By Tim Carpenter and Sherman Smith
Tribune News Service
TOPEKA — University of Kansas molecular scientist Anthony Fehr operates a laboratory exploring how acronym-laden viruses battle a host’s natural anti-viral responses.
Some of his research is pertinent to viruses capable of triggering lethal epidemics in animals. His work also is applicable to viruses attacking humans, including menace-sounding incarnations known as SARS and MERS.
Fehr’s journal articles are a tough read for the untrained, but events of the past four months made relevant to billions of people his work on development of therapies useful in outbreaks where no front-line drugs exist.
That is because a novel coronavirus, COVID-19, began stretching its tentacles of respiratory disease from the central Chinese city of Wuhan to countries around the world. He said the “oh, crap moment” occurred around Jan. 20 when the number of confirmed cases in China multiplied to 200.
It was evidence of human-to-human transmission of a virus originating in an animal, he said.
This version of coronavirus has so far proven deadly to 125,000 people worldwide, 29,400 in the United States and more than 70 in Kansas. Testing shows at least 2 million are infected, including 600,000 in the United States and nearly 1,500 in Kansas.
Fehr said testing results didn’t fully account for COVID-19’s reach. It may be two, three or four times as great as testing reveals.
“It is certainly an underestimate,” he said.
One ridiculous theory, he said, given traction on social media was that COVID-19 emerged from a laboratory.
“That is completely false,” the assistant professor said. “There is zero chance the virus was created in a lab.”
A Pew Research Center poll indicated 43% of U.S. adults believe the coronavirus came about naturally. In the March 10 to 16 poll, however, 23% said it was created intentionally by scientists and 6% concluded it was a lab accident.
Thirty-seven percent who lean Republican and 21% of Democratic-leaning people in the survey favored the lab-creation theory.
Fehr warned against buying into magical cures peddled by opportunists or advocated by the ill-informed. There isn’t yet a sufficiently proven treatment for COVID-19, he said.
There has been intense controversy, even a Kansas Supreme Court decision, about Gov. Laura Kelly’s decision to limit public gatherings to no more than 10 people, even if people engaged in social distancing.
Her directive generated the most opposition when it was applied to church services before Easter Sunday.
“I think Governor Kelly’s done a fine job of trying to mitigate the potential,” Fehr said. “I think it’s wise to limit these things.”
The Kansas Supreme Court has declined to consider arguments over the safety of prisoners who are vulnerable to COVID-19.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas filed the lawsuit directly with the high court on behalf of inmates at Lansing Correctional Facility, where there is an outbreak of coronavirus infections, and elsewhere in the state prison system.
The Supreme Court initially scheduled a hearing in the case for Wednesday. Late Tuesday, the court instead sent the case to Leavenworth District Court, drawing praise from Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt.
“In this extraordinary time, it is reassuring to know the ordinary procedures of the rule of law have prevailed,” Schmidt said. “This case is too important to public safety to be decided hastily or without thorough fact-finding.”
ACLU is asking for the release of inmates who are in prison for minor crimes, are near their release date or who have underlying health problems that place them at high risk of serious illness. Conditions in overcrowded state prisons amount to cruel and unusual punishment, the organization argues.
So far, 18 inmates and 21 employees at the Lansing prison have tested positive for COVID-19. Lansing inmates rioted last week, seizing control of a cell block for eight hours.
An offender at the Wichita Work Release center also has tested positive.
In a statement, ACLU of Kansas said it looks forward “to sharing our clients’ plight and what is at stake for them” as the case proceeds at the district level.
“Our primary concern has been and will continue to be the welfare of our clients, who in the face of a deadly, worldwide pandemic cannot practice any of the safeguards medical professionals have recommended,” the organization said.
The Kansas State Board of Education voted to accept the 350 continuous learning plans developed by K-12 public and private school districts. Board action Tuesday was necessary to waive the state’s 1,116-hour per year instructional mandate in light of the governor’s order in March closing school buildings for the current academic year.
In response to the pandemic, most face-to-face instruction in Kansas schools was abandoned. Students have been asked to study online or through distribution of curriculum packets.
The state Department of Education rallied groups of teachers, principals and superintendents to lead an effort to reshape instruction to provide 500,000 students with meaningful learning opportunities.
“Initially, it was how do we try to take what we believe was being built as a world-class system and completely within 48 hours shift for half a million kids a learning environment,” said Randy Watson, state commissioner of education. “Far from perfect. But if you take what really worked and the process in how it went about, there’s lots of good things that can be learned going forward.”
This period will change education forever, and it isn’t yet clear what it will look like on the other side, Watson said.
“What do we have to do to truly redesign this thing for a future we may not understand yet?” said board member Steve Roberts, who voted against waiving the minimum instructional hour rule. “How much of your discussion was ‘let’s get back to normal’ versus ‘let’s change this thing going forward?’ ”
State board member Ben Jones said the experience demonstrated school districts could more aggressively pursue virtual course instruction. That may prove difficult in some areas of the state, including Dodge City, where one-third of students were found not to have sufficient home access to the internet.
The 10-member board also endorsed a letter to the Kansas congressional delegation drafted by a handful of education advocacy organizations. It requests future federal emergency funding be directed at services for special education and expansion of broadband services.