should include adding a low-cost public option to the Affordable Care Act and, perhaps, lowering the eligibility age for Medicare to 55, since older Americans who lose their jobs frequently have the hardest time finding something new.

The Kennywood amusement park reopened earlier this month with protocols in place that include mandatory face masks, temperature checks and some rides that have been closed. But park officials foolishly set up three “mask break” zones, where people could take off their masks but maintain social distance. After considerable negative feedback, the zones were eliminated, with a spokesman telling WPXI-TV, “The attention paid to them detracted from the intensive health and safety measures” the park has put in place. While many people are probably still skittish about returning to Kennywood given the way cases have been going up, the elimination of the mask-free zones should offer a little more assurance to those who do attend that their time at the park will be safe.

About 40% of students who enroll in a four-year college never complete a degree, leaving many with debt and no credential to show for their efforts. California University of Pennsylvania has joined a fledgling program called the ReUp Network that allows students to finish a degree at any of the other institutions participating in the endeavor. Some of these schools include Eastern Michigan University, the University of Idaho and the University of Tennessee, as well as Clairion University, which is part of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. Students who strive to complete their degrees will be doing themselves, and our overall economy, a great service.

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