Europe staggers as variants power coronavirus surge
MILAN — The virus swept through a nursery school and an adjacent elementary school in the Milan suburb of Bollate with amazing speed. In just days, 45 children and 14 staff members had tested positive.
Genetic analysis confirmed what officials already suspected: The highly contagious coronavirus variant first identified in England was racing through the community, a densely packed city of nearly 40,000 with a chemical plant and a Pirelli bicycle tire factory a 15-minute drive from the heart of Milan.
“This demonstrates that the virus has a sort of intelligence . ... We can put up all the barriers in the world and imagine that they work, but in the end, it adapts and penetrates them,” lamented Bollate Mayor Francesco Vassallo.
Bollate was the first city in Lombardy, the northern region that has been the epicenter in each of Italy’s three surges, to be sealed off from neighbors because of virus variants that the World Health Organization says are powering another uptick in infections across Europe. The variants also include versions first identified in South Africa and Brazil.
Europe recorded 1 million new COVID-19 cases last week, an increase of 9% from the previous week and a reversal that ended a six-week decline in new infections, WHO said Thursday.
“The spread of the variants is driving the increase, but not only,” said Dr. Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, citing “also the opening of society, when it is not done in a safe and a controlled manner.”
The variant first found in the U.K. is spreading significantly in 27 European countries monitored by WHO
and is dominant in at least 10 countries, including Britain, Italy, Ireland, Germany, France, Israel and Spain.
It is up to 50% more transmissible than the virus that surged last spring and again in the fall, making it more adept at thwarting measures that were previously effective, WHO experts warned. Scientists have concluded that it is also more deadly.
In Lombardy, which bore the brunt of Italy’s spring surge, intensive care wards are again filling up, with more than two-thirds of new positive tests being the UK variant, health officials said.
After putting two provinces and some 50 towns on a modified lockdown, Lombardy’s regional governor announced tightened restrictions Friday and closed classrooms for all ages. Cases in Milan schools alone surged 33% in a week, the provincial health system’s chief said.
The situation is dire in the Czech Republic, which last week registered a recordbreaking total of nearly 8,500 patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Poland is opening temporary hospitals and
imposing a partial lockdown as the U.K. variant has grown from 10% of all infections in February to 25% now.
Kluge cited Britain’s experience as cause for optimism, noting that widespread restrictions and the introduction of the vaccine have helped tamp down the variants there and in Israel. The vaccine rollout in the European Union, by comparison, is lagging badly, mostly because of supply problems.
In Britain, the emergence of the more transmissible strain sent cases soaring in December and triggered a national lockdown in January. Cases have since plummeted, from about 60,000 a day in early January to about 7,000 a day now.
Still, a study shows the rate of decline slowing, and the British government says it will tread cautiously with plans to ease the lockdown. That process begins Monday with the reopening of schools. Infection rates are highest in people ages 13 to 17, and officials will watch closely to see whether the return to class brings a spike in infections.
There have been some opinions recently published in The Baltimore Sun that oppose Mayor Brandon Scott’s bold move to join Mayors for a Guaranteed Income and his commitment to exploring a guaranteed income pilot in Baltimore (“Baltimore needs jobs, not ‘guaranteed income,’ ” Feb. 25). I wanted to chime in and offer a different perspective.
First, the idea of a guaranteed income (defined as a government sending people direct, recurring cash payments) has deep roots in the civil rights movement. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. put it very bluntly in his final book, “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community,” when he wrote, “The solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income.” The Black Panther Party platform (called the Ten-Point Program) also included the fight for a guaranteed income.
Second, the Baltimore pilot program is slated to be led by the Mayor’s
Office of Children and Family Success which oversees a number of anti-poverty programs specifically designed to improve outcomes for children and families in Baltimore. It makes me think of an already established guaranteed income pilot in Jackson, Mississippi, called the Magnolia Mother’s Trust. This program was the first in the nation to specifically target payments to extremely low-income families headed by Black women living in affordable housing, many of whom already work multiple jobs in an effort to keep their families afloat. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly one in four Black women in America live below the poverty line.
I implore The Sun’s readers to take 10 minutes, search YouTube for “Magnolia Mother’s Trust” and watch some of the participants talk about how this guaranteed income pilot program has affected their lives. When asked, “What does this additional monthly income mean to you?” the overwhelming response is some variation of “it means freedom!” Freedom to pay bills, to pay down debt, to put food on the table and still have time and money left over for fun treats and creative pursuits. There is now some breathing room and space for making one’s life more than a constant struggle for survival under the crushing weight of capitalism and racism. These mothers can work less and love on their families more, and that is good for everyone.
To paraphrase Aisha Nyandoro, leader of the Magnolia Mother’s Trust: When people have time and emotional bandwidth freed up, they have the ability to think and dream of a more just, more compassionate and less cynical world.
On Feb. 5, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin issued a memorandum directing a military-wide stand down to address extremism within the ranks. Days later, the Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Mike Gilday, followed suit, condemning two recent incidents of symbols of hate and violence found aboard Navy ships.
The directives come after it was determined that nearly 20% of the 190 people charged in the attack on the U.S. Capitol have served or currently serve in the military. They also follow on the heels of the June revelation that retired Navy Capt. Scott Bethmann, while a trustee of the U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association Board, mistakenly posted on Facebook Live a video of himself making negative comments and racial slurs about the academy’s admission of women, Asian Americans and African Americans. Although the alumni board condemned the comments, and Captain Bethmann subsequently resigned, the continued extremist behavior of veterans and military members suggests more concrete action is necessary.
These incidents should be disturbing and infuriating to all Americans, and they show that swift action — beyond condemnation — should be taken to truly address extremism in the military.
The Naval Academy, charged with training future Navy and Marine Corps leaders, should immediately remove Confederate namesakes from its campus to send a strong message that it rejects discrimination. I do not propose erasing these men from history, as much can be learned from their successes and failures, but, ultimately, studying these men is significantly different from idolizing them on the grounds of a military institution.
Several notable leaders in our nation’s history lived in ways once considered acceptable that are now deeply concerning, though Confederate leaders, particularly those memorialized on military installations, hold additional cause for concern. These men ultimately chose to commit treason by exchanging their honorable U.S. Navy uniform for the uniform of an enemy dedicated to the cause of slavery in the name of states’ rights.
The landmarks named for Confederates at the Naval Academy include Maury Hall, an academic building named for Matthew Fontaine Maury and built in 1907; and Buchanan Road and Buchanan House, the official residence of the Naval Academy superintendent. Both were named for Franklin Buchanan and built in 1906. Maury was a leader in navigation, oceanography and meteorology in the U.S. Navy, and Buchanan proposed the plans establishing the Naval Academy and served as its first superintendent. Their accomplishments however, do not exclude these men from their voluntary act of resigning their commissions and committing treason.
Buchanan was the only Confederate naval officer to be promoted to full admiral, becoming the highest-ranking Confederate naval officer. As Captain of the CSS Virginia during the Battle of Hampton Roads, he handed the U.S. Navy its worst defeat until Pearl Harbor. Maury’s development of the first electrically controlled naval mine for the Confederate Navy was said to have “cost the Union more vessels than all other causes combined.” Over 2,000 U.S. Navy sailors were killed during the American Civil War, many of them graduates of the very institution memorializing these Confederate Navy leaders.
In addition to hosting thousands of guests annually, including U.S. and foreign dignitaries and military leaders, the superintendent’s residence hosts all Naval Academy seniors and families during Commissioning Week, and is a focal point on the campus.
Holding such notable events in a building named for the highest-ranking Confederate Navy admiral seems tactless and misguided, especially as the military investigates extremist and supremacist behavior in the ranks.
Wesley Brown Field House is named after the first African American graduate of the Naval Academy, who graduated in 1949 after five other African American Midshipmen were “unmercifully hazed, assaulted and driven out during their first year,” according to the U.S. Naval Academy Minority Association. Wesley Brown, a Baltimore native endured excessive punishments and hardships as a midshipman. For an institution to celebrate the legacy of Midshipman Brown by naming its field house after this retired U.S. Navy officer who served honorably for 20 years, it is troubling to also name buildings after Confederate Navy leaders.
This summer, the Department of
Defense issued directive orders to remove the display of Confederate flags and insignia including bumper stickers and personal items from military installations. Now, amid a stand down to eliminate extremism, it is time for all military installations, including the Naval Academy to rename landmarks with Confederate namesakes after more inspirational and representative Navy and Marine Corps leaders.
Greyhounds advance to the Patriot League tournament semifinals with an upset of undermanned Midshipmen.
Free-agent pitcher Jake Odorizzi, who made the American League All-Star team while pitching for the Twins in 2019, agreed to a two-year deal with the Astros on Saturday. The 30-yearold right-hander pitched three seasons for the Twins, and was 22-18 with a 4.11 ERA. After going 15-7 in 2019, he was injured much of last season and made only four starts. He had a back injury, took a line drive to the chest and was also sidelined by a blister, and had a 6.59 ERA in 13
innings. Before the season, he accepted a $17 million qualifying offer from the Twins, rejecting free agency in hopes he would have a strong 2020 to increase his value on the free-agent market. Terms of his deal with the Astros were not disclosed, but the MLB Network reported the incentive-laden contract could be worth $30 million over two seasons and has a buyout for Year 3. Starter Framber Valdez has a finger injury that is expected to sideline him at the start of the season, sparking Houston’s interest in Odorizzi. Astros ace Justin Verlander had Tommy John surgery in September and is expected to miss the season.