St. Louis area hospitals are at capacity according to the Coronavirus Task Force and CARES act funding is starting to run out for Missouri’s nursing homes. Bill Wise reports.
Missouri native gives update from space
A crew of astronauts, including southern Missouri native Mike Hopkins, is getting settled in aboard the International Space Station (ISS). They lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center on November 15 and are spending the next six months in space.
Missouri astronaut Mike Hopkins and crew
The crew is part of the first manned operational space flight of a U.S. commercial shuttle. The space mission marks the second one for Hopkins.
During an update with NASA, Hopkins, the commander, talks about the rocket’s name – “Resilience.”
“It’s been a tough year and the fact that SpaceX and NASA were able to get our spacecraft ready to go – the rocket ready to go – throughout this year, throughout the pandemic and all of that, we were inspired by everybody’s efforts to do that. So that’s why we named it Resilience and we hope that it puts a smile to peoples’ face – it brings hope to them,” says Hopkins.
He says a longstanding astronaut tradition is to take along a sidekick to space and show viewers at home. Their choice seems appropriate given their location.
“We had just started watching the (Star Wars) series and it’s hard not to like baby Yoda,” says Hopkins. “I think the ride into space was probably a little rougher than baby Yoda was used to.”
The space station spans the area of an American football field and weighs more than 861,000 lbs. The complex has more livable room than a five-bedroom home, with two bathrooms, a gym and a 360-degree bay window.
Hopkins grew up in southern Missouri’s Richland near Fort Leonard Wood. He also has family in the Lake of the Ozarks area in central Missouri.
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(Audio) Missourinet Morning News 11-25-2020
Scotland County in northeastern Missouri is experiencing a huge Covid-19 spike and some of Missouri’s K-12 schools will participate in a CDC study. Bill Wise reports.
Missouri unveils new COVID-19 vaccine website
Missouri’s governor has announced the launch of a new vaccine website, which answers common questions and clarifies what it calls misinformation.
The new website is mostopscovid.com, and provides Missourians with information about the safety of the vaccines, research and production processes and when they could be eligible for vaccination.
Missouri Governor Mike Parson (left) tours Milbank Manufacturing in Kansas City on November 20, 2020 (photo courtesy of the governor’s Flickr page)
Governor Mike Parson emphasizes that safety involving the vaccines is not being sacrificed. The governor says research and development of multiple COVID-19 vaccines continue to show promising safety and effectiveness findings.
One tab on the website is titled “get the facts”, and says you cannot get COVID-19 from the vaccine. Another tab is called “rumor control”.
Missouri submitted its 111-page plan for administering the impending COVID vaccine to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in October.
State health officials say there are currently 2,680 COVID patients in Missouri hospitals, including 664 in the ICU. The state Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) says there have been 24,922 new COVID cases in the past week, which is down about 1,000 from Friday. There have been 78 new COVID deaths in the past week.
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CDC in Missouri Monday to begin landmark COVID-19 study within schools
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will have boots on the ground in Missouri Monday to begin a first-of-its-kind COVID-19 study within some K-12 schools. Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services Director Randall Williams says the state pitched the study idea to the CDC.
CDC in Missouri Monday to begin landmark COVID-19 study within schools
He tells Missourinet two groups of students will be tested for COVID-19 over a 30-day period.
“Students who are identified as close contacts at school that are wearing masks. So, if the patient who was identified and the student was identified at school, then in one arm of the study, they can still come to school. Now, they will quarantine when they are at home when they leave school,” says Williams.
The other group being tested are students considered a close contact who are required to quarantine for 14 days, regardless of whether they were wearing a mask.
Teachers will be included in the case and contact investigation.
“The prevailing evidence to date after about eight months is, is that there is a very low risk of catching COVID-19 at school just from proximity if you are wearing a mask,” says Dr. Williams.
Missouri does not have a statewide mask requirement. Earlier this month, the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education loosened the guidelines for making students and staff quarantine after exposure to someone with COVID-19, if they were properly wearing masks at school.
Williams did not have information about the number of schools and which schools are involved.
“You need to check a certain number to reach what is called the power to make a conclusion. So, that all is being done by our epidemiologists at the CDC, Washington University, and St. Louis University. They will determine how many people you need to study to make that observation,” Dr. Williams says.
He says the results of the study will be published for the nation’s school systems to see.
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Missouri Supreme Court issues key ruling involving juvenile murderer
A Missouri prisoner who was 16 when she killed a man during a meth transaction in western Missouri’s Cass County will remain in prison for now, under a key ruling Tuesday from the Missouri Supreme Court.
Convicted killer Jessica Hicklin is currently incarcerated at the Potosi Correctional Center in Mineral Point (June 2020 file photo courtesy of the Missouri Department of Corrections)
The inmate, 41-year-old Jessica Hicklin, was sentenced in April 1997 to mandatory life without parole. Hicklin is incarcerated at the maximum-security Potosi Correctional Center in southeast Missouri’s Mineral Point.
Prosecutors say Hicklin was 16 when Sean Smith was shot and killed.
Hicklin began challenging her sentence after the U.S. Supreme Court held in 2012 that juveniles cannot be given mandatory sentences of life without parole.
In Tuesday’s 20-page unanimous decision, the Missouri Supreme Court rejected Hicklin’s claim that the Missouri statute giving her parole eligibility after 25 years is unconstitutional.
In its ruling, the state court notes U.S. Supreme Court precedent gives states two options for fixing mandatory juvenile life-without-parole sentences for juveniles already sentenced: either resentence them or give them meaningful opportunity for release after considering certain circumstances, including their youth.
Missouri Department of Corrections (DOC) spokeswoman Karen Pojmann tells Missourinet that Hicklin’s parole hearing is tentatively set for July 2021. The murder happened in 1995, and Hicklin entered state prison in April 1997 but received credit for time served in the county jail.
Hicklin also contended that the authority of Missouri’s Probation and Parole Board violates the state’s separation of powers. The Missouri Supreme Court rejected that.
Tuesday’s decision was written by Missouri Supreme Court Judge Laura Denvir Stith. You can read the full 20-page ruling here.
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Virtual town hall tonight about COVID-19 within Missouri prisons
The Missouri State Conference of the NAACP, American Civil Liberties Union and several other organizations are hosting a virtual town hall this evening at 7 p.m. to talk about COVID-19 outbreaks within Missouri’s prisons. Families of those impacted by COVID inside Missouri prisons will have the opportunity to speak directly to some state leaders.
Virtual town hall tonight about COVID-19 within Missouri prisons
Panelists include Dr. Randall Williams, Missouri Department of Health and Human Services, Tim Cutt, Missouri Corrections Officer Association, Dr. Cheryl Avant, Health Chair NAACP, Amy Breihan, Co-Director MacArthur Justice Center, Ingrid Burnett, MO Democrat Caucus, Wiley Price, the Black Caucus, and others.
Missouri Department of Corrections spokesperson Karen Pojmann tells Missourinet 758 prisoners and 254 employees currently have COVID-19. Twenty-seven inmates and four workers have died from the virus.
To register for the town hall, click here. You can also watch it live on the Jefferson City NAACP Facebook page.
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Veterans Commission homes continue to fight coronavirus, 109 veterans dead since Sept. 1
St. Louis Veterans Home
The Missouri Veterans Commission’s Veterans Homes continue to fight COVID-19, and according to spokesman Jamie Melchert, they are continuing daily testing using PCR and antigen testing; training on the proper use of PPE and enhanced PPE; cleaning and disinfecting and enhanced training in these areas; infection control inspections and additional training; additional supervision, including from central office leadership. The commission’s homes are also using medical staffing from the VA and Missouri Disaster Medical Assistance Team (MO DMAT-1).
Nursing homes in the Midwest have seen dramatic increases in cases and deaths in past two weeks.
A total of 109 veterans in seven MVC homes have died due to COVID-19 from September through Nov. 18, as nursing homes across the Midwest have seen dramatic increases in cases and deaths in the past two weeks. About two-thirds of the COVID-19 deaths in Missouri’s nursing homes have happened in the same time frame. The St. Louis Post reported that as of Nov. 8, the virus has killed 1,680 residents, 263 more than just the previous two weeks.
Armstrong Teasdale corporate law firm began conducting an independent investigation of Missouri’s Veterans Homes on Oct. 12, at the request of Governor Mike Parson. A final report has not been released, but according to Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe, who oversees the commission, air flow systems were part of the challenge.
Kehoe emphasized that the state’s veterans homes suffer some of the same challenges that other long-term care facilities do.
“It’s a vulnerable population,” Kehoe said. “You have employees and vendors in those homes that actually go out and maybe have another job, or go out to their families and could contract the virus and bring it back in.”
Veteran deaths by facility between Sept. 1 and Nov. 18, 2020:
- Cameron 37
- Cape Girardeau 29
- Mexico 5
- Mt. Vernon 9
- St. James 22
- St. Louis 1
- Warrensburg 7
(Audio) Missourinet Morning News 11-24-2020
A Covid-19 vaccine could be administered by mid-December. Bill Wise reports.
Missouri officials talk about COVID-19 vaccine rollout
Pfizer’s manufacturing plant in the St. Louis suburb of Chesterfield is one of three company locations in America set to make a COVID-19 vaccine. The drug maker has asked the Food and Drug Administration to approve emergency use of its immunization it says has been shown to be 95% effective.
Missouri officials talk about COVID-19 vaccine rollout
Dr. Moncef Slaoui, chief scientific adviser to Operation Warp Speed – a national effort to fast track the vaccine rollout – says the plan is to ship vaccines to U.S. immunization sites 24 hours after federal approval. He tells CNN he expects that to happen around December 11 or 12. Slaoui says the efforts could get the U.S. back to normal life around May.
U.S. Senator Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, tells Missourinet affiliate KWIX in Moberly that the vaccine effort is moving quickly.
“Pfizer has applied for their use permit. We expect Moderna to do that within a couple of weeks. Between the two of them, they’ll have enough vaccine in December for the first 20 million Americans and they’re likely healthcare workers, people in nursing homes and people who would be the most at risk to get that vaccine. We expect a couple of other companies to quickly follow near the first of the year,” says Blunt. “After you get through that first group of healthcare workers and people most negatively affected, the next group – about 35% of the entire population – would be the essential workers of the country – people who are working at food processing facilities and grocery stores, daycare centers, school bus drivers, school teachers.”
According to Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services Director Dr. Randall Williams, phase 1 of the state’s plan could reach 250,000 of the most vulnerable citizens.
The department has identified five hospital sites to administer the vaccine but has not yet announced the names. Williams says patients from long-term care centers and assisted living centers, for instance, will have to be transported to an immunization site.
Both Pfizer’s and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines require two doses at varying intervals.
The vaccine must be kept chilled at -94F and can only be removed from that temperature four times. It will be sent in batches every seven days.
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