| "Distance yourself to the degree possible from conflict entrepreneurs. These are people or pundits or platforms that intentionally exploit conflict for their own ends. And if you can't...try to redirect their energy to the degree possible on something more constructive." - High Conflict" author Amanda Ripley on how to avoid conflict in one's life
Welcome to the "Face the Nation" Five at Five newsletter. Scroll down for your five takeaways from today's broadcast of "Face the Nation" on CBS. Did someone forward you this? Sign-up at cbsnews.com/email. 1. Hutchinson says he changed mind on mask law because "facts change"  Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson said Sunday he changed his mind about a bill he signed in April to ban mask mandates across the state because "facts change," and he admitted that signing it at a time when COVID-19 cases were low in his state was "an error." What Hutchinson said: "Facts change and leaders have to adjust to the new facts that you have and the reality of what you have to deal with. I realized that we needed to have more options for our local school districts to protect those children. And so I asked the legislature to redo the law that prohibited those requirements or those options for the school districts to protect the children. And so it was an error to sign that law." Why it matters: Children under 12 are not yet eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, and with the Delta variant on the rise and schools soon to reopen in the fall, Hutchinson said he wanted to give school districts the flexibility to decide whether to require masks or not. On Friday, an Arkansas judge temporarily blocked the state from enforcing the ban after the state lawmakers left it in place despite Hutchinson's call for them to reverse the law. 2. Gottlieb expects COVID-19 cases to climb in northern U.S. as schools reopen  Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, said Sunday that the northern U.S. should expect COVID-19 cases to rise in the coming weeks as students head back to school and the highly contagious Delta variant continues to spread across the country. What Gottlieb said: "There is evidence that the rate of growth in the cases in the South is starting to decline. I think that this week you may see some of the states that have been the outbreak states start to tip over in terms of showing less cases on a daily basis. The epidemic is clearly slowing in states like Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri. But at the same time, we now see the virus spreading to northern states. So cases are building in states like Illinois, Indiana, North Carolina. So this is an epidemic that's going to sweep across the nation at different points in time. I think the northern states are more impervious to the kind of spread we saw in the South, but they're not completely impervious. They have higher vaccination rates, there's been more prior infection. But there's still people who are vulnerable in those states." Why it matters: One of the lessons learned throughout the pandemic is that schools can become sources of community transmission, especially with more transmissible strains of the coronavirus, Gottlieb said. The Delta variant is highly contagious, and Gottlieb warned that it "creates a lot of risk that the spread in the northern states is going to start to collide with the opening of school." 3. Children now make up 20% of all new COVID-19 cases across the U.S.  The Delta variant continues to pose a risk for unvaccinated individuals of any age: children comprise 20% of new COVID-19 cases across the U.S. Nearly a third of all new cases can be traced to Texas and Florida, where Republican governors oppose mask mandates. CBS News' Mark Strassmann reports from Georgia where hundreds of kids in metro Atlanta tested positive during their first week of school. 4. Cardona calls for "all hands on deck" approach to reopen schools  Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said jurisdictions that are not following mitigation strategies in schools are "putting students at risk." What he said: "I think what we're seeing across the country is we recognize the importance of vaccinations and the president put a charge on all of us. Let's get our vaccination pop-up clinics set up in our schools where students feel comfortable going to get it. And I think everyone across the country agrees on that. I believe strongly that we need to do everything, including our mitigation strategies, to make sure our students are safe. The data is showing us that in places where they're not following those mitigation strategies, we're putting students at risk. We can't accept that." Why it matters: Children under 12 are not yet eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, leading many school districts in high risk areas to consider requiring mask wearing. The debate over mask requirements is reaching a boiling point in some states -- with some governors banning mask mandates altogether. 5. Miami-Dade superintendent says mask mandate bans "deeply influenced by politics"  Alberto Carvalho, the superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, said he is working to negotiate safety protocols for reopening schools ahead of the new school year. What he said: "It is sad that currently in America we see this rhetorical narrative that's deeply influenced by politics rather than medicine and the wise advice of those who know best what's in the best interests of our students and the professionals who teach them. But look, we are in a privileged position in Miami-Dade as we have time in our hands. Most of the school systems in Florida open tomorrow. We have two additional weeks to continue to negotiate, as Secretary Cardona indicated, a- practicable reasonable solutions that achieve two things. Number one, the appropriate protocols for a safe reopening of schools without compromising the health insurances for our students and our teachers while simultaneously avoiding these punitive defunding strategies. That could be a consequence of a defiance of the executive order or the emergency rules that were followed after the publication of the executive order by the Department of Health and Education." Why it matters: Carvalho will announce his decision regarding a mask mandate in schools for teachers and students on Monday, August 16. Last week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed an executive order banning local schools districts from requiring masks and threatened to pull state funding if they defied his order. | 
No comments:
Post a Comment