COVID — it’s not over

Government funds are dwindling and more boosters may be on the horizon

The U.S. Congress has cut funds to help fight COVID, and one government official warned last week that it’s too early to give up the fight. Without that money, U.S. Health Secretary Xavier Becerra warned that the U.S. may soon be beset by a second Omicron variant that is currently hitting Europe and Asia.

For reference, in the last two years of COVID, nearly 1 million Americans have died because of the disease, by far the most deaths recorded in any country over those 24 months.

In addition, Moderna — the creator of one of the three main vaccines in the U.S. — has asked the Food and Drug Administration to authorize a fourth shot for Americans as a way to keep new variants at bay here as they hit other countries.

Here’s what you can do:

Anniversary stories can be tempting to do, and in the case of COVID — a disease that affected all of us in some way — the danger is casting the story as a look back at the pandemic when we’re technically still in it.

And schools are now operating without mask mandates. How many students in your school choose to mask up? Has attendance gone up or down after the removal of mandates?

My kids' school made masks optional on Monday. My 7yo has stayed masked but reported that only 1/4 of her peers kept masks on. Today, the entire class is out sick.

— Rachel Fish (@rachelEfish) March 18, 2022

For reference, more than 35,000 Americans tested positive for the virus on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, and 931 people died that day from COVID.

The questions to ask your administration, parents and students shouldn’t all be about a look back, they should also ask your sources to look forward. How has school life changed forever? How have personal lives changed forever? What will school, movies, dates, restaurants and sporting events look like in the future?

This site has a lot of great data on Americans’ attitudes about the “Return to Normal.” Can you gather similar data from your community and student body?

Is it harder for 18-year olds to vote?

It depends on where you live, but it’s likely rules have changed since 2020

If you live in the United States, chances are your legislature in the last couple of sessions has changed voting laws in your state — 36 states have passed laws changing how elections are handled in those states. And many of those laws will affect first-time voters, high school students and first-year college students.

Some states have made it easier to vote. If you live in Delaware or Hawaii, for example, you now are automatically registered to vote when you turn 18. Ten states have increased access to mail-in voting.

Yet some states have made voting more difficult. In Texas, more than 23,000 mail-in votes were disqualified in a primary election leading to this fall’s mid-term elections at the local, state and national levels.

The states making voting more difficult are following the rhetoric of former President Donald Trump, who continues to falsely claim that massive voter fraud cost him the 2020 election, and whose false statements contributed to the attempt to overthrow the election on Jan. 6, 2021. The states making voting easier generally are reacting to the laws passed in the states making voting more difficult.

Of course, as we’ve noted many times here in the Scroll, the desire to make voting more difficult stems from a lie perpetuated by former President Donald Trump that massive voter fraud cost him the 2020 election.

Here’s what you can do:

How large is your senior class? Well, that’s how many potential voters you have for the fall mid-terms, and your junior class will have a good percentage of its members also eligible to vote in the fall. Most of your senior class is probably already eligible to vote in the primaries.

What election-law changes did your legislature pass in either or both the 2021 and 2022 sessions? How do  18-year olds register to vote in your state? If you’re a college student living away from your home state, how are you supposed to handle that? Where should you register and vote? And if you’re registered in your home state but are out-of-state during an election, how do you cast an absentee or mail-in ballot?

Please let your readers know now before it’s too late in the fall.

Another Texas tragedy

Nine die in accident that involved a truck driven by a 13-year-old boy

Thursday night’s fatal crash on the Great Plains of West Texas killed nine people, including members of a college golf team and the 13-year-old driver of a truck and his 38-year-old passenger.

Texans must wait until their 14th birthday to take driving instruction classes, and can’t apply for a permit to drive with an instructor until they turn 15.

Here’s what you can do:

Like so many other laws in the United States, your ability to drive at a certain age depends on where you live. States such as Iowa also allow for exemptions for children who live on farms and help their families with that business.

Do all of your students immediately apply for a learner’s permits and a driver’s licenses when they’re eligible? Why or why not? What are your state’s penalties for operating a motor vehicle if you’re not old enough or if you don’t have the proper permit or license?