January, 03 2022, 11:05am EDT
With COVID Infection Numbers Exploding and Pediatric Hospitalizations at All-Time Highs, National Nurses United RNs Call for Schools to Offer Remote Learning to Protect Nation's Children
With Covid-19 infection numbers, fueled by the highly transmissible Omicron variant, reaching all-time records in the United States and pediatric hospitalization rates skyrocketing in recent weeks, National Nurses United today urged all school districts and policy makers to offer remote learning as an option for families who don't want their students to return to in-person learning.
WASHINGTON
With Covid-19 infection numbers, fueled by the highly transmissible Omicron variant, reaching all-time records in the United States and pediatric hospitalization rates skyrocketing in recent weeks, National Nurses United today urged all school districts and policy makers to offer remote learning as an option for families who don't want their students to return to in-person learning.
"We always advise people to practice physical distancing in order to avoid infection, but schoolchildren are actually required to gather in large groups every day," said Martha Kuhl, a pediatric RN and secretary treasurer of NNU, the largest union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States. "The responsible thing to do to protect them is to provide an alternative to in-person school through remote learning until we get this surge under better control."
In addition to Omicron, pediatric nurses warn that schoolchildren are battling a whole host of serious viruses this winter, including influenza, Covid-19 Delta variants, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and other upper respiratory infections.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, new hospital admissions for kids with Covid-19 rose 66 percent in just the past week to 378 per day -- record highs since the pandemic began in January 2020.
Nurses advocate that public health decisions--such as reopening schools in person--be driven by the precautionary principle. The precautionary principle asserts that we should not wait for scientific proof of harm before taking action to protect people's health. Better safe than sorry.
Right now, there are many unanswered questions about the virus that causes Covid-19 and how it impacts children, especially long term. What we do know is that children can be infected and can transmit the virus to others. Bringing people together in enclosed spaces, without the robust public health infrastructure nurses have called for since the beginning of this pandemic, will undoubtedly increase the spread of the virus, impacting our children, their families, their caregivers, teachers and other school workers, and ultimately our communities.
Nurses continue to call for a multiple-measures approach in all settings to infection control, which has been scientifically proven most effective at curbing Covid-19 transmission. These tested and effective public and workplace infection control measures that the entire country must be implementing now include continued universal masking and increasing vaccination numbers, robust and routine testing, proper isolation, contact tracing and notification, proper quarantining, ventilation, social distancing, and diligent hygiene. For nurses and other health care workers, employers must also provide optimal, single-use PPE and safe staffing levels. These measures are equally as important for other settings that employ essential workers, including retail, grocery, food industry, and more.
Nurses call on the government and employers to prioritize public health by meeting the following criteria:
Public health infrastructure must be strengthened to include sufficient staffing, supplies, and space for robust surveillance, testing, case isolation, and contact tracing to ensure that the virus is effectively contained.
Basic human needs must be met. People in America must have enhanced unemployment benefits and paid sick time and family leave; food security; housing; health care; and other social supports for people who are unemployed or unable to work due to illness or quarantine and isolation measures.
Health care capacity must be expanded, and people must be able to get treatment they need if they contract COVID-19-- at no cost. Any vaccine developed with U.S. taxpayer dollars must also be provided to the U.S. public for free when needed.
Nurses and other health care workers must have the optimal personal protective equipment (PPE) they need, including powered air-purifying respirators, coveralls that incorporate head coverings and shoe coverings, and gloves.
CDC, WHO, OSHA guidelines and standards must be strengthened. The SARS-CoV-2 virus is transmitted through the air. Nurses demand that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization strengthen their guidelines accordingly. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) must also issue a permanent standard for infectious diseases to mandate that health care employers provide protections needed for Covid-19. NNU in recent weeks opposed the CDC's shortening of isolation guidance for exposed and infected workers from 10 to five days, pointing out that the change was not based on science and does not follow the precautionary principle to take the safer route in the absence of scientific proof of harm. Nurses demand the CDC return to the former isolation guidance.
Health care capacity and preparedness must focus on human need, not profit. This pandemic has exposed underlying problems in our society, and has illuminated the damage done by economic policies that benefit our money-driven health care system, instead of human beings. Nurses have seen health care services for communities of color shuttered in recent months, as wealthy hospital corporations use Covid-19 as an excuse to close less profitable services. Nurses say the health care needs of all patients must be a priority before states can reopen.
The Covid-19 pandemic has shown the world in the starkest terms that the health of every individual is connected to the health of another, and this includes all our schoolchildren. Nurses know that public health must be prioritized as we work to protect our communities.
National Nurses United, with close to 185,000 members in every state, is the largest union and professional association of registered nurses in US history.
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GOP State AGs Ask EPA to 'Eviscerate' Crucial Environmental Justice Tool
"Many of the states that have signed the petition have historically allowed these harmful facilities to be placed in predominantly Black and brown communities," said one advocate.
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Led by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, Republican leaders in 23 states on Tuesday filed a petition making clear their aim to allow petrochemical companies and other corporations to continue operating pollution-causing facilities without regard for the "disparate impact" they can have on low-income communities of color.
The attorneys general of states including Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas wrote to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan, asking him to amend Title VI under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The law prohibits recipients of federal funds from discriminating against residents based on race and national origin and allows residents to petition the EPA arguing that state agencies have intentionally discriminated or disparately impacted a particular community.
Title VI has underpinned hundreds of legal cases, including recent EPA investigations into the 85-mile stretch of land in Louisiana known as Cancer Alley, where dozens of petrochemical plants have been built and health experts have observed a disproportionate number of cancer cases and other medical problems among the predominantly Black population.
The attorneys general said they object to the Biden administration's use of Title VI to "advance what it calls 'environmental justice,'" and complained that the EPA aims to create "a condition in which no racially or economically defined group experiences adverse environmental impacts."
Andre Segura, vice president of litigation at the environmental legal group Earthjustice, said Wednesday that the Republican attorneys general aim to "eviscerate civil rights protections just to make it easier for industrial polluters to continue with business as usual."
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The petition was filed three months after U.S. District Court Judge James Cain Jr., an appointee of former President Donald Trump in Louisiana, ruled that Title VI requirements amount to "government overreach."
The EPA halted its Title VI investigation into the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) last year a month after Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, a Republican, sued the agency over its Title VI regulations. The EPA had been probing whether the LDEQ placed the historically Black town of St. John the Baptist Parish at risk by allowing companies to build petrochemical plants nearby.
There are more than 50 pending cases regarding Title VI violations, Earthjustice said.
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As Volkswagen workers in Tennessee began voting on whether to join the United Auto Workers, progressive critics on Wednesday continued to call out six Southern GOP governors for jointly saying they "are highly concerned about the unionization campaign driven by misinformation and scare tactics that the UAW has brought into our states."
Govs. Kay Ivey of Alabama, Brian Kemp of Georgia, Tate Reeves of Mississippi, Henry McMaster of South Carolina, Bill Lee of Tennessee, and Greg Abbott of Texas issued their statement in response to "the largest organizing drive in modern American history," which the UAW launched after major contract wins following a strike targeting the Big Three automakers—General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis—last year.
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What actually threatens American workers?\n\u274c Anti-union, anti-worker propaganda like this\n\ud83d\udcb0 Corps that put profits over people\n\u26d1\ufe0f Safety standards not being met\n\n@GovAbbott & @GovernorKayIvey sound more like corporate lobbyists than governors here. @UAW backs American workers!— (@)
The Economic Policy Institutesaid Wednesday that the governors' anti-union statement "clearly shows how scared they are that workers organizing with UAW to improve jobs and wages will upend the highly unequal, failed anti-worker economic development model of Southern states."
Responding to the statement on social media, the Congressional Labor Caucus declared that "we speak up when we see threats to workers' rights. Workers must be allowed to choose whether to form a union on their own—free from influence from their employers or politicians. Shame on these governors for putting out this anti-union propaganda."
After Ivey shared the statement on social media, Nina Turner, a senior fellow at the Institute on Race, Power, and Political Economy, asked, "Better wages and working conditions are against the values of your state?"
MSNBC's Chris Hayes was even snarkier, jokingly calling the statement "yet more evidence of the populist, pro-worker turn of the Trump-era GOP."
The UAW vote in Chattanooga, Tennessee is set to wrap up on Friday. Then, attention is expected to shift to Vance, Alabama. Workers at a nonunion Mercedes-Benz plant there submitted a petition to the National Labor Relations Board earlier this month requesting an election to join the union.
Noting Ivey's social media post about the statement, Diana Hussein, who does communications work for the UAW, said: "She's mad cuz she wants to keep the Alabama discount that leaves workers behind. No more! #StandUpUAW."
Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, also took aim at Ivey, saying, "You used Alabama taxpayers' money to have state troopers escort out-of-state scabs to break the strike of YOUR constituents."
Nelson explained that she was referring to the "hardworking" United Mine Workers of America members employed by Warrior Met, "who were fighting for the right to see their families more than a few days a year."
More Perfect Union told Ivey that "unions only threaten your values if you value denying workers a living wage and good benefits."
In contrast with the Republican governors, around two-thirds of the Senate Democratic Caucus in January wrote to 13 nonunion automakers—including Mercedes and Volkswagen—urging them not to illegally block UAW organizing at their plants.
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The group targeted Austin's testimony a month after the Biden administration released its 2025 budget request—a proposal that includes $1.1 trillion in military-related spending. Despite growing calls from U.S. lawmakers and rights advocates, the White House has not announced conditions for military aid to Israel, which has been widely accused of human rights violations as it has assaulted Gaza and blocked humanitarian aid from reaching Palestinians.
Israel's bombardment has killed at least 33,899 Palestinians so far, and more than two dozen people have died of starvation in recent months as international experts have warned parts of northern Gaza are facing famine.
At least 13,000 children have been killed, and the United Nations reported in February that 70% of those killed overall have been women and children—even as Israel and the U.S. have insisted Israeli forces are targeting Hamas.
The International Court of Justice issued a preliminary ruling in January saying Israel is "plausibly" committing genocide in Gaza, and lawmakers including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) have expressed support for the ruling—but the U.S. has dismissed the court's findings, including at Austin's hearing last week.
While Hajjaj held up her son at Wednesday's hearing, another protester, identified by CodePink as Helen, addressed the defense secretary.
"Secretary Austin, why are you denying Israel's genocide in Gaza? Why are you denying genocide in Gaza?" said Helen, who was arrested after being led out of the hearing. "The whole world sees it! You know the laws of war! You know you have blood on your hands! You have blood on your hands! We have blood on our hands."
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