Week in review: Rate of SJ COVID deaths far surpasses flu; recognition and changes for beloved Stockton eateries
COVID-19 has killed more people in San Joaquin County since March than the flu has over the past 10 years combined.
More than 700 San Joaquin County residents have died from the coronavirus since the pandemic began, while county public health data show the flu killed just under 100 people from 2010 to 2020. It s a much more striking disease, Park said. People get more severely ill with the COVID than they do the flu.
While the true death rate of COVID-19 won t be known for some time, estimates of the virus mortality ratio can range from 1% to 2% of those who have been infected or as high as twice that, Park said. The World Health Organization says the crude mortality rate of COVID-19 is about 3% to 4%.
Bob Highfill
San Joaquin Delta College, and Stockton and Manteca unified school districts swore in new board members and elected officers during their meetings this week.
On Tuesday, Delta College swore in four new and returning trustees were sworn in on Tuesday night, taking their seats on the governing board for the next four years.
Elizabeth Blanchard and Kathy Garcia were sworn in as new trustees after prevailing in the November election. Incumbents Teresa Brown and Jennet Stebbins will return to the Board of Trustees for another term. San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Jose Alva administered the oath. Steve Castellanos and Van Ha To-Cowell are leaving the board.
DeVos Is on Her Way Out, But Public Education Is Still Very Much Under Attack
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos speaks during a White House Coronavirus Task Force press briefing at the U.S. Department of Education July 8, 2020, in Washington, D.C.
Alex Wong / Getty Images
When a Biden victory in the 2020 presidential election became certain, supporters of public education gleefully took to social media to say good riddance to U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. DeVos came into office with an agenda to further the privatization of public education by expanding charter schools and by encouraging families to opt out of public schools by any means possible. During her tenure, she effectively used her bully pulpit to cheer on efforts by Republican state lawmakers to expand various forms of voucher programs that give parents public money to homeschool their children or send them to private schools. She awarded many of the nation’s largest charter school chains with millions in f