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PARTLY SUNNY 55 • 35 | WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2020 | theworldlink.com

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Case increases cause school rollbacks ZACK DEMARS The World

With COVID-19 cases on the rise, schools across the South Coast have announced plans to roll back their in-person instruction. The Bandon, Coquille and Myrtle Point school districts have all announced changes just weeks before they’re scheduled to begin their winter breaks. Districts in Coos Bay and North Bend haven’t yet finalized planned changes but intend to do so soon. The slate of changes came after the county hit a key metric Monday: In the past two weeks, the county’s seen 207 cases per 100,000 in population. Under the Oregon Department

of Education’s school reopening framework, any rate above 200 means districts have to roll back to comprehensive distance learning for all grade levels, similar to what families experienced in the spring. While the state metrics allow for a waiting week between the time a county hits that case rate and when it must roll back instruction, many South Coast districts have already decided to roll back in light of an increasing trend in cases and the short time before the holiday break. In Bandon, students in grades K-5 will attend classes in person through Wednesday, and begin distance learning Dec. 10. The district will suspend limited in-person instruction until January, Superintendent Doug Adri-

ana wrote in a letter to families. “We will ensure that your child continues to have access to high quality learning experiences, curriculum and assignments,” Ardiana wrote. “We need you to actively partner with us.” After a small handful of cases was announced in Coquille last week, the new metrics have pushed leaders in the Coquille School District to upend their plans for the rest of the year. Under the new plan, winter break will begin after school ends Wednesday, according to Superintendent Tim Sweeney. Almost 40 staff members are quarantining or taking care of their own children who must stay home since the district’s daycare closed last week, Sweeney said. Sweeney said the early winter

break won’t disrupt the district’s end-of-year calendar, since the calendar included several extra weeks off school throughout the year. That means the district will “flip flop” the next week off with one that was scheduled for May. In the Myrtle Point school district, elementary students will be out of school starting Wednesday, and return to distance learning Dec. 15, Superintendent Nanette Hagen announced Monday. High school students will remain largely under the same plan, though limited in-person instruction is on hold. The district will remain under distance learning until the county’s case rate returns to 100 per 100,000 in population, Hagen said. Myrtle Point will begin deliv-

Zack Demars, The World

Flowers sit atop the Coos Bay Firefighter Memorial on Dec. 1, left in memory of the fire at Farwest Truck & Auto Supply which killed three firefighters in November 2002.

Country seeing record COVID-19 deaths many of our citizens,” Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said Tuesday as he extended restrictions on businesses and social gatherings, including a ban on indoor dining and drinking at restaurants and bars. While the impending arrival of the vaccine is reason for hope, he said, “at the moment, we have to face reality, and the reality is that we are suffering a very dire situation with the pandemic.” Elsewhere around the country, North Carolina’s governor imposed a 10 p.m. curfew, and authorities in Southern Califor-

nia and the San Joaquin Valley sent a mass cellphone text alert Tuesday telling millions about the rapid spread of the virus and urging them to abide by the state’s stay-at-home orders. The virus is blamed for more than 285,000 deaths and 15 million confirmed infections in the United States. Many Americans disregarded warnings not to travel over Thanksgiving and have ignored other safety precautions, whether out of stubbornness, ignorance or complacency. On Saturday night, police in Southern California

arrested nearly 160 people, many of them not wearing masks, at a house party in Palmdale that was held without the homeowner’s knowledge. Before his death Friday from complications of COVID-19, 78-year-old former Alabama state Sen. Larry Dixon asked his wife from his hospital bed to relay a warning. “Sweetheart, we messed up. We just dropped our guard. ... We’ve got to tell people this is real,” his friend Dr. David Thrasher, a pulmonologist, quoted him as saying.

Please see Deaths, Page A2

Court rejects bid to halt win in Pennsylvania WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Republicans’ last-gasp bid to reverse Pennsylvania’s certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the electoral battleground. The court without comment refused to call into question the certification process in Pennsylvania. Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf already has certified Biden’s victory over President Donald Trump and the state’s 20 electors are to meet on Dec. 14 to cast their votes for Biden. In any case, Biden won 306 electoral votes, so even if Pennsylvania’s results had been in doubt, he still would have more than the 270 electoral votes needed to become president. The court’s decision not to intervene came in a lawsuit led by Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly

of northeastern Pennsylvania and GOP congressional candidate and Trump favorite Sean Parnell, who lost to Pittsburgh-area U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, a Democrat. “Even Trump appointees & Republicans saw this for what it was: a charade,” Lamb said on Twitter. In court filings, lawyers for Pennsylvania and Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, had called the lawsuit’s claims “fundamentally frivolous” and its request “one of the most dramatic, disruptive invocations of judicial power in the history of the Republic.” “No court has ever issued an order nullifying a governor’s certification of presidential election results,” they wrote. Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas had offered to argue the case, if the high court took it. Having lost the request for

the court to intervene immediately, Greg Teufel, a lawyer for Kelly and Parnell, said he will file a separate request to ask the court to consider the case on its underlying merits on an expedited basis. Still, hopes for immediate intervention concerning the Nov. 3 election “substantially dimmed” with the court’s action Tuesday, Teufel said. “But by no way is this over,” Kelly said on Fox News. Republicans had pleaded with the justices to intervene immediately after the state Supreme Court turned away their case last week. The Republicans argued that Pennsylvania’s expansive voteby-mail law is unconstitutional because it required a constitutional amendment to authorize its provisions. Just one Republican

Please see School, Page A2

Biden calls for action on virus

Coos Bay remembers fallen firefighters

(AP) - Deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. have soared to more than 2,200 a day on average, matching the frightening peak reached last April, and cases per day have eclipsed 200,000 on average for the first time on record, with the crisis all but certain to get worse because of the fallout from Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. Virtually every state is reporting surges just as a vaccine appears days away from getting the go-ahead in the U.S. “What we do now literally will be a matter of life and death for

ering meals on Wednesday, and the elementary school cafeteria will be open for onsite pickup from 11 a.m. to noon daily. Schools in Powers will remain on the same schedule as planned, Superintendent Matt Shorb told parents on Facebook. The district’s operating under an exception to the state metrics due to its smaller size. In Coos Bay and North Bend, school district officials haven’t announced any immediate changes, but say they’re making new plans. Both districts have had relatively low case counts within their buildings, and neither have any groups of students required to quarantine because of in-

state lawmaker voted against its passage last year in Pennsylvania’s Republican-controlled Legislature. Biden beat Trump by more than 80,000 votes in Pennsylvania, a state Trump had won in 2016. Most mail-in ballots were submitted by Democrats. The state’s high court said the plaintiffs waited too long to file the challenge and noted the Republicans’ staggering demand that an entire election be overturned retroactively. In the underlying lawsuit, Kelly, Parnell and the other Republican plaintiffs had sought to either throw out the 2.5 million mail-in ballots submitted under the law or to wipe out the election results and direct the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature to pick Pennsylvania’s presidential electors.

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday called for urgent action on the coronavirus pandemic as he introduced a health care team that will be tested at every turn while striving to restore the nation to normalcy. Biden laid out three COVID-19 priorities for his first 100 days in office: a call for all Americans to voluntarily mask up during those 100 days, a commitment to administer 100 million vaccines and a pledge to try to reopen a majority of the nation’s schools. “I know that out of our collective pain, we will find our collective purpose: to control the pandemic, to save lives, and to heal as a nation,” Biden said. The president-elect also said he would use the power of the federal government to require people to wear masks in federal buildings and when traveling from state to state on planes, trains and buses. Mostly that would codify policies already in place. But Biden said he would urge governors and mayors to impose similar requirements. Topping the roster of Biden’s picks was health secretary nominee Xavier Becerra, a Latino politician who rose from humble beginnings to serve in Congress and as California’s attorney general. Others include a businessman renowned for his crisis management skills and a quartet of medical doctors, among them Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious-disease specialist. The usual feel-good affirmations that accompany such unveilings were overshadowed by urgency, with new cases of COVID-19 averaging more than 200,000 a day and deaths averaging above 2,200 daily as the nation struggles with uncontrolled spread. Vaccines are expected soon. Scientific advisers to the government meet Thursday to make a recommendation on the first one, a Pfizer shot already being administered in the United Kingdom. Indeed, President Donald Trump held his own event Tuesday, to take credit for his administration’s work to speed vaccine development. But having an approved vaccine is one thing, and getting it into the arms of 330 million Americans something else altogether. Biden will be judged on how well his administration carries out the gargantuan task. On Tuesday, the president-elect warned that his team’s preliminary review of Trump administration plans for vaccinations has found shortcomings. And he called on Congress to pass legislation to finance administration of vaccines as they become more widely available next year. That would effectively

Please see Action, Page A2

eEdition

Medical board suspends license 3 Portland officers pulled of pediatrician over vaccines off duty during investigation PORTLAND (AP) — The Oregon Medical Board has suspended the license of Portland Dr. Paul Thomas, citing multiple cases in which he allegedly failed to adequately vaccinate patients, including one involving a child who contracted tetanus and required hospitalization. According to last week’s order, the medical board can temporarily suspend a medical license without a hearing when it has evidence that a doctor’s continued practice constitutes an immediate danger to the public, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. The medical board wrote: “The Board finds that Licensee’s conduct has breached the standard of care and has placed the health and safety of many of his patients at serious risk of harm.”

Thomas, who practices in the Portland area, had a history of misleading parents, the board found. The Oregonian/Oregon Live reported that Thomas’ office, Integrative Pediatrics on Barnes Road, did not respond to a request for comment. His office also did not respond to an email and phone call seeking comment from The Associated Press. Thomas published an “alternative vaccination schedule,” the order said, which “fraudulently asserts that following his vaccine schedule will prevent or decrease the incidence of autism and other developmental disorders.” Studies have shown no link between vaccines and autism. Thomas promotes his “Dr. Paul approved” vaccine schedule, which can leave

children exposed to “multiple potentially debilitating and life-threatening illnesses,” according to the board. The order said Thomas repeatedly misled parents about vaccines. In one example, “Patient A’s mother requested polio and rotavirus vaccinations for Patient A according to CDC Recommendations, but Licensee did not have those vaccines in the clinic.” Thomas then questioned the woman about why she wanted the polio vaccine and “continually connected vaccines (not specific) with autism” and “asked her how awful she would feel if Patient A got autism and she could have prevented it,” according to the order. The board also cited the case of a boy who was hospitalized with tetanus and was “completely non-immunized.”

PORTLAND (AP) — The city of Portland will take three police officers off protest duty while they’re under investigation for allegedly using excessive force against ACLU legal observers and journalists. The city didn’t release the officers’ names. The move is part of an agreement the city reached with the ACLU, journalists and legal observers who sued the city over the alleged police use of excessive force, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. The negotiated pact, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Portland, says the plaintiffs agreed not to pursue an immediate motion to ask a judge to find the city in contempt of a September court order that prohibited Portland

officers from “arresting, threatening to arrest or using physical force” against journalists or legal observers. The city had agreed to the terms of the September preliminary injunction after facing a lawsuit filed by six journalists and legal observers. Tuesday’s four-page agreement acknowledges only that the plaintiffs claimed the city violated the injunction on several occasions in August and September. Those claims include the dislocation of ACLU legal observer Kat Mahoney’s shoulder when police allegedly picked her up by the handcuffs during an Aug. 9 arrest and an officer’s alleged grabbing of ACLU legal observer Stasia Brownell by the throat and throwing

her to the ground as she and another legal observer filmed the officer’s arrest of Mahoney. The alleged claims also include encounters with independent journalist Maranie Staab who said police pushed her in the back Aug. 10 while she tried to leave an area as ordered, used force against her on Aug. 16 in retaliation for filming an officer and used force against her on Sept. 29 when she was filming an officer pepper-spraying a protester. The plaintiffs provided the city with video evidence of their allegations and were prepared to pursue a contempt motion against the city but decided to resolve the matter through negotiations, according to court records.

Deaths

tration have downplayed the disease and undercut scientists. “Messages need to be critically consistent,” Birx said Tuesday at a Wall Street Journal conference of CEOs. “I think we need to be much more consistent about addressing the myths that are out there — that COVID doesn’t really exist, or that the fatalities somehow are made up, or the hospitalizations are for other diseases, not COVID, that masks actually hurt you.” On Thursday, a Food

and Drug Administration advisory panel is widely expected to authorize emergency use of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, and shots could begin almost immediately after that. Britain on Tuesday started dispensing the Pfizer vaccine, becoming the first country in the West to begin mass vaccinations. Still, any vaccination campaign will take many months, and U.S. health experts are warning of a continuing surge of infections in the coming weeks as people gather for the

holidays. California officials painted a dire picture as more than 22,000 residents test positive for the coronavirus each day, with about 12% inevitably showing up at hospitals in two to three weeks. They fear the spike could soon overwhelm intensive care units. Southern California’s Riverside University Health System Medical Center went so far as to open an ICU in a storage room. For the sixth day in a row and 11 of the last 12 days, North Carolina hit

new highs in the number of people in the hospital with COVID-19. The patient count has doubled over the past month to nearly 2,400. In Georgia, the number of confirmed or suspected coronavirus infections has soared more than 70% in the past week, and hospitals are sounding alarms about their ability to absorb new COVID-19 patients. The state is averaging more than 5,000 confirmed or suspected cases per day. Even then, Georgia ranks only 44th among the states

for the most new cases per capita in the past 14 days because infections are spreading so rapidly everywhere else. More than 2,500 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized Monday statewide. That’s below the summer peak of 3,200 but more than double the most recent low point in mid-October. “We are effectively reversing the gains we made after the summer surge,” said Amber Schmidtke, an epidemiologist who does a daily analysis of Georgia’s COVID-19 numbers.

selected include infectious-disease specialist Rochelle Walensky to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Vivek Murthy as surgeon general and Yale epidemiologist Marcella NunezSmith to head a working group to ensure fair and equitable distribution of vaccines and treatments. Participating by video, Fauci called Biden’s 100day plan “bold but doable, and essential to help the public avoid unnecessary risks and help us save lives.” Ever the straight talker, he admonished: “The road ahead will not be easy. We have got a lot of hard and demanding work ahead.” HHS is a $1 trillion-plus agency with 80,000 employees and a portfolio that includes drugs and vaccines, leading-edge

medical research and health insurance programs covering more than 130 million Americans. In choosing Becerra to be his health secretary, Biden tapped a prominent defender of the Affordable Care Act. But Becerra, 62, will face questions in his Senate confirmation about whether he possesses sufficient health care and management experience. Becerra as a congressman played an insider role helping steer “Obamacare” to passage, and as California attorney general he leads a coalition of Democratic states trying to block the Trump administration’s latest attempt to overturn it. He has been less involved in the day-today work of combating the coronavirus. Becerra would be the first Latino to serve as

U.S. health secretary. In announcing his pick Tuesday, Biden initially stumbled on the Spanish pronunciation of Becerra’s name. But Biden was drawn to Becerra’s working-class roots, his longtime effort to increase access to health care and his willingness to work with Republicans to solve problems like getting patients access to COVID-19 treatments. Accepting his nomination via video link, Becerra called it a “breathtaking opportunity” to help shape the future of health care. “I share the president-elect and vice-president-elect’s determination to rebuild unity and civility in America,” he added. Biden is under pressure from fellow Democrats to ensure that his Cabinet is diverse.

Then-California Gov. Jerry Brown appointed Becerra as California’s top prosecutor in late 2016. Becerra instantly struck a combative tone toward the incoming Trump administration. Defending California’s implementation of the Affordable Care Act was a key priority, but he also focused on protecting young immigrants from deportation and defending California’s climate change laws. As HHS secretary, Becerra would be responsible for overseeing the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which cares for unaccompanied minors who enter the U.S. illegally. Becerra has helped lead a coalition of fellow state attorneys general who sued over the Trump administration’s child separation policies.

Republicans immediately made clear their attack lines. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas argued that Becerra was unqualified because he lacked ties to the health care or pharmaceutical industries. Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana blasted his support for “Medicare for All,” which is not Biden’s policy. Abortion opponents have called Becerra “unacceptable.” The HHS secretary’s job requires political connections, communications skills, managerial savvy, a willingness to learn about complex medical issues and a creative legal mind to use vast regulatory powers without winding up on the losing end of lawsuits. Becerra will need to establish ties with governors who will play outsize roles in distributing the coronavirus vaccine.

allowed more in-person instruction. That means there isn’t an urgent health and safety concern to move most students out of school right away — but with the state requirements that

link a county’s case rate to school reopening, Coos Bay Superintendent Bryan Trendell said the recent increase in cases is alarming. “Any time you have an increase like we had this week, it’s a cause for

concern anywhere, and schools are no exception to that,” Trendell said. The North Bend School District was almost “on the brink” of bringing more students back for limited in-person instruction (small groups of older students allowed back to school for hands-on things like science labs), according to Superintendent Kevin Bogatin. But with the increase in cases, many of those activities may have to stop. “I don’t feel great about it,” Bogatin said of the new metrics. “I think everyone wants our kids back in school.” According to Bogatin, the district has a range of options to respond to the case rate, from reducing those limited in-person opportunities, to reducing the time that younger students are in school, to moving

whole groups of students back to comprehensive distance learning. “We’re going to have to scale back our time (in person),” Bogatin said. One of North Bend’s key considerations is staffing, since having few substitutes available means the district can’t have too many staff members out sick. The district plans to make an announcement about possible changes in the next week, with the possibility that things may have to change before winter break. In Coos Bay, Trendell said a key factor is considering the timing of a change. “That’ll be a big piece of it, giving families an opportunity to prepare,” Trendell said, noting that students in grades K-3 have been in-person since the school year began. “It’s

a big transition for them.” The district has options, too: Because of the state’s waiting week and the safe harbor exception, district leaders could choose to make changes either before or after the break, depending on how the data shakes out. Those changes could include reductions in the amount of time younger students spend in the classroom or expansions of comprehensive distance learning plans. The district plans to make an announcement about future plans in the next week or so, Trendell said. But both superintendents acknowledged what’s been an overwhelming theme of the academic year: Change. “We’ve had enough transition and enough change, so we’re trying not to do that,” Bogatin said.

From A1

Although Dixon had been conscientious about masks and social distancing, he met up with friends at a restaurant for what they called a “prayer meeting,” and three of them fell ill, Thrasher said. Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, offered what sounded like a subtle rebuke of the way President Donald Trump and others in the adminis-

Action From A1

close the loop, from lab to patient. The rest of Biden’s extensive health care agenda, from expanding insurance coverage to negotiating prices for prescription drugs, will likely hinge on how his administration performs in this first test of competence and credibility. Becerra, Biden’s pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services, will be backed in the White House by businessman Jeff Zients, who will assume the role of coronavirus response coordinator. Running complex, high-risk operations is his specialty. Alongside Fauci, the other medical doctors

School From A1

class exposure. What’s more, both fell into a “safe harbor” exception under the state framework which

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eEdition

Oregon has new daily high in COVID-19 deaths The World PORTLAND — Oregon hit a new daily high for deaths in the COVID-19 pandemic when 36 deaths were reported Tuesday by the Oregon Health Authority. In addition, 1,341 new confirmed and presumptive cases were reported by OHA. As of 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, the total number of cases since the beginning of the pandemic was 87,082 and the total number of deaths was 1,080. “The news of three dozen lives lost weight heavily on all Oregonians,” said Patrick Allen, director of the Oregon Health Authority. “Today we share an unfortunate milestone since the first case was reported in February that 36 deaths were reported today, the highest single day loss of life to date from COVID-19. All of us are affected, and the families and friends of those lost most of all. These lost lives touch our families, our workplaces, our neighborhoods and our communities. “At this unfortunate moment, as we work together to confront the challenge presented by COVID-19, we extend our deepest sympathies to those who have lost a loved one and to every Oregonian who has been impacted by the pandemic.” In addition, 34 of the 36 counties in Oregon reported at least one new case. New cases were reported in the following counties: : Baker (5), Benton (21), Clackamas (114), Clatsop (12), Columbia (10), Coos (8), Crook (11), Curry (6), Deschutes (34), Douglas (27), Gilliam (1), Grant (7), Harney (1), Hood River (8), Jackson (106), Jefferson (28), Josephine (25), Klamath (40), Lake (7), Lane (109), Lincoln (10), Linn (48), Malheur (10), Marion (116), Morrow (5), Multnomah (286), Polk (16), Tillamook (8), Umatilla (40), Union (9), Wasco (13), Washington (173), Wheeler (3), Yamhill (24).

COVID-19 hospitalizations The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients across Oregon decreased to 553, 12 fewer than Monday. There are 127 COVID-19 patients in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds, seven more than Monday. The total number of patients in hospital beds may fluctuate between report times. Numbers do not reflect admissions per day nor the length of hospital stay. Staffing limitations are not captured in this data and may further limit bed capacity. More information about hospital capacity can be found here. NOTE: On Dec. 7th, OHA reported in error Oregon’s 1044th COVID-19 death as an 84-year-old woman in Washington County who tested positive on Nov. 21. The woman is not dead and the number of COVID-19 deaths in Oregon have been adjusted to accommodate this error. Oregon’s 1045th COVID-19 death is an 80-year-old man in Clackamas County who tested positive on Nov. 23 and died on Nov. 30 at Providence Portland Medical Center. He had underlying conditions. Oregon’s 1046th COVID-19 death is a 64-year-old man in Columbia County who tested positive on Nov. 25 and died on Dec. 4 at Kaiser Westside Medical Center. He had underlying conditions. Oregon’s 1047th COVID-19 death is an 89-year-old man in Douglas County who tested positive on Nov. 18 and died on Nov. 26 at his residence. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed. Oregon’s 1048th COVID-19 death is a 76-year-old man in Jackson County who tested positive on Nov. 5 and died on Dec. 6 at Providence Medford Medical Center. He had underlying conditions. Oregon’s 1049th COVID-19 death is a 71-year-old woman in Jackson County who tested

positive on Nov. 16 and died on Dec. 5 at Three Rivers Medical Center. She had underlying conditions. Oregon’s 1050th COVID-19 death is a 73-year-old man in Jackson County who tested positive on Nov. 25 and died on Dec. 5 at Providence Medford Medical Center. He had underlying conditions. Oregon’s 1051st COVID-19 death is a 72-year-old woman in Klamath County who tested positive on Dec. 4 and died on Dec. 4 at her residence. She had underlying conditions. Oregon’s 1052nd COVID-19 death is a 78-year-old woman in Josephine County who tested positive on Nov. 27 and died on Dec. 6 at Ashland Community Hospital. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed. Oregon’s 1053rd COVID-19 death is an 88-year-old man in Klamath County who tested positive on Nov. 29 and died on Dec. 7 at Sky Lakes Medical Center. He had underlying conditions. Oregon’s 1054th COVID-19 death is a 77-year-old woman in Lane County who tested positive on Nov. 16 and died on Dec. 1 at her residence. She had underlying conditions. Oregon’s 1055th COVID-19 death is a 96-year-old woman in Lane County who tested positive on Nov. 30 and died on Dec. 5 at her residence. She had underlying conditions. Oregon’s 1056th COVID-19 death is an 87-year-old woman in Lane County who tested positive on Nov. 25 and died on Dec. 6 at her residence. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed. Oregon’s 1057th COVID-19 death is an 82-year-old woman in Lane County who tested positive on Nov. 25 and died on Dec. 6 at her residence. She had underlying conditions. Oregon’s 1058th COVID-19 death is a 72-year-old man in Marion County who tested positive on Nov. 22 and died on Dec. 4 at his residence. He

UK: Two show allergic reactions after receiving new vaccine LONDON (AP) — British regulators warned Wednesday that people who have a history of serious allergic reactions shouldn’t receive the new Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as they investigate two adverse reactions that occurred on the first day of the country’s mass vaccination program. The U.K.’s Medical and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency is looking into whether the reactions were linked to the vaccine. The two people affected were staff members with the National Health Service who had a history of allergies, and both are recovering. Authorities have not specified what their reactions were. In the meantime, the regulator has issued the warning for anyone who has had a significant allergic reaction to a vaccine, medicine or food. That includes anyone who has been told to carry an adrenaline shot or others who have had potentially fatal allergic reactions. “As is common with new vaccines the MHRA have advised on a precautionary basis that people with a significant history of allergic reactions do not receive this vaccination after two people with a history of significant allergic reactions responded adversely yesterday,’’

Professor Stephen Powis, medical director for the NHS in England, said in a statement. “Both are recovering well.” The medical regulatory agency also said vaccinations should not be carried out in facilities that don’t have resuscitation equipment. Pfizer and BioNTech said they were working with investigators “to better understand each case and its causes.’’ Late-stage trials of the vaccine found “no serious safety concerns,” the companies said. More than 42,000 people have received two doses of the shot during those trials. “In the pivotal phase three clinical trial, this vaccine was generally well tolerated with no serious safety concerns reported by the independent Data Monitoring Committee,” the companies said. Documents published by the two companies showed that people with a history of severe allergic reactions were excluded from the trials, and doctors were advised to look out for such reactions in trial participants who weren’t previously known to have severe allergies. Even in non-emergency situations, health authorities must closely monitor new vaccines and medications because studies in

tens of thousands of people can’t detect a rare risk that would affect 1 in 1 million. Dr. Peter Openshaw, a professor of experimental medicine at Imperial College London, said there is a “very small” chance of an allergic reaction to any vaccine. The MHRA last week gave emergency authorization to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, making Britain the first country to allow its widespread use. The U.K. began its mass vaccination program on Tuesday, offering the shot to people over 80, nursing home staff and some NHS workers. It’s not clear how many people have received the jab so far. As part of its emergency authorization for the vaccine, the MHRA required healthcare workers to report any adverse reactions to help regulators gather more information about safety and effectiveness. The agency is monitoring the vaccine rollout closely and “will now investigate these cases in more detail to understand if the allergic reactions were linked to the vaccine or were incidental,” he said. “The fact that we know so soon about these two allergic reactions and that the regulator has acted on this to issue precautionary advice shows that this monitoring system is working well.”

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had underlying conditions. Oregon’s 1059th COVID-19 death is an 89-year-old man in Marion County who tested positive on Nov. 17 and died on Nov. 30 at his residence. He had underlying conditions. Oregon’s 1060th COVID-19 death is an 87-year-old woman in Marion County who tested positive on Nov. 30 and died on Dec. 6 at Salem Hospital. She had underlying conditions. Oregon’s 1061st COVID-19 death is a 69-year-old man in Marion County who tested positive on Nov. 30 and died on Nov. 30 at his residence. He had underlying conditions. Oregon’s 1062nd COVID-19 death is a 90-year-old man in Marion County who tested positive on Nov. 27 and died on Dec. 4 at his residence. He had underlying conditions. Oregon’s 1063rd COVID-19 death is a 97-year-old man in Marion County who tested positive on Dec. 4 and died on Dec. 4 at his residence. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed. Oregon’s 1064th COVID-19 death is an 88-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on Nov. 26 and died on Nov. 27 at Portland Providence Medical Center. He had underlying conditions. Oregon’s 1065th COVID-19 death is an 87-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Nov. 21 and died on Nov. 27 at her residence. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed. Oregon’s 1066th COVID-19 death is an 88-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Nov. 23 and died on Nov. 29 at her

residence. She had underlying conditions. Oregon’s 1067th COVID-19 death is a 92-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Nov. 13 and died on Nov. 26 at her residence. She had underlying conditions. Oregon’s 1068th COVID-19 death is an 88-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Oct. 28 and died on Nov. 16 at her residence. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed. Oregon’s 1069th COVID-19 death is a 73-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Nov. 3 and died on Nov. 23 at Kaiser Westside Medical Center. She had underlying conditions. Oregon’s 1070th COVID-19 death is an 84-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on Nov. 3 and died on Nov. 22 at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed. Oregon’s 1071st COVID-19 death is a 79-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Nov. 4 and died on Nov. 25 at Kaiser Westside Vincent Medical Center. She had underlying conditions. Oregon’s 1072nd COVID-19 death is a 78-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on Nov. 10 and died on Nov. 22 at Adventist Medical Center. He had underlying conditions. Oregon’s 1073rd COVID-19 death is a 77-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on Nov. 16 and died on Dec. 6 at Legacy Emanuel Vincent Medical Center. Presence of underlying conditions is being

confirmed. Oregon’s 1074th COVID-19 death is an 83-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on Dec. 3 and died on Dec. 6. Location of death and presence of underlying conditions are being confirmed. Oregon’s 1075th COVID-19 death is an 87-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on Nov. 17 and died on Nov. 23 at his residence. He had underlying conditions. Oregon’s 1076th COVID-19 death is a 74-year-old man in Umatilla County who tested positive on Nov. 24 and died on Nov. 30 at St. Mary’s Medical Center Providence-Walla Walla. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed. Oregon’s 1077th COVID-19 death is a 54-year-old woman in Washington County who tested positive on Sept. 10 and died on Nov. 20 at Providence Portland Medical Center. She had underlying conditions. Oregon’s 1078th COVID-19 death is an 84-year-old woman in Washington County who tested positive on Nov. 18 and died on Nov. 25 at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center. She had underlying conditions. Oregon’s 1079th COVID-19 death is a 73-year-old man in Washington County who tested positive on Nov. 23 and died on Nov. 29 at Kaiser Westside Medical Center. He had underlying conditions. Oregon’s 1080th COVID-19 death is a 78-year-old man in Yamhill County who tested positive on Nov. 13 and died on Nov. 20 at Willamette Valley Medical Center. He had underlying conditions.

DEAR ABBYBy Abigail Van Buren BOYFRIEND SHOWS TRUE COLORS AFTER LUNG CANCER DIAGNOSIS DEAR ABBY: I need your opinion. I have been with the same guy for 27 years. We never married because we were both married before, and I wasn’t into doing it again. I have stuck by him through sickness, hard times and whatever else. Four months ago I was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer. I stopped by his house this week to pick up a rug scrubber and walked in on him having sex with some woman. I feel hurt, angry, mad, sad. It’s like, WHY? Do you think he has been doing this and he just got caught or what? I didn’t say anything. I just left. He called me later and said it was over between us because I’m sick and “can’t do anything.” I’m in shock. I don’t know what to think. I have always been there for him. So why, now that I’m sick and I need him the most, has he turned his back on me? -- BLINDSIDED IN OHIO DEAR BLINDSIDED: I am so, so sorry that you had to find out this way -when the chips are down -- that the man you have been involved with for 27 years isn’t much of a man after all. I DO think he has been doing this all these years. Now it is time to marshal your friends and family and let them know what’s going on. If you have been a caring and supportive friend or relative, they should be supportive during this challenging time. The American Cancer Society has support groups for people with cancer if you need someone to talk to. Its website is cancer.org. Please know you are in my thoughts and prayers for both a spiritual and physical recovery. DEAR ABBY: My family is getting torn apart by my older brother’s issue with me. It has become worse over the

years, even after his marriage. He seems to be upset with how my life is progressing, and to upset me, he has been copying everything I do. He got engaged and married around the same time I did. He also got a dog right after I did, bought a car right after me and decided he wanted to start a family as soon as my wife and I announced we are having a baby. My parents constantly make excuses about why his actions are justified. I no longer know what to do. I tried to reconcile with him, but he rebuffed me and says he hates me. It has reached the point that I don’t want to be around any of my family anymore because they defend him on everything, despite the facts. What should I do? I seem to be the only person trying to reconcile the relationship and fix/reunite my family. -SAD SIBLING IN NEW JERSEY DEAR SIBLING: I find it hard to believe that your family would side with a sibling who declares he “hates” his brother and refuses attempts to reconcile. It’s important for your mental health that you separate emotionally from your brother. By that I mean dial back the resentment, live your life with your wife and child and stop obsessing about what your brother does. That he literally follows in your footsteps shows he either admires the choices you make, or that he has no imagination of his own. Neither of these should be a problem for YOU. ------------------------------Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at www. DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

eEdition

White House provides new offer for relief WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration dove back into Capitol Hill’s confusing COVID-19 negotiations on Tuesday, offering a $916 billion package to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that would send a $600 direct payment to most Americans — but eliminate a $300 per week employment benefit favored by a bipartisan group of Senate negotiators. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin made the offer to Pelosi late Tuesday afternoon, he said in a statement. He offered few details, though House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy said it proposes the $600 direct payment for individuals and $1,200 for couples, which is half the payment delivered by the March pandemic relief bill. Mnuchin reached out to Pelosi after a call with top congressional GOP leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who remains at odds with Democratic leaders over COVID-19 relief. Pelosi and Senate

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., responded to Mnuchin’s entreaty with a statement that said they would prefer to let a bipartisan group take the lead. The bipartisan group, led by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, among others, is seeking to rally lawmakers in both parties behind a $908 billion framework that includes a $300-per-week pandemic jobless benefit and $160 billion for states and local governments. It is more generous than a GOP plan that’s been filibustered twice already but far smaller than a wish list assembled by House Democrats. McConnell had earlier proposed shelving a top Democratic priority — aid to state and local governments — in exchange for dropping his own pet provision, a shield against lawsuits for COVID-related negligence. Democrats angrily rejected the idea,

saying McConnell was undermining the efforts of a bipartisan group of Senate negotiators and reneging on earlier statements that state and local aid would likely have to be an element of a COVID-19 relief agreement given Democratic control of the House. The $916 billion Mnuchin offer, the separate ongoing talks among key rank-and-file senators, and the shifting demands by the White House all add up to muddled, confusing prospects for a long-delayed COVID-19 aid package. The pressure to deliver is intense — all sides say failure isn’t an option. The Mnuchin plan resurrects direct payments that are popular with Trump and the public but which are disliked by many Republican lawmakers who say they are costly and send too much aid to people who do not need it. Democrats generally embrace the idea. “Right now we’re targeting struggling families, failing businesses, health

care workers and we don’t have a stimulus check to every single person, regardless of need,” said Collins. McConnell said Congress will not adjourn without providing the long-overdue COVID-19 relief. He had previously said he would not put any pandemic relief bill on the floor that does not include the liability shield, which is being sought by businesses, universities, nonprofits, and others that are reopening during the pandemic. “Leaving here without a COVID relief package cannot happen,” McConnell said. “Why don’t we set aside the two obviously most contentious issues. We know we’re going to be confronted with another request after the first of the year. We’ll live to fight those another day.” Top Senate Democrat Schumer immediately rejected the entreaty, saying the state and local relief is sought by many Republicans, too, including some conservatives like Bill Cas-

sidy of Louisiana and Mitt Romney of Utah. Pelosi blasted McConnell’s offer as an attempt to undercut the bipartisan group whose framework she supports as a foundation for the negotiations. Pelosi initially demanded more than $900 billion for state and local governments this spring, but the fiscal situation in the states hasn’t been as bad as feared and Democratic leaders could be willing to accept a $160 billion proposal by the moderate group. Already, Capitol Hill leaders are moving a government shutdown deadline to the end of next week, but progress is slow and key decisions are yet to be made. The House has scheduled a vote on a one-week temporary government funding bill for Wednesday. Without the measure, the government would shut down this weekend. Separately, Pelosi and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala.,

spoke by phone on Monday to try to kick start talks on a separate $1.4 trillion government-wide spending bill. That measure is held up over issues like protections for the sage grouse, the Census and accounting maneuvers being employed by lawmakers to squeeze $12 billion more into the legislation. McConnell initially proposed a sweeping five-year liability shield, retroactive to December 2019, to protect companies and organizations from COVID-19-related lawsuits. Democrats, along with their allies in labor and civil rights groups, roundly dismissed that approach as a danger to workers. And there hasn’t been a wave of lawsuits. “Contrary to the majority leader’s dire predictions, there has been no flood of COVID lawsuits. In fact, quite the opposite,” said Schumer, D-N.Y. “Far from the pandemic of lawsuits, there’s barely been a trickle.”

PORTLAND (AP) — Protesters outraged with the arrests of seven people at a home where a family was removed in September hurled rocks at officers, sprayed a fire extinguisher at them and damaged police vehicles on Tuesday. The violence happened in broad daylight, and by evening, Mayor Ted Wheeler sent out a statement saying he was authorizing Portland Police “to use all lawful means to end the illegal occupation ... There will be no autonomous zone in Portland.” “It’s time for the encampment and occupation to end,” Wheeler said in a statement that also acknowledged the issues the protesters want to fix, such as housing and health care. “There are many ways to protest and work toward needed reform. Illegally occupying private property, openly carrying weapons, threatening and intimidating people are not among them.” The clash fits into a larger debate roiling in Oregon about whether state lawmakers should extend a pandemic-inspired mor-

atorium on evictions that’s set to expire within weeks. Federal renter protections are also set to expire on Dec. 31 and housing advocates are worried that an end to those policies could lead to a huge wave of the newly homeless. Portland has been the site of frequent protests, many involving violent clashes between officers and demonstrators, ever since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May. But most happen at night, making the daytime protest a rare occurrence. A group of activists for months have camped at the home dubbed “Red House on Mississippi” because it is on North Mississippi Avenue — to express their outrage against gentrification and the eviction of the Black and Indigenous family in September. The Oregonian reported that the house had belonged to the Kinney family since the 1950s, according to the website for the Red House on Mississippi group protesting the eviction. The Kinneys paid off their house but took out

a new mortgage to pay defense lawyers after a family member was arrested in 2002, the Red House on the Mississippi group has said. The house went into foreclosure and was sold to a developer at a 2018 auction, according to the group. The family argued in court that the eviction moratorium in place until the New Year should apply to their case, but a judge in September found it did not apply because their struggles began before the pandemic struck. The property’s owner complained that people were trespassing and officers showed up before dawn and made the arrests. TV images showed the clashes Tuesday morning. Following the arrests and the clashes, protesters Tuesday afternoon used power tools to set up a barricade with wire fencing, debris and wood pallets to block off street access to the house. The demonstrators also hung signs saying “Stop the Foreclosures” and “No Jurisdiction.”

TORONTO (AP) — Canada’s health regulator on Wednesday approved Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, days ahead of possible approval in the United States. Health Canada posted on it is website that the vaccine made by U.S. drugmaker Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech is authorized. The vaccine already has been approved by the United Kingdom and Bahrain and officials have said they expect U.S. approval within days. “This is a critical milestone,” Dr. Supriya Sharma, chief medical advisor at Health Canada. “Canadians can have confidence in our rigorous review process, and that the vaccine was only authorized only after a thorough assessment of the evidence demonstrated that it met Canada’s strict standards for safety, efficacy and quality.” Health Canada said terms of the approval require the manufacturer to continue providing information on the safety, efficacy and quality of the vaccine. Canada is set to receive

up to 249,000 doses this month and Canadian officials expect to administer them within days. Britain on Tuesday began vaccinations with the shot made by Pfizer and BioNTech. U.S. regulators on Tuesday also released their first scientific evaluation of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine and confirmed it offers strong protection. Vaccines are emerging from an all-out worldwide race and are reaching the market less than a year after the virus was even identified — a remarkable scientific achievement that shaved years off the usual process. The encouraging developments come as the coronavirus continues surging across much of the world. The scourge has claimed more than 1.5 million lives, including over 285,000 in the U.S., the highest toll of any country. U.S. Food and Drug Administration scientists are meeting on Thursday, when the agency’s independent advisers will debate if the evidence is strong enough to recommend vaccinating millions of Americans. “It is encouraging to see

that our mRNA vaccine is now authorized in Canada. Following U.K. and Bahrain, it is the third country to approve use of our vaccine within a week,” said Sean Marett, BioNTech’s chief business and chief commercial officer. U.S. FDA scientists reanalyzed data and found the Pfizer vaccine appears safe and more than 90% effective across patients of different ages, races and underlying health conditions. Health Canada said the vaccine is for use in people 16 years of age or older, but noted Pfizer-BioNTech are running further clinical trials on children of all age groups and that could change. Canada recently amended the contract with Pfizer so that it would deliver up to 249,000 doses this month. That will mean about 124,500 of the highest risk Canadians will get vaccinated at first as two doses are required per person a few weeks apart. Pfizer and BioNTech said it will supply a minimum of 20 million doses to Canada through 2021 and as many as 76 million.

Portland police, protestors Canada health regulator approves Pfizer’s vaccine clash in broad daylight

Many Republicans in Congress still haven’t acknowledged Biden win WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans waiting for Republicans in Congress to acknowledge Joe Biden as the president-elect may have to keep waiting until January as GOP leaders stick with President Donald Trump’s litany of legal challenges and unproven claims of fraud. Tuesday’s deadline for states to certify their elections — once viewed as a pivot point for Republicans to mark Biden’s win — came and went without much comment. Next week’s Dec. 14 Electoral College deadline may produce just a few more congratulatory GOP calls to Biden. Increasingly, GOP lawmakers say the Jan. 6 vote in Congress to accept the Electoral College outcome may be when the presidential winner becomes official. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has signaled Jan. 20 as the certain date when the country is “going to have the swearing-in of the next president.” The result is a risky standoff like none other in U.S. history. The refusal to agree upon the facts of the election threatens to undermine voter confidence,

chisel away at the legitimacy of Biden’s presidency and restack civic norms in still-unknowable ways. Yet some GOP officials see the dragged-out process as their best shot at answering the fiery questions, calls and complaints of their constituents who voted for Trump and refuse to believe he legitimately lost the race to Biden. “The country needs to understand, at least, it was fair,” Rep. Alex Mooney, R-W.Va., said in an interview. Mooney said he was being pressed by voters back home, including Republican Party activists at an event last month in Harper’s Ferry, demanding to know why no one was helping the president. They were “very concerned,” he said, and so he stepped up. He introduced a House resolution Tuesday that encourages neither Trump nor Biden to concede until all the investigations are completed. “The end is when the roll call is put up here,” he said about the Jan. 6 vote in Congress. Trump sent his party down this unprecedented path by claiming the election was “rigged,” but Re-

publican officials enabled doubts to swell through their past four weeks of silence. He personally called on some local elected officials to reconsider the results. Now, the disputed election has taken on a political life of its own that the party’s leadership may not be able to squash, even as Trump’s legal challenges crumble. Republicans say it makes little political sense at this point for them to counter Trump’s views lest they risk a backlash from his supporters — their own constituents — back home. They’re relying on Trump voters to power the Georgia runoff elections Jan. 5 that will determine control of the Senate. And while some GOP lawmakers have acknowledged Biden’s victory, most prefer to keep quiet, letting the process play out “organically,” as one aide put it, into January. But election experts warn of long-term damage to the long-cherished American system. “It clearly hurts confidence in the elections,” said Trey Grayson, the Republican former secretary of state for Kentucky and a past president of the

National Association of Secretaries of State. “My hope,” he said, is by Dec. 14 “there will be some more voices, but my gut is it won’t be until the 6th” (of January). Edward Foley, an elections expert and constitutional law professor at Ohio State University, said it’s true that the election winner is not officially the president-elect until the Congress declares it so with its vote on Jan. 6 to accept the Electoral College results. “I’m less concerned about the timing, but that it happens,” he said. For Americans to “have faith” in the elections, the losing side has to accept defeat. “It’s very, very dangerous if the losing side can’t get to that,” he said. “It’s essential for the parties to play by that ethos — even if one individual, Mr. Trump, can’t do it, the party has to do it,” he said. “What’s so disturbing about the dynamic that has developed since Election Day is that the party has been incapable of conveying that message because they’re taking their cues from Trump.” In the House and the Senate, the standoff is

playing out in ways large and small as lawmakers prolong the instability, some boosting their own profiles to pick up the mantle with Trump’s movement of voters and others fighting more broadly for an overhaul of election systems. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, announced on Sean Hannity’s Fox News Channel show that he was prepared to deliver oral arguments for Pennsylvania lawmakers’ legal challenge to the elections if the Supreme Court takes up the case. Cruz said in a statement he believes the court “has a responsibility to the American people to ensure, with its powers, that we are following the law and following the Constitution.” The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Republicans’ bid to reverse Pennsylvania’s certification of Biden’s victory. Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., is delivering daily House floor speeches ahead of his planned formal protest during the Jan. 6 voting that he believes will show Trump was reelected. “Others are joining me,” he said in an interview.

And back home, “I have had a lot of pats on the back.” Even the Republicans, led by McConnell, on the bipartisan inauguration committee refused to allow a Democratic motion Tuesday to publicly announce that planning was underway. The committee that has organized every inauguration since 1901 is planning COVID-19 health and safety protocols for the traditional Jan. 20 swearing-in ceremony next year. Committee chairman Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said, “It is not the job of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies to get ahead of the electoral process and decide who we are inaugurating.” Former congressman David McIntosh, who now heads the conservative Club for Growth, said in the new year there should be an independent, bipartisan commission established to investigate the 2020 election. Until then, his group is trying to push Georgia’s Trump voters to the polls, even as the president disputes Biden’s win of the state.

PARTLY SUNNY 55 • 35 | WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2020 | theworldlink.com

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No changes atop college playoff rankings RALPH D. RUSSO Associated Press

For the third straight week, Alabama, Notre Dame, Clemson and Ohio State held on to the top four spots in the College Football Playoff rankings. The selection committee’s second-from-last rankings had only a little movement in the top 10. Texas A&M is still fifth and Florida held at sixth. Iowa State moved up a couple of spots to seventh after earning a spot in the Big 12 title game. Cincinnati slipped a spot to eighth after an idle week because of COVID-19 issues in the program. The Bearcats also will not play this week against Tulsa, the committee’s 24th-ranked team.

Those two schools are scheduled to meet Dec. 19 in the American Athletic Conference title game. Ohio State is also currently without a game this weekend after Michigan had to cancel because of a COVID-19 outbreak. The Buckeyes had to cancel their game two Saturdays ago because of their own virus issues. Last week they beat Michigan State 52-12 without more than a dozen scholarship players, including three starting offensive linemen. “That certainly got our attention,” selection committee chairman Gary Barta said. Georgia is ninth and Miami is 10th. Coastal Carolina, coming off a big victory against BYU, jumped five spots to No. 13.

TWO HATS: Barta is also the athletic director at Iowa, a member of the Big Ten. The Big Ten currently has a bit of dilemma on its hands. Ohio State (5-0) might not play enough games to be eligible to play in the Big Ten championship game. As part of his real job, Barta will meet with his colleagues in the Big Ten on Wednesday, a regularly scheduled meeting. Barta said he does not know the agenda of that meeting and declined to speculate, but it doesn’t seem to be stretch to think that Ohio State’s situation will come up. Should the Big Ten try to shuffle this week’s schedule to get Ohio State an opponent? Should the ADs who made the mini-

mum games rule way back in the summer when the conference first started altering its schedule to deal with the pandemic simply change the rule to let Ohio State play for the title? Or keep it the way it is and match up Ohio State with the second-best team in the West Division, likely Iowa, on the weekend of Dec. 19 while Northwestern and Indiana play in the Big Ten championship game? That’s if Indiana can play. The Hoosiers paused team activities Tuesday because of COVID-19 cases. The Big Ten ADs not only have to figure out what is fair to Ohio State and the rest of the conference, they also must consider how best to protect the integrity and value of their

league championship game. On top of that, they also should be thinking about what is the best way to put the Buckeyes in position to be picked for the playoff by the selection committee. And one of the people helping to make those decisions is Barta, who should have a pretty good idea of how the committee views Ohio State. How will Barta deal with this? “I am going to go into it the way I try to go into everything and that is I’m going do the right thing, what I believe is the right thing for college football, for the CFP and certainly as we have since the beginning of COVID, the right thing for student-athlete health and safety,” Barta said.

Ravens run past Cowboys to end recent slide BALTIMORE (AP) — Back in action after a 15-day layoff, Lamar Jackson directed a relentless rushing attack that the Baltimore Ravens hope will be the first big step in a run to the playoffs. Jackson ran for 94 yards and a touchdown, and the Ravens returned from a COVID-19 outbreak to amass 294 yards rushing in a 34-17 rout of the Dallas Cowboys on Tuesday night. Playing for the first time since Nov. 22 following a positive test for the potentially deadly virus, Jackson carried 13 times and threw for two scores. He was one of 23 Ravens to spend time on the reserve/ COVID-19 list while four different strains of the virus swept through the organization. “I still can’t really taste or smell, but I’m good,” Jackson said. “I feel good to be back with my guys. It was like two weeks I ain’t seen them.” Although the Ravens still have a half-dozen players on the COVID-19 list, the team felt complete for the first time in weeks. “It’s like when you go on a family vacation and one of your family members get sick and you can’t bring them,” rookie linebacker Patrick Queen said. “You’re down in the dumps.” The game was played on Tuesday night because Baltimore’s previous game — against Pittsburgh last Wednesday — was pushed back three times while the Ravens had at least one player test positive for 10 consecutive days. Gus Edwards ran for 101 yards on just seven carries and rookie J.K. Dobbins — who also missed time on the COVID-19 list — added 71 yards rushing and a TD to help Baltimore (7-5) break a three-game skid and stay alive in its quest to reach the postseason for a third straight year. “It’s a win we really, really had to have. It was a must-win,” coach John Harbaugh said. “Running game was excellent. That was the key on offense.” Dallas came in with the worst rush defense in the league, and it showed. The

NFL union doesn’t see need for bubble JOSH DUBOW

Associated Press

The NFL players believe the season can be completed on time without the league moving into a version of a postseason bubble like other sports have as long as everyone follows the rules already in place meant to slow the spread of the coronavirus. NFLPA President JC Tretter and Executive Director DeMaurice Smith held a virtual news conference on Tuesday to discuss the challenges the players have felt this season while playing during a global pandemic and address how things will change in the future. Both Tretter and Smith said that the rules in place requiring players and staff to be tested daily, wear masks, socially distance and have tracers for contact tracing have helped prevent the spread of the virus. They believe if everyone adheres to those rules over the next two months there would be no need for teams to sequester in hotels to avoid contact with the public. “When we all follow the protocols, they work and they work well,” Tretter said. “The contact tracing, getting everyone who potentially are exposed out of the building, works to stop the spread of the virus. It will all come down to how well we follow those protocols and we will continue to evolve those protocols as needed. We know they work and we need to make sure we have 100% Ravens averaged 7.9 yards per carry and prevailed despite getting only 107 yards passing from Jackson. “I think today was obviously a different challenge than we’ve seen,” Dallas coach Mike McCarthy said. “This is a unique of-

compliance to finish the season.” Tretter and Smith didn’t rule out the possibility that circumstances could change if the rate of infection in surrounding communities continues to rise, but said the situation in football is different with much bigger rosters than the NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball. Smith also said that epidemiologists that the union consults with said moving into a bubble with such a large roster carries its own risks because it could make the virus spread even more if someone does happen to get it. Tretter, a center on the Cleveland Browns, said there is also a human aspect to consider. “Our players have wives and kids at home that they want to see,” he said. “It’s been a tough year from a mental health perspective for our players. The feeling of isolation of not being able to see people, their friends and family. Further asking guys to stay away from their young kids and family for six weeks is a big ask and has ramifications outside of the game of football.” The league and union released the latest results from testing that showed the rate of positive tests fell last week to 0.11% from 0.20% the previous week and rate of incidences fell to 0.74% from 1.35%. In all, there were 18 new confirmed positive tests last week among players and 27 among other personnel, raising the numbers since Aug. 1 to 173 players and 297 personnel. fense. A very physical offensive line and the dynamic of the combination of the running backs and Lamar.” The last-place Cowboys (3-9) have lost six of seven. Andy Dalton went 31 for 48 for 285 yards and two touchdowns, and

Michigan cancels rivalry game with Buckeyes ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Citing a rising number of COVID-19 cases in its program, Michigan canceled its annual showdown with Ohio State on Tuesday as college football lurches toward the end of the season without one of its cornerstone rivalry games. The season-ending grudge match known as “The Game” won’t be played for the first time in 102 years. “Our players, they want to play,” Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said. “They wanted to play this week and they want to play next week.” Harbaugh said his players were “very disappointed” to not face the third-ranked Buckeyes, who would be heavily favored: “The odds were against us, but our players, to a man, wanted to have that opportunity.” Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel said the spread of the coronavirus has not slowed since last week’s outbreak began and the team was not expected to be cleared to practice by the end of the week. “The number of positive tests has continued to trend in an upward direction over the last seven days,” he said. “Unfortunately, we will not be able to field a team due to COVID-19 positives and the associated quarantining required of close contact individuals.” Outbreaks have disrupted more

than 110 games across major college football since August — including this weekend’s regular-season finale between No. 7 Cincinnati and No. 18 Tulsa, which will instead look ahead to their matchup in the Dec. 19 American Athletic Conference title game. NCAA President Mark Emmert, in an interview with AP on Tuesday, said even with all the disruptions more than 80% of the games are likely to be played and the football season should still be considered a success. Along with the volleyball and soccer seasons. “If you’re just looking at college football, how can you have a successful football season without Ohio State-Michigan. I mean, that seems crazy, right?” Emmert said. “But on the other hand, the success was despite all of the pressures to have that game, they said no. The health of our people is just too important. Our students and our staff, we’re not going to risk. So to me, that’s a success.” The problems with the Wolverines were closely watched in part because the undefeated Buckeyes (5-0) have championship goals again this season. With two games already canceled, the Buckeyes under current conference rules still need a sixth game to be eligible to play for a Big Ten championship Dec. 19 in Indianapolis against Northwestern. Coach Ryan Day said the conference

should consider allowing Ohio State to play with only five games. “If we don’t quite get the games we need to get into the championship game, I think that needs to be looked at hard, just like anybody else in the conference,” Day said shortly before Michigan’s announcement. “The Michigan-Ohio State rivalry is one of the most important rivalries in all of sports,” the Big Ten said in a statement. “The conference is committed to transparency and will continue to collaborate with its member institution stakeholders to determine Big Ten championship game participation requirements as well as tiebreakers.” The league could decide Ohio State will still represent the East Division at least in part because the conference also doesn’t want to hurt the Buckeyes’ chances of earning a playoff berth. Ohio State entered the day No. 4 in the CFP rankings. Manuel said he didn’t think the Buckeyes, or any team, should be punished for not playing enough games during the pandemic and added that Ohio State is one of the top four teams in the country. He also said if Ohio State does not play for the conference championship, it would be “great” to play the rivalry game against Michigan on Dec. 19.

Ezekiel Elliott rushed for 77 yards. “I thought Andy managed the game very well,” McCarthy said. “We needed to throw some bigger punches there and we needed to get on the board with touchdowns and we didn’t get that done.” Greg Zuerlein missed three field goal tries and Dallas yielded 20 straight points after taking an early 10-7 lead. The game was supposed to feature Ravens receiver Dez Bryant going against his former team, but Bryant left during warmups and was scratched with what Baltimore termed “an illness.” Bryant wrote on Twitter that he tested positive for COVID-19 and later posted: “Yea I’m going to go ahead and call it a quit for the rest of the season... I can’t deal with this.” He subsequently posted a series of tweets, including, “Yea I’m coming back... I’m being smart.” Bryant scored 73 touchdowns with the Cowboys from 2010-17. He was signed by the Ravens in October and saw his first action in two years, catching four passes in three games. On his first series following his unwanted week off, Jackson threw a pass that was tipped and intercepted. That led to a Dallas field goal, but Jackson answered with a 37-yard touchdown run on a fourthand-2 play. Tony Pollard took the subsequent kickoff 66 yards to set up a 13-yard touchdown pass from Dalton to Michael Gallup. It would be the last time Dallas led. An interception by Queen set up a 38-yard touchdown pass from Jackson to Miles Boykin for a 14-10 lead. Jackson’s second TD pass of the game, a 20-yarder in the third quarter to Marquise Brown, made it 24-10. If Jackson was rusty or stale after missing a game, it was tough to tell by his performance. “The one thing you do know about Lamar: You’re going to get everything he’s got,” Harbaugh said. “That’s all you can ask for.”

Oregon State women fall to Utah at home CORVALLIS (AP) — Brynna Maxwell scored 28 of her career-high 34 points in the second half and Utah bounced back from a 42-point loss in its season opener to beat No. 15 Oregon State 85-79 on Tuesday night. Maxwell made 10 of 15 from the field, 4 of 7 from 3-point range and 10 of 10 from the free-throw line. Kemery Martin tied her career best with 15 points and Dru Gylten added 12 for Utah (1-1, 1-1 Pac-12). The Utes lost 85-43 to then-No. 10 Oregon on Sunday. Oregon State (3-1, 1-1) used an 18-6 run to close the third quarter and open the fourth to take a 68-65 lead with 6:27 to play but Maxwell scored 12 points, and the Beavers were 2-of-9 shooting, from there. Aleah Goodman made 7 of 10 from the field, including 5 of 7 from behind the arc, and finished with 20 points for Oregon State. Sasha Goforth added 16 points and Taya Corosdale scored 12. Taylor Jones had six points on 1-of10 shooting with five turnovers. Gylten made two free throws before she and Martin hit back-to-back 3s as Utah scored the final eight points of second quarter to take its first lead at 35-33. Maxwell made a layup and then three foul shots and Lola Pendande converted a three-point play to cap an 8-0 run to open the third quarter to make it 43-33. Utah grabbed 19 offensive rebounds and had 14 steals.