The Biden administration on Friday announced plans to provide billions of dollars in American Rescue Plan funding to help rural communities battle the COVID-19 pandemic.
The money will be targeted to assist rural hospitals and health care providers, according to a White House news release. The money will also be used to expand access to testing and vaccines as well as to train more health care workers.
The statement said 138 rural hospitals have shuttered since 2010, with 19 hospitals closing in 2020 alone.  
“For many rural communities, keeping rural hospitals open means the difference between life or death for community members.”  
Some of the money will be used to pay health care workers who were not able to work because of the pandemic.  
“These funds will help ensure that providers can effectively respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and will place them on a stable financial footing to continue serving their communities into the future,” the statement said.
Funding will also be used to increase access to telehealth services.
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A metal roof sits atop the burned remains of a homestead on the once-lush slopes of Hawaii’s Mauna Kea — a dormant volcano and the state’s tallest peak — charred cars and motorcycles strewn about as wind-whipped sand and ash blast the scorched landscape.Generations of Kumu Micah Kamohoalii’s family have lived on these lands reserved for Native Hawaiians, and his cousin owns this house destroyed by the state’s largest-ever wildfire.”I’ve never seen a fire this big,” Kamohoalii said. “Waimea has had fires, many of them before and some maybe a few hundred acres, but not this size.”The fire has burned more than 70 square miles (181 square kilometers) in the two weeks it has been going. But it wasn’t the first time this area has burned and won’t be the last. Like many islands in the Pacific, Hawaii’s dry seasons are getting more extreme with climate change.Kumu Micah Kamohoalii looks out at smoke from a wildfire near Waimea, Hawaii, Aug. 4, 2021.”Everyone knows Waimea to be the pasturelands and to be all the green rolling hills. And so when I was young, all of this was always green,” Kamohoalii said. “In the last 10 to 15 years, it has been really, really dry.”Huge wildfires highlight the dangers of climate change-related heat and drought for many communities throughout the U.S. West and other hotspots around the world. But experts say relatively small fires on typically wet, tropical islands in the Pacific are also on the rise, creating a cycle of ecological damage that affects vital and limited resources for millions of residents.From Micronesia to Hawaii, wildfires have been a growing problem for decades. With scarce funding to prevent and suppress these fires, island communities have struggled to address the problem.”On tropical islands, fires have a unique set of impacts,” said Clay Trauernicht, an ecosystems and wildfire researcher at the University of Hawaii. “First and foremost, fires were very rare prior to human arrival on any Pacific island. The vegetation, the native ecosystems, really evolved in the absence of frequent fires. And so when you do get these fires, they tend to kind of wreak havoc.”But it’s not just burnt land that is affected. Fires on islands harm environments from the top of mountains to below the ocean’s surface.A car drives by a burnt roadside sign that says, “Please Prevent Fires, Mahalo,” Aug. 5, 2021, in Waimea, Hawaii.”Once a fire occurs, what you’re doing is removing vegetation,” Trauernicht said. “And we often get heavy rainfall events. All of that exposed soil gets carried downstream and we have these direct impacts of erosion, sedimentation on our marine ecosystems. So it really hammers our coral reefs as well.”Pacific island reefs support local food production, create barriers to large storm surges and are a critical part of tourism that keeps many islands running.The wet season on tropical islands also causes fire-adapted grasses to grow tall and thick, building fuel for the next summer’s wildfires.”Guinea grass grows six inches a day in optimal conditions and a six-foot tall patch of grass can throw 20-foot flame lengths,” said Michael Walker, Hawaii’s state fire protection forester. “So what we have here are really fast-moving, very hot, very dangerous fires.”Walker said such non-native grasses that have proliferated in Hawaii are adapted to fire, but native species and shrubs are not.”While (these wildfires) may not compare to the size and duration of what folks have in the western United States, we burn a significant portion of our lands every year because of these grass fires, and they’re altering our natural ecosystems and converting forests to grass,” he said.The latest wildfire on Hawaii’s Big Island burned about 1% of the state’s total land, and other islands in the Pacific such as Palau, Saipan and Guam burn even more — up to 10% in severe fire years.On average, Guam has nearly 700 wildfires a year, Palau about 175 and Saipan about 20, according to data from 2018.Guam, like many other places, has long used fire as a tool. Farmers sometimes use it to clear fields and hunters have been known to burn areas while poaching.The U.S. territory’s forestry chief Christine Camacho Fejeran said fires on the island are mostly caused by arson. “So all of Guam’s wildfires are human-caused issues, whether it’s an intentional or an escaped backyard fire or another (cause),” she said.On average, Fejeran said, 6,000 to 7,000 acres (2,430 to 2,830 hectares) of the island burns each year, amounting to about 5% of its land.While no homes have been lost to recent wildfires on Guam, Fejeran believes that trend will come to an end — unless more is done to combat the fires.The island has made some changes in fire legislation, management, education and enforcement. Arson has become a chargeable offense, but Fejeran says enforcement remains an obstacle in the tight-knit community.Back in Hawaii, last week’s blaze destroyed three homes, but the fire threatened many more.Mikiala Brand, who has lived for two decades on a 50-acre homestead, watched as flames came within a few hundred yards (meters) of her house.As the fire grew closer, she saw firefighters, neighbors and the National Guard racing into her rural neighborhood to fight it. She had to evacuate her beloved home twice in less than 24 hours.”Of course it was scary,” she said. “But I had faith that the strong, the brave and the talented, and along with nature and Akua, which is our name for the universal spirit, would take care.”Demonstrating the tenacity of many Native Hawaiians in her farming and ranching community, Brand said, “I only worry about what I have control over.”Down the mountain in Waikoloa Village, a community of about 7,000, Linda Hunt was also forced to evacuate. She works at a horse stable and scrambled to save the animals as flames whipped closer.”We only have one and a half roads to get out — you have the main road and then you have the emergency access,” Hunt said of a narrow dirt road. “Everybody was trying to evacuate, there was a lot of confusion.”The fire was eventually put out just short of the densely populated neighborhood, but had flames reached the homes, it could have been disastrous on the parched landscape.”When you have high winds like we get here, it’s difficult no matter how big your fire break is, it’s going to blow right through,” Hunt said.While fires are becoming more difficult to fight because of dry and hot conditions associated with climate change, experts say the Pacific islands still can help prevent these blazes from causing ecological damage and property losses.”Fire presents a pretty interesting component of kind of all these climate change impacts that we’re dealing with in the sense that they are manageable,” said Trauernicht, the University of Hawaii wildfire expert.In addition to education and arson prevention, he said, land use — such as grazing practices and reforestation that reduce volatile grasses — could help.”It’s within our control, potentially, to reduce the impacts that we’re seeing with fires,” Trauernicht said. “Both in terms of forest loss as well as the impacts on coral reefs.”
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The National Press Club in Washington is calling attention to the case of journalist Austin Tice on the ninth anniversary of his abduction during a reporting trip in Syria.Outside its building a few blocks from the White House, the club is displaying a clock Saturday showing a running tally of how long Tice has been in captivity.The National Press Club is asking people to sign a petition calling on U.S. President Joe Biden to make Tice’s release a priority.“If Austin is allowed to be held it shows that journalism can be stopped by throwing journalists in prison. His detention serves to intimidate journalists from covering events in the Middle East,” the club says. “The United States must show it is committed to protect American journalists from hostage taking and committed to bringing hostages home.”Asked about his case Wednesday, the date of Tice’s 40th birthday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that the Biden administration reiterates its call for Syria to release Tice and other U.S. citizens being held there.“We are committed to following all avenues and talking to anyone who can help with Austin’s release and return home,” Psaki said.  “We don’t speak about those publicly because that’s not in the interest of the outcome, but we are committed to working — to doing — using every tool in our disposal to bring Austin and all hostages held in Syria home.”Tice worked as a freelance journalist for CBS News, The Washington Post and McClatchy newspapers.  He went missing at a checkpoint west of Damascus in August 2012, and except for in a short video released weeks later, he has not been seen since.There have been some contacts between the U.S. and Syrian governments about the case, including a visit by a White House official to Damascus in 2020. The Syrian government has not publicly acknowledged knowing Tice’s whereabouts.Tice’s parents, Marc and Debra, said in a statement Tuesday they are frustrated by what they called “the irresolute, on-again-off-again involvement of our government and its insufficient resolve to secure Austin’s release.”“There are many capable people working in our government who are eager to see Austin walk free; they must have President Biden’s authorization for significant and relevant diplomatic engagement with the Syrian government,” the statement said.  “As with the past nine years, we continue to plead for the American and the Syrian governments to sincerely engage in a serious dialogue focused on Austin’s secure release and safe return.”U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement Wednesday that Tice “must be allowed to return home to his loved ones.”“I am personally committed to bringing home all Americans held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad,” Blinken said.  “We believe that it is within Bashar al-Assad’s power to free Austin. We will continue to pursue all avenues to bring Austin home.”Some information for this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters 
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Just weeks away from completing its military withdrawal from Afghanistan, the United States is sending thousands of combat troops back to Kabul in a last-ditch attempt to move diplomatic personnel and Afghan allies out of harm’s way.The move, announced Thursday by the State Department and the Pentagon, comes as U.S.-trained and -equipped Afghan security forces continue to crumble in the face of an offensive that has seen almost half of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals fall to Taliban insurgents in less than a week.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
Taliban fighters patrol inside the city of Ghazni, southwest of Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 12, 2021.And another 3,500 to 4,000 troops with the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division are being sent to U.S. bases in Kuwait, where they will be on standby should conditions deteriorate more quickly.”This is not abandonment. This is not an evacuation,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters Thursday, admitting only a “core diplomatic presence” would remain in Afghanistan.”What this is, is a reduction in the size of our civilian footprint,” he said. “This is a drawdown of civilian Americans who will, in many cases, be able to perform their important functions elsewhere.”BREAKING: “We are further reducing our civilian footprint in Pentagon spokesman John Kirby speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, Aug. 12, 2021.”This is a temporary mission with a narrow focus,” Kirby said of the 3,000 troops, who will be charged with securing the embassy and Hamid Karzai International Airport “to facilitate the movement of all these people over the next couple of weeks.”Earlier this week, U.S. officials said the military withdrawal was about 95% complete, and that of the 2,500 or so troops that had been in Afghanistan at the start of May, when the withdrawal began, only about 650 remained, tasked with providing security at the airport and the embassy.U.S. officials have become increasingly alarmed about the rapid disintegration of the Afghan security forces after Taliban fighters embarked on a nationwide campaign to take key territory and provincial capitals, starting with Zaranj, the capital of Nimruz province, last Friday.Zaranj Becomes First Afghan Provincial Capital to Fall to Taliban Taliban claim responsibility for assassination of the head of the government’s Media and Information CenterIn the following days, Taliban fighters captured the capitals of Jawzjan, Kunduz, Takhar, Sar-e Pul, Samangan, Farah, Baghlan and Badakhshan provinces, in some cases without a fight.Then, early Thursday, the insurgents took Ghazni, a strategic city on the road from Kandahar to Kabul, just 150 kilometers from the capital.By late Thursday, U.S. officials said an 11th provincial capital, Herat, was also in Taliban hands, while Kandahar itself was “in the process of falling.”A second U.S. official, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, called the fall of Herat and the impending fall of Kandahar “significant.”Both cities had been reinforced by Afghan special forces and had been getting additional help from the U.S., whose concentrated airstrikes aimed to drive back Taliban fighters.NEW: US official confirms US military deploying #AC130 gunships, #MQ9#Reaper drones as well as #B52 bombers & #F18s to strike #Taliban and boost #Afghanistan security forcesAC-130s & MQ-9s carrying out the majority of the strikes— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) August 9, 2021But the failure of Afghanistan’s most capable forces and Afghan and U.S. airpower to hold off Taliban fighters in priority areas set off alarms that, barring significant developments, the days of the Afghan government in Kabul might be numbered.And while defense officials said the U.S. would continue to support Afghan forces with airstrikes when and where they could, they said the influx of U.S. troops and the expanded presence at the Kabul airport would not mean more help for beleaguered Afghan security forces.”There is no planning and no discussion of using Hamid Karzai International Airport as a base for conducting airstrikes,” the Pentagon’s Kirby said at a news conference Thursday, in response to a question from VOA.For now, U.S. officials said they expected to start evacuating civilian personnel in the coming days, with the goal of having everyone except core diplomatic personnel out of Afghanistan by the end of the month.The State Department said some personnel would leave on commercial flights, which continue to operate out of the Kabul airport. But defense officials said they were preparing to be called upon to evacuate some U.S. civilians as well as Afghans who have worked with the U.S., and their families, using military planes.Earlier Thursday, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul urged U.S. citizens to “leave Afghanistan immediately using available commercial flight options” and offered help to citizens unable to leave immediately for financial or other reasons.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani by phone before announcing the decision.According to a State Department readout, the two U.S officials sought to “stress that the United States remains invested in the security and stability of Afghanistan in the face of violence by the Taliban.”In a readout on @SecBlinken and @SecDef’s call with @ashrafghani, both Blinken and Austin informed Ghani that the U.S. is reducing its civilian footprint in #Kabul in light of the evolving security situation and will accelerate the tempo of Special Immigration Visa (#SIV) flights pic.twitter.com/dpACQJn36P— VOA Nike Ching 张蓉湘 (@rongxiang) August 12, 2021Later, a State Department spokesperson denied reports the U.S. had pressed Ghani to resign, telling VOA, “Rumors indicating we have done so are completely false.”“Decisions about who leads the country are for Afghans to make,” the spokesperson added.Other countries were also urging their citizens to clear out of Afghanistan.Britain on Thursday urged its citizens to “leave Afghanistan immediately.”ICYMI: @USEmbassyKabul warns citizens “to leave #Afghanistan immediately””Given the security conditions & reduced staffing, the Embassy’s ability to assist US citizens in Afghanistan is extremely limited even within #Kabul”https://t.co/yoNeiIu7pc— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) August 12, 2021British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace later announced he was sending about 600 troops “to support the diplomatic presence in Kabul, assist British nationals to leave the country and support the relocation of former Afghan staff who risked their lives serving alongside us.”Some American military veterans and other observers have said the rapid retreat from Afghanistan is reminiscent of the evacuation of the last Americans in South Vietnam in April 1975.Many said they still remembered the images of helicopters pulling away from the roof of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon as the city fell to communist forces from North Vietnam.”The Taliban is not the North Vietnamese Army,” U.S. President Joe Biden said just last month. “They’re not remotely comparable in terms of capability. There’s going to be no circumstance when you’re going to see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States from Afghanistan.”VOA’s Cindy Saine and Nike Ching contributed to this report.
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Stephen Feehily lives in a suburb of New Orleans, Louisiana, an area where, as in much of the American South, hesitancy to get vaccinated against COVID-19 has been high. While his two sons are too young to get the shots, he regrets that he and his wife opted against inoculation.
“Listen, I can admit I made a mistake,” he told VOA. “I wouldn’t wish what happened to my wife and me on anyone. It was truly horrible and I’m getting the vaccine as soon as I can.”
The change of heart occurred after he, his wife and youngest son all tested positive for the coronavirus while on vacation last month. Feehily said it was the sickest he can remember feeling. In addition to losing his sense of taste and smell, he had difficulty breathing and still hasn’t fully recovered. He had chills, a fever, and his wife had to drive herself to the emergency room because Stephen was unable to do so.COVID-19 vaccines are administered at Floyd’s Family Pharmacy as cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) surge in Ponchatoula, Louisiana, Aug. 5, 2021.The Feehily family is part of a larger trend in states across the South where lower vaccination rates have resulted in higher infection rates from the delta variant. Louisiana has among the lowest vaccination rates in the country — only 38% of the population is fully vaccinated. Unsurprisingly, the state is leading the U.S. in the number of new COVID-19 cases per capita. Officials say hospitalizations due to the virus are up 124% from two weeks ago and deaths have risen 221%.
Feehily has no issue with wearing a face mask and doesn’t consider himself anti-vaccine. But a false sense of security based on dropping infection rates earlier in the year — and a hesitancy on the part of his wife, a nurse, to get vaccinated — kept him from signing up for the shot.“I tend to take my cues on health from her,” he said. “I thought her hesitancy was based on data she was seeing that showed some terrible side effect. I now understand she’s just nervous to get it before it receives [full] FDA approval. I don’t fault her, but I also don’t agree. I never want to get that sick again and am definitely getting vaccinated.”A sudden urgencyAmericans like Feehily are feeling a newfound urgency to protect themselves as the delta variant wreaks havoc on unvaccinated populations.
In recent weeks, daily vaccination rates have steadily increased for the first time in months. In Louisiana, officials say more than 288,000 residents have received the first dose of the vaccine over the last month. That surge pushed the percentage of Louisianans who have done so from 39% to more than 45%.
Danielle O’Sullivan is an X-ray technician and has been a health care worker for nearly two decades. She’s employed by a major health care provider in New Orleans and believes the recent uptick in vaccination rates stems from fear.“When COVID started, the worst effects were reserved for the elderly and those with certain underlying conditions,” she said. “Now we’re seeing anyone can get this delta strain. People in their 20s are getting it, children are getting it and some are becoming really sick.”
O’Sullivan said even some who had mild cases of the virus months ago are still showing signs of long-term physical damage.
“People are coming in for chest X-rays eight months later and are still unable to take a deep breath,” she said. “We can see the damage. And what’s most frustrating is that we know the vaccine is the best answer we have to solving these problems.”Medical devices are seen at Ochsner Medical Center in the New Orleans suburb of Jefferson, La., on Aug.11, 2021. The rapidly escalating surge in COVID-19 infections is once again overwhelming hospitals across the U.S.Some Americans report feeling less sympathy for those infected by the virus today compared with last year, when vaccines were unavailable. The majority of current hospitalizations for COVID-19 are among the unvaccinated.
New Orleanian Kami Burgard-Landry said she feels nothing but anger. She feels the poor decisions of others are impacting her family. She and her wife have a daughter with autism, and even though it’s important the 4-year-old has regular social interaction, they are keeping her out of school so she doesn’t get the virus.“We wouldn’t have to make that decision if others got the vaccine and helped stop the spread,” Burgard-Landry told VOA. “It makes me so mad, and even when I hear of people dying or sick on ventilators, I’m losing the ability to care about them. That scares me more than anything, if I’m being honest.”Remaining unvaccinatedStill, millions of Americans remain unvaccinated. Nicole Johnson has a home baking business in New Orleans. She dutifully wears her mask and provides hand sanitizer for her customers, but she said she doesn’t plan on getting vaccinated.
“I made the decision 10 years ago that neither me nor my child would get any vaccines,” she said.
Johnson said she’d heard of people who have gotten sick from the COVID-19 vaccine. While data show the number of people reporting serious side effects is infinitesimally small, Johnson said those personal accounts are enough to keep her hesitant about getting the shot.
“I’m the only one who’s making money in my family,” she said. “If I got sick — or even if I just get those side effects from the shot — I’d have to cancel jobs, and I can’t afford to do that. It just seems best for me and my daughter that I stay safe and do my best to avoid the virus.”
Johnson resents that some might pass judgment on her decision without knowing her situation or trying to understand her reasoning.
“I don’t owe anyone else an explanation,” she said. “My daughter is my first responsibility and I’m doing what I think is best for her. These people aren’t going to pay my bills and they’re not going to take care of my daughter if something happens to me. It’s my decision to make.”Finding empathyAudrey Smith is vaccinated but she’s frustrated about the rhetoric being leveled at those who aren’t — especially in the South.
“It’s understandable that people are distrustful of our medical system,” she said. “Quality, affordable health care has been a difficult thing for generations of people in the South to get. Now that we have a public health crisis, we expect everyone to just suddenly trust the system that neglected them?”Mary Lubrano, a nurse from Chalmette, Louisiana, is treated for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the Ochsner Medical Center in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, Aug. 10, 2021.Smith said she doesn’t think it’s hard to see how that distrust can lead to the spread of misinformation. What she can’t tolerate, she said, is how people are attacking their fellow citizens over their decisions.
“It’s enraging that you have some public officials who are shaming folks, while you have others who are helping to spread misinformation,” she said. “We need care and understanding in this conversation if we’re going to move forward — not more shame. No one wants to hear ‘I told you so’ on their deathbed.”
Stephen Feehily agreed. He said it’s important that people come to decisions like this on their own.
“You can’t expect to ridicule someone and also change their mind,” he said. “That’s not how it works. People are persuaded by those they trust and those they sense care about them.”
Nicole Johnson said she might be proof of that herself. Recent conversations with her doctor and therapist have started to open her up to the idea of getting what would be her first vaccine in a decade.
“I trust my doctor and I know she’s not going to administer something she doesn’t think is good for my specific situation,” she said. “She doesn’t talk about me getting the shot for the betterment of mankind. She talks about how it could benefit me as a single parent, and my daughter. So that got me listening.”
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