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Letters to the Editor

We deserve to know…

EDITOR: It’s been going on for years now, but now after the Oxford School shooting last week it is hitting a little too close to home for all of us. My friend’s daughters attend school about 10 minutes from where Oxford is and are extremely scared to go to school now. Numerous threats after the shooting bombarded schools around the Detroit area. School is supposed to be a safe place for our kids to go, but its not. Just about a month ago, there was a lockdown and hold in place at Escanaba Area Public Schools due to an outside threat. As a parent of two students, I appreciate that ...

Public health benefits

EDITOR: Ralph Blaiser’s November 30 letter to the editor does a nice job reviewing the evidence on the efficacy of different mask types for preventing one from acquiring a respiratory disease like COVID. In short, nothing beats an N-95. Unfortunately, his focus is on the personal benefits of mask wearing, not the public health benefits. From a public health perspective, even the flimsiest masks are reasonably effective at preventing an asymptomatic infected person from transmitting an infection to others. Hence, his conclusion: “But when I look around at the masks people are ...

Fortunate to have hospital

EDITOR: My husband and I attended a funeral in Escanaba recently. A woman in the pew in front of us passed out during the service. My husband, a physician, attended to her and called the ambulance to take her to St. Francis Hospital for evaluation. Thank goodness, she revived on her own and is going to be fine, but she certainly needed further evaluation. This is just one small example of why our community needs OSF St. Francis Hospital. What if we did not have a local hospital in Escanaba? She would have had to travel to Marquette or Green Bay, costing hundreds of dollars more, not to ...

Mask facts (COVID-19)

EDITOR: 1. Cloth masks are not very effective at preventing infection. In the first randomized clinical trial that included cloth masks, 1,607 health care workers were placed in three groups: Cloth masks, surgical masks, and “normal practice” which included some mask wear and some time without masks. Cloth masks wearers were 2.5 to 13 times more likely to get a clinical-respiratory-infection or influenza-like-infection than surgical mask wearers. The study was performed by faculty of the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, ...

LaFave gambling with public health

EDITOR: Recently state Rep. Beau LaFave has given his full backing to those who oppose mask mandates. He was even gracious to introduce bills that would right the wrong of an unfair mask mandate. At present perhaps LaFave thinks it is politically advantageous to support those who support personal liberty over public health. The debate on masks looks very different when one is watching a loved one battle this disease. LaFave has gambled his political future on the idea personal freedom outweighs public health. It isn’t just LaFave’s political career that is at stake but also the ...

No cause for complaint

EDITOR: The other day while shopping, I saw an unusual number of empty shelves and the items I purchased were more expensive than they had been earlier in the year. When I got to the checkout line, the person in front of me was emptying a cart piled high with merchandise and complaining about the broken supply chain and higher prices for which the shopper blamed the government. The supply chain is privately owned and managed. It is broken because businesses and corporations failed to prepare for the robust consumer demand that is being fueled by record low interest rates, stimulus ...