The COVID 19 pandemic has been a once in a century only community.

The COVID pandemic is officially over.

But what does that mean for you?

It's not primary day on the calendar, but some Kentucky polling places are already open for business.

I mean, depending on what holler you come out of, what county you come out of, it's all different.

And spring is here.

And that means it's time to hunt for a unique kind of mushroom.

Production of Kentucky.

Edition is made possible in part by the KET Endowment for Kentucky Productions, the Leonard Press Endowment for Public Affairs and the KET Millennium Fund.

Welcome to Kentucky Edition for Thursday, May 11.

I'm Casey Parker Belle, filling in for Renee Sharp.

Today, May 11th marks the official end of the COVID public health emergency, first declared in early 2020.

A group of Kentucky doctors met today by Zoom to talk about where we are as a state.

What people still need to do to deal with COVID and what lessons we should take from the pandemic.

That's more in tonight's look at medical news.

What is the state of COVID right now?

The public health emergency is over.

And in fact, I think it was functionally over maybe a year ago when hospitals weren't getting overwhelmed anymore.

Currently, vaccines are preventing severe illness.

They're not really I don't see it preventing infection.

But but we're not seeing the same type of patients in the hospital that we saw before.

So in the past, we would see martial arts experts who were in unbelievable physical shape that had no other medical problems and ended up almost dying and stuck on the ventilator for a month at a time.

We're not seeing that type of patient anymore.

We as a nation need to learn to sacrifice our personal freedom for personal sports, for personal responsibility, for public responsibility when appropriate.

We need to wear a mask.

We need to social distance, and we need to get a vaccine.

The good news is I survived and I'm doing well.

We can't forget the people who didn't.

The good news is hospitalizations are down, case numbers are down, death rates are down.

Antivirals of vaccines are available.

And as a physician and a patient, I am encouraged and hopeful to see continued improvement.

If we have a vaccine for something.

Get it?

Vaccines save people.

Go talk to the folks who lived 200 years ago and lost half their children.

Right.

Vaccines changed that.

Public health changed that.

And if you're sick, wear a mask.

I don't care what you got.

I don't want your jitterbug.

I don't want your flu.

I don't want your COVID.

Right.

And you don't want to spread that.

And as I always tell folks, you never know who in your life is immune suppressed.

You never know who you're standing next to, who you could make sick and all you have to do is put on a man.

It's not that horrible.

So if you have symptoms, get tested.

But regardless, put on a mask and stay away from large groups of folks for a few days and we can all be better stewards of all of our friends.

So this whole this whole pandemic has been life altering in many ways.

And and that that alteration of life has been different for different people.

And certainly it's been life altering for some of our patients, but it's been life altering for our hospital systems.

It's been life, all of it.

It has caused disruption for individual caregivers.

And and we've learned lots of things.

And I'm proud of so many folks.

But I certainly hope that we don't have to go through anything like that again.

The doctors taking part in today's discussion said there were additional benefits to Americans wearing masks.

They said during the height of the pandemic, flu cases were virtually nonexistent.

Kentucky's commissioner for Public Health, Dr. Stephen Stack, says don't let your guard down just because the pandemic is officially over.

Staying current with your COVID 19 vaccination remains the easiest and most effective way to protect yourself from the severe harm of COVID or its worst complications.

I urge everyone, please be open to getting your vaccine.

It's never been easier, and now the vast majority of people just need to get one dose.

No matter how many previous doses you've had once a year in your current testing will change.

The A free.

Test per.

Month will go away.

Insurance companies will no longer be required to pay for that.

There should.

Still be.

Tested in drugstores.

And of course, if you need a medical test, the medical community, health care community will be able to provide that.

Congressman Brett Guthrie of Kentucky second District is chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Health.

He put out a statement about the end of the COVID emergency.

He says, quote, By unnecessarily dragging out this emergency declaration, the Biden administration has severely damaged our government.

Public health agencies credibility as we seek to restore public trust in these institutions.

It's crucial we further expose what went wrong.

Hold government agencies accountable for authoritarian decisions, and look for opportunities to improve in the future.

The American people deserve a government that is honest, transparent and trustworthy.

And House Republicans will work to provide them that to them, unquote.

More good news about Louisville Police Officer Nicholas Wilt, the officer shot in the head during the Louisville mass shooting a month ago.

Officer Wilt is now at a rehab facility.

He was taken off a ventilator earlier in the week.

He still has pneumonia, which is considered common among patients on ventilators.

State Representative Lamine Swan is in the hospital.

On Wednesday, his mother issued the following statement, quote, Yesterday my son had a significant medical emergency requiring hospitalization.

During this difficult time, those of us who love him dearly are requesting both prayers and privacy, and we will provide further updates once we know more about his recovery.

Representative Swan is a Democrat from Lexington.

He was elected in 2022 and just finished his first legislative session in March.

Voters began heading to the polls this morning as the state kicked off a three day early voting period before the May 16th primary.

Early voting is open to all registered voters.

We talked to some Fayette County voters at Kroger Field.

They told us they like the convenience of early voting.

I think it's a very good service and I've been doing it since the pandemic started and it's just easier to manage your time.

And then if you're busy on Election Day, you still get a chance to vote and you got like three days this week to do it.

And it's just easier.

It's coming up, so why not get it done early?

It's convenient and you'll have to wait in line for Election Day.

You have one day of voting at the regular precincts and it's always crowded because I worked it for at least 13 years.

It's so much easier here because there's no crowds.

There's more people to explain things to you.

Nobody's rushed and it's just easier thing to do.

Polls are now closed, but will be open tomorrow and Saturday from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.. You do not need an excuse to vote early on those days.

On primary day, Tuesday, May 16th.

You can vote from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. in both the Eastern and Central Time zones of Kentucky.

A reminder, Katie is providing full coverage of next week's Kentucky primary.

Join us Monday for Kentucky tonight when a panel of political experts will break down the races.

That's at eight Eastern, seven Central.

And on Tuesday night, our primary night coverage.

We'll have live reports from all over Kentucky, including speeches by the candidates.

That starts at seven Eastern, six Central on Tuesday.

A jury decided former President Donald Trump sexually abused and defamed writer E Jean Carroll in the mid 1990s.

So far, U.S.

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has declined from offering an opinion about the verdict.

According to the website The Hill, Senator McConnell said, quote, I don't have any observations about it.

The American people are going to have to decide, particularly Republicans and Democrats, who they want to run for president.

He also said that's about presidential politics and that will all be settled in the primaries next year.

The state says tax receipts for April topped $1,000,000,788 million.

It's the second best monthly number in the state's history.

State budget director John Hicks says Kentucky is on pace to hit the estimated tax revenue estimate for the fiscal year.

Hicks says he expects a surplus of $1.4 billion.

Income tax revenues went down in April because of the state cut to the income tax, but sales and business taxes were up.

A celebration of life is planned for Virginia Moore and Louisville.

Moore died Saturday.

She was the sign language interpreter who became a celebrity during Governor Andy Bashir's COVID news conferences in 2020.

She was also executive director of the Kentucky Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

Moore battled uterine cancer and had a historic enemy that same year.

During his news conference today, Governor Beshear paid tribute to Virginia Moore.

She was a rock of stability and of grace during one of the scariest times that any of us have ever lived through.

She made a smile.

She brought us all together and she taught us the importance of inclusion and leading with love and kindness.

On Saturday, Virginia passed away, and as Rowe, her person and her loving spouse said, she passed away like a true Kentucky girl on Derby day.

While Virginia is no longer physically with us, I think we can all agree she is here with us now and will continue to be in spirit and through the impact she's made.

The celebration of life will be at the Muhammad Ali Center from 1 to 5 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday, June 11th.

Also today, Governor Beshear signed Kentucky's 2020 for Counter drug activities plan.

It will provide support to everyone from state police to the National Guard as they work to stop the supply of illegal drugs in Kentucky.

The governor also praised Kentucky's counter drug program for seizing £142 of fentanyl over the last seven months.

Last month, the state announced drug overdose deaths decline from 2021 to 2022.

It's the first year to year decline since 2018.

One nonprofit is taking their message of community on tour across the Bluegrass Dream Dawgs program.

Public health is public safety is bringing together community stakeholders to share resources around substance use, mental health and harm reduction.

We really want to move together as a state to make some positive change, and we don't want to leave anybody behind in that.

This is less about people's personal feelings and more about the systemic values that we continue to endure together.

Public health as public safety brings together victims groups and law enforcement, the business community, and directly impacted individuals to really talk about how the war on drugs have affected our lives, our communities, and the people that we serve.

And how we can all come together.

Is something that's not just an urban or rural issue.

It's a 120 county issue.

With everything going on in Kentucky.

This was an opportunity for everybody to be together and not just listening, but hearing.

Most people, when they hear harm reduction, they're thinking either, you know, Suboxone or methadone clinic or syringe exchange.

But it's so much more than that.

It also encompasses the housing issue that we have.

Transportation, you know, food, clothing.

It's really the basic needs of life.

A misconception, then, is that, you know, when it comes to drug issues, that the answer is always incarceration.

Decades and decades shows us that even though we now incarcerate more people than we did 40 years ago, overdose deaths have not went down.

They have rose.

So incarceration isn't the answer.

We have people in here right now that are in in treatment for substance use disorder, sitting at a table with a police officer and having a discussion and feel uncomfortable having that discussion and really talking about issues and hearing the police officer have the same issues as someone that's in early recovery or have the same concerns.

You know, I've never seen that happen before.

It's not even the drones.

It's not even alcohol.

It's about something that is going on inside the person.

As as communities, we have to love these people where they're at.

We can't just keep looking down on them because if we keep doing that, the problem's never going to get better.

But if we can love them and show them that people are there for them, that, you know, we're here when you're ready, what can we do to help you?

Stay safe until you are ready?

And that's that's one of the major issues that I think is a lot of people don't get is, you know, we have to meet these people.

They're we really have to go out to communities and be willing to do whatever it takes to help this person, because if they're not alive, we can't get them into recovery.

You know, you can't recover if you did.

This is a program that we all need to be part of and we all need to listen to the stories.

And we all need to really think critically and sit together and brave space, because that's what it's going to take.

It's going to take each of us to set aside our differences, opinions or our different perspectives and listen to people we're going to learn.

I've learned so much today, and I've been a social worker for 41 years.

Public health as public safety.

We'll be making stops in Covington, Louisville and Paducah in the coming months.

A reminder to give blood this summer.

The Kentucky Blood Center says with people going on vacation and enjoying other warm weather activities, fewer people give blood.

To encourage more donations, the blood center is giving away Kings Island tickets and its eight locations.

That's May 15th and 16th at the Beaumont and Andover locations in Lexington, May 22nd, 23rd at the locations in Frankfurt, Somerset and Corbin, then the Louisville locations, Hillview and Middletown and also Pike for June 5th and sixth.

And the Blood Center says it plans other promotions this summer.

So stay tuned.

Earlier this week, McKee and Jackson County played host to a workshop from the Recreation Economy for Rural Communities Program, a joint collaboration between several agencies.

The program was formed to revitalize recreational tourism in small communities.

Kentucky is a really underrated state.

That's why I think that we're really unique.

We have, you know, really diverse assets from all around the state.

And you think about we have mountains, we have rivers, we have lakes, we have really awesome trail system for us.

So we have a lot of cool assets.

You know, if you think about Kentucky, it's a bourbon bluegrass in basketball, but outdoor creation can be a serious driver for, you know, gross.

Domestic product in.

Kentucky.

You know, think about how, you know, rock climbing in the River Gorge is generating millions of dollars in off roading.

And stuff like that.

People are.

Coming in for.

Those things.

So we need to.

Figure out how can we amplify those things, but.

Also do so in a.

Sustainable way.

I saw there was a program out there that helps rural communities develop economic outdoor, recreational activities, opportunities.

It would help us come up with a master plan for outdoor recreation development and Jackson County.

We've been kind of working on our own and we have so many good regional things, regional trails coming in into community.

We now have nine, but we're not developed.

We don't have a pet plan, we don't have anybody paid to help us out.

We're here today to partner with McKee and Jackson County as part of our Recreation Economy for Rural Communities program.

It's a joint program with Forest Service, the National Border Regional Commission and the Appalachian Regional Commission.

And we, as part of that program, work with communities to provide technical assistance, to identify opportunities for recreation, improve access for communities to their nearby amazing natural resources, and promote economic revitalization of their downtowns.

Every idea that comes out of that comes out of today and thereafter we document it and we have a series of follow up calls where we work to put together the action plan.

And we also, as part of that process, work to bring in other federal partners that might have various funding programs that we can tie to specific actions.

The plan is to take the information received today and get the final plan finished, which is going to happen over multiple Zoom calls in the near future, and then to take this final plan and use it as a tool to become what we're calling it here, a world class trail hub.

We have what a lot of people what we have just taken it for granted for so many years and not try to figure out how to, you know, make that a sustainable lifestyle for people in Jackson County that want to have a little business.

This outdoor recreation economy process could mean a lot for local entrepreneurs that want to start a business.

Helping small communities grow recreation economy for rural Communities also hosted a workshop in Letcher County this week.

It's an event calling for unity and an end to gun violence.

We talked to the Lexington deejay who founded Unity Fest.

She said the event is needed now more than ever.

Amazing artist that will be blessing the stage at the Lyric Theater of Cultural Arts Center in the building.

We got a complete Unity Fest countdown.

And when I tell ya, if there's a Lynch baby, it is the Lynch Unity Fest is an event where the community can come and stand in solidarity against gun violence in a safe place, and not only stand against gun violence, but can do it in a way where we celebrate life.

We've lost so much and so many people.

That Unity Fest was created to highlight and celebrate life.

And for people of all different walks of life, different sides of the block could come together with their sisters and brothers, aunties, uncles, cousins and say, Hey, enough is enough and we want it to stop.

So we created a call and find a way to incorporate music and performances and just artistic expression while we stand together against gun violence.

But we are the voice of the people.

Real people amplify unheard voices.

Since I've been in Kentucky, I've lost several loved ones and friends.

And here recently.

Last year, why Unity Fest was created.

I told everyone it was worth that pain.

We were literally planning our funeral while we were planning Unity Fest.

We lost someone very near and dear to me and to my partner.

His name was Todd and he unfortunately was taken away from us on May 21st of last year.

I think now in a place with our healing and grief where we are just trying to do as best as we can to make sure we're being better people, to make sure that we are lasting more.

He was a big goofball.

He was the life of the party.

So I think everybody is trying to find a way to incorporate a little bit of take into their lives and into the community.

And he loved music.

He was always when I would have shows in performances or freestyle videos, he was always the one, the hype is like on the post.

They always like, You gonna make it one day.

So I know he's shining down on us.

Unity Fest is not only in remembrance of him, but in remembrance to all of the families who are tragically lost their loved ones.

If my brother was still alive, like I know he'd be laughing from heaven.

Like, who ever thought Kash would be a deejay?

Music is a great avenue and way to talk about gun violence because it is a safe space that you can use your voice with music.

You can unapologetically express how you feel.

You can bring awareness and knowledge.

I do believe that each one of us as individuals can use our platform, can use our voices and amplify and stop making gun violence, something that people shrug, you know, when they begin to talk and hear about it and make it something that we can feel comfortable enough to talk about so that eventually we can begin to heal.

As a community.

Mental health is very serious and a great way to deal with mental health also is music.

So to speak, as a.

The festival will be held tomorrow night at 7 p.m. at the Lyric Theater and Cultural Center in Lexington.

It's spring, and that's when morale mushrooms pop up all across the state for some Kentuckians, hunting and cooking them has become a family tradition.

Morale is the common name.

A more is the Latin name.

Some of the people here call them dry land fish sponge caps.

Some people call them the Christmas tree mushroom because they're shaped kind of like a Christmas tree.

That's pretty regional.

I mean, depending on what holiday you come out of, what county you come out of, it's all different.

The secret to find a gnome is look in really hard and go into different places.

That's basically the secret.

You just got to have an eye for the texture of what the mushroom looks like.

It's a count shaped like a Christmas tree almost.

And then the texture of it is is creases running through the fiber of the mushroom.

There's a putty root plant that grows at the same time, which is right down here when the leaves just first start coming out.

That will tell you that the soil is also warming up enough for the mushrooms to grow.

One.

The my apples are coming up and there's blood roots coming up.

All the Kentucky wildflowers are coming up.

But the secret to hunting the mushroom is that you want to get to the mushrooms before the flora gets so thick that you can't find the mushrooms.

They're probably still growing even after the flora gets up so tall.

But you can't find them.

Mushrooms, morel mushrooms.

Some people come on dry land fish.

I just call them mushrooms and they're hollow.

When they're hollow, you can eat them.

Now, a lot of people said, Well, what time do you get?

You know, I don't know what to eat, but if they're hollow, that's the best ones to eat.

You don't get them that they're solid like toadstools.

They don't taste like a button mushroom that you buy in the store.

They don't even taste like you're talking mushrooms.

I mean, they tend to have their own flavor.

It's in the meat genre, but I can't explain it.

You can make white sauces with it, which are just to die for.

You can just sauteed them up with garlic and onion and butter, and they're just excellent.

You can bread them.

And from there, good.

That way people have always and had mushrooms in this area.

There's just something that comes as natural as going fishing or something.

It allows families to get together to hunt the mushrooms where they've always had them before.

In the past, people will go out and hike for 12, 15 hours a day.

I think it's just a joy of the search to hunt.

To.

Hunting for morel mushrooms.

Clearly quite an adventure.

We're learning that Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher has been suspended ten days and fined as the result of a positive drug test last year involving Forte, who was scratched on Kentucky Derby day last weekend because of an injury.

More on that tomorrow.

And just a few days to go before the May 16th primary.

And candidates are crisscrossing the state looking for last minute votes.

We will catch up with some of the candidates and talk about the race.

During our Inside Kentucky Politics segment.

That's all tomorrow on Kentucky Edition.

We hope you'll join us again tomorrow night at 630 Eastern, 530 Central for Kentucky Edition, where we inform, Connect and Inspire.

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We really appreciate you checking out Kentucky Edition.

We'll bring you more tomorrow.

Thank you for joining us.

And have a great night.