Baby boomers often share with me memories of teachers who were important influences in their lives.
I often think of such a teacher, though I was never in her classroom. In 1967, as a recent college graduate, I was hired to teach at Pittsfieldâs North Junior High School. It was then that I met a fellow teacher named Margaret Hart. It was the start of a nice friendship with a memorable mentor and remarkable human being.
During the 1960s, while in college, I had been very active as a volunteer in numerous civil rights projects. I wanted to continue such involvement in Pittsfield. As a new teacher in the Pittsfield Public Schools, where almost all teachers like myself were white, I welcomed my friendship with a colleague who would introduce me to local efforts in social responsibility.
The announcement took place on Tuesday in Atlanta at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The order comes after President Joe Biden ensured all Americans will be eligible for vaccination by May 1 at the latest. Georgia is the sixth state in the U.S. to allow all residents to be vaccinated, according to the New York Times.
Currently, people over 18 are authorized to receive any vaccine. People between the ages of 16 and 18 can only receive the Pfizer vaccine.
Where does Georgia stand?
According to Amber Schmidtke, a former Mercer School of Medicine professor who releases a daily digest of COVID-19 updates and health information, about 75% of Georgians will need to be fully vaccinated in order to approach herd immunity. That’s almost the entire population of Georgia over 16 years old.
All Georgians now eligible for COVID-19 vaccine, Mercer Macon distribution remains unclear mercercluster.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from mercercluster.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Health Care Access and Improvement
Elimination of $500,000 for start-up funding for FQHCs.
Addition of $500,000 in start-up grants for FQHCs in Jeff Davis and Marion counties.
Healthcare Facility Regulation
Addition of $7,454,466 to support strategic measures for stabilizing staffing in the nursing home program.
Medicaid - Aged, Blind, and Disabled
Reduction of $74,646,745 in State funds to reflect savings from the temporary FMAP increase through September 30, 2021.
Addition of $25,328,540 to provide a 10% rate increase for home and community-based service providers.
Addition of $11,932,550 to provide a 2% rate increase for skilled nursing centers.
Addition of $3,470,204 for skilled nursing centers to update the general and professional liability, property insurance, and property tax pass-through rate components to current costs.
Likewise: Why don’t we have a national strategic plan to fight the pandemic while we await vaccinations, which could take until mid-2021 before most Americans are vaccinated? It boils down to personality and politics.
Trump has ignored the pandemic, stating repeatedly that it will simply vanish. Democrats have done better on the state level where they control the legislative and executive branches but have only emphasized economic relief on the national level. Meanwhile, the pandemic has gotten much worse.
Both parties must bury their differences and have a consensus long-range vision for how we can emerge from this pit into which we have fallen. Hopefully, this could be implemented when Biden takes office in January. In the meantime, he needs to be working on it via a bi-partisan Committee of accepted health experts.