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September 1, 2025

Chestertown Spy

Nonpartisan and Education-based News for Chestertown

News COVID-19

UMMS Survey: Majority of Marylanders Plan To Get COVID-19 Vaccine, Many Not Changing Thanksgiving Plans

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Surging coronavirus and Thanksgiving holiday convergence could create ‘perfect storm’

A new survey commissioned by the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) found that more than 4 in 10 Marylanders are unwilling to change their in-person Thanksgiving or other holiday plans.

On a positive note, the survey also found that the nearly two-thirds of Marylanders plan to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, when available.

The online survey found that 44% will not change their in-person Thanksgiving or other holiday plans due to COVID-19. The survey found that 65% of Marylanders are very or somewhat likely to get a COVID-19 vaccination when the vaccine is available.

The survey, conducted November 16-23, polled 525 Marylanders throughout central and southern Maryland and the Eastern Shore, where UMMS operates a network of 13 hospitals, ambulatory centers and urgent care facilities.

“No question about it, these survey results are concerning, as our statewide mission to slow the spread of COVID-19 and stop the current surge relies on people heeding the advice of the CDC and Governor Hogan to not travel and refrain from holding large family events during Thanksgiving,” Dr. David Marcozzi, UMMS COVID-19 incident commander, said in a statement. “This could be setting up a perfect storm, with COVID cases on the rise throughout the state and multiple super-spreader events, it could cause a significant strain on the state’s healthcare system.”

The survey found respondents in southern Maryland and Eastern Shore are less likely to say they have canceled in-person holiday plans than those in other regions of the state. Women, older adults and those with higher education levels are more likely to have changed holiday plans.

The 65% of Marylanders saying they would take a COVID-19 vaccine, once available, is a positive finding, but is still below what state and federal health officials advise for the elimination of the pandemic in the United States.

“While we’re encouraged that nearly two-thirds of Marylanders would take a COVID vaccine, this survey points out that we have more work to do to educate the public about the necessity to vaccinate and alleviate fears and concerns about the vaccines that will become available,” Dr. Mohan Suntha, MBA, president and chief executive officer of UMMS, said in a statement. “UMMS will be working tirelessly to make the vaccine available to as many Marylanders as possible, at the appropriate time, and ease concerns by communicating the facts.”

Those saying they are likely to take the vaccine include white men (76%), men age 45+ (78%) and people over age 65 (76%), the survey found. Those groups with higher levels saying they are not likely to take the vaccine include Black women (49%), women in general (43%), those with a high school education or less (49%), and people age 18-34 (42%). Regionally, people in the Baltimore metro area were more likely to say they would take the vaccine (70%), while those in southern Maryland and the Eastern Shore (55%) and Prince George’s County (62%) report lower levels of likelihood.

About the Survey

The survey, conducted by Public Opinion Strategies and commissioned by the University of Maryland Medical System, was conducted from November 16-23, 2020, among 525 adults 18+ living in the UMMS’ expanded service area, which includes all counties statewide except Allegany, Garrett, Montgomery, and Washington. The survey has a credibility interval of ±4.88%.

About the University of Maryland Medical System

The University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) is a university-based regional health care system focused on serving the health care needs of Maryland, bringing innovation, discovery and research to the care we provide and educating the state’s future physician and health care professionals through our partnership with the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the UM Schools of Nursing, Pharmacy, Social Work and Dentistry in Baltimore.

As one of the largest private employers in the state, the health system’s 28,000 employees and 4,000 affiliated physicians provide primary and specialty care in more than 150 locations and at 13 hospitals. UMMS’ flagship academic campus, the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore is partnered with the University of Maryland School of Medicine and is recognized regionally and nationally for excellence and innovation in specialized care. Our acute care and specialty rehabilitation hospitals serve urban, suburban and rural communities and are located in 13 counties across the state. For more information, visit www.umms.org.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Report: Incarceration Destabilizes Neighborhood Economies, Doesn’t Increase Safety

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A report released by the Maryland Center for Economic Policy suggests decreasing the state’s prison budget will lead to a healthier economy and increased public safety.

The report, released Wednesday, found that Black Marylanders are 4 1/2 times more likely to serve prison sentences than any other racial or ethnic group. Indigenous Maryland residents are twice as likely to be incarcerated than any other racial or ethnic group.

“None of what we’re doing is making any of us safer and it’s most certainly not making those Black communities that are being robbed of human capital ― it’s not making them any safer,” Tara Huffman, director of the criminal and juvenile justice program at the Open Society Institute-Baltimore, said during the Maryland Center for Economic Policy’s third annual policy summit Thursday afternoon.

“It’s destabilizing them even more and you cannot contain destabilization; it will eventually spread.”

Christopher Meyer, research analyst for the Maryland Center for Economic Policy, a liberal think tank, said at the summit that the state currently spends about $1 billion of its budget on incarceration.

“We’re spending all of that money locking up all of those Black folk, and we’re not any safer for it,” Huffman asserted. “We’re not any safer for it.”

Maryland has the highest rate of incarceration for Black men among the 50 states. Despite making up just 31% of the state’s total population, 70% of the prison population is Black.

According to Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services spokesman Mark Vernarelli, there were 18,300 sentenced individuals in the custody of the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services at the end of October.

The agency also runs Baltimore City’s pre-trial facilities, which, according to Vernarelli, has population changes “very often.” At the end of October, those facilities held about 2,000 people.

According to a February 2015 Justice Policy Institute report, the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services spent $288,304,000 of its $1 billion budget incarcerating Baltimore City residents, alone.

Huffman said that one-third of the state’s incarcerated population comes from the city. According to a 2019 estimate conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, almost 63% of the city’s population is Black.

“What we know is that taxpayers in the state of Maryland are paying a lot of money from year to year to lock up a whole lot of Black folk,” she said. “Period.”

The report from the Maryland Center for Economic Policy said that there is “scant evidence” that heavy-handed sentencing policy leads to healthy economies and safer communities.

Instead, their report points to cutbacks in housing, healthcare, public transportation and economic opportunities and the criminalization of underground economy jobs, like sex work and the sale of illicit drugs, as factors that lead to increased incarceration and declining public safety.

For example, Marylanders who live in the 50 zip codes with the highest unemployment rates are five times more prone to being incarcerated than those living in other areas of the state.

The Maryland Center for Economic Policy recommends legalizing jobs in the underground economy, abolishing policies in the criminal justice system that criminalize poverty, and implementing comprehensive sentencing reform to decrease the state’s prison population.

Additionally, the findings of the report suggest that investment in public schools, public spaces and adequate drug treatment is the pathway towards a healthy economy and public safety.

“Then thinking about how we ensure that those investments are benefiting … communities,” said Meyers. “Again that comes back to measuring equity as part of the budget-making process [and] making sure that our investments are distributed geographically in an equitable way because we know housing discrimination makes geography really kind of a fulcrum of racial justice and injustice.”

By Hannah Gaskill

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Md. Activists Vow to Enshrine Obamacare Provisions Now Threatened by Courts

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Supporters of the Affordable Care Act in Maryland said Thursday they were disappointed but not surprised by a federal appeals court’s ruling against the law a day earlier. They vowed to continue their efforts to enshrine as many of the ACA’s provisions into state law as they can, and to do so as quickly as they can, in the event the Supreme Court delivers the ultimate death blow.

The 2-1 ruling on Wednesday, by a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans, was a victory for the 18 state attorneys general — all from red states — who argued that “Obamacare” is unconstitutional.

The challengers argued successfully that — although the Supreme Court upheld the ACA in 2012 — circumstances changed in 2017 when Congress removed the individual mandate to purchase health insurance. (The “mandate” was actually a tax on uninsured persons who failed to purchase coverage.)

In an interview, Sen. Brian J. Feldman (D-Montgomery), a leader in efforts to promote health care reform in Annapolis, noted that Maryland was the first state in the nation to create a Health Insurance Coverage Protection Commission, out of “concern about the ultimate dismantling of the Affordable Care Act and how were we going to respond.”

Feldman said the ruling, which sends the case back to a lower court, means “continued uncertainty about the future and the fate of the Affordable Care Act,” with policymakers and consumers left to guess what the law’s ultimate fate will be, or when a final judgement will arrive.

“There’s uncertainty in the marketplace. There’s uncertainty with folks who want to know what it means for them in terms of their health insurance. There are several parts of this that are complicated,” he said.

Maryland lawmakers will again consider legislation that requires insurance policies to cover pre-existing conditions. Another 2020 bill would require that young adults be allowed to remain on their parents’ plans until they turn 26. Both provisions are popular features of “Obamacare.”

The state has already enacted an “Easy Enrollment” feature that has the potential to identify uninsured residents who are eligible for free or low-cost coverage, using state tax forms, another innovation that other states are studying. That provisions is kicking off in the new year.

But concern doesn’t end with the potential loss of Obama-era reforms.

Feldman also worries that billions of dollars in federal aid will be lost if the Supreme Court — which has a different makeup than it did when it upheld Obamacare seven years ago — strikes the entire law down.

“There’s the Medicaid expansion parts of the Affordable Care Act. There’s the premium tax subsidies that help lower-income people purchase health insurance. If the entire Affordable Care Act is ruled unconstitutional, then all those monies related to the ACA also go away,” he said.

Feldman said an estimated 300,000 Marylanders would lose coverage if that were to occur.

Texas vs. U.S. is not expected to reach the Supreme Court until 2021 at the earliest.

Vincent DeMarco, president of the pro-reform Maryland Citizens Health Initiative, called the ruling “extremely disappointing” and said it “puts at risk life-saving health care coverage to millions of Americans.”

U.S. Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.), a member of the Finance Committee’s Health Care Subcommittee, suggested that Republicans are trying to dismantle the nation’s health care system.

“Republicans want to destroy our health care system rather than fix it,” he said. “Today they are closer to achieving their mission.”

Cardin predicted that the GOP could face political consequences.

“Republicans will be directly responsible for any coming spikes in costs for millions of middle income families and any loss of the many patient protections guaranteed by the ACA,” he said.

By Bruce DePuyt
Don’t miss the latest! You can subscribe to The Chestertown Spy‘s free Daily Intelligence Report here.

 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Md. Can’t Afford to Wait on Paid Family Leave

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Congress continues to take baby steps towards passage of a comprehensive Paid Family Leave program, but Marylanders can’t afford to wait — nor should we have to. When the legislative session begins next month in Annapolis, the Maryland General Assembly will again consider the “Time to Care Act,” legislation to establish a Family and Medical Leave Insurance program that will support the ability to care for a new child, seriously ill family member, or their own serious health condition.

The legislation dates back at least to 2016. Last year, “Time to Care,” had 45 cosponsors in the House and 15 in the Senate. Now our state has an opportunity, with this wave of progressive change in Annapolis, for our General Assembly to pass this legislation.

As a small business owner, I believe it is important and financially smart to offer this benefit to my employees. I can say firsthand that this policy has not only been good for my team members, but also, for my company’s bottom line.

One of my team members had both of his parents dealing with early onset Alzheimer’s and needed to focus on family. Our team member needed to spend several days a month for several months away from the office to focus on helping his family. After I told him that his job was covered, he said, “This is my forever job.”

Look, I know my company cannot give away $10 million in bonuses (kudos to Ed St. John), but we can be compassionate, and a fiscally responsible small business, all at the same time.

I am also not naïve. Every business is different. But I know when Marylanders put our full effort into figuring something out, that we know is right, we do it.

But let’s be real. Politics is often a numbers game. In “Md. Dems Hail Deal on Paid Family Leave for Federal Workers” (Maryland Matters, Dec. 11) Allison Winter overlooks the groundswell behind the movement for comprehensive Paid Family Leave in our state. Polling earlier this year by Opinion Works showed that an overwhelming 86% of Maryland voters favor creation of “a family and medical leave insurance program that would provide workers with partial wage replacement for up to 12 weeks when they need time away from work to address a serious family need.”

This support crosses party lines, generations, and demographic groups. In all regions of the state, support for Paid Family Leave never falls below 85%. Even more remarkable: When told that the program would be funded by $3 to $5 per week paycheck deduction, the support of Maryland voters holds firm at 79%.

Paid family leave allows businesses, like my own, to compete with bigger corporations by providing competitive benefits to recruit and retain a stellar workforce.

Providing time to care is the right thing to do. Period.

— JAYSON WILLIAMS

The writer is CEO of MD Strategic Consulting, a public affairs and strategic marketing firm, and a board member of the Maryland Family Network.

Don’t miss the latest! You can subscribe to The Chestertown Spy‘s free Daily Intelligence Report here.

Feature Photo: Ali Bindawood / Flickr

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.