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All ears when it comes to mask wearing

To say this past year has been difficult would be an understatement. People keep asking, “When will we get back to normal?” I am not sure this is not the new normal. In many ways, this pandemic is like getting a big wad of chewing gum stuck on the bottom of your shoe. No matter how much you try to scrape it off, it simply smears and is a constant reminder that it is there with every step. The one fact that is sure is that the pandemic has brought out the very best in our medical community and our first responders, all of whom have put service to the citizens of our ...

Opioid addiction: Resuming war important fight

The COVID-19 pandemic’s myriad effects on society and the economy have accelerated Pennsylvania’s other tragic public health emergency — deadly opioid addiction. State Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs Secretary Jennifer Smith disclosed recently that 2020 might have eclipsed 2017 as the state’s worst year for drug overdose deaths. In 2017, more than 5,400 Pennsylvanians died from overdoses, mostly of opioids. Due to increased treatment, new prescribing protocols, prescription tracking and broad access to the opioid antidote naloxone, the death toll fell to 4,400 in ...

Thinking outside box to survive

Americans are no strangers to hard economic times. Poverty still exists. Millions struggle with financial despair. The answers are not always easy but here are possibilities. Look into your local community college and see what training is offered. One- and two-year programs are typically taught in our public community colleges. You might learn a new trade in as little as a year. Community colleges are affordable. Often there is enough federal grant money to cover the entire cost of your study. In as little as a year or maybe two at the most you could be in a new career. ...

Nursing homes need answers, more protection

At The Gardens at Stevens, a skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility in Denver, Pennsylvania, 39 residents had died of COVID-19 as of the publication of LancasterOnline journalist Nicole C. Brambila’s investigative article published in the Jan. 17 edition. “The Gardens at Stevens is a troubling outlier in Pennsylvania,” Brambila reported. “The death toll is second only in Lancaster County to the 446-bed Conestoga View Nursing and Rehabilitation in Lancaster Township, which is five times larger. Statewide, only about 20 of Pennsylvania’s nearly 700 nursing homes have had ...

State should meet duty on recovery homes

Even if the unfolding vaccination effort against COVID-19 has the desired effect of suppressing the pandemic, Pennsylvania still faces another public health emergency. The scope of the COVID-19 emergency has worsened the opioid addiction crisis. Pennsylvania is one of the states most heavily affected by the addiction crisis. To the state government’s credit, it had reacted aggressively to the challenge. The Wolf administration enacted a series of emergency measures to expand access to the lifesaving antidote nalaxone. It, the Legislature and the medical community, worked ...

Don’t forget horrors of Holocaust

“When evil darkens our world, let us be the bearers of light. When fists are clenched in self-righteous rage, let our hands be open for the sake of peace. When injustice slams doors on the ill, the poor, the old and the strangers, let us pry the doors open.” Spoken softly by a small crowd at a Misericordia University Holocaust Remembrance Service in 2019, that prayer befits our moments, our lives, and our world this week. Wednesday was Holocaust Remembrance Day. At that service, Wyoming Valley’s own Rabbi Larry Kaplan began reading Holocaust victim names, but paused. He ...