New COVID vaccine dashboard launches on DPH Website
The Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) is launching a new COVID vaccine dashboard on the DPH website https://dph.georgia.gov/. The dashboard provides a detailed, transparent picture of vaccination administration in Georgia.
As part of the transition to the new dashboard, there will be a one-time decrease in the number of vaccines administered. This slight decrease is the result of data cleaning, removal of duplicate vaccination entries and overall quality control.
The dashboard will update daily at 3 p.m. and now includes:
Number of vaccine doses that have been administered in Georgia and reported to the Georgia Registry for Immunization Transactions and Services (GRITS), broken out by first and second doses.
Number of vaccine doses administered by a Georgia provider per 100,000 residents, broken out by first and second doses.
Vaccine doses administered by county and by day.
♦ Race and ethnicity data of vaccine recipients.
♦ Total number of vaccine doses that have been shipped to Georgia from the federal government’s allocation for the state.
♦ The number of Georgia providers that have received vaccines from the federal allocation for Georgia.
♦ Number of vaccine doses shipped to Georgia providers and the percent
of those doses administered.
DPH will regularly review and update features of the dashboard to ensure data quality, accuracy and transparency.
The DPH also announced that effective Feb. 18 several improvements would be made to the COVID-19 Daily Status Report on the DPH website. These changes are designed to make the dashboard more user-friendly while providing an accurate picture of COVID-19 in Georgia.
The changes to the Daily Status Report include:
♦ Antigen tests have been added to the COVID-19 Testing section.
♦ Total cases have been added to the maps. Total cases include confirmed (PCR positive) and antigen positive cases.
♦ Antigen cases and total cases have been added to the COVID-19 Over Time section.
♦ Antigen tests, antigen cases, total cases and probable deaths have been added to data download files.
For more information about the antigen data, refer to the “Understand the Data” guide or click on “Download the Data” for an explanation of the data elements and what is contained within each file. Both can be found in the white information box at the top of the dashboard.
For updates on COVID-19, follow @GaDPH and @GovKemp on Twitter and @GaDPH and @GovKemp on Facebook.
For information about COVID-19, visit https://dph.georgia.gov/novelcoronavirus or https://www.cdc.gov/ coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html.
Ihave written frequently about the TV and radio heroes of my life, especially the late Luther Masingill, and the amazing Marcia Kling, who still spreads sunshine everywhere she goes.
Luther was the King of Morning Radio, fondly remembered for his lost dog reports, his school closings, and his unparalleled longevity.
“Miss Marcia” was the host of “Funtime,” which provided pre-school, kindergarten, and manners lessons in a TV program each morning.
I have long advocated for a Tennessee Broadcasting Hall of Fame. If one is ever established, Miss Marcia should be among the first inductees.
Her show featured games and songs with children in the studio. The highlight of each day was when she sang her own “Happy Birthday” song. The song featured high notes most humans can’t hope to reach. It doesn’t keep us from trying, but we learned quickly that Miss Marcia was often imitated but never duplicated.
A New York native, she came to Maryville, Tennessee, for her education in the late 1950s. She moved to Chattanooga a few years later taking a job at a church, and then as a school teacher. In 1962, the host of WTVC’s “Romper Room” left the show, and Marcia was asked to try out. She was an immediate hit, and a year later the show was renamed “Funtime,” enduring for 15 years.
There were some rough spots along the way. In the early 1970s, Miss Marcia was diagnosed with oral cancer. Her absence was noticeable to her young audience.
This was no ordinary illness, in which you only need a few months of rest and recuperation. Miss Marcia had to learn to speak again, from word one. This extraordinary hostess, teacher and entertainer, who had spoken so clearly and sang so beautifully, worked hard to return to her show. To no one’s surprise, she overcame this huge obstacle and soon resumed life as our eloquent Miss Marcia.
I finally got to meet her many years later. I was in a store with my sons Chris and Vince, who were 5 and 2. I saw Miss Marcia, and said, “Guys, you’ve got to meet this lady! I grew up watching her on TV!” She gave me a hug, and I introduced the boys to her. She made the appropriate fuss over them.
I saw her again about five years later, and this time I was by myself. She said, “Hello David, how are you?” And how are your fine boys, Chris and Vince?” As I’ve told that story over the years, I’ve learned that my experience was not uncommon. She remembers names like no one else.
It is important to note that Miss Marcia’s influence did not stop at the state line. Recently, an Iowa state legislator made that very clear.
Rep. Scott Ourth grew up in Chattanooga. As Scott was preparing to finish his political career, he wanted to honor those who had blessed his life.
He told me, “Miss Marcia was such a positive role model for me. She taught good values. She talked about the right way to treat people, about how to embrace our differences. She shared lessons of love and dignity, and I never forgot a word of it.”
During a lengthy career in government, Scott was often faced with tough decisions. Guess who was his guiding light? He said, “Honestly, I would ask myself, ‘Would Miss Marcia approve of this?’ She has always been my beacon of justice.”
Among his final acts as a lawmaker was to issue a State of Iowa Certificate of Recognition.
As for Miss Marcia, she was touched by this unexpected honor that arrived in her mailbox. She said, “I was overwhelmed. To think that my career would be honored in such a way was profoundly humbling. I had a wonderful time at work each day, and I never gave a thought to any residual benefits. But they continue to this day and keep me in a state of perpetual gratitude.”
Marcia Kling is living proof that kindness never goes out of style.
As a rule, I tend to avoid using columns or sermons to deal with political matters unless those matters are pressing, egregious, and have crossed very clear lines of truth. I much prefer to be encouraging, self-deprecating, and instructive rather than combative. But when in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “truth is fallen in the street,” I will always feel compelled to reach down and pick that truth up, and then to deal with whoever knocked her down to begin with.
No long-term reader of this column or of any of the books I have authored will be surprised to hear me espouse a firm pro-life position. I am unashamedly, unapologetically, enthusiastically prolife. I believe life begins at conception and is worthy of being protected both on moral grounds and on civil rights grounds. And that is why I rejoiced to hear that South Carolina had passed a fetal heartbeat bill into law. But it is what I watched and heard with my own eyes and ears that set my fingers to motion producing this column.
Here is how The State newspaper reported it.
“The Democratic caucus is here to proclaim that we’re tired of it,” Minority Leader Todd Rutherford said from the podium moments before Democrats exited the room. “We’re tired of the hypocrisy. We care about life until death. We care about birth. We care about life. We care about people eating, people not dying because they can’t get vaccines, people not dying because they can’t get (a coronavirus) test.”
“The Democratic Caucus will not be participating in this farce that is about pretend life,” Rutherford added. (https://www.thestate.com/ news/politics-government/ article249280140.html)
I watched it over and over and over again, utterly bewildered and aghast at that phrase, “pretend life.” My family and church and circle of friends are filled with medical professionals, from CNAs all the way up to M.D.s, and every last one of them, even the most liberal, will quickly tell you that it is very real life being discussed, not “pretend life.”
Pretend life does not have its very own DNA from the moment of conception. Pretend life does not have a heart that starts to beat at 18 days, 140 beats per minute. Pretend life does not have its own blood type at twenty-one days. Pretend life does not have its own eyes and ears beginning to form at just twenty-eight days. Pretend life does not have recorded brain waves, a complete skeleton, and a nervous system at just fortytwo days. And pretend life does not have a God in heaven saying “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee,” as God said in Jeremiah 1:5.
If I order a pizza, name it Clyde, and put a diaper on it, I have “pretend life.”
If I buy a plastic baby doll and name it Bubba, I have “pretend life.”
But when a baby is conceived, it is not pretend life, it is real life. As much as I despise abortion, I also appreciate honesty and truth. And it is for that reason that I actually have a small sliver of respect for people honest enough to say, “Yes, it is life, but we still think we have the right to abort it.” It is monstrous, but at least it is both scientific and honest. But “pretend life?” I have absolutely zero respect for that.
At twelve weeks a babe in the womb has fingers and toes; that isn’t pretend life.
At twelve weeks a babe in the womb start dreaming; that isn’t pretend life.
John the Baptist leaped for joy in his mother’s womb; that isn’t pretend life.
In October of 2017 A baby boy diagnosed with a spine deformity underwent lifechanging surgery while still inside the womb. His mom was 24 weeks pregnant when doctors lifted her womb out of her body to operate on her tiny baby, fixing his spina bifida. That isn’t pretend life. (https:// nypost.com/2017/10/25/ doctors-perform-incredible-surgery-on-baby-insidewomb/)
When a married couple finds out they are expecting, they always say “We are going to have a baby,” not “We have pretend life on board!” Why? Because they have better sense than elected officials who are very good at garnering votes but not so good with science or
Scripture.
Pretend life? Pardon me while I try in vain to pretend that that is not at once both the most unscientific and unbiblical statement I have ever heard.
Bo Wagner is pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Mooresboro, N.C. He is a widely traveled evangelist and the author of several books. He can be reached by email at 2knowhim@cbc-web.org.
A bill to remove student discipline from factoring into a five-star rating for schools and districts cleared a state Senate committee Feb. 17.
Rather than include discipline in a climate rating that rates a school’s health, safety and attendance, the bill would require schools and school districts to maintain separate data on disciplining that would have to be provided upon request by a parent or community member.
Backers of the bill, sponsored by Sen. Jeff Mullis, R
Chickamauga, say removing discipline from the rating would encourage teachers to actually punish bad-acting students rather than shirking that responsibility, since many schools skip disciplining students to avoid poor scores that could hurt future enrollment.
“Teachers are being told by district and school administrators not to write kids up,” said DeAnna Harris, the director of government relations for the advocacy group Educators First. “While this sounds admirable, it does not improve student behavior or school climate.”
Mullis represents Georgia
Senate District 53, which includes Catoosa, Dade, and Walker counties and portions of Chattooga County. He is chairman of the Senate Rules Committee.
Opponents have argued scrapping the discipline score would hollow out the school-climate rating system,
clouding over public reporting on problematic schools and gutting a tool intended to hold schools accountable for frequent behavioral issues among students.
Pamela Carn, a founder of the advocacy group End Mass Incarceration Georgia Network, said stripping discipline from the climate score could curb struggling schools from receiving needed resources to help improve student behavior and lead to worsening the school-toprison pipeline.
“The fact is that the school climate rating allows for the community to see the environment that’s created in a school,” Carn said.
The bill passed the Senate Education and Youth Committee with reporting changes added by Sen. Lindsey Tippins, R-Marietta. It now heads to the Senate floor.
The education committee did not vote Wednesday, Feb. 17, on a separate bill by state Sen. Lester Jackson, D-Savannah, to raise Georgia’s mandatory age to attend school from 16 to 17. Current state law allows Georgia students to drop out of school when they turn 16.
The committee’s chairman, Sen. Chuck Payne, RDalton, signaled he may call for votes on the raise-the-age bill in an upcoming meeting after debate was held on the bill earlier this month (February).
“I think we are all concerned that this is something we need to look at to make sure we’re not letting those kids fall through the cracks,” Payne said.