Around Maryland

With COVID-19 cases again on the rise and a new strain emerging, those in public health are urging all U.S. adults to get booster shots of the vaccine. But another group — people who never came back for their second dose — is getting less attention. At least 6.5% of the more than 4 million vaccinated Marylanders haven’t returned for the second shot of the two-dose regimen on the recommended timeline, an analysis of state data by The Baltimore Sun shows. The shots are typically scheduled three or four weeks apart, respectively, for the most widely used vaccines: Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.

Baltimore will offer public internet access inside and outside recreation centers and install an additional 100 community Wi-Fi hot spots with a $6 million investment in federal funding announced by Mayor Brandon Scott on Tuesday. The funding, which is the city’s latest allocation from a $641 million pot of money from the American Rescue Plan, will be used to run fiber to 23 recreation centers, allowing residents to access the internet from the surrounding area.

Ever since she was a student at Rockledge Elementary in Bowie, Md., Omolayo Adebayo has always had the desire to give back to those in need. Now, 32, Adebayo of Bowie does that and more through her nonprofit organization, the Neighborhood Well. Founded in 2017, the organization has sought to meet the unhoused and others. Adebayo and her team started out by giving “Blessing Bags,” bundles of food, toiletries and other resources while also offering support through talking and praying with those in the surrounding Hyattsville community.

When Tanya Smith retired from the Prince George’s County Police Department last year, she decided to go back to work. For Smith, 59, that meant getting back to what she loved most about her job: meeting with neighbors, connecting them to resources and, at times, passing out ice cream. “It’s all about the people,” she said. “My joy is the people. My joy is seeing a difference. My joy is being a part of making a difference for the children to come up.”

The U.S. drug epidemic reached another terrible milestone Wednesday when the government announced that more than 100,000 people had died of overdoses between April 2020 and April 2021. It is the first time that drug-related deaths have reached six figures in any 12-month period. The people who died — 275 every day — would fill the stadium where the University of Alabama plays football. Together, they equal the population of Roanoke, Va.

States, cities and counties that excelled at distributing emergency federal aid to renters struggling during the pandemic may soon be rewarded — with yet more cash. Their new funding would be drawn from sluggish states and localities that didn’t move as swiftly to help people facing eviction and homelessness, who were targeted for billions in assistance in relief legislation passed by Congress. The potential redistribution comes during a year in which Americans who risked losing their housing looked to government for help and a federal eviction ban expired.

For Ellen and William Craft, two people escaping their enslaver in 1848, all was going according to plan. That is, until they reached Baltimore. At the ticket counter of the B&O Railroad’s historic Mount Clare Station, William was told he’d need the bond of a White man deemed respectable enough to certify his voyage. But the couple was well-prepared. Ellen, a Black woman with a light complexion, had chopped her hair and donned a fashionable suit.

Even as public health officials push for more vaccinations to achieve herd immunity against COVID-19, 9% of Marylanders questioned in a new Goucher College Poll say they’ll refuse to get vaccinated — a persistent obstacle as officials work to stem the tide of the pandemic. Of 700 adults surveyed by the college, 78% said they’d already gotten at least one shot of a coronavirus vaccine.

In anticipation of federal regulators soon authorizing vaccines for children ages 5 to 11, state and local health officials in Maryland are preparing to launch school-based vaccination clinics and specialty sites for this age group in addition to offering shots at existing clinics. A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel will meet next week to discuss the safety and effectiveness of administering the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines to young children, then a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention committee will meet in November.