‘The Right Thing’: Grieving Families Denied Line-Of-Duty Benefits

EVERMAN, TX — In the small Texas town of Everman, Alex Arango was known by residents as “Law Dog.” He earned that nickname after patrolling the streets of the Tarrant County town for more than 27 years.

But in October, after Arango responded to a call and fought with a man who he later learned had COVID-19, it wasn’t a gunshot or a visible wound that took his life.

It was the virus he couldn’t see.

Now, Arango’s family is among many fighting the Employee Retirement System of Texas, which pays line-of-duty death benefits to first responders’ families. All share a common goal: receive the benefits they feel they are owed because their loved ones likely contracted the virus on the job.

Rachel Vega, widow of Lynn County Sheriff Abraham Vega, is also among the families.

“They say we can't prove he got it at the office. A sheriff is on duty all the time,” Vega told KHOU. “We know, everyone at the office knows he caught it at the office. I’m frustrated. I’m still trying to grieve losing him.”

Vega’s benefit claim has been denied, his wife told the state. She is appealing.

Everman Police Chief Craig Spencer told KHOU in Houston he doesn’t know if Arango has been approved for benefits.

“It’s the right thing to do,” Spencer told the television station. “You know this wouldn’t even be a question if it were any other circumstance that he had died in the line of duty.”

Read more via KHOU

The Latest

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday issued a long-awaited road map on how schools across the country can safely reopen in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

The primary recommendations outlined in the guidance are nothing short of commonsense suggestions: wear masks and socially distance. This time, however, the CDC offered the suggestions more forcefully, according to an Associated Press report, and emphasized all recommendations must be implemented strictly and consistently.

The guidance also provides more-detailed suggestions about what type of schooling should be offered given different levels of virus transmission, with differing advice for elementary, middle and high schools.

But more importantly, the guidance also suggests that vaccination of teachers, while important, is not a prerequisite for reopening.

• Teacher Vaccination Not Required For Schools To Reopen: CDC

The guidance was released as the number of coronavirus deaths in the United States ticks swiftly toward 500,000.

The toll spiked on Friday to another one-day record, with 5,427 deaths reported in an ongoing database by The Washington Post. The previous one-day high was 5,227 on Feb. 4, according to that database.

Also on Friday, the CDC said it would not ask airlines to require COVID-19 tests for passengers on domestic flights, according to a New York Times report. The agency had been floating the idea but it swiftly came under fire by airline executives, union officials, and other elected officials.

Proof of a negative test result is already required for passengers boarding international flights bound for the United States. The policy was imposed last month as concern grew about more contagious coronavirus variants circulating in the United Kingdom and South Africa.

Meanwhile, a new study released earlier this week in a respected British medical journal claims at least 40 percent of U.S. coronavirus deaths could have been prevented.

The study, published in The Lancet, compared U.S. health outcomes on the coronavirus with the weighted average of other G-7 nations. Doing so, it came to the conclusion that the United States could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives if it had performed similarly to its economic peers.

The report also offered a damning assessment of the Trump administration’s handling of the coronavirus, according to a Slate report.

As the report made headlines this week, the Biden administration announced that by the end of summer, the United States will have enough supply of the vaccine to inoculate 300 million Americans.

The United States is on pace to exceed Biden’s goal of administering 100 million vaccine doses in his first 100 days in office, according to an Associated Press report. More than 26 million shots have been delivered in his first three weeks. His administration is also moving to ease supply bottlenecks and ensure the nation has enough of the current two-dose vaccines.

On Friday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave drugmaker Moderna the green light to put up to 40 percent more coronavirus vaccine into each of its vials, a simple and potentially rapid way to bolster strained supplies, according to a New York Times report.

The change will allow Moderna to load up to 14 doses in each vial instead of 10.

News on the vaccine front is good, and as daily cases continue to drop both in the United States and throughout the world, the chief of the World Health Organization is warning countries to not get complacent.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Friday said the number of reported infections globally has declined for the fourth week in a row, and the number of deaths also fell for the second consecutive week.

While the figures reported by countries to the WHO for the week ending Feb. 8 are still incomplete, the global body said so far about 1.9 million newly confirmed cases were registered worldwide, down from more than 3.2 million the previous week.

"These declines appear to be due to countries implementing public health measures more stringently," Tedros said. "We should all be encouraged, but complacency is as dangerous as the virus itself."

"Now is not the time for any country to relax measures or for any individual to let down their guard," he added. "Every life that is lost now is all the more tragic as vaccines are beginning to be rolled out."

• WHO Chief Warns Of Complacency As Global Virus Cases Drop

Newest Numbers

As of Saturday afternoon, the United States had reported more than 27.5 million cases and more than 483,500 deaths from COVID-19-related illnesses, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

At least 5,436 deaths and 101,569 new cases of coronavirus were reported in the United States on Friday, according to a Washington Post database. The Post's reporting shows that over the past week, new daily reported cases have fallen 22.3 percent, new daily reported deaths have fallen 8 percent and COVID-19-related hospitalizations have fallen 16.9 percent.

Almost 69 million vaccine doses have been distributed and 48.4 million administered in the United States as of midday Saturday, according to the CDC. More than 35.8 million people have received one dose, and more than 12 million have received two.

Currently, 71,504 people are hospitalized with a coronavirus-related illness in the United States, according to the Covid Tracking Project.

As of Saturday, 27 states and U.S. territories remained above the positive testing rate recommended by the World Health Organization to safely reopen. To safely reopen, the WHO recommends states remain at 5 percent or lower for at least 14 days.

Stay up to date on the latest coronavirus news via The New York Times or The Washington Post.

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