It's actually been kind of disappointing reading the coverage of this story.
"The story" is that Missy Reeves has decided (at this point and time) not to return as the cast resumes filming due to worries about Covid-19, and the show did what everyone has said is a temporary recast. She lives in Tennessee and commutes to work in LA. Being on a plane so much, what with all that's going on, is not the best situation, obviously. She could very well just be waiting until the cases go down, fully intending to come back when both she and the show feels comfortable doing so. Her frequent exposure to large numbers of people during such a commute would add a lot of uncertainty to the heavy-duty precautions being taken at the studio to keep people safe.
But most of the reportage focuses 90% on her personal opinions and thus turns that into "the story". Her expression of those controversial opinions were months, even years ago, but the writers of the stories feel the need to rehash things that are not current, nor relevant to the story. It seems politics have to seep into every.single.thing these days, even when the quasi-political stuff is old news. I wish they could leave certain sectors of our lives free of politics, but maybe that ship has already sailed. The old news not only colors the current reporting, it now pushes the current reporting off the page.