Mass shootings and gun violence, and other top Opinion reads this week

In today's fast-paced news environment, it can be hard to keep up. For your weekend reading, we've started in-case-you-missed-it compilations of some of the week's top USA TODAY Opinion pieces. As always, thanks for reading, and for your feedback.

— USA TODAY Opinion editors

1. Could an accident have caused COVID-19? Why the Wuhan lab-leak theory shouldn't be dismissed

By Alison Young

"I have uncovered exotic and deadly bacteria that have hitched rides out of high-security labs on workers’ dirty clothing, silently spreading contagion for weeks. I have revealed how spacesuit-like protective gear and tubes carrying safe oxygen to scientists have torn or broken – repeatedly – and high-tech safety systems have failed dramatically. Vials of viruses and bacteria have gone missing. Researchers bitten by infected lab animals have been allowed to move about in public – rather than being quarantined – while waiting for signs of infection to appear."

2. No, Oral Roberts University basketball doesn't deserve to be canceled from NCAA Sweet 16

By Ed Stetzer

"In what has been called a Cinderella story, Oral Roberts University has made the Sweet Sixteen in NCAA March Madness. However, some in the crowd have been cheering for them to be banned rather than for them to win. In the most recent example of cancel culture, the mob has been coming after ORU — mocking their name, history, and beliefs as bigoted or homophobic. Some have even gone so far as to call for the NCAA to restrict such Neanderthals from playing, others saying they should be 'pariahs, not heroes.'"

3. Atlanta-area spa killings were not about sexual addiction

By Joshua B. Grubbs

"Sexual addiction is a controversial topic in popular culture and in mental health research. Although many people truly believe that sexual addiction is a real and widespread problem, scientists and mental health providers don’t necessarily agree. The diagnosis 'sexual addiction' does not appear in any of the major diagnostic manuals, which are what therapists, counselors and psychiatrists use to determine whether or not a patient or client has a mental illness."

4. Did Michigan cover up nursing home COVID deaths like New York?

By Steve Delie and Charlie LeDuff

"New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo may not be the only governor who covered up the deaths of vulnerable senior citizens during the pandemic. We’re suing the state of Michigan to release information regarding Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s executive order that funneled nursing home residents hospitalized with COVID-19 back into nursing homes – information the state is hiding from the public. Michigan citizens deserve to know if Gov. Whitmer, like Gov. Cuomo, has hidden the true number of deaths resulting from her dangerous decision."

5. Don't blame the tests: Getting rid of standardized testing means punishing poor students

By Sean-Michael Pigeon

"School board officials across the country are trying to delegitimize test scores. But the (Biden) administration did the right thing here. Standardized tests are crucial in giving poor kids in America a shot. I grew up poor in a single-income household. I couldn’t become a trained violinist or travel to Rome for summer school experiences. I could study, though. And because of good luck, hard work and high test scores, I now attend an Ivy League university with the help of significant financial aid. Testing and academic performance were the best way for someone like me to succeed."

6. Trump is gone and Biden is gathering steam. But now's not the time to stop worrying.

By Jill Lawrence

"For those of us accustomed to doomscrolling through dire news stories and bulletins during nightly bouts of insomnia, this should be a time of hope, or at least less dread. Donald Trump is out of office and if President Joe Biden did nothing else in his next four years, his legacy would be assured by the new $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief law — a poverty-fighting rebuke to 'trickle-down economics' that sends money directly where it's needed instead of to rich 'job creators' with demanding shareholders."

7. Gabby Giffords on Boulder shooting: Listen to Biden. Pass new laws to stop gun violence.

By Gabrielle Giffords

"The Boulder attack was among at least seven mass shooting in the past seven days, according to CNN, which defines a mass shooting as resulting in four or more casualties (dead or wounded) excluding the shooter. Last week, a gunman killed eight people, six of whom were Asian women, in the Atlanta area. Over the weekend, one person was killed and five were injured at a house party in Philadelphia. And on Monday, a mass shooting devastated Colorado, a state that has borne far too many gun violence tragedies."

8. In wake of Floyd, Taylor killings, should police have power to enter your home without a warrant?

By David H. Gans

"The footprint of American policing is vast. And police officers respond to a host of problems that have nothing to do with catching people suspected of crimes. Fundamental questions about just how far police power should extend are at the core of a critically important case, Caniglia v. Strom, that the Supreme Court is slated to hear Wednesday."

9. As COVID-19 vaccinations rise and the coronavirus falls, give credit to Donald Trump

By The Editorial Board

"Biden and his team moved with remarkable speed in days to secure hundreds of millions of doses and get them disseminated to ever larger numbers of people. None of that would have been possible if the vaccines didn't already exist. The lightning speed at which they were created was on Trump's watch. The fastest turnaround for a new vaccine before that — from research and development to clinical trials to regulatory approval — was in the 1960s, for the mumps, and that took four years. From start to finish, the first COVID-19 vaccine was produced in eight months."

10. DC has a real chance of becoming a state. Here's why all Americans should support that.

By Jamal Holtz

"There are over 700,000 people in America, right this moment, who have no senators to call when they need a voice on issues. But this week, the House will hold a hearing on H.R. 51, the bill that would right that wrong and make Washington D.C. the 51st state. The hearing marks notable progress in the over 200 year-long fight for statehood. In that time, statehood has gone from being a fringe issue to having over 220 House and 40 Senate co-sponsors in this Congress. Thanks to the tireless work of 51 for 51 young advocates, nearly 20 former Democratic presidential candidates and leaders have endorsed passing D.C. statehood with a simple Senate majority — including President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris."

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mass chootings, COVID, and March Madness: Top columns