That could change soon. The recent announcement by a submarine cable manufacturer that it will build a massive facility in Chesapeake may well be the spark our region needs to finally ignite its potential as a hub for renewable energy production and innovation, bringing broad benefit to Hampton Roads and the larger commonwealth.

Earlier this month, Gov. Glenn Youngkin joined local and state officials, as well as regional economic development leaders, to welcome the news that LS Greenlink USA, a subsidiary of South Korean-based LS Cable & System, plans to build a new manufacturing facility in Chesapeake.

The company makes a variety of cables for use in utility networks, including those used underwater for renewable energy projects — such as the offshore wind turbines proliferating along the East Coast, of which Dominion’s project is one of many expected to ramp up construction in the coming years.

The 750,000-square-foot center is expected to cost $681 million to build and, when complete, will create more than 330 full-time jobs. Those roles are expected to be geared toward engineering and machine operators, and company officials said that salaries for those workers would exceed the industry average.

The new facility will be constructed at the Deep Water Terminal Site, a brownfield reclamation property along the Elizabeth River, and takes advantage of the area’s geography, with ready access to the Port of Virginia and egress to the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean.

Notably, because of the company’s unique manufacturing process that uses gravity to center the heavier components within the cable, the new facility will include a 660-foot tower, making it the tallest building in Virginia. (At 508 feet, the Westin in Virginia Beach’s Town Center now holds that distinction.)

All of those metrics are exciting — the millions invested, the jobs created, the wages those workers can expect — but the company’s decision to locate in Chesapeake also represents something else: validation that Hampton Roads is on the right track as it seeks to build its reputation as a world-class location for green-energy development.

It’s one thing to have natural benefits, such as the deep-water harbor, or other advantages, such as the port facilities, and quite another to leverage those attributes to build a next-generation, forward-looking economic sector.

Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade Caren Merrick told a Pilot reporter at the announcement that LS Greenlink considered locations in 15 states before deciding to build in Chesapeake. Officials celebrating the announcement noted the commonwealth’s highly educated and well-trained workforce, strengths that CNBC cited when it recently named Virginia the nation’s top state for business.

But it’s more than that. Virginia is investing more in business-ready site development to clear the path for companies to move from proposal to production as swiftly as possible. And the commonwealth is doing better to bring all interested parties together on projects such as this, with everyone pulling in the same direction.

For this facility, the governor’s announcement noted the efforts of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, the Hampton Roads Alliance, the Virginia Maritime Association and the city of Chesapeake. It also outlined grant funding from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund, benefits from The Port of Virginia Economic and Infrastructure Development Zone Grant Program and support through the Virginia Talent Accelerator Program.

Such cooperation has not always been the case, and Virginia has lost these sorts of opportunities to other states as a result. To see that change is to believe that the future is bright.

Few regions in the country stand to benefit more from the fight against climate change than does Hampton Roads. By growing its green-energy economic sector, our region can create a stronger employment base while reducing emissions and helping to protect vulnerable communities. May GS Greenlink’s arrival be the first of many.

By 2050, the experts tell us, nearly a quarter of Americans will be age 65 or older, and it’s likely that 1 in 10 of those will become a victim of abuse.

In light of these sad realities, it’s wise that Virginia’s attorney general, Jason Miyares, is making stronger protections for vulnerable older citizens a priority. Lawmakers, officials and ordinary people should work toward that goal.

Abuse of vulnerable elderly people takes many forms. One of the most common is financial, both the scams that modern technology has made increasingly easy and misuse of a person’s finances and assets by caregivers, including family members.

There’s also physical abuse, both neglect and more aggressive misbehavior, including violent crimes and sexual assault. In these instances, too, family members and other caregivers are often the culprits. They may isolate a vulnerable older person so that the victim cannot try to get help and grows increasingly confused.

Miyares’ most recent action was the announcement in June of an Elder Abuse Investigation Center for Central Virginia, a coalition similar to some operating successfully in other regions of the commonwealth. The center will bring together law enforcement agencies, commonwealth attorneys, advocates and those who work with the elderly from Richmond and nearby cities and counties to investigate possible cases of fraud and other abuse of senior citizens.

Staffers at the center will look into possible abuse cases and make investigators and expert witnesses available. They will prosecute cases themselves when necessary. Such a center also helps cities and counties learn from one another about instances of elder abuse and warning signs.

Closer to home, a similar coalition, the Peninsula Elder Abuse Forensic Center (PEAFC), opened in November 2017 under the leadership of York-Poquoson Social Services and the Riverside Health system, with a goal of investigating abuse reports and working to make sure abuse does not go undetected. The center draws on the expertise of law enforcement, commonwealth’s attorneys’ offices, mental-health agencies, medical professionals, social services, advocates for the elderly, and agencies that deal with domestic violence and sexual assault.

The PEAFC serves Newport News, Hampton, Williamsburg and Poquoson and the counties of York, James City, Gloucester and Isle of Wight.

As he has worked to combat the problem of elder abuse, Miyares has proposed legislation for stiffer penalties for scammers and others who target older people. He also has built on existing programs.

An important national effort started by AARP and associations of chiefs of police and sheriffs in the 1980s and introduced to Virginia in 1995 is Triad, a cooperative effort of law enforcement, senior citizens and organizations that serve the elderly. Triad works to help senior citizens learn to protect themselves from abuse. Senior citizens in Hampton Roads cities can join their local Triad at no cost, attend meetings and even volunteer. Contact information is available through virginianavigator.org or by calling the police or sheriff’s department.

Individuals can help in the fight against elder abuse. If you come into contact with an elderly person and something doesn’t seem right, let someone know.

Another important resource is the Virginia Coalition for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (VCPEA), a nonprofit, all-volunteer coalition of individuals and agency representatives who work with seniors and disabled adults. It offers information about how to spot the telltale signs of abuse or neglect.

People who suspect abuse are urged to call the toll-free, 24-hour hotline (888-832-3858) run by Virginia Adult Protective Services.  You can also call your local Department of Social Services about suspected problems.

The elderly among us should be treated with respect and helped to live with as much independence and dignity as possible. As they become more vulnerable, they need more help. We must protect them from abuse and neglect.

Valuable new research provides greater detail about those individuals and families most likely to depart and their reasons for moving elsewhere. That information should drive strategic decisions — by cities and the larger region — if Hampton Roads hopes to compete with other metro areas courting this coveted cohort.

Earlier this year, demographers at the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service released an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data showing that, in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic, scores of people were leaving Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia while smaller metro areas and rural communities experienced modest growth.

The population loss wasn’t uniform across the region; while Newport News and Virginia Beach recorded declines, Suffolk and Isle of Wight saw increases. But the overall effect reflected long-standing concerns about the vitality of a regional economy dependent on defense industries, tourism and hospitality, and the Port of Virginia.

Several iterations of the always insightful State of the Region reports, produced annually by the Dragas Center for Economic Analysis and Policy, Old Dominion University, showed Hampton Roads struggling to recoup job losses from the Great Recession in 2007-08, and lagging behind comparable metro areas such as Richmond.

The 2017 report, in particular, expressed concern about “brain drain” — that is the loss of those in “prime working age (25-54)” — and concluded that retaining these workers should be a priority. The authors offered suggestions to arrest these losses, but noted “no silver bullet exists that suddenly will vault us forward and change everything for the better.”

The post-pandemic landscape may be different, but the problem remains, as a new report sponsored by the Hampton Roads Executive Roundtable shows.

The study, conducted last year and released in June, was intended to not simply quantify outmigration from Hampton Roads, but to probe why people were leaving.

It found about one-third of people aged 22-35 responded they were unsure, somewhat likely or very likely to leave Hampton Roads within five years. Those who moved here as adults, who don’t have military ties and who don’t have children at home are most likely to migrate elsewhere.

They cited the region’s high cost of living, concerns about public safety, better professional opportunities, and a lack of available health care as key reasons for why they would depart. The cost of housing and its availability also factored high in those responses.

Equally important is why people choose to remain in Hampton Roads. For those in the military or tied to the armed forces, the decision isn’t always theirs, but they expressed greater satisfaction with the region, owing to a sense of community they feel here — a valuable insight.

Interviews with those involved in the “entrepreneurial ecosystem” offered mixed reviews as well. They touted the opportunities for Hampton Roads to be a hub of development and innovation, but knocked the region for its lack of cohesion and cooperation. That’s a long-standing concern, reflected in decades-long arguments about what to call the metro area (Hampton Roads, Tidewater, the 757, etc.).

There is confidence that the region is moving in the right direction in some of these areas. Many of these issues are quite familiar and local officials have worked for years to diversify the Hampton Roads economy, to seek opportunities for regional cooperation and to pave the way for entrepreneurs to build the businesses of tomorrow.

But those efforts will need more buy-in, stronger partnerships among cities and a clearer direction if they are to produce results. Those who believe in the promise of Hampton Roads should pay close attention as groups such as the Hampton Roads Executive Roundtable turn these results into actionable recommendations and push for policies that can keep talented workers here for years to come.

Virginia will have plenty of favorites to follow, including local talents from Hampton Roads, and they should know the commonwealth will swell with pride to see them on such a grand stage. May all Americans feel the same and view these Games as an opportunity for good-natured patriotism and national unity.

The Olympics tend to draw people into one of two camps: those who feel they are a glorious celebration of athletic prowess showcasing the world’s most remarkable athletes, and those who view them as a staggeringly wasteful spectacle stained by corruption, abuse and greed.

In truth, there’s plenty to admire, and plenty to disdain, about the Games. But only the most dour would dismiss the marvel of the international community coming together to compete against one another. Paris will welcome the world this summer — athletes, coaches and spectators alike — and the City of Lights hopes to shine brightly in doing so.

These Games will stand in contrast to those scheduled in Tokyo four years ago, but held in 2021 after a postponement due to the COVID pandemic. Attendance in Japan was limited, athletes were largely secluded and, for those of us on the East Coast, the time difference made the events a challenge to follow live.

Unchanged is that the United States and other participating nations are sending teams eager to compete on behalf of their home countries. The athletes wear their colors with pride, determined to be atop a medal stand as their national anthem plays and their country’s flag unfurls.

That, in turn, inspires patriotism that we can hope blows across this country like an ocean breeze on a warm summer day. With a bitterly contested presidential election looming in November, a deeply divided America would be served by rallying around the dreams carried to Paris on the shoulders of U.S. athletes — our Olympic team — in the coming weeks.

Among those competing for the United States are 16 Virginians, including field hockey player Leah Crouse and BMX freestyle rider Justin Dowell, both of Virginia Beach; Chesapeake’s Grant Holloway, who won a silver medal in Tokyo competing in the men’s 110-meter hurdles; and 16-year-old track phenom Quincy Wilson, a Chesapeake native. Hampton Roads will be cheering all the more when their events take place.

Other ties to the commonwealth abound, as there are numerous athletes who honed their craft at Virginia colleges and universities and qualified for these Olympics, either for the United States or for other countries. That reflects positively on what our schools can offer international students, not only on the playing field but in the classroom.

Olympic participants from 757 schools include Old Dominion University’s Stephanie Roble, who will compete in sailing for the U.S. in her second Games, and Hampton University’s Edose Ibadin and Chidi Okezie, who will compete for Nigeria in track events.

In an ideal world, the next two weeks would see a suspension of global conflict as the international community gathers in Paris for the Summer Olympics. The tradition of an “Olympic Truce” dates to the earliest Games in ancient Greece, but was revived in modern times in an effort to promote the spirit of peace.

But it’s not an ideal world. Suffering and strife abound, and two weeks of international athletic competition will do nothing to alleviate it. When the Games conclude, the plight of those affected will remain.

What we may take from the Games, though, is an understanding of our common humanity and the importance of every moment. Let these athletes and these Olympics inspire us to not just dream of a better world, but to commit ourselves to building it.

Now state officials must learn from this error. Not only should they carefully consider studies now underway to ensure the future viability of the program, they should commit to making the budget process more transparent in the future to ensure that consequential decisions receive the scrutiny they deserve before passage rather than after the fact.

The General Assembly last week agreed on a full repeal of changes made to the Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program (VMSDEP), which provides tuition to in-state public universities for the families of service members killed or wounded in defense of the nation.

The program dates back to World War I, and was originally intended to assist families of those wounded in that terrible conflict pursue a college degree. In recent years, however, it had expanded to include those seeking postgraduate study, dependents of those with non-combat related injuries, and family members of service members from outside of Virginia.

The effect of that widening pool of recipients was to rapidly drive up costs. While the VMSDEP provided tuition to 2,000 students in 2019, that number had ballooned to more than 6,000 in 2023. The cumulative cost was $65.3 million last year and projections had it climbing ever higher in future years.

Richmond only picks up a portion of the tab, leaving Virginia colleges and universities to absorb the rest — an unsustainable ask for schools, many of which are already tightening their belts and raising tuition to cover costs. The two-year budget approved earlier this year appropriated only $20 million for the program.

Lawmakers and the governor were right to consider ways to slow growth and limit the growing expense of the VMSDEP. But while the reforms may have been well intentioned, they were poorly executed.

Language included in the budget limited assistance to those pursuing an undergraduate degree and Virginia residents, and would have required applicants to apply for other financial aid programs before receiving funds through VMSDEP.

Military families protested those changes and called for a full repeal. After the Senate initially stalled, leaders there reached agreement with the House and the governor’s office to follow through last week.

They appropriated an additional $90 for the program over the next two years and, importantly, directed the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission to study ways to make VMSDEP sustainable for families and schools going forward. The governor also launched a task force in May to offer suggestions about strengthening the program.

Expect legislative proposals to be considered when the General Assembly convenes in January. A robust debate should help lawmakers find workable solutions to a valuable program that serves our military community.

But that’s not enough.

While thankful for the repeal, Kayla Owen, a military spouse and leader of the Friends of VMSDEP advocacy group, criticized lawmakers for legislating through the budget. She called on them to stop “sneaking contentious or highly controversial legislation through the budget,” according to the Virginia Mercury.

Some legislative leaders pushed back on that assertion, but in recent years, the state budget has rarely been completed within the legislative session limits imposed by the state Constitution. That often leaves a few lawmakers and a handful of officials in the governor’s office to hash out an agreement away from public view. The deal is then delivered to the General Assembly for approval.

That’s troubling when the budget includes policy changes, such as those made to the VMSDEP, that deserve public scrutiny, but do not receive the same attention given to other proposals subject to the legislative process.

The most important thing is that lawmakers and the governor found common ground to make this right. But by emphasizing transparency in future years, lawmakers may well avoid these sorts of mistakes and the extra time and energy required to rectify them.

There’s also ample evidence that where someone lives has a lot to do with how well and how long they live. Some people find themselves mired in an uphill struggle, bearing heavier burdens than those who live in neighborhoods only a few miles away.

A study in progress by Virginia’s Joint Commission on Health Care has the mission of coming up with proposals that could lead to better health care for vulnerable populations across the commonwealth.

A major focus of the commission’s study is investigating ways that Virginia can improve what the World Health Organization and the federal and state governments call the Social Determinants of Health. This is a critically important effort that has the potential to lay the groundwork for legislative proposals that could change people’s lives for the better.

Considerable research has found that these social factors have a profound effect on people’s lives and well-being. SDOH, as the agencies that deal with health problems call them, are such basics as economic stability; access to good education; and access to good, affordable health care.

The neighborhood where a person lives has a great deal to do with a person’s quality of life and health.

Where someone lives can determine so many other factors: How likely is a person to be a victim of crime? Is adequate housing available? What are the schools like? Is there good health care, including a pharmacy, nearby? Are there safe places to relax and exercise? What kind of jobs are available, if any? Is the air or water polluted? Is there a nearby grocery store selling healthy foods at reasonable prices, or is it a “food desert”?  The list can go on and on, because so many things play a role in whether a person is healthy.

People who are not able to meet basic needs such as affordable housing, enough nutritious food and reliable health care are at increased risk for heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, depression and other serious illnesses.

How much difference can a person’s neighborhood make when it comes to health? A lot, apparently. Recent data show that in the greater Hampton Roads region, Williamsburg’s life expectancy is 88 years. Compare that to Newport News and Hampton, where the life expectancy drops to 77 years. Or go farther west, to Franklin, where it’s 69.

And the differences aren’t just from one city to another. One neighborhood in a large city such as Norfolk or Virginia Beach can be a much healthier place to live than another just across a river or expressway.

The problems aren’t exclusive to urban centers, either. Many rural Virginia communities experience similar problems.

Some early suggestions as the commission was midway through its work early in June included fairly easy remedies such as doing more to spread the word about free immunizations and other available medical resources.

Other ideas address more intractable problems and will require more complex legislation. Many inequalities are part of a historic pattern of discrimination and segregation, much of it based on race and sometimes gender.  Redlining — refusing to give even an otherwise qualified person in a low-income (often Black) neighborhood a mortgage loan — is supposed to be illegal now, but it lingers in subtler forms. Many stores shun poorer neighborhoods.

Often, SDOH problems — inadequate education, poor job prospects, financial and housing insecurity — are a sad legacy, handed down from one generation to another. But identifying these issues can help develop strategies to address them.

Virginia’s Joint Commission on Health Care is right to tackle the difficult and entrenched problem of great disparities in these social determinants that play such a large role in the health of many of our neediest people.

We look forward to seeing the commission’s final report, and for the General Assembly to consider its strong and innovative legislative proposals next session.

Democrats quickly coalesced around Vice President Kamala Harris as their presidential nominee, and Virginians will need to hear more from her about issues critical to the commonwealth — her approach to military leadership and her plans to fight climate change, chief among them. That will be a challenge with only 15 weeks until Election Day, but one she must readily accept.

Murmured concern about Biden’s age grew into full-throated shouts following a disastrous debate performance in June that had the president’s colleagues and party leaders fearful of an electoral rout this fall. Biden stood resolute against those seeking to push him out, but reporting suggests his inner circle — first lady Jill Biden, his family, trusted aides — convinced him that winning would be a near-impossible task.

On Sunday, the president, isolating at home due to a COVID infection, released a statement formally ending his reelection bid. Social media messages from the campaign followed, in which Biden threw his support behind Harris as the Democratic nominee to face former President Donald Trump this fall.

Prominent Virginia Democrats followed suit, heaping praise on Biden for a lifetime of public service and pledging to help Harris in the coming months. These included the entire Democratic congressional delegation and most, if not all, prominent party leaders in state government.

Polls in Virginia showed a dead heat between Trump and Biden, with trends favoring Trump. The former president held a rally in Chesapeake last month, a day after a visit by Jill Biden, showing the emphasis both campaigns place on winning the commonwealth’s electoral votes.

Expect Harris to continue that strategy and to court Virginia in her quest for the White House. That would be refreshing, not only for commonwealth voters to be at the center of the presidential race, but because it will force both candidates to speak about topics that matter to places such as Hampton Roads.

Military leadership and foreign policy will be key. Neither Trump nor Harris served in the armed forces, but Trump’s record on these issues was well defined in his four years in office and subsequent presidential campaigns: his contempt for the NATO alliance, his pledge to swiftly end the war in Ukraine (no matter what that may mean for the Ukrainians) and his praise for dictators such as North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un.

In contrast, Harris’s record is more opaque. She served on the Senate Intelligence Committee prior to her election as vice president, and has been a prominent voice in the administration in favor of aid for Ukraine and for a more robust and assertive foreign policy in response to growing Chinese influence in southeast Asia. Her campaign must articulate where she would continue Biden’s policies and those areas, such as the Israel-Gaza war, where she would take a different approach — issues of great interest to the thousands of active-duty service members and veterans who call this region home.

Climate change will also weigh heavily in local voters’ minds, but here the candidates’ contrast is clearer. Trump claims global warming is a “Chinese hoax” and pulled the United States out of the Paris climate agreement as president; Harris prosecuted polluters while serving as California’s attorney general and, as a U.S. senator, sponsored the Green New Deal legislation. As vice president, she also cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate for the Inflation Reduction Act, considered to be one of the most consequential climate bills in history.

Virginia alone will not determine who takes the oath of office in January, but voters here are likely to play a prominent role in the election. Speaking to issues important to the commonwealth will be necessary for both candidates, and Virginia should relish the chance to see its issues front and center this fall.

Teachers too often find themselves competing with cellphones for students’ attention. By removing them from the classroom, as Gov. Glenn Youngkin recently directed, Virginia would help focus attention away from devices and back on instruction, where it belongs.

Whether mobile phones should be allowed in public schools has been a topic of considerable debate for years, stretching back to the pre-iPhone era of Blackberrys and flip-phones. While mobile devices were once a tool reserved for emergencies, students now use them to message each other, play games, watch videos and scroll social media throughout the school day, taking time away from the education they should be receiving.

According to 2023 polling by the Pew Research Center, some 95% of children ages 13-17 have a cellphone, reflecting the ubiquitous presence of these devices. In contrast to the views of many adults, June polling by Pew found that 70% of students in that age group say the benefits of their phones outweigh their harms.

While kids love them, teachers loathe them. That same June polling found 72% of high school teachers, and 33% of all teachers (elementary, middle and high school), believe mobile phones are a “major problem” in their schools. And while 82% of K-12 teachers say their schools have a phone policy of some sort, 30% of those teachers reported those policies were difficult or impossible to enforce.

That’s a challenge for officials looking to eliminate cellphones from the classroom. But there’s another stakeholder group on the other side of the fence as well: parents.

According to polling this year by the National Parents Union, a nonprofit formed in 2020 before the pandemic, 56% of parents “believe students should sometimes be allowed to use their cell phones in school, during times like lunch or recess, at athletic events and in class for academic purposes approved by their teacher.”

While they generally agree there should be limits on mobile phone usage during the school day, 57% said they want those policies developed on the district level or on a school-by-school basis.

A leading reason that parents want their kids to have access to mobile devices is as straightforward as it is heartbreaking: They are worried their children won’t have access to their phones during an emergency, such as a shooting.

While remaining sensitive to that concern, schools and districts throughout Virginia have implemented a variety of policies to limit or ban mobile phone use in schools. Chesapeake, for instance, recently completed its first year of a districtwide ban on the devices during the school day, with an exception for high school students during lunch. Officials proclaimed it a success.

Earlier this year, the General Assembly considered legislation that would explicitly authorize school boards to enact district-level limits on handheld devices. It passed the Senate but died in the House amid arguments that the bill was redundant and that boards already had that power.

That prompted the governor to try a different approach this month. He signed an executive order directing the Department of Education to work with other stakeholders to develop model policies for school districts to ban cellphones from the classroom. Officials will hold listening sessions and solicit input as part of that effort, and complete a policy by September that school boards can adopt effective Jan. 1.

The first in-person Hampton Roads-area event is Monday, from 4:30-6 p.m., at Tallwood High School at 1668 Kempsville Rd. in Virginia Beach. Register to attend or offer your thoughts online at the department’s website, doe.virginia.gov.

The determination to remove mobile phones from schools is laudable; the specifics of that policy and the buy-in it receives will determine its effectiveness. The public should get involved so that what follows meets the needs of students, teachers and parents alike.

Yet, while concern is widespread, public officials are struggling to figure out the best way to tackle this urgent problem.

The latest high-level official to call for government action is Surgeon General Vivek Murthy. Murthy, who has expressed concern about the effect of social media on teens for some time, in June proposed a “warning label” for social media platforms similar to those on tobacco products.

A warning label would require an act of Congress, something that’s unlikely to happen this year in deeply divided Washington. Lawmakers have been promoting bills that would require social media companies to take responsibility for potential harm to  children and that would expand federal regulations on online data accessible by children. So far, none of the legislation has passed either the House or Senate.

Murthy’s call was part of the Biden administration’s multiagency task force working on proposals for ways social media companies can better protect children.

The U.S. is lagging behind the United Kingdom, the European Union and several other governments in addressing the online safety of children. The EU’s Digital Services Act, for example, has broad regulations on how social media police their platforms. It also set new limits on sites steering children toward potentially harmful content.

More than a dozen states have acted in the absence of federal leadership, passing laws aimed at limiting the detrimental effect social media use can have on children and teens. There’s considerable evidence that many young people spend several hours a day on social media, and that such exposure can be harmful. Overuse of social media can inhibit children’s social and intellectual development. It can feed feelings of isolation, loneliness, depression and worries over body image. It can fuel thoughts of suicide.

In Virginia, Gov. Glenn Youngkin and lawmakers of both parties discussed several bills during the General Assembly’s recent session, but none advanced. One introduced by Democratic Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg of Henrico seemed to have the best chance, and passed the Senate unanimously. It didn’t make it out of a House subcommittee, however, after representatives of tech companies, including Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, called the bill too vague.

Van Valkenburg’s bill had a narrow, specific approach: Rather than limit the access of children and teens to social media or control what they could see and follow, it simply said that social media companies could not use “addictive” feeds designed by computer algorithms to hook kids.

Odds are, if the tech companies had not argued that the bill was too vague, they would have come up with other objections.

Reactions to the surgeon general’s call for warning labels are a case in point. A spokesman for the tech trade association NetChoice said that the proposal “oversimplifies the issue” and that “every child is different and struggles with their own challenges.” Of course, a warning label isn’t going to cure every problem for every child, but it could be a step that could help many.

Other objections, some from scientists, were along the lines that research on the role of social media in mental health problems is not complete.

Murthy’s response makes sense: He learned in medical school, he said, that “in an emergency you don’t have the luxury to wait for perfect information.”

Critics also questioned the efficacy of warning labels. No, they won’t solve all the problems, but recent history shows that warning labels on cigarettes, for example, did change attitudes.

Coming up with the right strategy to limit the threats social media pose to children is an urgent need. Federal action would spare the states from having to act independently, but to become effective law, restrictions must be specific and targeted.

Getting this right isn’t going to be easy, but it will be worth the effort.

Yet on Friday, the Kiggans campaign fired off a fundraising email titled, “Let’s talk about dementia.” What followed was shallow, self-serving malpractice.

“As the only geriatric nurse practitioner in Congress, what we’ve been seeing from Joe Biden has been heartbreaking,” the email grimly intones. “I took care of dementia patients for many years…I know that before they are officially diagnosed, so many are in denial of their symptoms.”

Biden’s debate performance was objectively terrible. Plenty of voters — even within the Democratic Party — believe it raised reasonable questions about his fitness for office. It’s also true that the early signs of dementia and Alzheimer’s can be imperceptible at first — a few forgetful moments or instances of confusion — but manifest ceaselessly over time.

The White House says Biden has undergone three physicals since taking office, which included neurological examinations, most recently in February. While he does exhibit signs of aging, including poor circulation in one of his legs, he has not been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, dementia or any similar degenerative neurological disorder.

Kiggans has never examined the president. Yet, writing in the first person, her email invokes her background as a geriatric nurse practitioner who “took care of dementia patients.” The email even includes a photo of her wearing a white coat, stethoscope hanging around her neck, to drive home the point that she is an expert in this field.

It is curious, then, that the email follows with this: “Biden and the Democrats are attempting to cover up and deny his cognitive decline.” Again, the email is titled “Let’s talk about dementia,” so it can be read in no other way than Kiggans concluding the president of having dementia and accusing the White House and Democrats for covering it up.

Surely Kiggans knows that her chosen profession has for decades railed against making medical diagnoses without examining a patient first-hand. To do otherwise is reckless and dangerous. It violates the standards that medical professionals pledge to uphold.

For instance, the American Psychiatric Association said, “Armchair psychiatry or the use of psychiatry as a political tool is the misuse of psychiatry and is unacceptable and unethical.”

The APA emphasizes adherence to “The Goldwater Rule,” a principle originating in 1973 that instructs “physician members of the APA to refrain from publicly issuing professional medical opinions about individuals that they have not personally evaluated in a professional setting or context. Doing otherwise undermines the credibility and integrity of the profession and the physician-patient relationship.”

The APA issued that reminder in 2018 when plenty of medical professionals eagerly and recklessly offered their opinions on the health and mental state of then-President Donald Trump. What was true then, is true today — and Kiggans should know better.

There are plenty of honorable, reasonable ways to criticize this president and to call into question his fitness for office. Kiggans and others have readily voiced them. But by straying into medical assessments, and to do so while donning a white coat, in order to raise funds for reelection is beneath her. It insults her constituents and sullies her office.

As Arthur Caplan, founding head of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Grossman School of Medicine’s Department of Population Health, wisely suggests, “If you don’t like a political candidate, then go after their politics; don’t go after their health.”

The 2nd District is among the most tightly contested House races in the country. Kiggans would do well to seek reelection on the power of her ideas, the strength of her accomplishments and her vision for the future, rather than resorting to cheap, and unethical, political stunts.