Troops discharged for not getting vaccinated
Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s Monday, February 13th.
The impact of removing the military’s COVID vaccine mandate.
More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….
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The Catholic Diocese of San Diego says it’s considering filing for bankruptcy, ahead of pending sexual abuse claims.
Kevin Eckery with the Diocese says they’ve received nearly 400 claims alleging sexual abuse of a minor by a priest or other clergy member … with some cases dating back to 19-45.
“It's been close to 30 years since the last time there was a claim for a diocesan priest in San Diego being accused of abusing a minor.”
The Diocese filed for bankruptcy in 2007, but the case was dismissed and they settled with victims for 200-million-dollars.
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For a third year, the county office of education is hosting a student mental health webinar series for school staff.
It’s designed to help educational staff better understand and help students dealing with mental health challenges.
The sessions start this week.
Heather Nemour is the office’s coordinator of student wellness.
She says one goal is to help reduce stigma.
“Having that caring, empathetic, compassionate approach and building the relationship with students to open the door to have those conversations and of course at the end guiding them to support if needed.”
For the first time, this year there’s also a mental health webinar series for parents.
The sessions are in partnership with Rady Children’s hospital.
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Former Chargers head coach Don Coryell has been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Coryell was the first head coach to win more than 100 games at the collegiate and professional level.
He coached the San Diego Chargers from 19-78 to 19-86 and led the team to two AFC championship games.
He also coached the S-D-S-U football team for 12 seasons.
Coryell died in 2010 when he was 85.
He’ll be inducted into the Hall of Fame in Ohio, this summer.
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From KPBS, you’re listening to San Diego News Now. Stay with me for more of the local news you need.
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The military is now allowing troops to serve even if they don't get vaccinated for COVID-19.
Congress passed a law late last year that overturned the Pentagon's previous vaccine mandate.
Before the change, about 84-hundred troops were discharged for refusing to get the shots.
Desiree D'Iorio reports for the American Homefront Project.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made the shots mandatory in 2021, calling the vaccine “necessary” for troop safety. Congress reversed that order late last year as part of the annual military spending bill. Defense department spokesperson Sabrina Singh says mandate or not, the department’s recommendation is simple: just get the shot. “Even though we have rescinded the vaccine mandate, we're going to continue to encourage our service members, our civilians, to take the vaccine. It's free, it's easy, it will save your life.” While current servicemembers and new recruits won't be forced to get the vaccine, it's less clear what will happen to the more than eight-thousand people who were discharged for refusing it - or who left voluntarily. Singh says the Pentagon position is they won't be reinstated automatically… and they won't get back pay. “If they wanted to rejoin the military, they would have to follow the process, just like anyone else who would want to join for the very first time.” For advocates and some congressional Republicans who argued the vaccine should have been optional all along, the repeal doesn’t go far enough. Mat Staver is the co-founder of the Liberty Counsel, a Christian ministry organization that advocates for religious freedom. He calls the repeal a “first step.” “It's not enough because on the one hand, it stops the mandate going forward. But on the other hand, there are people that have been discharged and/or are currently in the military under punishment. And that has to be resolved.” Staver says the mandate was unconstitutional from the start because it infringes on the religious and free speech rights of service members. The U.S. Supreme Court last year upheld the Navy's right to re-assign sailors who refuse the vaccine, with Justice Brett Kavanaugh writing that the courts should defer to the judgment of military commanders. But Staver has filed additional lawsuits on behalf of former service members who applied for a religious exemption to the mandate - but were denied. “Those that have been separated for any reason whether they have religious or non- religious objections to these mandates should be allowed to return with back pay.” Representatives for the Defense department have skirted questions on the precedent set by active duty troops who refuse a lawful order that is later overturned. Others worry about the message the military would send if it allowed those troops to come back without any consequences. Robert Sanders is a retired Navy lawyer who teaches national security at the University of New Haven in Connecticut. “The order was lawful at the time and if you decided not to follow it then you do so at your own peril.” Sanders also says unvaccinated troops could create a readiness problem. “If we want to voluntarily send folks to other countries there may be a requirement for them to be vaccinated. And if we can't send a whole unit that's vaccinated, or we have key members in the unit that aren't vaccinated, mission ability and readiness can fail.”Around 98% of the armed forces have gotten the shots. But now that it’s no longer mandatory, it’s not clear whether that almost perfect record will hold. Austin’s memo announcing the repeal of the vaccine mandate stood by the requirement, saying it left a lasting legacy and boosted the military’s readiness during a public health crisis. I’m Desiree Diorio on Long Island.
This story was produced by the American Homefront Project, a public media collaboration that reports on American military life and veterans.
Funding comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Bob Woodruff Foundation.
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A historic memorial is now under construction… honoring San Diegans who died in the early years of the AIDS epidemic before treatments were available.
KPBS reporter M.G. Perez was there on Friday when construction began.
The groundbreaking ceremony included elected officials and many other San Diegans who lost friends, family, and soulmates to AIDS. The 2-point-3 million dollar city project includes construction of the new Olive Street Park on Banker’s Hill with a canyon overlook and the first AIDS memorial with the names of 8-thousand San Diegans who died of AIDS before treatments were available. Nicole Murray Ramirez is co-chair of the AIDS memorial task force. “many who died of AIDS, died alone with the complete rejection of their blood family…but, we, their chosen family will always remember them in our hearts” The park space will take two years to complete being opening to the public. MGP KPBS News.
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Coming up.... UC-SD is trying to make smarter and faster computer chips. We’ll have that story and more, just after the break.
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San Diego researchers have discovered a simple ocean organism that could have a significant impact on the ocean’s ability to store carbon.
Environment reporter Erik Anderson has details.
A small jelly-like animal known as a Salp may be helping keep excess carbon out of the atmosphere. The creature feeds on phytoplankton – microscopic plants that absorb carbon from the atmosphere. Scripps Institution of Oceanography researcher Moira Décima says Salps reproduce quickly when they come across a phytoplankton bloom. And they can consume a lot of carbon. “Because they combine swimming with eating they are able to filter hundreds of liters of water per day. Pull out the particles from that water. Then from that they make these really large heavy, fast sinking fecal pellets.” Those heavy pellets are full of carbon. Décima first noticed salps when they clogged the nets aimed at collecting krill on a New Zealand research cruise. After studying the animals she thinks they could have a significant impact on the ocean and atmosphere carbon cycle, which can affect the climate. Erik Anderson KPBS News.
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UC-SD is heading up a five-year effort to make computer chips a lot smarter and faster.
Sci-tech reporter Thomas Fudge has this story about a project called PRISM.
When you work with big computer data, you run into a bottleneck. Moving the data from storage to processing can take way too long. UCSD computer science and engineering professor Tajana Simunic Rosing calls it a fundamental problem. “When you analyze big data, such as new machine learning models, you end up spending more than 90 percent of the time moving data to the computer,” The solution is to make better computer chips. “The idea of the center is really to create both software and hardware that will make the processing as close to data as possible. So that way it can run a lot faster and we can waste a lot less time.” The center Rosing talks about is called PRISM, founded in January and led by UC San Diego. The $50 million operation involves 10 universities. As an example of the bottleneck, Rosing spoke of crunching the data to identify effective experimental drug compounds, which now takes years. She said improving the computer chips could take only days. How long will it take to create the better chip? 1648 “The goal is to have this figured out by five years from now” Soq.
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That’s it for the podcast today. As always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. I’m Debbie Cruz. Thanks for listening and have a great day.
