Massachusetts legislation against mask bans 😷 Hospitals respond to outbreaks instead of preventing them. 🏥
Bird flu gets to snow goose flocks in Pennsylvania.
Legislation against municipal mask bans introduced by President pro tempore of the Massachusetts Senate.
Senator Will Brownsberger, Democrat from Boston, introduced Bill SD.245 on January 9, 2025, which, if passed, would prohibit municipalities and boards of health from enacting mask bans that include banning “protective or medical use” of wearing masks in public.
SENATE DOCKET, NO. 245 FILED ON: 1/9/2025 The Commonwealth of Massachusetts PRESENTED BY: William N. Brownsberger No city or town shall enact an ordinance or by-law, or establish any policy, that prohibits the wearing of face coverings for protective or medical use in any indoor or outdoor space open to the public including, but not limited to: Any publicly-owned facility; Grocery stores, pharmacies, and other retail stores; Public streets, parks, and ways; and Any location, including hotels, event venues, and private clubs, that hosts indoor or outdoor events or performances. (...)
If you live in Massachusetts, you can find your state level representatives and write to them stating that you support of Bill SD.245 to protect the ability to mask in public. It can help if you have a personal detail to share about why this is important to you, and perhaps include a statement about how health exemptions won’t be sufficient.
If you live anywhere else, you can find your own representatives, and write to your state representatives referencing the Massachusetts state bill SD.245 and say you want similar legislation where you live, protecting your ability to use masks in public, and perhaps include your reason. Remember, representatives care about what their own constituents think, and even if your representative is anti-mask, they might be swayed from putting up a fight about it if they hear from enough constituents willing to pipe up and actually make a stink about it.
My letter to state level elected representatives (state rep, state senator, and governor):
I am appalled at the news of mask bans popping up in various places. I ought to have a right to protect myself from the elements: viruses, pollen, pollution, wildfire smoke, or cold, by wearing a mask. Health exceptions are not sufficient because having to carry papers or explain medical status is Un-American. Massachusetts Senator Brownsberger introduced bill SD.245 on January 9th 2025, which would prohibit municipalities from making laws that would stop people using protective & medical masks. We need this in our state at a minimum.
Please feel free to copy-paste or repurpose the contents of my letter for your own letters to reps. Feel free also to take talking points from my rejected and unpublished letter to the editor.
Remember to bookmark/favorite the contact webpages of all your representatives, including state and county level elected officials, for easy reference.
🗞️ In the news
KGOU - Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt ends state employee telework options By Paul Monies, Oklahoma Watch Published December 20, 2024 The latest statewide employee engagement survey, issued by OMES in July, showed widespread satisfaction with telework or a hybrid arrangement. The survey had responses from 16,000 employees across 111 state agencies. “Respondents indicating either hybrid or full-time telework had slightly higher favorable responses related to engagement and satisfaction,” the report said. “Among those indicating a full-time or hybrid telework status, engagement is slightly higher and satisfaction is slightly lower among employees working hybrid schedules.”
ABC 7 News - Cats can get sick with bird flu. Here's how to protect them By CARLA K. JOHNSON AP logo Sunday, December 29, 2024 2:37AM How can I protect my cat from bird flu? Cats should not drink unpasteurized dairy products or eat raw meat. Pet owners should keep cats away from wild birds, livestock and poultry. Don't let them wander freely in the outdoors, Bailey said, "because you don't know what they're getting into. Cats are natural hunters, and one of the animals they love to hunt are birds." Avoid touching sick or dead birds yourself. Thoroughly wash your hands after handling poultry or animals.
CIDRAP - California probe ties cat's avian flu illness to raw pet food - Lisa Schnirring January 2, 2025 Oregon officials reported similar findings involving one type of frozen raw pet food from Northwest Naturals that was marketed nationally. In its statement, the LADPH said H5 avian flu from product samples of Monarch Raw Pet Food has been found in an investigation into an illness involving a house cat with a lab-confirmed infection after consuming the product. Four other cats from the same household have presumed H5 infections after eating the same food.
Facebook lifts restrictions on calling women ‘household objects,’ black people as 'farm equipment' By CNBCTV18.com January 8, 2025, 3:25:21 PM IST (Published) The new section of the policy states the company now allows “allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality and common non-serious usage of words like 'weird'”. Other changes include removing content targeting a person or group based on their “protected characteristic(s) with claims that they have or spread the novel coronavirus” or “are deliberately spreading the novel coronavirus.” According to reports, users may now get to associate the COVID-19 pandemic with Chinese people in the absence of this provision.
Wash your hands to prevent fomite transmission of norovirus.
CIDRAP - US norovirus outbreaks are up, CDC data show - News brief January 2, 2025 Norovirus outbreaks typically occur when infected people spread the virus to others through direct contact or through shared exposure to contaminated water, food, or surfaces. Hospitals, restaurants, schools and childcare centers, and cruise ships are among the most common settings for outbreaks.
CDC - November 1, 2024 How to Prevent Norovirus Be aware that: Hand sanitizer does not work well against norovirus. You can use hand sanitizers in addition to hand washing, but hand sanitizer is not a substitute for handwashing, which is best.
Hospitals respond to disease outbreaks instead of preventing them.
Several Illinois hospitals requiring masks as respiratory infections climb A mask requirement is in effect at area hospitals, including Rush University Medical Center, Rush Copley Medical Center and Rush Oak Park Hospital. By NBC Chicago Staff and NBC News • Published December 30, 2024 • Updated on December 30, 2024 at 4:55 pm Multiple Illinois health systems have implemented full or partial mask mandates amid a continuing uptick in respiratory infections across the state. Rush University Medical Center, in a note on its website, said visitors and staff must wear hospital-approved masks in some areas, citing increased levels of COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses, such as the flu and RSV.
An “uptick” is what they call it when half the staff at any job has been out sick during the last month or so. When masks are used, whole strains of flu virus get wiped out. Prevention works with infectious disease.
NPR - The flu shot is different this year, thanks to COVID October 17, 2024 By Sarah Boden “no confirmed flu cases caused by the Influenza B/Yamagata lineage since spring 2020. And the Food and Drug Administration decided this year that the strain now poses little to no threat to human health. Scientists have concluded that widespread physical distancing and masking practiced during the early days of COVID-19 appear to have pushed B/Yamagata into oblivion.”
COVID isn’t seasonal so we need masks in healthcare year round.
My letter to reps:
Covid isn’t seasonal, we need to keep masks in healthcare year round. People are getting sick year round. Masks eliminated a whole strain of flu. Mask requirements year round in hospitals, urgent cares, and primary care just makes sense. Why wait until things get so bad and it ruins holidays, vacations, and takes away loved ones?
Please feel free to copy or repurpose the contents of my letter for your own letters to reps.
Stephen Miller behind a lawsuit for an anti-vax activist seeking to silence internet researchers.
N2K CSO Perspectives Ep 5574 | 10.9.24 Election Propaganda: Part 2: Modern propaganda efforts. Auto-Transcript from podcast: “lies about two election workers uh Ruby moss and Shay Freeman um claiming that they had done uh I try to remember the specifics either brought in ballots or gotten rid of ballots um but they alleged that they somehow interfered with the vote count Donald Trump tweeted this Rudy Giuliani went after them also and they had to flee their homes because of death threats and things like this so when we did our election research Gateway pundit was one of the um kind of repeat you know repeat spreaders who is very remarkably effective at making things that did not appear to be true go viral and so he had appeared in some of our writing there was also this anti vaccine activist that we just never heard of so all of a sudden we find out we're sued on Breitbart by somebody we've never heard of um and Stephen Miller's firm is is is conducting this this lawsuit and I can't talk about pending litigation but what um winds up happening is that Jim Jordan takes the material that we've turned over under subpoena and give some of it to Stephen Miller he just goes and he gives it to him and um that is a remarkably unprecedented state of affairs like that is an astonishing breach of norms um and procedure and everything else”
Bird flu gets to snow goose flocks in Pennsylvania.
Flocks of snow geese have been infected with avian influenza in the Allentown region of Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania Game Commission - INFLUENZA SUSPECTED IN SNOW GOOSE MORTALITIES January 02, 2025 Avian influenza (AI) is suspected to have caused the deaths of about 200 snow geese found Monday in the greater Allentown area. Dead birds were recovered from two sites, one in Lower Nazareth Township in Northampton County and another in Upper Macungie Township in Lehigh County. Preliminary in-state testing indicated the presence of highly pathogenic AI (HPAI). While results are yet to be confirmed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) at their National Veterinary Services Laboratories, HPAI is presumed to be the cause of these mortality events. The situation is ongoing as sick wild birds were also observed at both locations. Those encountering other sick or dead wild birds can report them to the Pennsylvania Game Commission by calling 1-833-PGC-WILD (1-833-742-9453)...
Quote:
“… and then they go back to this comforting illusion that they’ll just get voted out in 2020 or that things will somehow get resolved on their own. That’s just very unlikely to happen, unfortunately.” — Sarah Kendzior, April 19, 2019