Masque Communication, a collaboration by Manchester composer and musician Joe Deleault, Boston singer-songwriter Samantha Farrell, and New Hampton’s Ernest Thompson, the “On Golden Pond” screenwriter, have produced a new music video promoting the use of face masks.
“Please Put On Your Mask" is “a little bit amusing, a little bit sexy, and a little bit provocative,” Thompson told the Union Leader.
Thompson believes he, his wife, and their son contracted COVID-19 in 2020, exhibiting all of the signs of the disease but never getting tested to confirm the diagnosis.
“It really took us six weeks to get back to normal,” Thompson said, “and we lost three very good friends in New York, and we’ve had others who lost their senses of smell and taste, so that’s kind of how the video came about.”
He said, “I don’t think anybody loves the notion of wearing a mask, but we made it as sexy as we could.”
‘Incentivizing Law-Breaking’
Governor Chris Sununu was quick to respond to the New Hampshire House members’ initial support for House Bill 63, which would refund $10,000 in business fines paid by those who ignored his emergency orders aimed at protecting the public from the coronavirus.
“We can’t claim to support law and order, then incentivize law-breaking and those who do not follow the rules,” Sununu said in a statement following the 188-169 vote that also would annul criminal convictions for violators.
The House Finance Committee will review the bill before it comes up for a final vote, but the prime sponsor, Representative Andrew Prout (R-Hudson) said, “This is not just about the businesses that have been fined, but by those who fear they will be next. This will allow us to chart a path to get beyond the emergency once it has passed.”
Representative David Meuse (D-Portsmouth) countered that the “clear and unmistakable message” would be that there is no consequence for those who ignore emergency orders in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office reported that eight businesses have been fined for COVID-19 violations.
Concord Hospital Won’t Guarantee Services
During Tuesday’s hearing before the Charitable Trust Unit of the Secretary of State’s Office, Katherine London of Commonwealth Medicine, hired by the state to analyze Concord Hospital’s planned $30 million acquisition of LRGHealthcare through bankruptcy proceedings, said Concord would operate the Franklin and Laconia hospitals for at least five years and “may maintain current levels of service, but with no guarantees.”
London said the level of care at the Lakes Region facilities “could improve” because Concord Hospital has a higher quality-of-care rating from the federal government than the two smaller hospitals.
The bankruptcy court has approved the sale, providing it meets New Hampshire’s requirements. If the sale goes forward, the two hospitals in the Lakes Region would be renamed Concord Hospital-Laconia and Concord Hospital-Franklin. If the sale does not go through, LRGHealthcare CEO Kevin Donovan said the two hospitals may close within two months.
Concord Hospital’s chief executive officer, Robert Steigmeyer, said the birthing rooms at Lakes Region General Hospital, which closed two years ago, would not reopen, but that Concord would maintain the 10 psychiatric beds in Franklin Regional Hospital and that the facility’s focus on mental health services would not be lessened.
Steigmeyer previously severed LRGHealthcare’s contracts with Advanced Orthopedic Specialists, and the practice will close next month.
Wanna Talk Fiction?
Although my career has been in journalism, fiction-writing also has been a passion, with an unpublished novel simmering on the back burner. I’ve launched another newsletter, Lunar Processions, to discuss the novel and writing in general as I focus on finishing the work. Check it out here.
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