WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER SETS RECORD VISITS FOR YEAR 7,017,658 VISITS! 2,098,003 VISITORS MADE 6 VISITS A DAY EVERY DAY. 63,330 UNIQUE VISITORS MADE 133,730 VISITS IN DECEMBER. WPCNR AVERAGED 17,284 VISITORS A WEEK, VISITING 31,270 TIMES.

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Editor’s Note: A New Rochelle High School student Monday was overcome by marijuana he was vaping on, and high school nurses saved his life. The New Rochelle Superintendent of Schools wrote this letter to New Rochelle Students after the incident.

View as Webpage An Important Message From City School District of New Rochelle Superintendent Jonathan P. Raymond  January 9, 2023 Dear New Rochelle Community, Today marks an ominous milestone in our schools – one we had hoped would never be necessary. For the first time, our nursing staff had to use Narcan to save a student who vaped what the student believed to be marijuana. The vape almost cost that student their life. I implore you to speak with your children immediately about the dangers of vaping. It is urgent. This device is still in our community, potentially threatening the health or lives of any others who use it. I commend our nurses at New Rochelle High School for their quick and effective response. Their actions may well have saved this student’s life. I pray that we can reach others in our community to prevent other incidences. Our students, staff, and everyone in our community must understand that even one hit from a cartridge can be deadly. While we have not confirmed the substance that harmed our student today, we know that any vaping devices or drugs purchased on the street may – and likely do – contain the synthetic opioid fentanyl, and even the smallest dose can be lethal. I encourage all of you to speak to your physician or pharmacist about obtaining your own Narcan prescription. Everyone is eligible to receive it, and you simply never know when you might need it to save a life. Please talk to your children. Please encourage them to share any information they may have regarding cartridges, vapes, or other banned items in or around our schools. That can be reported via the school district anonymous reporting system. If at any time they are with a friend who has overdosed, they can call 911 without fear of repercussion. There is nothing more important than the health, safety, and well-being of our students and it takes all of us to prevent a fatal overdose. Please review some of the resources linked below. And please, please speak with your children about the dangers of street drugs and vapes. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/basic_information/e-cigarettes/pdfs/ecigarette-or-vaping-products-visual-dictionary-508.pdf https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/basic_information/e-cigarettes/Quick-Facts-on-the-Risks-of-E-cigarettes-for-Kids-Teens-and-Young-Adults.html New York State Office of Addiction and Support Services:https://oasas.ny.gov/school-district-resources?utm_medium=301&utm_source=combataddiction.ny.gov Surgeon General:https://e-cigarettes.surgeongeneral.gov/documents/SGR_ECig_ParentTipSheet_508.pdf  Sincerely, Jonathan P. Raymond Superintendent of Schools

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WPCNR WASHINGTON DELEGATION. January 7, 2022:

Editor’s Note: Early this morning, in a 15th vote on who will be Speaker of the House for the New 118th Congress, two key opponents of Congressman Kevin McCarthy who claimed they would never vote for him changed their votes to “present,” effectively abstaining from the vote. Those two votes of “present” were cast by Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Matt Gaetz of Florida on the 15th vote this week attempting to vote Mr. McCarthy Speaker of the House.

Statement From New York State Conservative Party 

Chairman Gerard Kassar on Speaker McCarthy’s Election 

January 7, 2023

“The New York State Conservative Party congratulates House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on his historic victory tonight. The Party is particularly proud of the 11 House Republicans from New York State who presented a strong, unified, and unwavering front for Speaker McCarthy in round after round of voting. Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, a dynamic House leader, was one of those honored to nominate Speaker McCarthy on the House floor. 

“These 11 members, each of whom was supported by the Conservative Party — the Party provided the direct margin of victory in four of those races — will play a key role in the 118th Congress, and rightly so. The Republican delegation from New York is ready and able to help lead our nation forward.” 

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WPCNR THE LETTER TICKER. From the White Plains City School District. January 5, 2022:

Today one day after school reopened from the holiday break in White Plains, the City School District sent out this letter commenting on the school situation:

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Happy New Year! I hope you had a restful holiday. Here is the latest on COVID-19, flu, and RSV in the U.S.

Overall respiratory health

It’s still looking rough out there. High numbers of influenza-like illnesses (ILI)—fever, cough and/or sore throat reported at doctors’ offices—are peppered across the U.S.

Respiratory illness season was early and has already reached a high compared to the last decade, but it’s on the descent. It’s too early to celebrate, though, as we may see multiple wave humps as we did in the pre-pandemic years.

If we zoom into specific viruses, we see different stories.

RSV

RSV is nosediving, a welcome development for older adults, parents of kids under 5, and pediatric hospitals.

In mid-November 2022, at the peak of RSV, hospitalizations blew pre-pandemic years out of the water. This was mainly driven by admissions among kids under 5 years old, which reached an all time high rate of 70 kids hospitalized per 100,000 infections. (Historically, peaks range from 26-52 kids hospitalized per 100,000 infections).

Flu

Flu continues to follow RSV and is also trending downwards, but certainly not as quickly. All metrics—test positivity rate, positives in nursing homes, hospitalization—are showing reprieve.

As far as cumulative severity, the Northern Hemisphere is largely reflecting patterns of the Southern Hemisphere last summer—flu is back, but not particularly severe. Flu hospitalizations are on track for a mediocre season compared to, for example, the severe 2017-2018 flu season.

This doesn’t mean there isn’t any suffering, though. We have already lost 13,000 Americans to the flu—61 of those were children.

Will flu continue to decline? Not necessarily. Countries in the Southern Hemisphere, like South Africa, saw two waves of flu: the first driven by one strain—called influenza A—and the second driven by another strain—influenza B. Currently, influenza A is driving U.S. cases, which means that we, too, may have another wave.

COVID-19

Then there’s COVID, the only one of these three viruses trending upwards right now.

I’ll start with the good news: we got through 2022—one full year—without a new variant of concern. In other words, Omicron continued to mutate without a variant coming out from left field. As I’ve written before, this is a welcome development.

The bad news: Omicron subvariants continue to do plenty of damage on their own. This is especially the case when coupled with the holidays (i.e. changing behaviors and social networks) and cooler weather.

Currently the viral culprit is XBB.1.5., which has caught the attention of many. In fact, the WHO is currently conducting a risk assessment, which should be out in a few days.

XBB.1.5 continues to have a viral advantage in the U.S. as it started in the Northeast and is now quickly bleeding into the South and will soon dominate in the Midwest and West. A great visualization below displays the projected spread. A peak is expected in February.

JWeiland @JPWeiland

A visualization of when spikes are expected in other parts of the country

4:01 AM ∙ Jan 4, 202361Likes9Retweets

How big or severe will the wave be? 

It’s hard to predict given such a complex immunity wall in the U.S. and limited knowledge of XBB.1.5, including the inability to rely on trends from other countries, as this is a homegrown problem. (Singapore had a XBB wave, but XBB.1.5. is a 3-generation difference. Also, Singapore has a highly boosted population.)

Regardless, we are already in a wave. For really the first time, reported case numbers have completely decoupled from wastewater, so we can’t rely on this anymore. Wastewater is clearly on the rise.

Unfortunately, hospitalizations are increasing too.

In the Northeast, hospitalizations among those over 70 years old are reaching very uncomfortable levels. They aren’t close to last winter, yet, but let’s please not make last winter’s disaster our standard of health.

It’s important to note two positive things regarding severe disease:

1. Hospitalizations are very different today than they used to be. Indicators of severe hospitalization, like ICU use and proportions of dexamethasone administered— the standard of care for COVID-19 pneumonia—are not increasing.
2. This is a good sign that the severity of Omicron with XBB.1.5 mutations may not have changed, but we don’t have hard evidence of this yet.

2. Vaccines work. People vaccinated with the fall booster have an 18.6 times lower risk of dying from COVID-19 than unvaccinated people right now. The risk of infection is also three times lower. This is even the case for people with weaker immune systems, like those over 80 years old.

One of the biggest problems with the newer subvariants is that monoclonal antibodies, including Evusheild, do not work. (Paxlovid still works.)

This means that part of the safety net we had for the vulnerable is missing, which is a massive problem. Unfortunately, it looks like this will take months to fix.

Bottom line

RSV and flu trends are showing welcoming signs, but COVID-19 is now taking over.

The impact of XBB.1.5 and the height of the COVID-19 winter wave is unknown, but the vulnerable are already in a tough spot.

There are a lot of sick people out there and still plenty of winter season left. Stay healthy… You know what to do.