Let’s Talk About Masks (Again)

TL;DR (too long; didn’t read) Summary: Cloth masks are good for protecting others from the wearer; not as good at protecting the wearer from others “My mask protects you; your mask protects me” does not work if too few people…

Vaccine Access Coming into Focus

People have questions right now and have been wondering why we have not posted much about vaccinations, schools returning in person, the new COVID variants, or local stats.  There is a lot of uncertainty right now on all of those…

Helpers Keep On Helping

We’re past #GivingTuesday and approaching the end of the year. Maybe in the chaos of this very different holiday season you haven’t gotten around to some of your usual charitable donations. There are also unexpected $600 checks in the offing…

Messaging For the Masses

GOLDILOCKS EDITION Do you have friends who don’t have a lot of patience for endless articles or blog posts about this damn pandemic? But are they even so starting to feel like they ought to be doing something about it?…

Staying Safe: What’s a Person to Do?

It is really helpful to have the Daily Item putting out its When COVID Hits Home series, with stories about the personal experiences of local families who have dealt with COVID in some way. It is so generous of people…

Going Viral (in a Good Way)

This is an all-hands-on-deck moment! Please start talking to your neighbors about public health. If you haven’t already or if you’ve only been discussing it with some people, it’s time to make a conscious effort to do some expanded personal…

A December to Remember, But Not In a Good Way

The current White House Coronavirus Task Force PA report (should be another one out today or tomorrow) points out that more than 2000 counties across the country are in COVID red zones with substantial transmission and a high risk of…

More Messengers, Better Messaging

Covid cases locally and nationally are at an inflection point.  Local public health messaging efforts to date have helped some, but they must reach further. And it really needs to happen fairly quickly.  How can we get over any existing…

Decisions, Decisions… Schools and COVID

The White House Coronavirus Task Force report for PA issued on Dec 6 includes many new maps and stats about hospital capacity across the country and throughout the state. The document points out, “We are also seeing clear improvement in…

Brace Yourself — Winter Is Coming

UPDATE — Good news: Apparently the major spike in cases attributed to Montour County early in December was an accounting error and those confirmed cases are actually being apportioned out elsewhere. Bad news: The reapportioning is somewhat offsetting other apparent…