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We must bring more manufacturing of needed medical drugs back to U.S.

Sources ranging from the CIA to the Census Bureau disagree on how reliant we Americans are on drugs and medical equipment imported from China. Extend that to international agencies and the variances are even greater. For example, some sources place China far down on the list of countries exporting drugs to the United States. We are about 15 times more dependent on Ireland, according to the International Trade Centre. We import only about $2.6 billion worth of drugs a year from China, agrees the Census Bureau. Other analysts say the reliance is substantially greater, ...

Use your heads

There is a reason “Yankee ingenuity” is recognized throughout the world. We Americans have a reputation for identifying challenges and devising ways to overcome them. Use your head if you decide to come up with a home remedy, a way to stretch supplies such as those of food — or any other challenge to which you think you have a solution. You may have seen reports that an anti-malaria drug, chloroquine, shows promise in battling COVID-19. Just a few days ago, a man and his wife living near Phoenix, Arizona, decided to try it. They found some chloroquine phosphate, a ...

Stand your distance in store lines

Grocery stores, department and hardware stores and other outlets selling essential goods have adapted their practices in keeping with the social distancing prescription that is a big part of fighting the coronavirus public health crisis. But they cannot do it alone. The shopping public must be big participants in this effort. It is very unfortunate that the public has not fully adapted. Go into any grocery store in the region and you’ll likely observe checkout lines with people waiting within the prescribed 6-foot distance of one another. You may observe couples shopping ...

Investigate stock transactions

Millions of dollars in stock transactions on behalf of five U.S. senators have raised serious questions about their ethics — and whether they broke laws against insider trading. Clearly, the matter needs to be investigated. If the senators did what they are being accused by some of doing — using information about COVID-19 they received because of their positions to profit or avoid stock market losses — the very minimum punishment ought to be removal from office. Much preferred would be prosecution. And if these five in the U.S. Senate engaged in insider trading, it has to ...

Conquer your fear and join the fight against coronavirus

Iknow the next few weeks will be challenging. There is no reason to be fearful, or to panic, but we need to take this disease seriously. Please, stay home. Make as few in-person contacts as you can.” So said Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf this week as he announced directives aimed at stopping the spread of COVID-19, the coronavirus that threatens all of us. Panic buying is a side effect of this disease. In our area, some store shelves have been emptied. First it was toilet paper and antibacterial products. Within days, it spread to other types of supplies, everything from ...

‘Harden not your heart’

Facts, not fear. That must be our collective mindset and approach amid these trying times as our nation faces the spread of the coronavirus, or COVID-19. Yes, these are trying times. But by working together and showing compassion for one another, we will persevere. Indeed, the virus spread is testing our collective will to work together to stop this disease and to find a treatment for it. We’re sure you’ve seen on TV and on social media video of people fighting in the aisles of grocery stores over toilet paper, sanitizer and other health-care and cleaning products. Those ...