The current COVID-19 challenges facing the world bring home some crucial lessons and learnings for all of us here in Southwest Florida. First of all, the facts and science behind understanding the virus, how it spreads and impacts our health, is the necessary driver for a public policy ...
This April 22 marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, a worldwide movement to support environmental protection, as well as the first Digital Earth Day, promoted by global organizer Earth Day Network. Amid the current coronavirus global pandemic, Earth Day participants are encouraged to ...
Viruses have been top of mind lately - what they are, how they function, and the damage they cause.Because we're ocean people, we started to wonder about viruses in the ocean. Do viruses exist there? Who are their hosts? Is their biology the same? We decided to take a deep dive into marine ...
To the editor:To all "first responders," I apologize. When fire departments here ask for more money to buy equipment, we turned them down. When teachers ask for more money to teach and keep our children safe, we turned them down. Next time teachers, firefighters police, medical aid providers, ...
To the editor:Hi, my name is Hayden McBride I go to Gulf Middle School. The reason I am sending this letter is that I feel like we are in trouble and we need to fight back to survive as a community.I think the coronavirus is worse than we think because of how it is going to impact us in the ...
(Editor's note: This is the third segment in a three-part series on viruses planned for publication.)Let me start with a small moment of reflective joy in a trying time. Life is miraculous. We are so very fortunate in so many ways. That we have the luxury to write, read, and ponder this musing ...
(Editor's note: This is the second segment in a three-part series on viruses planned for publication.)This week, I'm not going to go into SARS CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID; I think we've all heard enough about COVID recently. Instead, this week, we are going to drill down about the basics ...
Hello everyone.I wanted to take a moment to thank all of you who are doing everything you can to keep our community safe and to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus. To our beach front vendors, restaurants, hoteliers and individuals who are self isolating, I applaud you for making the effort ...
To the editor:So I go to Publix on the Beach for some necessities. I find a cart outside and look for the wipes to decontaminate the handle. No wipes! Instead, I must enter the store with my cart and a nice young lady wipes my cart handle for me.Now, by the time I've gotten to that nice young ...
In the very broadest of terms, there are three major categories of living things on our planet: true bacteria, ancient bacteria, and everything else. Two things are noteworthy in the previous sentence. First, viruses are not included (they are not in everything else). Secondly, I use the term ...