10 of our top columns this week: ICYMI
In today’s fast-paced news environment, it can be hard to keep up. For your weekend reading, we’ve started in-case-you-missed-it compilations of some of the week’s top USA TODAY Opinion pieces. As always, thanks for reading, and for your feedback.
— USA TODAY Opinion editors
1. What does COVID immunity get me? Not much. The government should catch up to science.
By Dr. Marc Siegel
“Consider that as of a week ago, over 20% of Americans and close to 50% of those 65 and over had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. This is sure to have an impact and create pockets of community immunity. Over 80% of the COVID deaths in the United States occurred in patients 65 and over. The COVID vaccines have been shown to dramatically decrease severity of illness, and more and more data demonstrate that they decrease viral load and transmission.”
2. Meghan & Harry show how royal family missed a chance to lead on diversity, mental health
By The Editorial Board
“The fairytale wedding three years ago of Harry — younger brother to Prince William, heir to the throne — and Meghan Markle, an American biracial actress, was must-see TV. In the United States alone, 29.2 million people watched the pageantry at 7 a.m. ET on a Saturday, no less. And it was particularly enchanting for a generation of Black and mixed-race Britons who suddenly found a more accessible monarchy. But the House of Windsor, not so much.”
Harry Meghan and Oprah (Photo: Dave Granlund/PoliticalCartoons.com)
3. CDC misinterpreted our research on opening schools. It should loosen the rules now.
By Dr. Tara O. Henderson, Dr. Monica Gandhi, Dr. Tracy Beth Hoeg, Dr. Daniel Johnson
“The recent school reopening guidance released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is an example of fears influencing and resulting in misinterpretation of science and harmful policy. In the United States, about half of schools are either in person or a hybrid. President Joe Biden ran on a campaign indicating that science and data would guide his policy. As we approach the anniversary of the first COVID-19 shut down, this approach is needed more than ever, especially when it comes to schools.”
4. What is justice? In Derek Chauvin case, a weary city that wears George Floyd’s face waits for an answer
By Suzette Hackney
“George Floyd Square, the memorial at 38th Street and Chicago Avenue named for the Black man who died there, was eerily quiet Tuesday morning. Balloons and brightly colored signs, paintings and dead and artificial flowers glistened in the rising sun. Dirty and weather-worn stuffed animals, still grinning, stood guard. Everywhere I looked, I saw Floyd’s face.”
5. Biden hasn’t held a news conference or been imitated on ‘SNL’ in his presidency. Why not?
By Peter Funt
“Over the past 100 years, no president has gone as long as Biden without conducting a formal session with White House reporters. And “Saturday Night Live” has never gone this far into a new president’s term without having someone portraying him in a sketch. The last time a Biden character appeared on “SNL” was back on Dec. 19, when Alex Moffat offered a tame impersonation of the president-elect.”
6. Race & royalty don’t mix: The British royal family wasn’t ready for Meghan and Archie
By Sophia A. Nelson
“One of the clearest and frankly most heartbreaking takeaways from the jaw-dropping Oprah interview with Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, on Sunday via a CBS special was when Meghan talked about her unborn son, and that an unnamed member or members of the ‘royal family’ had raised questions about young Archie’s possible ‘skin color’ and how ‘dark’ he might be. Full stop.”
Meghan Markle (Photo: Adam Zyglis/The Buffalo News)
7. Boycott Beijing: China commits genocide with one hand, hosts 2022 Olympics with the other
By John Katko
“I called on President Joe Biden to boycott the Beijing 2022 Olympics in protest of the ongoing genocide being committed by the Chinese Communist Party. I did this for two reasons: One, it’s the right thing to do, and two, it’s incumbent upon the United States to shine light on what is happening in China and the CCP’s multifaceted and multidecade campaign to undermine our security and way of life.”
8. ‘Royal,’ a poem about Meghan Markle: ‘Because of a fear of Black skin they will let a woman drown’
By Leslé Honoré
“Leslé Honoré is a self-described Blaxican poet, activist and mother who writes about social justice. As she watched Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on Sunday, she was inspired by what she was hearing. ‘I was writing as I watched,’ she said.”
9. Civil asset forfeiture: I’m a grandmother, not a drug lord. Why can police take my property?
By Malinda Harris and Stephen Silverman
“My story began in March 2015 when I let my son, Trevice, borrow my car. Police in Berkshire County suspected that he was selling drugs, so they seized my car under the state’s civil asset forfeiture law, even though I had not been accused of any crime. But I had no idea that my son might have been involved in illegal activities when he was charged with a crime.”
Biden COVID relief bill passes (Photo: Dave Granlund/PoliticalCartoons.com)
10. ‘Mallard Fillmore’ and the comical side of cancel culture. ‘Doonesbury’ has already been there.
By Ken Paulson
“It didn’t take long for the decision by Gannett Co. to drop the conservative comic strip ‘Mallard Fillmore’ from its newspapers to be decried by conservative websites as just one more example of ‘cancel culture.’ ‘Conservative ‘Mallard Fillmore’ cartoon canceled by leftists,’ said the Independent Sentinel. The Red Alert declared, ‘Cancel culture has claimed another conservative scalp.'”
You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to [email protected].
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