R.V. Scheide

R.V. Scheide is a longtime journalist who lives in Northern California.

Articles by R.V. Scheide

• How common oral and nasal rinses might reduce COVID risk in the dental workspace

  Thursday, November 05, 2020

  The results of two recent peer-reviewed studies that found Listerine and an array of cosmetic and therapeutic mouthwashes kill the novel coronavirus in the laboratory should be approached cautiously. The studies are in vitro, in glass, in the test tube, in the petri dish, and we won’t know if these compounds work on actual living organisms, in this case human beings, until in vivo studies are done. Nevertheless, for dentists, dental hygienists and other dental healthcare providers, there’s plenty to celebrate in the studies, since they both validate some practices already put in place by dental offices when the pandemic took off in the United States last March and point the way forward for future research.

• Pull over, have no regrets: Teaching teens, young adults not to drive away from police

  Wednesday, October 28, 2020

  In 2002, Candy Priano and her husband were driving their 15-year-old daughter Kristie to a high school basketball game in Chico, California, when their minivan was T-boned in an intersection by a 17-year-old-girl fleeing a traffic stop. The teenaged driver’s crime? Her mom had called police to report her daughter was using the family car without permission. The inexperienced driver blew through four stop signs in a residential neighborhood at high speed with a police cruiser hot on her trail before crashing into the Prianos. Kristie was severely injured in the crash and died seven days later in the hospital. After their initial grieving, Priano and her husband became fierce advocates for reforming police pursuit policies.

• How dentists can cope with the broken personal protective equipment supply chain

  Thursday, October 01, 2020

  Almost half of the nation's dentists are back to work and open for "business as usual," according to a recent survey by the American Dental Association. But when it comes to the supply chain for personal protective equipment necessary to provide full-service dentistry, business is anything but usual as the coronavirus pandemic lingers on. According to the ADA’s ongoing survey, "COVID-19: Economic Impact on Dental Practices," as of Sept. 7, just 60% of all dentists had a two-week supply of N-95/K-95 masks.

• Dental guidelines limit aerosol-generating procedures during pandemic

  Thursday, September 10, 2020

  Last month, the World Health Organization recommended delaying "routine nonessential oral health care … until there has been a sufficient reduction in COVID-19 transmission rates from community transmission to cluster cases." But the American Dental Association was quick to "respectfully yet strongly disagree" with the WHO’s call to delay "routine" care now, as many dental offices have successfully reopened. "Millions of patients have safely visited their dentists in the past few months for the full range of dental services," ADA President Chad P. Gehani said the day after the WHO’s announcement.

• Concealed carry in the classroom: An expert trainer’s view on arming teachers

  Monday, March 26, 2018

  ​In the wake of the Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, President Donald Trump has proposed arming teachers in the classroom to deter and defend against such attacks in the future. Trump's proposal was almost instantly ​panned, and detractors have been quick to point out that nearly three-quarters of the nation's teachers oppose the idea, according to ​a recent Gallup poll.

• Plastics industry pushes for more recycling infrastructure

  Monday, March 19, 2018

  Something must be done to stem the flow of plastic waste into landfills, waterways and oceans, and members of the plastics industry are working closely with recycling advocates and other stakeholders to ensure funding for recycling projects is included in the infrastructure spending bills currently being considered by Congress.

• What’s in the box? Trump’s SNAP proposal surprises food industry

  Thursday, February 22, 2018

  ​In the year that President Donald Trump has been in office, Americans have become somewhat accustomed to his unorthodox approach to managing the country's affairs from the Oval Office.

• Anyone can miss: Few clean targets at Olympic biathlon

  Tuesday, February 13, 2018

  ​Biathlon is arguably one of the toughest competitive shooting sports in the world. True, there's quite a bit of cross-country skiing, an alpine discipline that lacks the obvious thrills of events such as the slalom and the downhill and may even seem akin to watching white paint dry during a snowstorm at the North Pole to many traditional shooting enthusiasts.

• Can Trump sell apprenticeship programs to America?

  Wednesday, February 07, 2018

  ​Chances are that more Americans are familiar with "The Apprentice," the reality TV show formerly starring the current president of the United States, than they are with apprenticeship programs. Today, graduates from such programs constitute just 0.2 percent of the labor force.

• Bridging the manufacturing skills gap: A work in progress

  Monday, February 05, 2018

  For more than a decade, labor market specialists have been warning that the United States is not training the required number of students in science, technology, engineering and math to remain competitive in the digitized global economy. But where exactly these shortages exist and how exactly to do address them remain unanswered questions.

• State of the Union: What about rural broadband expansion?

  Wednesday, January 31, 2018

  ​For a man who enjoys putting his name on buildings, President Donald Trump spoke surprisingly little about rebuilding America's infrastructure in Tuesday night's 90-minute State of the Union address. In fact, Trump spent slightly less than two minutes on the topic.

• As US biathlon team shoots for gold in Korea, sport’s popularity grows back home

  Thursday, January 18, 2018

  ​In the world of competitive shooting, few events are both as physically and mentally challenging as biathlon. Nevertheless, this winter sport combining cross-country skiing with precision rifle shooting remains relatively obscure in America, even as other forms of competitive shooting ​are growing in popularity.

• With marijuana move, Sessions answers prayers of rural California law enforcement

  Wednesday, January 10, 2018

  ​Last September, when Siskiyou County Sheriff Jon Lopey wrote U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions requesting federal help to fight rampant illicit marijuana cultivation in his vast, rural Northern California county, he wasn't expecting a written reply. Indeed, Sessions didn't write back.