The Coronavirus - a virus from eating bats, an accident or something sinister gone wrong?

[swordfish]

So do you wonder why doctors and other health professionals are classifying so many things as "presumed" Covid deaths?

https://www.factcheck.org/2020/04/hospital-payments-and-the-covid-19-death-count/?fbclid=IwAR01QopgLGyEnfFJTqV866QGoZa7Ur8brOnUddY29CGqMpCCKtxUCourbf0

YouTube video with Jensen’s interview, viewed 42,000 times, was titled “US: Hospitals Get Paid More to List Patients as COVID-19…” That video was then posted in a Facebook group called “X22 Report [Geopolitical]” with a caption referencing the specific dollar amounts that read in part: “This also explains the inflated amount of covid deaths.” Nearly 3,000 users shared the video from that post.

“So, hospitals get an extra $13,000 if they diagnose a death as COVID-19,” a widely shared meme on Facebook claimed. “And an additional $39,000 if they use a ventilator!” One post of the meme, shared by hundreds, was captioned: “And then we wonder why the numbers of deaths are embellished…”

The figures cited by Jensen generally square with estimated Medicare payments for COVID-19 hospitalizations, based on average Medicare payments for patients with similar diagnoses.

Medicare — the federal health insurance program for Americans 65 and older, a central at-risk population when it comes to COVID-19 — pays hospitals in part using fixed rates at discharge based off a grouping system known as diagnosis-related groups.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has classified COVID-19 cases with existing groups for respiratory infections and inflammations. A CMS spokesperson told us exact payments vary, depending on a patient’s principal diagnosis and severity, as well as treatments and procedures. There are also geographic variations.

An analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation looked at average Medicare payments for hospital admissions for the existing diagnosis-related groups and noted that the “average Medicare payment for respiratory infections and inflammations with major comorbidities or complications in 2017 … was $13,297. For more severe hospitalizations, we use the average Medicare payment for a respiratory system diagnosis with ventilator support for greater than 96 hours, which was $40,218.”

It is true, however, that the government will pay more to hospitals for COVID-19 cases in two senses: By paying an additional 20% on top of traditional Medicare rates for COVID-19 patients during the public health emergency, and by reimbursing hospitals for treating the uninsured patients with the disease (at that enhanced Medicare rate).

Both of those provisions stem from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act.

The CARES Act created the 20% add-on to be paid for Medicare patients with COVID-19. The act further created a $100 billion fund that is being used to financially assist hospitals — a “portion” of which will be “used to reimburse healthcare providers, at Medicare rates, for COVID-related treatment of the uninsured,” according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

As the Kaiser analysis noted, though, “it is unclear whether the new fund will be able to cover the costs of the uninsured in addition to other needs, such as the purchase of medical supplies and the construction of temporary facilities.”

Either way, the fact that government programs are paying hospitals for treating patients who have COVID-19 isn’t on its own representative of anything nefarious.

“There’s an implication here that hospitals are over-reporting their COVID patients because they have an economic advantage of doing so, [which] is really an outrageous claim,” Gerald Kominski, senior fellow at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, told us. And, he said, any suggestion that patients may be put on ventilators out of financial gain, not medical need, “is basically saying physicians are violating their Hippocratic Oath … it would be like providing heart surgery on someone who doesn’t need it.”

Robert Berenson, an institute fellow at the Urban Institute, said the notion that hospitals are profiting off the pandemic — as some of the social media posts may imply — isn’t borne out by facts, either.

Berenson said revenues appear to be down for hospitals this quarter because many have suspended elective procedures, which are key to their revenue, forcing some hospitals to cut staff. He surmised that potential instances of patients being wrongly “upcoded” — or classified as COVID-19 when they’re not — are “trivial compared to these other forces that are affecting hospital finances.”

Berenson and others we spoke with also said that hospitals have profound disincentives for “upcoding,” which can result in criminal or civil liabilities, such as being susceptible to being kicked out of the Medicare program.

Jensen himself said in a phone interview that he was not alleging widespread medical fraud.

“Do I think people are misclassifying? No,” Jensen said. He said his concerns centered on what he deemed “less precise standards” for certifying deaths promulgated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and how deaths classified as COVID-19 without corroborating positive test results could lead to an over-counting.

The CDC guidance says that officials should report deaths in which the patient tested positive for COVID-19 — or, if a test isn’t available, “if the circumstances are compelling within a reasonable degree of certainty.” It further indicates that if a “definite diagnosis of COVID–19 cannot be made, but it is suspected or likely (e.g., the circumstances are compelling within a reasonable degree of certainty), it is acceptable to report COVID-19 on a death certificate as ‘probable’ or ‘presumed.'”

“If we think it’s presumptive … we can go ahead and put down COVID-19,” Jensen said, “or even in some situations, even if it’s negative.” He pointed to the example of a 38-year-old man in Minnesota whose death was attributed to the coronavirus even though he tested negative.

The man’s mother, however, told the St. Paul Pioneer Press that doctors determined the test result was likely a false negative. It’s not known exactly how common false negatives are in the U.S., but public health experts and doctors have raised concerns about many instances of tests showing negative results even when all other indicators point to COVID-19.

Fact sheets for different COVID-19 tests from the Food and Drug Administration note that a “negative result does not exclude the possibility of COVID-19. When diagnostic testing is negative, the possibility of a false negative result should be considered in the context of a patient’s recent exposures and the presence of clinical signs and symptoms consistent with COVID-19. The possibility of a false negative result should especially be considered if the patient’s recent exposures or clinical presentation indicate that COVID-19 is likely, and diagnostic tests for other causes of illness (e.g., other respiratory illness) are negative.”

As for the accuracy of the death toll, other experts have previously told us that while it’s true that some deaths attributed to COVID-19 likely would have occurred regardless of the disease, other factors — like the deaths of undiagnosed COVID-19 victims, including those that occur at home — contribute to a more significant problem of under-counting the deaths.

New York City recently added more than 3,700 victims to its death toll to account for presumed cases. The CDC’s national count now makes note of how many cases and deaths were deemed “probable.” 

Jensen said he actually believed there could be both instances of under-counting and over-counting of COVID-19 cases and deaths — but said that “if there’s an over-count it’s conceivable that that could down the road translate to increased dollars in terms of some of the recovery dollars from COVID-19.”

When it comes to the $100 billion fund to help providers, future grants by HHS are supposed to focus on providers in areas hit hard by the outbreak, among others. But the initial allocation of $30 billion from that $100 billion fund to assist hospitals wasn’t distributed in that way. Instead, it was based on prior Medicare business.

A Kaiser Health News analysis found that the distribution of that initial $30 billion resulted in hospitals in states less affected by the pandemic — such as Minnesota, Nebraska and Montana — being given funding that worked out to be about “$300,000 per reported COVID-19 case.” In New York, which has the highest number of COVID-19 cases, the grant money amounted to “only $12,000 per case.”

 

Doctors and hospitals are infallible......Trivial my patooty.....

 

[swordfish]

Not sure why that got posted thrice.....

[Muda69]

24 minutes ago, swordfish said:

Not sure why that got posted thrice.....

I've noticed that sometimes the GID forum software balks when you post something with a lot of quoted text/pictures and the entire thread is large, like 10+ pages.  The result of this can be duplicate posts.  No biggie, I'll delete/hide two of them for you.

 

[Muda69]

After COVID, Is the Buffet Yesterday’s Leftovers?

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/will-covid-kill-the-all-you-can-eat-buffet/

Quote

A recent piece in appreciation of the all-you-can-eat buffet struck quite a few nerves; readers apparently agreed with me that these humble, somewhat dated, and increasingly downscale establishments are a resource to families—particularly those that are larger and lower-income—and more broadly are a piece of American popular life.

For the last few days I’ve been craving a buffet dinner, waiting for the stay-at-home orders to lift and for life to become more or less normal again. But as the crisis grinds on, one can’t help but wonder whether buffets will survive. Much more consequential things: concerts, sports matches, Easter services, even elections, have been canceled or indefinitely postponed. But when this blows over, it’s important that we don’t let public health become what “national security” became after 9/11. We must continue to have family reunions, attend worship services and concerts and ball games, vote, shake hands, and hug. And occasionally indulge in the all-you-can-eat buffet—if it pulls through.

At one time, before Instagram, before “foodie” and “food porn” became household words, and before the likes of Michael Pollan turned questions of food into weighty ethical dilemmas, the all-you-can-eat buffet was an American staple. Before the golden age of Chinese buffets, there were the steakhouse-and-salad-bar joints, born in the consumerist and complacent 1980s: Cactus Willies, Great American Steak and Buffet, Golden Corral, Ponderosa, Sizzler, Old Country Buffet. These types of places have slowly declined from their heyday (with the exception of Golden Corral), to the point where they’re few and far between, and often empty where they do survive. They have increasingly become gathering places for retired folks or lower-income families, as more affluent diners have moved on to healthier—and trendier—options.

Reminiscent of the “filtering” phenomenon in housing, where most de-facto affordable housing is simply older regular housing, there is something of a filtering dynamic for food trends. Fast food, casual chains from Howard Johnson’s to TGI Fridays, and of course buffets, were all trendy at one time and popular with affluent and middle-class customers. All are today increasingly seen as downscale, unhealthy, or simply boring. The foodie world has left these dining concepts in the dust, and, in some ways, implicitly judges what most Americans eat most of the time.

....

It’s a shame, because buffets have performed a kind of cultural service, and crystalized a sort of genuine, emergent diversity. This is even truer of Chinese buffets in particular. At one time, they were some of the only places out in the suburbs to find something approaching authentic food. In between the lo mein and orange chicken, or perhaps only at certain hours or in a little counter in the back, many of these establishments also catered to the tastes of immigrants and Chinese-Americans who didn’t go for Chinese-American fare. The variety of the buffet, strange on a menu but fitting when staring down a bevy of steam tables, meshes with and reflects the variety of America. A restaurant that can cater simultaneously to low-income Hispanic families, after-church African-American crowds, hungry teenagers, indecisive diners, and homesick immigrants is a wonderful thing. One distinct memory from my many grad school buffet nights is the number of times the generic happy birthday song came on over the restaurant speakers. Generic things can mean something.

...

A great report in Washington City Paper notes that despite their experience with takeout, many Chinese restaurants have opted to shutter completely during the stay-at-home period. (In some cases, interestingly, this was because their owners or employees had ties to Wuhan and knew how bad COVID was going to be.) Buffets—Chinese buffets, anyway, and there’s not a whole lot left in most places—may be in the same boat, or worse. Unlike Chinese restaurants with their takeout business, buffets rarely have a menu and produce nothing in small quantities. They’re on or off, and they rely on volume and crowds. There’s hardly a business model less well-adapted to a pandemic.

Every buffet I know of is completely closed right now. A couple of local ones have “closed” signs in their windows. Others I called had their numbers disconnected; one picked up, but was fully closed nonetheless.

But even if this ends in a month or two and a few people venture back in, will it be a critical mass to make the business model work? Perhaps, as one of my Twitter interlocutors suggested, buffets will survive in the relatively poorer and working-class areas where they’ve been trending anyway, and the affluent will wash their hands of the concept. That means I’ll just have to drive a little further for my all-you-can-eat fix.

Things change, and dynamic cultural and economic phenomena, like dining concepts, cannot be encased in amber and saved like keepsakes. If the buffet dies, it dies. But as long as it’s here, it won’t be losing my business, and maybe it shouldn’t lose yours.

Both Chinese restaurants in Frankfort are currently closed;  both offered a buffet along with carryout, but the buffet was the huge percentage of their business.

 

[gonzoron]

3 hours ago, swordfish said:

Doctors and hospitals are infallible

Just the other day they were. When prescribing hydroxycloroquine.

2 hours ago, Muda69 said:

Both Chinese restaurants in Frankfort are currently closed

The one in Tipton is closed. They do not have a buffet and very few tables. Most of their business was carry out, and cash only.

[Muda69]

Trump to order meat processing plants to stay open

https://apnews.com/67cb4bad7ffe500beabdf8e7e7efea5d

Quote

President Donald Trump will sign an executive order Tuesday meant to stave off a shortage of chicken, pork and other meat on American supermarket shelves because of the coronavirus.

The order will use the Defense Production Act to classify meat processing as critical infrastructure to keep production plants open.

The order comes after industry leaders warned that consumers could see meat shortages in a matter of days after workers at major facilities tested positive for the virus. A senior White House official said the administration was working to prevent a situation in which a majority of processing plants shut down for a period of time, which could lead to an 80% drop in the availability of meat in supermarkets. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the order before its release.

Trump on Tuesday told reporters that “there’s plenty of supply,” but that supply chains had hit what he called a “road block. It’s sort of a legal roadblock more than anything else,” he said.

Two of the nation’s biggest pork processing plants are currently closed. Meat processing giant Tyson Foods suspended operations at its plant in Waterloo, Iowa. And Smithfield Foods halted production at its plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The 15 largest pork-packing plants account for 60% of all pork processed in the country.

GOP Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota had written a letter to Trump asking him to use the DPA to declare the food supply industry an essential industry, warning that consumers would see a meat shortage in a matter of days akin to the panic over toilet paper the virus created in its early days.

Tyson ran a full-page advertisement in The New York Times and other newspapers Sunday outlining the difficulty of producing meat while keeping more than 100,000 workers safe and shutting some plants.

“As pork, beef and chicken plants are being forced to close, even for short periods of time, millions of pounds of meat will disappear from the supply chain,” it read.

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents 1.3 million food and retail workers, said last week that 13 U.S. food-processing and meatpacking union workers in the U.S. have died and that an estimated 5,000 are sick or have been exposed to the virus while working near someone who tested positive.

COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, has infected hundreds of workers at meat-processing plants and forced some of the largest to close and others to slow production. While the output at beef and poultry plants has diminished, pork plants in the Midwest have been hit especially hard. The viral outbreaks have persisted despite efforts by the meat companies to keep workers at home with pay if they become sick.

I assume this order doesn't force individual employees to return to work at a facility that they may deem unsafe?  Or will meat processors like Tyson be force to fire those employees who refuse to return to work as they try to stay open due to this asinine DPA legislation?

 

 

[swordfish]

Smiling large with a freezer full of meat fresh from the growers......

[Howe]

24 minutes ago, swordfish said:

Smiling large with a freezer full of meat fresh from the growers......

I grew up on a farm. My father raised beef cattle. Purchasing meat directly from the farmer is always the best bargain. He raised Hereford until a bolt of lightning struck a huge oak tree all of the cattle were sitting under during a thunderstorm. The electricity from the lightning bolt traveled from the tree through each cow and killed all 30 plus the bull. He switched breeds to Charolais thereafter.

[gonzoron]

6 minutes ago, Howe said:

He switched breeds to Charolais thereafter

Is that breed resistant to lightning strikes?

[Bobref]

9 minutes ago, Howe said:

I grew up on a farm. My father raised beef cattle. Purchasing meat directly from the farmer is always the best bargain. He raised Hereford until a bolt of lightning struck a huge oak tree all of the cattle were sitting under during a thunderstorm. The electricity from the lightning bolt traveled from the tree through each cow and killed all 30 plus the bull. He switched breeds to Charolais thereafter.

Are they more resistant to electric current?

30 cows and 1 bull? At least he died happy. 😉
 

@gonzoron, beat me by about 30 seconds. 😆👍

Edited April 28, 2020 by Bobref

[Howe]

6 minutes ago, Bobref said:

Are they more resistant to electric current?

30 cows and 1 bull? At least he died happy. 😉
 

@gonzoron, beat me by about 30 seconds. 😆👍

Carolais are not more resistant to electrocution. They are more resistant to pink eye.

Two or more bulls will fight each other for supremacy when one of the cows comes in heat. They cannot be kept apart. They will jump over most fences or "bull" through a gate. The only way to keep a bull from jumping a fence is to insert a ring through his nose and attach a chain.

[gonzoron]

He and Trump also refused to wear required PPE when they visited the factory floor at UTC Carrier in Indianapolis several years ago.

Mike Pence ignores Mayo Clinic's face mask rule during visit

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/28/mike-pence-face-mask-mayo-clinic-visit-coronavirus

[gonzoron]

Coronavirus Has Now Killed More Americans Than Vietnam War

https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/28/846701304/pandemic-death-toll-in-u-s-now-exceeds-vietnam-wars-u-s-fatalities?utm_campaign=npr&utm_medium=social&utm_term=nprnews&utm_source=facebook.com&fbclid=IwAR09oHGlupuVHzymOI2DXtHjnHAX6Te8fOmXb4Sght9_r3W2LPaefQ-ZZy4

[gonzoron]

1 hour ago, gonzoron said:

He and Trump also refused to wear required PPE when they visited the factory floor at UTC Carrier in Indianapolis several years ago.

Mike Pence ignores Mayo Clinic's face mask rule during visit

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/28/mike-pence-face-mask-mayo-clinic-visit-coronavirus

You just can't make this stuff up: 

Leaving Off Mask At Mayo Clinic, Pence Said He Wanted To Look Workers 'In The Eye'

https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/28/847570879/pence-responds-to-critics-after-not-wearing-face-mask-at-mayo-clinic?utm_campaign=npr&utm_medium=social&utm_term=nprnews&utm_source=facebook.com&fbclid=IwAR0cyV-RKVPSU1KoASA0cP3G8aiNYEIHBi4vNbkjcIriKFVM636R2BuQ9l4

[Howe]

Dr. Birx proves reporter wrong, classic Trump response.

 

[TheStatGuy]

8 minutes ago, Howe said:

Dr. Birx proves reporter wrong, classic Trump response.

 

If i had 40+ hours to waste on non sense. 

I could find a video every time Fox News or Trump made a stupid error on stuff or CNN/MSNBC burning him or someone in his cabinet. 

 

[Muda69]

'Why Is a Liquor Store Essential and I'm Not?' Asks Store Owner During N.Y.C. Coronavirus Lockdown

https://reason.com/2020/04/28/why-is-a-liquor-store-essential-and-im-not-asks-store-owner-during-n-y-c-coronavirus-lockdown/

Quote

"Why is a liquor store essential and I'm not?"

That's the question the owner of a men's clothing store in New York City is asking. It's a good one. It calls attention to the largely arbitrary way that state and local officials classified businesses while shutting down the economy a few weeks ago, consigning record numbers of workers to unemployment and shops to bankruptcy with the stroke of a pen.

The business owner who asked the question above is in significant ways unsympathetic. Eliot Rabin runs an upscale boutique called Peter Elliot, where a polka dot tie costs $200 and a pocket square can set you back $85. I've spent less than $85 for a suit, which at Peter Elliot can set you back as much as $15,000, according to the New York Post. You might assume that someone who sells clothing that fetches such prices will be able to weather this storm. But of course it's not just him, or even his presumably silk-stockinged customers. Rabin, a 78-year-old Army vet, tells the Post "he had to cut 12 members of his 21-person staff, some of whom have been with him for 35 years….I'm fighting for the soul of my company and my people."

Under the lockdown rules in place in New York (city and state), Peter Elliot isn't considered an "essential business" and thus can't legally open its doors (go here for a list). If it offered laundry or dry-cleaning services, it might be allowed to sell clothes on the side, and it's true that Rabin can apply to have his store reclassified as "an essential business for the purposes of Executive Order 202.6."

But why should he have to, especially if he is enforcing social distancing and regularly disinfecting surfaces throughout his shop, which he opened illegally over the weekend? The Kmart in my downtown Manhattan neighborhood is open because it sells groceries and has a pharmacy, thus qualifying as an essential business. But shoppers are also free to wander the entire store, including its clothing, toy, furniture, and bedding sections. Why shouldn't stores dedicated to selling those same items be allowed to open if they want to, assuming they abide by agreed-upon public health measures? Many stores would choose not to open and demand would surely be slight, which are arguments in favor of decentralizing the decision down to individual businesses and customers. We're not talking huge numbers, but a store eking out some subsistence-level revenue while serving a trickle of customer is a good thing that is unlikely to have a major impact on COVID-19 numbers.

....

That is a fairly easy question to answer.  The liquor stores most assuredly bring in more tax/excise revenue for N.Y.C.  than upscale clothing establishments.

 

[Muda69]

'Bring the president down here': Indiana meat plant workers angered by planned Trump order

https://www.indystar.com/story/news/health/2020/04/29/trump-order-on-meat-plants-shocks-indiana-workers/3042245001/

Quote

For weeks, fear has swept the floors of the Tyson Foods meat plant, where workers on the processing line work shoulder-to-shoulder for entire shifts and at least 110 have tested positive for COVID-19.

“God help the people on the line,” said Gary Harris, who has worked at the northern Indiana plant for 20 years. “Everyone is scared and worried, no one knows who has it and who doesn’t because the company won’t say."

"So you rely on the rumor mill, which can spread pretty fast itself.”

But Tuesday, President Donald Trump indicated he would issue an executive order forcing companies like Tysons to re-open the shuttered plants amid growing fears of breaks in the food supply chain and shortages of household staples chicken, pork and beef.

Word of the president's planned action was met with anger and disbelief by workers on the front lines.

“If he does that I think they should bring the president down here and have him work shoulder-to-shoulder and join the fun,” Harris said.

....

Supply chain experts have mostly said a significant domestic meat shortage is unlikely, due to the large number of processing plants and resulting resiliency. But those assurances are being tested by steadily dropping production numbers from the nation’s meatpacking plants.

But Department of Agriculture data show at least 838,000 fewer cattle, hogs and sheep were slaughtered for meat processing over the past week compared to the same time period last year, a 28% drop. Tuesday marked the worst day yet, with total slaughter falling 39% compared to the same day last year.

The Logansport plant produces three million pounds of pork daily and had previously suspended operations for a single day, on April 20, for deep cleaning and sanitizing. 

Bu after re-opening it quickly closed again, with officials saying it would stay shuttered until all 2,200 workers were tested for the coronavirus and the company deemed the facility safe for workers.

The union and company said the closure was necessary despite efforts by both to implement safety measures, said Brigid Kelly, a spokeswoman for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 700, which represents Harris and other workers at the plant. She added that the workers are being paid during the closure.

“We worked very closely with Tyson and put in plastic partitions, provided facial coverings and required social distancing in the break rooms beginning in March,” Kelly said. “We had the workers on the line spread out, even though that slowed production.”

But she said that jobs are “a hard work on a good day, fast paced and physical demanding,’ with people side-by-side.

..

Good idea from Mr. Harris to have Mr. Trump work on the Tyson production line.  He should bring Mr. Pence along for good measure.

 

[gonzoron]

2 minutes ago, Muda69 said:

'Bring the president down here': Indiana meat plant workers angered by planned Trump order

https://www.indystar.com/story/news/health/2020/04/29/trump-order-on-meat-plants-shocks-indiana-workers/3042245001/

Good idea from Mr. Harris to have Mr. Trump work on the Tyson production line.  He should bring Mr. Pence along for good measure.

 

TDS

[Muda69]

14 minutes ago, gonzoron said:

TDS

Yep.  He is the cause of every misfortune experienced by Americans today.  Wouldn't you agree?

[gonzoron]

Just now, Muda69 said:

Yep.  He is the cause of every misfortune experienced by Americans today.  Wouldn't you agree?

Not at all. Americans are the cause.

[Muda69]

11 minutes ago, gonzoron said:

Not at all. Americans are the cause.

Wow.  How so?

 

[Howe]

34 minutes ago, Muda69 said:

'Bring the president down here': Indiana meat plant workers angered by planned Trump order

https://www.indystar.com/story/news/health/2020/04/29/trump-order-on-meat-plants-shocks-indiana-workers/3042245001/

Good idea from Mr. Harris to have Mr. Trump work on the Tyson production line.  He should bring Mr. Pence along for good measure.

 

I did not see a reference in the article stating employees were being forced to return to Tyson. I highly doubt any union employee would receive attendance points or be fired as a result of not reporting to work. All union employees at my employer received 80 hours of “COVID-19” pay to be taken at the employees discretion and no one has received attendance points for not reporting to work. We have some who have not reported to work for the past 6 weeks.

[Muda69]

A Kentucky Family of 7 Didn't Practice Social Distancing. Now Child Services Is Investigating the Parents for Abuse.

https://reason.com/2020/04/28/child-services-kentucky-social-distancing-covid-19-family-parents/

Quote

What's a parent to do? It was early in March, COVID-19 fears were on the rise, and two Kentucky parents who were new to the state needed to open up a bank account. Seeing no other option, they took their seven kids to the bank with them.

By the time they had returned home from their errand, a child protective services caseworker and a law enforcement officer were waiting at the door to investigate them for child abuse.

That's according to Jim Mason of the Home School Legal Defense Association, who blames the false report on panic over COVID-19 social distancing rules. A letter from child services, obtained by Reason confirmed the existence of the complaint.

The parents, referred to as "Bill and Kristy," are homeschoolers. Kristy had moved to Kentucky in advance of Bill, who had remained in New York City finishing up work. When they arrived at the bank, the parents opted to let the two oldest children wait in the car. The other five had to accompany them into the building, which had a COVID-19 warning sign on the door. They were not treated warmly, writes Mason:

The teller immediately interrogated Bill and Kristy about why they had brought five kids into the bank at one time. She [the teller] told them they could not get within six feet of her and that they needed to take the children out. Kristy explained that the children were too young to be left unsupervised by an adult, and neither she nor Bill could take them elsewhere because the couple were opening a joint account, and both had to be present.

While Bill stayed with the children away from the counter, Kristy opened the account, feeling self-conscious as the staff whispered to each other and watched her family suspiciously. When Bill walked to the counter to show his New York ID and to sign, the bank staff asked why Bill's and Kristy's identifications were from different states, which the couple explained.

Back at home, the authorities confronted Bill and Kristy, who discovered that someone had called in an anonymous tip claiming that a mother of five had taken her children out with a man who wasn't their dad, and they had bruises on their arms that indicated rough grabbing.

The investigator proceeded to question the kids away from the parents, and he made at least one of the boys take off his shirt to look for bruises. Kristy told Mason that the investigator wanted to do the same with the girls, but she objected, so he only pulled up the girls' sleeves and took photos.

Already, there's a problem: If the kids were wearing long sleeves (it was a cold day), how had anyone spotted bruises? Of course, the caller got other information wrong, too: Bill was very much the kids' father.

The parents presume the call came from someone inside the bank, since it specified five kids rather than seven. Whoever the caller was, they provided the exact kind of information—bruising, suspicion persons, etc.—that prompts a CPS investigation.

When Bill handed over his license, the investigator could see from his last name he was not an "unrelated male." And when the kids showed him their arms, he could see the bruises didn't exist. Case closed? If only.

When I spoke with Mason by phone, he explained the idea of an "off ramp." In theory, he said, once an investigator gets to a home, checks for the supposed crime and comes up empty handed, he or she should turn around and leave—i.e., take the off ramp. Anything else "is such a terrible thing and a waste of time."

But all too often, investigators insist that they must robotically keep probing: opening cabinets, looking in the fridge, questioning kids. This Kentucky investigator even questioned the family about which homeschool curriculum they were using, as if that had some bearing on the case.

That's why the Home School Legal Defense Association, as well as its allies who make up United Family Advocates, have been trying to get "Off Ramp" legislation passed. Once an investigation comes up empty-handed, the investigator should simply leave rather than get started checking off a giant list of possible problems.

The groups are also hoping that some day the states will outlaw anonymous reporting. That way it would be harder for people to weaponize the system against families that got on their nerves. Currently, it's just far too easy to bring a case into existence.

What's more, parents in Kentucky—and the rest of the country—also deserve a law like Utah's Free-Range Parenting Bill, which says that simply taking your eyes off your kids is not neglect. Neglect is blatant disregard for their safety. Especially in these times, parents who want their kids to wait in the car or even at home, rather than dragging them into stores, should be able to make that sensible decision without fearing an investigation—or worse.

The HSLDA's lawyers are working with the family. But the state gets 45 days to close an investigation, and Mason said it can easily get an extension, turning a time already tense with pandemic fears into a protracted period of torment.

Never let a good crisis go to waste, in this case letting the state interfere with the lives of law-abiding citizens.  Shameful.

 

[Howe]