Communities need their newspapers,
and newspapers need their community
By Judy Patrick
From afar, the COVID-19
pandemic is generating news of
such terrifying magnitude that
it is nearly too overwhelming to
comprehend. Millions are suffering
and thousands are dying.
Economies are collapsing. The
world seems out of control.
That’s the big picture, which
you can learn about from innumerable
print, web and broadcast
news outlets.
But it’s in the pages of local
newspapers that this terrible
news hits home.
Through stories of sickness
and of death, of brave healthcare
workers and struggling small
business owners, local journalists
are documenting their
communities.
In hard-hit New York City,
dozens of local newspapers
are chronicling the challenges
neighborhood by neighborhood.
As the virus spreads
beyond metropolitan New York,
the chronicling extends, paper
by paper.
In each, above all are the
stories of the lives that have
been lost, touching tributes to
much loved grandfathers and
grandmothers, principals and
store clerks, police officers and
nurses.
Next come the stories of isolation
Contributing Writers: Azad Ali, Tangerine Clarke,
George Alleyne, Nelson King,
Vinette K. Pryce, Bert Wilkinson
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and loss as the life of a community
is put on hold: Funerals,
weddings, Little League baseball,
high school proms, senior
citizen trips and college graduations.
The list goes on and on.
Finally come are the tales of
generosity and hope, of thousands
of rainbows hung in windows
and drawn in chalk on
sidewalks, of food drives for the
afflicted, of music and art and of
the million small kindnesses of
one person to another.
Years from now, these stories
will be part of the historical
record of this pandemic. Right
now, however, they serve a far
greater purpose: They are helping
communities come together
to mourn, to support and to
hope. To eventually go forward
and heal, we first need to understand
what is happening to the
people we know and the businesses
we rely on.
Local newspapers are also
where many stories begin. Here
you’ll learn about upstate dairy
farmers forced to dump milk,
how Finger Lakes wineries are
adapting to the shutdown, the
slow startup to the federal small
business stimulus program on
the East End of Long Island, the
re-tooling of a Granville slate
company to make face shields for
healthcare workers and efforts
to safeguard our food supply
chain by protecting farmland.
These are the stories that set
local newspapers apart from
anything you’ll see and read via
bigger outlets. Each paper is
telling its community’s unique
set of stories about death and
heroism and struggle. And for
communities in crisis, this personalization
is key to grappling
with this pandemic.
There are practical benefits
as well. In times of crisis, local
newspapers have long been a
clearinghouse of essential information
such as phone numbers,
emergency food distribution
plans, road closures and boil
water orders. Nowadays, with
much of this information scattered
online, newspapers are
adapting and collating. Take
The Daily News and Livingston
County News in Batavia, for
example. They’ve established a
COVID-19 Community Support
Map pinpointing locations of
blood drives, food pickup spots
and medical services. The map
quickly became the most popular
feature on the paper’s website
.A
ll of this is how local newspapers
bring communities
together. It’s just one reason
they’re so important. While
their watchdog role in sustaining
our democracy will always
be paramount, and one that’s
become a crucial part of the
ongoing story, this shared commitment
to community is shining
right now.
Local newspapers care
– always have and always will.
It’s what sets them apart from
all other media, even Facebook.
They will be at the zoning board
meeting you care about, at your
Fourth of July parade and your
high school graduation. They
will write about the kindergarten
class trip to the pumpkin
farm as well as the school budget,
food banks for the hungry as
well as which takeout joint has
the best burgers.
They’ve been around so long
it’s easy to take them for granted.
But they are in danger, especially
now that local businesses
that provide crucial advertising
revenue have closed.
There’s a lot of news you can
access for free. Many local newspapers
have even temporarily
dropped their paywalls on their
virus-related content. The gesture
reflects their mission to go
above and beyond to serve their
communities in a time of crisis.
But news really isn’t free. It’s
costly to produce. Reporters,
photographers, editors, printers,
advertising representatives and
support staff deserve and need
a paycheck for the work they
do. To do that, newspapers need
the people in those Fourth of
July parades and at those school
board meetings to subscribe.
Now, more than ever, they need
their communities.
OP-EDS
To protect the most vulnerable, we must reimagine medicine
By Kim Callinan
“I have heart disease, and I am
scared. For years, doctor’s visits
and medication have kept me
alive. However, now I am afraid
if I go to the doctor, I will catch
coronavirus and die. If I don’t go,
my heart disease could kill me.”
I have had similar conversations
with seriously ill Americans
nationwide who have a host of
diseases. They are legitimately
at greater risk of dying prematurely
if they are exposed to the
coronavirus (COVID-19). Terminally
ill patients at the end
of their life face an even direr
dilemma. They need access to
quality medical care to control
pain, manage symptoms, reduce
suffering and extend their quality
of life. A shortage of hospice
care could drive them to seek
pain and symptom management
in already crowded, infectious
emergency departments, which
would increase their risk of a premature,
painful death.
As the nation grapples to
contain and treat patients with
COVID-19, we’re rethinking how
we care for people with other
serious or terminal illnesses.
Given that patients risk contracting
the coronavirus at healthcare
facilities designed to save lives,
medicine must adopt accordingly,
by replacing brick and mortar
medicine with the safe, effective
use of telehealth.
Fortunately, late last month
the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services (CMS) issued regulations
to implement telehealth
provisions in the Coronavirus
Aid, Relief, and Economic Security
Act (CARES Act) that significantly
expand patients’ access
to telehealth services. They will
help ensure that vulnerable populations,
including terminally ill
patients, can seek care in the
safety of their own homes while
allowing quarantined doctors the
ability to safely deliver quality
health care.
CMS will now pay for more
than 80 additional Medicare
services when furnished via telehealth.
They include emergency
department visits, initial nursing
facility and discharge visits,
and home visits, which must be
provided by a clinician that is
allowed to provide telehealth.
Providers can evaluate Medicare
beneficiaries, who have audio
phones only, a vitally important
option for low tech seniors.
Licensed clinical social worker
services, clinical psychologist
services, physical therapy services,
occupational therapist services,
and speech language pathology
services can receive payment
for Medicare telehealth services.
Licensed practitioners, such as
nurse practitioners and physician
assistants, are allowed to order
Medicaid home health services
during the existence of the public
health emergency for the COVID-
19 pandemic.
Fortunately, telehealth recently
has become a rapidly growing
care vehicle in the United States.
According to a 2018 JAMA study,
annual telehealth visits have
increased at an average annual
compound growth rate of 52 percent
from 2005 to 2017. A 2018
study by Deloitte indicates that
9 out of 10 physicians recognize
the benefits of telehealth. Furthermore,
two-thirds of physicians
(66 percent) note that virtual
care improves patient access
and the majority (52 percent)
recognizes it improves patient
satisfaction.
Despite these promising statistics
and the new CARES Act
provisions, widespread adoption
of telehealth will take some time.
It will require buy-in by both
healthcare providers and patients
to restructure our health system
and make telehealth a first-line
approach, particularly during the
threat of COVID-19.
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