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Letters to the Editor

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 ...

Thanksgiving ‘above the stairs’

EDITOR: Last Thanksgiving, I shared a story about Thanksgiving “Under the Stairs” where a group of inmates in the Delta County Jail were meeting nightly for prayer and Bible sharing. They were meeting under a stairway in their cell block. Well, a year later, another group is now meeting ‘above the stairs’ in a different block. But, the content and emphasis are the same, an endeavor where a group of men are gathering behind bars to be “thankful, prayerful, united and eager to see their incarceration in not such a potentially, negative light. Such a group of men seeking ...

Free market

EDITOR: This is about those people that truly believe that we have a so called, “free market for goods and service to serve our nation.” From what I have been reading concerning this issue, to make prices fair for the consumer, this is far from the truth. One just has to look what happen to prices increase lately and the connection to the pandemic. What is really happening all these large corporations buy out their competitors. They control that market and by doing this they eliminate those people and raise prices at their own will. Look what happened when the Senate and House of ...

United States flag etiquette

EDITOR: 1. Judi LaCosse announced her ignorance of United States Flag Etiquette in her letter to the Editor published on November 9. 2. During The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag: “Members of the Armed Forces not in uniform and veterans may render the military salute in the manner provided for persons in uniform.” I assure you that “the manner provided for persons in uniform,” provides that if I started with my cover* on, the cover would remain on. * – “Cover” is military jargon for the objects civilians call “hats.” 3. I am a veteran – four years Michigan ...