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College entrance should not be for sale

It may be some time before the college entrance cheating scandal is resolved. More than four dozen have been charged. One high-profile case should be dealt with during the next several weeks. It involves television star Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli. Earlier this summer, they pleaded guilty to paying half a million dollars to cheat their two daughters’ way into the University of Southern California. Incredibly enough, the two worked with Rick Singer, who orchestrated other college admissions schemes, to get their daughters admitted to USC as ...

World Health Organization failed badly

In some respects, COVID-19 may seem like a bad dream for many Americans, even though it has is far from stamped out in our country. One aspect of recovery — placing blame — already is well along. But recriminations that were common during the height of the epidemic are trailing off. That should not happen. Learning what went wrong — more particularly, who was asleep at the switch during the pandemic’s early days — needs to continue. We have known for some time that the World Health Organization failed badly. WHO officials waited until COVID-19 had begun spreading out of ...

Visit a museum this summer

It will take some time for us all to get used to the “new normal” after the COVID-19 epidemic. One aspect of our lives that should not change — but could — is the variety of museums that educate and entertain us. Throughout the world, most museums had to close during the height of the pandemic. Financial pressure means that nearly 13% of them may never reopen, UNESCO and the International Council of Museums estimate. The most likely victims are the small, specialized, local museums in many of their communities. Without the big endowments and donor bases enjoyed by larger ...

Racial component of COVID-19 needs investigating

From nearly the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States, it was clear the disease has a racial component. Black Americans have been affected far more severely than whites. Exactly why that is so has not been learned yet. Obviously, getting answers is critical. But blacks are not the only group suffering disproportionately. So are Hispanics. Many Latino communities have been battered by COVID-19, while adjacent white populations have not been hit as hard. As The Associated Press reports, about 65% of the COVID-19 diagnoses in the county around Chattanooga, ...

More stimulus money might be needed

Members of Congress were wise to pause their campaign of priming the economic pump to counter the effects of the coronavirus epidemic. Nearly three trillion dollars in aid to individuals, families, businesses and local and state governments needed to be given time to work before more federal spending was authorized. But it may be time to talk about a second round of stimulus — to counter a second round of COVID-19 infections. Americans have begun, but only that, to reopen the economy after massive shutdowns this spring. Though millions have returned to work, the number still ...

Mistakes could prove invaluable as lessons

Mistakes made by some public officials in dealing with COVID-19 seem outrageous to us now. That may not have been so obvious when the errors were made — but knowing about them can avoid their repetition. The coronavirus epidemic is much like wartime: Resources must be used effectively. That may not always have been the case. February and March were the months in which COVID-19 took the offensive in the United States. They also were a time when supplies and equipment needed to battle the disease were relatively scarce. A few days ago, a Transportation Safety Administration ...