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Wastewater ticks up

By Dr. CAITLIN RIVERS “FORCE OF INFECTION”

JUL 13, 2023 (Reprinted with permission)

I wrote two weeks ago that mid-summer often marks the beginning of a new Covid-19 wave, and that those often start in the South.

Well, I have new news. Biobot wastewater data show an increase in the Southern, Northeastern and Western regions.

Deep dive: State level data is quite messy, and wastewater data providers don’t tell exactly the same story—WastewaterSCAN and NWSS do not show as much of an increase in activity as Biobot. Still, because this is pretty much exactly what I was expecting in terms of summer epidemiology, I think it’s likely a real signal.

For my Canadian readers, there are no noticeable changes in wastewater trends right now.

Why do summer waves start in the South? The old chestnut is that it’s especially hot in the South, so people spend more times indoors with the air conditioning on, without good ventilation and filtration. This explanation gives me pause. The average American spends 90% of their time indoors.

I haven’t found a breakdown showing how that breakdown changes by region or by season, but it’s hard to believe it varies enough to explain the dynamics of a summer wave. In short, I’m content to say it’s still a scientific mystery why summer waves start in the South. If you have data I don’t know about, please send.

What it all means: Overall, the viral concentration in wastewater is still very low — about on par with April, and far, far below what we saw over the winter. Personally, I don’t plan to make any changes (yet) based on this information, other than to keep a closer eye on things. But I know some of my readers need or want to be extra cautious, so I wanted to let you know soonest.

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This is not a great reference; it dates to 1989. I found several sources that newer cite survey data that also comes in around 90%, but they aren’t high quality sources. In any case, I think it’s safe to say that most people spend a huge majority of their time indoors.

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WPCNR NEWS & COMMENT. By John F. Bailey.  July 13, 2023:

It has been six weeks since County Executive George Latimer and Governor Kathy Hochul pleaded with the Biden Administration to designate judges to establish an interim amnesty court to expedite processing migrants currently housed in three locations in Westchester.

The two top New York State leaders also wanted the migrants to be allowed to work in the county while they stay here and asked for monetary help to house the immigrants and pay for security, health, safety costs. I believe money has been promised, but it is policy toward what happens to the migrants now that matters urgently

Now.

Despite Hochul and Latimer letters sent to the Homeland Security Secretary  Alejandro N. Mayorkas,  six weeks ago, there has been no action yet on either of those two requests.

New York City has been unable to move migrants to other locations in Westchester to relieve the approximately 100,000 homeless and migrant population severely stressing the homeless shelters and services in the city.

Perhaps coincidently, no more migrants currently swelling the New York City homeless facilities have been sent to Westchester to be housed at the request of Mayor Eric Adams.

I asked the county if it has  received more requests from Mayor Adams to house more migrants whose numbers fill the NYC shelters in other locations. So far the county has not responded.

I asked the county also if they have other hotels, motels, churches, county facilities or any location at all willing to increase Westchester ability to take on more migrants and relieve New York City. Again, the county has not responded.

It has been six weeks.

The migrants have been model guests according to the County Executive George Latimer. If the county is expecting more migrants shifted to Westchester, a list of possible vacant or commercial venues must be lined up. I hope the county has done this. The county did not respond to this question.

Hopefully Mr. Mayorkis will fit in at least a phone call to Governor Hochul and Mr. Latimer or in interest of time, make a conference call. Please if you have the time, call Mayor Tom Roach of White Plains, Mayor Mike Spano of Yonkers and Mayor  of Ardsley whose cities have stepped up to help the migrants and accept Mayor Adams’ pleas for migrant housing to give them an update too.

They are waiting for your call, too.

Not to do so when M. Mayorkis and his bosses have had six weeks since Hochul and Latimer made the request for an Anmesty court and right to work for migrants, he and the Biden Administration plenty of time to think about it is a slap in the face to Governor Kathy Hochul and County Executive George Latimer, and every citizen of New York State and New York City.

While you are here take a plane ride over Rockland, Orange counties, tell FEMA to get a move on and help homeowners who have suffered enormous loss. Trailers, construction crews and money. NOW. We’ve got a disaster here.

The Biden Administration does not care. The priorities are out of whack.

Mayorkis is meeting in a panel discussion with the National Association of Latino Elected  and Appointed Officials this morning. He will also observe U.S. Customs and Border Protection operation at the International Mail Facility to inspect counter narcotics efforts and talk about ongoing DHS operations to stop fentanyl and similar synthetic drugs throughout the country.

Could you fit our Governor and our County Executive and Mayor Adams in, sir?

The Biden Administration is once more kicking the migrant can down the road.

The Biden administration refused to stop states from shipping migrants by bus to New York, instead of collecting them and sending them back.

This politically and physically inept, lack of foresight,  is a failure to prevent a  nationally disrupting practice enabled unwittingly by irresponsible inept leadership in the Biden administration who did not want to handle the situation. “Hands off” was their policy.

This  recalls the State Department refusal to accept Jewish refugees during the 1930s and the course of World War II.  (The policy was unflinchingly documented by letters from the U.S. Ambassador   in the historical novel In the Garden of the Beast)

Meanwhile in the hot steaming summer of 2023 in New York, the migrants and the rest of New York City homeless are packed in in limbo.

At a standstill: Failure to act on the Hochul Latimer requestions for Asylum Court and migrant allowed to work.

Mayor Adams is stuck. With no policy from the U.S. Government to deciminate migrants orderly and humanely in New York State, the migrant situation is not being addressed.

Let us hope they are not abandoned and sent back to the gang governments of the countries they have fled.

The Biden administration totally mismanaged the Afghan withdrawal.

They are mismanaging this one, too.

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Before and After Storm Footage Available Here  

Governor Kathy Hochul today celebrated the full reopening of the Metro-North Railroad and announced Amtrak service will resume between New York City and Albany after the historic rainfall and flooding that hit the region on July 9.

BEFORE AND AFTER REPAIRS THE LAST 487 HOURS–MTA PHOTOS

Governor Hochul, Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chair and CEO Janno Lieber and Metro-North Railroad President Catherine Rinaldi made the announcement after welcoming some of the first Metro-North commuters to arrive at Grand Central Terminal after service was restored on the Hudson Line.   

“Experts said it could take more than a week to restore full Metro-North service, but thanks to the hard work and talent of MTA union workers we have restored service to every Metro-North station,” Governor Hochul said. “Because of the climate crisis, these weather emergencies are quickly becoming our new normal – and I’m committed to doing everything in my power to strengthen our infrastructure so it’s resilient for generations to come.”    

  In the immediate aftermath of the storm, Metro-North service was suspended north of Croton-Harmon on the Hudson Line and north of Southeast station on the Harlem Line. Less than two days after the storm hit, Metro-North was able to return service to the Hudson Line, beginning with Poughkeepsie-bound trains operating on Tuesday evening.

Service was also restored on the Upper Harlem Line Wednesday morning.    

MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said, “We’ve been weathering big storms together – Hurricane Ida rocked the Hudson Valley in 2021, hitting the Metro North operations especially hard, and now here we are in the aftermath of another once-in-a-generation storm. The MTA team stepped up once again to get the railroad back on track. I have to thank the hundreds of crew members who worked around the clock to make this happen.”    

Metro-North Railroad President and Long Island Rail Road Interim President Catherine Rinaldi said, “Sunday’s historic storm caused significant damage to the Wassaic Branch and the Upper Hudson Line, and the Metro-North workforce came out in force to clear our tracks and restore service as quickly as possible. From the crews doing the clean-up, to the workers who helped with the temporary bus service, I cannot thank each employee enough for their work.”

Service was suspended on the Hudson Line north of Croton-Harmon on Sunday afternoon and on the Harlem Line north of Southeast on Monday morning, due to severe storm damage. The suspensions of service on the Hudson and Harlem lines were impacting nearly 14,000 riders per day, and nearly 105,000 riders rely on these lines every week.  

The removal of fallen trees, water, mud and boulders engaged hundreds of MTA workers and contractors, with more team members tracking outages, moving equipment and managing substitute bus service.

These teams included members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the Association of Commuter Rail Employees, and the Railway and Airway Supervisor Association. Crews will continue clean up along the Hudson Line as the railroad works to restore full regularly scheduled service on the line.    

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WPCNR THE LETTER TICKER. From Governor Kathy Hochul July 11, 2023:

Today, the New York Times published an op-ed by Governor Kathy Hochul on an upcoming Supreme Court decision that could have significant ramifications for survivors of domestic abuse. Text of the op-ed is available below and can be viewed online here.

When my mother turned 70, she had a unique birthday wish. Instead of a party or a cake, she told our family she needed our help to open a transitional home for survivors of domestic violence and their children.

She saw this birthday present as the culmination of a lifetime spent fighting for survivors of abuse, a journey that began back in the 1970s when it was commonplace to use terms like “battered women,” and survivors had few places to turn. A few months after my mom’s birthday, the Kathleen Mary House opened its doors — named in honor of her mother, Kathleen Mary, a survivor of domestic abuse.

When I was born, my mother gave me the name Kathleen Mary, and her lifelong activism on behalf of survivors made a huge impact on me. The effects of domestic violence are not limited to a single generation, nor should our vigilance against it be.

That is just one reason I’m so concerned about the outcome of an upcoming Supreme Court case, United States v. Rahimi, which next year will decide whether to uphold a gun safety law that protects survivors of domestic violence.

The Supreme Court recently announced plans to take up the Rahimi case, which will likely rely on the court’s recent Second Amendment decision, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.

In that case, a majority led by Justice Clarence Thomas overturned New York’s concealed carry law that had been on the books for more than a century — claiming 21st-century gun laws should be consistent with an earlier time, when muskets were common firearms.

In doing so, the court stripped away a critical tool I had as governor to keep New Yorkers safe. If left unchecked, the decision would have allowed more deadly firearms than ever to flood our communities, our businesses, our bars and restaurants and even our crowded subway cars. One stray word, or sharp elbow, could immediately have devastating, life-threatening consequences.

Now, in Rahimi, the Supreme Court will decide whether deadly firearms can flood the homes of domestic violence survivors.

The case arrives at the court after a Fifth Circuit decision in favor of abusers.

The Fifth Circuit decided that government cannot prevent an abusive individual, against whom a court has issued a domestic violence protective order, from possessing a deadly firearm.

By overturning a federal law aimed at protecting survivors of abuse, the appeals court put forth an outrageous legal theory that claims individuals with domestic violence orders have a constitutional right to possess a gun.

Using Justice Thomas’s historically focused argument from Bruen as precedent, the Supreme Court could rule that domestic violence survivors today deserve only the protections they had in the 18th century — a time before most women could own property or work outside the home, let alone vote.

The stakes could not be higher.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey indicates that about 41 percent of women and 26 percent of men in the United States have experienced sexual violence, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner and reported being affected by it during their lifetime.

According to U.S. crime reports, about 1 in 5 homicide victims are killed by an intimate partner, and over half of female homicide victims are killed by a current or former male intimate partner.

Here in New York, there are approximately 80,000 serious offenses such as assaults, sex offenses and violations of orders of protection each year across the state, and data shows that in New York approximately 1 of 5 homicides are related to domestic violence.

The Supreme Court has a choice: It can lean into the dangerous Fifth Circuit theory that guns cannot be regulated for the purpose of protecting survivors of domestic violence, or it can uphold federal law that keeps guns out of the hands of dangerous individuals.

Before oral arguments are heard, there’s no way to tell which way the Supreme Court will rule. The precedent set by Bruen is extraordinarily troubling. Yet even within the court’s majority in Bruen, there was a split. Justice Thomas kept his focus on historical arguments. But a concurrence by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in which Chief Justice John Roberts joined, left room for certain basic protections, noting that “properly interpreted, the Second Amendment allows a ‘variety’ of gun regulations.”

This concurrence helped inform New York’s response to Bruen. After New York State’s century-old gun law was overturned, I took immediate steps to restore protections from gun violence, including signing new laws to strengthen training and gun licensing requirements.

In the spring of 2022, we bolstered our state’s red flag laws, getting guns away from people like domestic abusers who pose a risk to themselves or others and closing loopholes that made the tragedies in Buffalo and in Uvalde, Texas possible.

As a result, courts have issued roughly 9,000 extreme-risk orders of protection in the past year, up from 1,400 in the preceding two and a half years.

Depending on the scope of the court’s decision in Rahimi, these protections could be at risk as well.

After a brief spike during the start of the pandemic in 2020, New York is gradually and steadily returning to prepandemic shooting levels and has one of the top five lowest rates of firearm-related deaths. I’ve always said public safety is my top priority as governor, and I’m committed to using every tool at my disposal to keep our communities safe from gun violence.

An extreme, out-of-control Supreme Court put gun safety laws at risk in Bruen. Across America, survivors of domestic abuse will now wait in fear to see whether Justice Kavanaugh and his colleagues deem laws that protect survivors to be “properly interpreted” under the Constitution.

I can only imagine what my late mother would say about these judicial attacks on survivors of abuse. But in her honor, and on behalf of all New Yorkers, I’ll never stop fighting for justice.

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