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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WPCNR GOVERNOR ANDREW M. CUOMO NIGHTLY COVID REPORT. January 27, 2021:

We’re slowly coming down from our holiday surge and the number of new cases and hospitalizations have decreased across the state. In response, we’re making modifications to our micro-clusters.

All Orange Zone restrictions, and some Yellow Zone restrictions, have been lifted

Yellow Zone restrictions, which include mandatory weekly testing of a portion of students and faculty at schools, remain in place in those zones. To be clear statewide limits remain the same—a 33 percent cap on gym occupancy, a limit on private gatherings of 10 people, a 50 percent cap of occupancy in retail establishments—and of course, masks are still required in public when social distancing is impossible to maintain. The improvement in the numbers is a testament to New Yorkers’ hard work and diligence against the virus and we must keep it up.  Vaccine FAQ of the Day Here’s what else you need to know tonight:  1. Hospitalizations fell to 8,771. Of the 202,661 tests reported yesterday, 11,028, or 5.44 percent were positive. There were 1,558 patients in ICU yesterday, up 14 from the previous day. Of them, 1,027 are intubated. Sadly, we lost 170 New Yorkers to the virus.   2. As of 11am Wednesday, 96 percent of first doses allocated to the state have been administered. This represents 1,246,946 first doses administered of the 1,304,050 allocations received from the federal government. Second dose allocations are separately allocated so no one should worry about not being able to get a second dose if they have already received the first.  3. Additional cases of the UK variant have been identified in New York State. The new cases have been found in Long Island, New York City, Westchester, Saratoga, Tompkins, Niagara, Onondaga, Essex and Warren Counties, bringing the statewide total to 42 known cases.   4. The State extended a partnership with HelloFresh to deliver free meal kits to veterans and military families in New York. Since establishing this partnership in July 2020, HelloFresh has provided more than 200,000 nutritious meals to veterans and military families in New York City who are facing food insecurity due to COVID-19. Now, New York and HelloFresh are extending this collaboration through the second quarter of 2021, ensuring that veterans and military families in New York City will continue to receive these nourishing meals throughout the challenging months ahead. We thank HelloFresh for their partnership.   5. All residents of nursing homes participating in the federal Long Term Care Facility vaccination program have been offered the vaccine. To date, 72 percent of nursing home residents have been vaccinated. By February 7th, all staff at nursing homes will have been offered the vaccine. Nursing home residents who declined the vaccine on the first opportunity—perhaps wanting to wait until others had received the vaccine—will get additional chances to get the vaccine.  Tonight’s “Deep Breath Moment”: Central Park received an unexpected visitor today—a snowy owl. Spotting this species of owl is an extremely rare event. Snowy owls are common in the Arctic tundra, but not in New York City, and so bird-watchers marveled at the unusual sighting. Snowy owls migrate south in winter. Avid birder David Barrett speculated that this particular snowy owl mistook the park’s baseball field for a sand beach.  Ever Upward, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo

ted statewide—including all cluster zones in Western New York.

The Yellow Zones that remain are in Newburgh and in New York City (two in the Bronx, one in Queens, and one in Washington Heights).

The improvement in the numbers is a testament to New Yorkers’ hard work and diligence against the virus and we must keep it up.  

Vaccine FAQ of the Day Here’s what else you need to know tonight: 1. Hospitalizations fell to 8,771. Of the 202,661 tests reported yesterday, 11,028, or 5.44 percent were positive. There were 1,558 patients in ICU yesterday, up 14 from the previous day. Of them, 1,027 are intubated. Sadly, we lost 170 New Yorkers to the virus.  2. As of 11am today, 96 percent of first doses allocated to the state have been administered. This represents 1,246,946 first doses administered of the 1,304,050 allocations received from the federal government. Second dose allocations are separately allocated so no one should worry about not being able to get a second dose if they have already received the first. 3. Additional cases of the UK variant have been identified in New York State. The new cases have been found in Long Island, New York City, Westchester, Saratoga, Tompkins, Niagara, Onondaga, Essex and Warren Counties, bringing the statewide total to 42 known cases.  4. The State extended a partnership with HelloFresh to deliver free meal kits to veterans and military families in New York. Since establishing this partnership in July 2020, HelloFresh has provided more than 200,000 nutritious meals to veterans and military families in New York City who are facing food insecurity due to COVID-19. Now, New York and HelloFresh are extending this collaboration through the second quarter of 2021, ensuring that veterans and military families in New York City will continue to receive these nourishing meals throughout the challenging months ahead. We thank HelloFresh for their partnership.  5. All residents of nursing homes participating in the federal Long Term Care Facility vaccination program have been offered the vaccine. To date, 72 percent of nursing home residents have been vaccinated. By February 7th, all staff at nursing homes will have been offered the vaccine. Nursing home residents who declined the vaccine on the first opportunity—perhaps wanting to wait until others had received the vaccine—will get additional chances to get the vaccine. Tonight’s “Deep Breath Moment”: Central Park received an unexpected visitor today—a snowy owl. Spotting this species of owl is an extremely rare event. Snowy owls are common in the Arctic tundra, but not in New York City, and so bird-watchers marveled at the unusual sighting. Snowy owls migrate south in winter. Avid birder David Barrett speculated that this particular snowy owl mistook the park’s baseball field for a sand beach.  If you were forwarded this email, you can subscribe to New York State’s Coronavirus Updates here. Ever Upward, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo

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 WPCNR VACCINATION VIEW. From Open Door January 27, 2021:

According to a December survey by the Pew Research Center, nearly 40 percent of Americans say they will definitely not or probably not get the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available to them.

This is a significant finding, yet it is the overwhelming number of people of color living in underserved communities that most concerns health care providers like Open Door Family Medical Center.

“Communities of color have been hit hardest by the pandemic and are the same communities where vaccine hesitancy is most prevalent,” said Dr. Daren Wu, chief medical officer at Open Door, a Federally Qualified Health Center with sites throughout the Lower Hudson Valley Region. “We tell our patients that the COVID-19 vaccines are safe – and critical for building the herd immunity necessary to end the pandemic.”

According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Director of the Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the nation’s leading infectious disease specialist, as many as 80 percent of Americans need to be vaccinated so the virus can’t find enough new hosts.

Mistrust in Communities of Color

According to research conducted this fall by Langer Research Associates, Unidos U.S., the NAACP and the COVID Collaborative, only 14 percent of Black respondents and 34 percent of Latino participants believe in the safety of a COVID-19 vaccine.

A more recent poll released by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that Black Americans continue to remain skeptical about the vaccine with only 35 percent saying they definitely or probably would not get vaccinated, citing concerns about side effects and the newness of the vaccine.

“These findings are not surprising, said Dr. Wu. “They are due to a history of racial bias, mistrust of the American health care system, and access inequities. This skepticism certainly seems justified given the exploitation of communities of color by the medical establishment over the years.”

History plays a role in this. Examples include such incidents as the Tuskegee experiment, where black men with syphilis were invited to gain free medical care, but were not treated so medical professionals could study them; and the sterilization of women in Puerto Rico, where as many as one-third of the female population was sterilized by the government with the goal to reduce poverty and unemployment.

In hopes of alleviating this gap, President Joe Biden has made vaccine access for communities of color a key feature of his $1.9 trillion plan to confront the pandemic. The plan calls for creating more vaccination sites, such as mobile clinics, to get vaccine to hard-to-reach, marginalized communities in underserved areas.

Even prior to the pandemic, Open Door has worked closely with local clergy, elected officials and business leaders to improve public health outcomes with safety as a priority.

“We want the community to feel secure knowing that producers of these vaccines have strictly adhered to the necessary research, protocols and testing,” said Dr. Wu. “The vaccines have been brought to market in record time because of massive funding and collaboration across the globe between private and government funders. They have not been rushed to the detriment of their safety or efficacy.”

Decades of work, first years ago on the corresponding HIV spike protein and more recently on its counterparts from other viruses, including SARS, MERS, and seasonal coronaviruses, showed how best to design and produce the SARS-CoV-2 (i.e. Covid-19 version).

Sophisticated methods to image the spike proteins via recent advances in electron microscopy allowed researchers and vaccine makers rapidly to study what they were making and gain assurances they were on the right track.

Dr. Wu stressed the importance of overcoming vaccine hesitancy at a time when a record number of Americans are being hospitalized and dying daily (an average of over 4,000). Westchester County has been hit hard, reporting the third highest rate of coronavirus infections in New York State.

Open Door has seen the surge in infections among its own patients. The positivity rate jumped to 29% in the final weeks of December, and Open Door is currently providing more than 1,000 tests per week.

“The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have gone through all phases of clinical trials,” said Dr. Wu. “This means that they first had to be given to tens of thousands of volunteers during these trials to make sure they were safe. Since receiving the FDA’s EUA (emergency use authorization) a little over a month ago, they have already been given to more than ten million Americans, with excellent safety reported to date.”

Bottom line, he added, “The vaccines are super safe, super effective and the best way to protect yourself and your loved ones.”

Open Door Family Medical Center’s mission has remained consistent since 1972: to provide high-quality health care that’s affordable, accessible and efficient.

Today, Open Door cares for more than 1,000 adults and children every day in Westchester, Putnam and Ulster counties – with more than 300,000 patient visits and over 400 babies delivered annually – regardless of one’s ability to pay. In addition to medical, dental, pediatric, women’s, podiatry and behavioral health care offered in its Ossining, Port Chester, Sleepy Hollow, Mount Kisco, Brewster, Mamaroneck sites; seven School-Based Health Centers in the Ossining and Port Chester school districts; a mobile dental; and dental practice in Saugerties, Open Door promotes wellness, good nutrition, stress reduction and physical activity to help families stay healthy. Open Door was recognized as the number one New York State Health Disparity Reducer and a leading Access Enhancer by the Health Resources Service Administration (HRSA).

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WPCNR WHITE PLAINS LAW JOURNAL. Special to WPCNR from Children’s Health Defense WASHINGTON, DC—JAN. 26, 2021—

Today at 5 p.m. EST, Children’s Health Defense (CHD) will hold a press conference regarding the oral arguments yesterday in its landmark case against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. 

During yesterday’s hearing, the honorable Judge Henderson, a chemical engineer by training, told the FCC, “I am inclined to rule against you.”

The honorable Judge Patricia Millet consistently pushed the FCC to answer why the FCC and/or the U.S. Food and Drug Administration didn’t review the evidence on non-cancer effects of wireless technology; why they addressed only cell phones when there is evidence on effects from various other devices and infrastructure; and why they didn’t address the cumulative effects from the chronic exposure for numerous devices.

“This is a landmark case and it is of the utmost importance to Children’s Health Defense, which works relentlessly to eliminate the epidemic of sickness in children,” said the CHD’s Chairman Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. 

“The overwhelming experimental and human evidence which the FCC has ignored leaves no doubt that wireless technology is a major contributory factor to this epidemic. The FCC has shown that its chief interest is protecting the telecom industry and maximizing its profits. Its position, as put forward in its brief, and as we saw today in court, is simply indefensible.”

CHD’s case challenges the FCC’s refusal to review its 25-year-old obsolete wireless “health guidelines” and to adopt scientific, biologically based radio frequency emissions rules that adequately protect public health from wireless devices and infrastructure, including 5G. The petitioners filed 11,000 pages of evidence. 

Children’s Health Defense and the Environmental Health Trust (EHT) filed separate cases against the FCC, but filed joint briefs. While EHT has been represented by attorney Ed Meyers, because of a court decision that only one attorney would be allowed to present in the Oral Arguments, Scott McCollough, CHD’s attorney, argued for both CHD and EHT Petitioners. 

Today’s press conference speakers include: Robert F Kennedy, Jr., CHD’s chairman and co-counsel in the case; Scott W. McCollough, CHD’s attorney; Dafna Tachover, attorney and CHD’s director of the 5G and Wireless Harm Project who spearheaded the lawsuit.

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WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. January 26, 2021:

The White Plains Schools continue to monitor students closely to evaluate whether the combination of 2 days of classroom and three days of remote learning is effective in teaching students the skill advancement that earns them advancement to the next grade.

The District is applying to have schools become vaccination hubs to facilitate vaccinations of staff and public to get all staff and teachers vaccinated to reopen schools fulltime in spring and summer (for “robust” summer school, if needed).

WPCNR asked : “Do you have schools being vaccinated  where entire staff populations at a time, or is it “shotgun,” meaning no school would be completely vaccinated. All teachers and staff are eligible for vaccination, right, so there should be no vaccination delay except for the supply?”

Dr. Ricca gave WPCNR this statement:

At present, our faculty/staff are being vaccinated through the 1B phase opportunities offered by the State. We are working with the County/State to (hopefully) become a vaccination hub. We are ready to assume that role, if allowed. As you mention, supply (from the federal level) has been the initial challenge.

I queried about the effectiveness of this school year instruction:

“How will level of proficiency of students in each grade be determined as deciding whether every grade automatically advances to their next year or be held back? What academic measurements will be used? Or is the current thoughts are that next year will be a substantial review year or perhaps a summer school for students not being up to standard?

Dr. Ricca outlined the plan:

“Despite the pandemic, we continue to assess and monitor our students’ growth and progress as in the past. Depending upon the grade level, different assessments/bench marking programs are used.

While there are certainly challenges associated with the format of the in-person experience and dealing with the pandemic, our children continue to progress. We plan to offer a robust summer opportunity to our children.

Additionally, as soon as we are able to return in-person, every day, our professional staff will continue to assess student growth and support our children where needed.

Grading and expectations for student engagement have not been substantially altered this academic year. Still, we know that our children will need supports – everything from social/emotional to academic.

We will be ready to give that support.