Opinion pages seek solutions, engagement
The Dispatch opinion page will take on a different feel and a slightly different look starting Monday.
There are a couple of reasons for that. One is that opinions about opinion pages have changed over time. A second reason is that our editorial writing staff is leaving us in December.
Editorial Page Editor Mary Yost and editorial writers Mary Edwards and Herb Grant all are departing after decades of service to Dispatch readers. We are grateful for their dedication to good journalism and their hard work, especially in this challenging year.
They are among a number of staff members who are taking advantage of a voluntary severance program. Yost and Grant are leaving this week. Edwards will continue through the end of the year to help with a transition to a community engagement editor and a new approach to opinion content.
Research by Gannett journalists and comments from you in recent years show that most Americans are increasingly fatigued by the divisiveness of opinion content. Adding to that fatigue in a big way is social media, which can be extremely toxic.
As we have seen during the recent election, Americans are more divided and readers are vacating moderate views. In 2016, 40% identified as moderate. Just two years later, in 2018, that number had dropped to 19%.
What we have heard from readers is that they don’t want to be lectured. Readers do not want to be told what to think. But they do appreciate a good column.
We never intended for editorials, the unsigned opinions of the Editorial Board, to “tell you what to think.” The goal has been to provide an informed opinion — one based on reporting, research and direct conversations with people involved in those topics, such as lawmakers or community leaders — so that readers have facts and an opinion they can consider in forming their own views.
Those opinions are as valid as any you might hear from a friend in church or a buddy on the next bar stool, and they are presented with good intentions and the hope that they will be considered. It’s then up to each individual to decide whether he or she will accept or reject the opinion.
So The Dispatch Editorial Board will continue to provide solutions-based opinions representing the consensus of the board based on reporting and research, focusing on topics on which we believe our opinion adds the greatest value. But we won’t do so as often as in the past — perhaps once a week. And we might pick up occasional editorials from other newspapers — clearly marked as representing the views of their editorial boards.
More often, this page will carry signed opinion columns representing the thoughts and opinions of experts, as
Yes, a vaccine is on the horizon, expected to be available for priority recipients such as first responders as early as mid-december. And some Ohio patients are now receiving promising new treatment, similar to the antibody therapy that helped President Donald Trump recover from COVID-19 in October.
Those are bright spots on the pandemic horizon, but ominous clouds also hover in the form of unanswered questions about long-term effects of the virus and also about what other havoc follows in its wake.
One concern must be for those who may be suffering and dying in nursing homes from a lack of attention and inadequate care while staff are necessarily focused on those who are more seriously ill with coronavirus infection. The Associated Press reported earlier this month that a nursing home expert from the Institute on Health and Aging at the University of California San Francisco estimates that 40,000 nursing home residents may have died prematurely since March across the U.S. for reasons other than COVID-19.
Professor Stephen Kaye found that data indicates an additional patient dies for other reasons for every two longterm care residents who succumb to COVID-19. He told the AP, “There are not enough people to look after the nursing home residents.”
And nursing homes are not the only places that the virus is being blamed for driving up deaths for other causes.
As Dispatch reporter Max Filby reported recently, medical professionals are concerned about thousands of what are termed “excess deaths” in Ohio this year. As of Nov. 13, the number of Ohioans who had died so far from all causes — 108,726 — was nearly 8% more than would have been expected based on the previous five-year average.
Just 5,600 of the 7,864 additional deaths were attributed to COVID-19, which could mean the pandemic’s death toll is being underreported or that the illness is exacerbating other health conditions with deadly implications. We know, for example, that drug overdoses, homicides and suicides have also risen. Some experts suspect the social isolation imposed to try to stem the spread of infection could be triggering more deaths of despair.
There also is concern that precautions taken to avoid risk of coronavirus exposure could be causing serious health problems to go undetected.
Elective procedures have been delayed and people with other health concerns decline to see their doctor or go to the hospital for fear of contracting the disease.
A study published in the journal Health Affairs in September found that hospital admissions for a variety of problems — including heart conditions, breathing difficulties and sepsis — dropped substantially in the spring during the first wave of COVID cases. “Falling hospitalization rates could portend substantial harm to public health if patients defer care for life-threatening conditions,” the journal reported.
As hospitals throughout the state raise alarms about increasing COVID patient caseloads and lament a lack of staff to handle the surge, there are mounting concerns that other diseases won’t be diagnosed and treated as quickly as they should if hospitals become overwhelmed with COVID patients.
Ponder also unknowns about longterm impacts on the development and education of children whose critical contacts with teachers, grandparents and other caregivers have been greatly curtailed by coronavirus. Will today‘s babies and toddlers grow up to be more withdrawn and less trusting? Will today’s elementary students struggle to attain educational expectations because of lost instruction time and reduced personal attention?
So there remains much that we don’t know about COVID-19’S terrible toll in Ohio and beyond.
But we must also remember what we do know:
hwearing a mask (and wearing it properly over both mouth and nose) helps protect mask wearers as well as others nearby from contracting COVID.
h Keeping a safe social distance of at least 6 feet can help reduce spread of the virus.
hwashing hands frequently can keep us healthier.
h Staying within our own bubbles and not socializing with others can help prevent the risk of catching coronavirus infection.
h Becoming vaccinated as soon as possible with what appear to be highly effective new vaccines will help our society return to more normal routines.
The surest way to reduce the harmful impacts of COVID-19, both known and unknown, is to do all we can to halt its spread. Safe health practices have never been more important.