Fashion

An ER Doctor’s Advice on How to Vote in Person Safely

“I would say that voting in person is perfectly safe as long as you take the same precautions you would in any other socially distanced or monitored setting.”…

This Election Day, it’s never been more important to make a voting plan. For many concerned about potential COVID-19 exposure, that meant voting by mail; but even for those with the time and ability to vote in person, health can still pose a concern

New York City ER doctor Dara Kass, an associate professor of emergency medicine at Columbia University Medical Center and a Yahoo News medical contributor, has been on the COVID-19 front lines since the start of the pandemic. We reached out to Dr. Kass to ask how in-person voters can keep themselves safe and minimize risk while making sure their vote is counted.

First thing’s first: From a health standpoint, is it better to vote by mail if you have the option?

No! I would say that voting in person is perfectly safe as long as you take the same precautions you would in any other socially distanced or monitored setting. As long as you come in prepared for the space around you, there’s nothing unsafe about voting in person; obviously it’s always safer to stay home, but you have to do a risk-benefit analysis about staying home versus having a voice in a democracy.

Is early voting potentially less crowded, and, thus, safer than voting on Election Day?

We don’t really know as of now, because there are fewer early voting locations, but probably the best thing to do is try to vote early and see how lines are. If you go and you feel safe, vote then, and if not, come back the next day. It definitely seems good to try to vote as early as possible to mitigate anything going awry, because if you wait until Election Day, you’re stuck with whatever happens on that day.

What health and/or medical supplies should in-person voters be prepared to bring with them to the polls?

Masks! Maybe make sure to have double-layered or filtered masks, if you get caught inside a space and aren’t able to be outdoors. I would recommend that if people want to be very prepared, they can consider bringing eye protection—goggles or glasses, or face shields—for extra security. I would have hand sanitizer with you in case you touch a surface and want to sanitize between hand washes, although there is a question about some ballots reacting to hand sanitizer, but you can use it while waiting in line.

Another thing to think about is bringing snacks with straws, because you might be waiting for a while and want individually wrapped, quick things to eat. The straw really helps minimize the need to take off your mask while you’re waiting, so think about protein shakes or other liquids.

Do you know of any precautions that poll workers can take to make things safer from a COVID-19 standpoint?

Poll workers’ precautions should be similar to the precautions that voters should be taking. The most important thing is mutual respect; we need people to listen, wear their masks, [and] keep a distance. If you respect poll workers and the job they’re doing, you won’t get in their faces or ask them to solve problems they can’t solve, because we’re all doing our best.

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Entertainment

A$AP Rocky Turned An Entire Manchester City Kit Into His Album Rollout

Photo: DannyB Photos / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

A$AP Rocky doesn’t do album rollouts quietly, and this one recruited an entire Premier League club to help. Manchester City, PUMA, and Rocky teamed up on a limited apparel run tied to “Don’t Be Dumb,” his 2026 album, timed around his September 5th show at Co-op Live.

The centerpiece is a long-sleeve PUMA King jersey in black and archive gold, with “DON’T BE DUMB” running down the sleeve and AWGE branding worked in throughout. A bold “MANCHESTER” graphic covers the back. Fans could also add limited “A$AP 11” name-and-number printing onto the club’s actual Home, Away, or Third kits, while supplies lasted at retail.

There’s a players-only version too, and it never went up for sale. That one sticks closer to City’s usual sky-blue identity, with its own sleeve detailing and back graphic — the kind of piece that exists purely because a handful of people got lucky.

The whole rollout kicked off with a one-night pop-up on September 4th, when PUMA turned a spot in Manchester’s Northern Quarter into a pop-up cafe for the night, mixing football, music, and street style into one room before the wider release hit the stadium store the next morning. Some of those jerseys even came with golden tickets to the concert or that Saturday’s match.

Rocky has called the project true to his own design language, and it’s not even his only club collaboration this cycle — a similar drop with AC Milan landed around the same time. At this point, the line between fashion week and matchday has basically disappeared.

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Entertainment

Quavo And Lids Are Going All In On Atlanta With Their New Cap Pack

Photo: Finish Line / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)

Quavo has never been shy about his hat obsession, and Lids just gave him another outlet for it. Their new “Atlanta” pack drops September 12th, marking another round in a partnership that’s been running strong since 2019.

The collection is a love letter to the city, spread across three very different caps. One mashes up pinstripes, script lettering, and Braves branding into a single design, working navy, red, white, and light blue into the mix. Another goes the opposite direction entirely — fully iced out in crystal detailing, done up in black and red, with both the Falcons and the Braves showing up in the design. The third strips things back to an old-school “ATL” trucker cap in red, white, and gold, the kind of understated piece that lets the city’s name do the talking.

None of this is new territory for Quavo. He’s talked before about waiting on hat releases as a kid, and that same excitement seems to be what’s kept this partnership going years past most celebrity collabs. His earlier Lids run leaned on one moment — the Braves’ 1995 World Series win — but this pack pulls from the city’s whole sports history instead of just one highlight.

Lids has called Quavo one of the rare voices who can blend music, fashion, and sports without it feeling forced, and this drop backs that up. Given how fast his past releases have moved, Atlanta might want to set an alarm for September 12th.

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