90 Miles From Tyranny

Tuesday, April 28, 2020

96 Percent of Inmates in 4 State Prisons Who Tested for Wuhan Virus were Asymptomatic

According to a Reuters report, a staggering number of inmates from four states’ prison systems that tested positive for the Wuhan virus have been asymptomatic.

In prisons in Arkansas, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia, 3,277 inmates received positive tests for the virus. Of those observed, 96 percent of the inmates were asymptomatic. In other words, they had no visible symptoms of the disease.

Asymptomatic patients can still spread the Wuhan virus unknowingly, which places at-risk populations in danger of catching the virus. As a result, health experts have become concerned about this aspect of pandemic and have advised state government officials to enact social distancing measures.

Asymptomatic carriers offer a unique challenge in the country’s state prison system where inmates are usually in close contact with each other.

“It adds to the understanding that we have a severe undercount of cases in the U.S.,” Leana Wen, adjunct associate professor of emergency medicine at George Washington University, told Reuters. “The case count is likely much, much higher than we currently know because of the lack of testing and surveillance.”

Michigan, Tennessee and California have kicked off mass testing in state prisons

The Hill reported on the results:

The results in those state prisons were similar; Tennessee reported a majority of its positive cases didn’t show symptoms, while Michigan reported that ‘a good number’ of the 620 positive cases showed no symptoms of the virus.

Other states, like Florida, New York, and Texas are only testing inmates who demonstrate symptoms.

“Prison agencies are almost certainly vastly undercounting the number of COVID cases among...

For well over a year, The Daily Signal has published a monthly series highlighting lawful gun owners who used their firearms to protect their liberties, lives, or livelihoods.

Although these articles recount just a dozen or so stories each month, the incidents are selected from hundreds of other, similar examples.

Those defensive gun uses are worth highlighting, too. That’s why The Heritage Foundation is introducing its Defensive Gun Use Database, an interactive map featuring all of the news accounts from police reports that we couldn’t fit into installments of the monthly series.

What’s the Defensive Gun Use Database?

The database features an interactive map that allows users to locate instances of defensive gun use in their own states and cities.

Clicking on a specific dot on the map provides the user with an instant breakdown of important information about the incident of defensive gun use that the dot represents.

For example, users can see the date and location of the defensive gun use, what type of firearm was involved, and the context in which the gun was used—including to defend against a home invasion, armed robbery, or domestic violence).

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost all major studies on defensive gun use have found that Americans use their firearms defensively between 500,000 and 3 million times each year. Researchers have good reason to believe, however, that most defensive gun uses aren’t reported to law enforcement, much less picked up by local or national media outlets.

For this reason, the Defensive Gun Use Database isn’t meant to be a comprehensive list of all such incidents occurring in the United States. Such a database would be nearly impossible to compile.

Instead, this database features only cases that could be discovered and verified through public sources, and where the evidence indicates no wrongdoing on the part of the gun owner.

Why Is This Database Important?

Despite the limitations on data, the Defensive Gun Use Database is an incredibly important tool because these confirmed cases help prove that the “good guy with a gun” is not a myth. Rather, lawful gun owners clearly play an integral role in promoting public safety and protecting...