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 YOUR LOCAL EPIDEMIOLOGIST. By Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, Reprinted with permission. August 24, 2022:

Fall COVID-19 boosters will be available soon.

This is a notable shift in the pandemic response, as we’ve been using the same vaccine formula throughout the pandemic—one created in early 2020 to fight against the original Wuhan variant.

The FDA and CDC (and their external scientific advisory committees) met in June and decided that not only do we need a fall booster, but we should try and match it to Omicron as best we can.

Fall is around the corner and, with it, many questions. Here is my attempt to offer some answers until we have more clarity next week.

What are the new boosters?

The fall booster will be a bivalent vaccine, which means its formula covers two variants: the original Wuhan virus and Omicron (BA.5). As of yesterday, Pfizer and Moderna submitted their emergency use applications to the FDA.

• Pfizer: This will be a 30 microgram vaccine, which is the same dosage as the original series. Pfizer is first seeking approval for those aged 12 and older. But they did confirm they are working on a booster for ages 6 months to 11 years. CDC confirmed this in their fall planning guide, saying that we should expect a booster for younger kiddos following the adults.
• Moderna: This booster will be a 50 microgram vaccine, which is the same dosage as the original booster and half the dosage of the original Moderna series. They are seeking approval for ages 18 years and older.

Why do we need an updated booster?

Omicron changed the game in terms of evading immunity, which caused protection against infection to wane quickly.

Vaccine protection against severe disease wanes, but ever so slightly.

Mix this with the fact that coronaviruses thrive in winter, and that Omicron continues to mutate, and there is a strong possibility of a winter resurgence.

We hope that an updated booster this fall will provide three things:

1. Higher protection. The booster will no doubt increase neutralizing antibodies, which is our first line of defense. Neutralizing antibodies naturally wane over time, but they will temporarily help prevent infection and transmission in the first “X” months of vaccination.
2. Longer protection. We don’t know “X,” but an updated booster may protect against infection longer than we are currently seeing. Moderna already tested a bivalent vaccine with a Beta formula. (We thought we would need this booster, but then Omicron came on scene.) This data showed neutralizing antibodies waned more slowly than the original vaccine formula and lasted at least 6 months. This is because a booster helps our second line of defense, too: B cells. B cells are antibody factories that, just like factories, can modify their product on the line. These factories will eventually make a product that targets the circulating virus.(Moderna)It’s important to note, though, that if we want immunity against infection beyond 6 months, we need new vaccine altogether, like a nasal vaccine.
3. Broader protection. The third hope is that a booster increases the diversity of our protection. In other words, we hope the updated booster allows our antibodies to “see” more virus parts and “attach” more strongly compared to the antibodies we have right now. We can realistically only broaden or diversify our response by updating the vaccines (or getting infected).

Will the vaccine be effective?

Yes. How much more effective than the current booster is unknown.

We have a lot of human and non-human data showing that an updated vaccine that closely matches circulating variants (like Alpha, Beta, and BA.1) are at least as good as the old vaccines (this is called non-inferiority). But an updated vaccine has strong potential to be better.

No one knows how muchbetter, though, because we don’t have human data. The U.S. originally planned for a BA.1 bivalent booster, so we have a lot of data for this. But Omicron keeps changing remarkably fast. So, the FDA choose to use a BA.5 formula this fall to better “match” the circulating virus. (Notice, this is different approach than what the WHO recommended and what Europe is rolling out—a BA.1 booster.) Because BA.5 is new, we haven’t had time to analyze it in humans; we have to rely on mice data. This is the typical approach for the annual flu vaccine. It’s not perfect, but does work as a good proxy.

So, there is the key tradeoff:

• Have an updated booster that matches the circulating variant the best we can, but rely on animal studies OR
• Require human data for updated vaccines, but always severely lag whatever variant is circulating.

Pfizer and Moderna are starting the human trials this month. We will, of course, follow the real-world data, too. But demanding an effective vaccine and clinical data is simply a fantasy against this rapidly changing virus. There is absolutely no reason why safety would be any different than with vaccines based on previous variants, either.

What’s next?

The FDA will review the applications submitted from Pfizer and Moderna. ACIP (the external scientific committee for the CDC) will meet next Thursday and Friday (September 1 and 2). This meeting will answer a lot of questions, but some answers I’m anxiously waiting to hear include:

• Should older adults wait until October-ish in case the booster does wane more quickly than we think? This may especially make sense if someone was recently infected. There’s clearly a risk/benefit balance here, especially for vulnerable adults.
• What animal data do we have? We’ve already seen preliminary mice data from Pfizer. (Spoiler: The BA.5 booster worked great.) I’m very curious to see more, especially from Moderna.
• How many people will actually get a booster? Vaccine recommendations do not equal vaccination. ACIP always presents fantastic survey data reflecting public perception. This data will help forecast how this winter may (or may not) look.
• What is the plan for unvaccinated people? I have heard rumblings that they will not be able to get an updated booster without getting the original primary series.

After the ACIP meeting, the CDC director will sign off. This means, if all goes well, vaccines should be available the first week of September.

An important note

This will be the last vaccine that is freely to the American public. We could barely find enough money to purchase fall boosters for everyone. Congress has stopped funding the coronavirus response and has invested very little into pandemic preparedness. This will be a tragedy on many fronts.

Bottom line

Fall boosters are coming very soon. We will have a whole lot more clarity next week after the ACIP meeting. I will be in attendance and will report back with Cliff notes.

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“WESTCHESTER IS ALL SET FOR SCHOOL OPENING DENNIS AND TONNY, BECAUSE WE ARE AT EXACTLY THE SAME  COVID LEVELS THE COUNTY FOUND ITSELF IN ONE YEAR AGO BEFORE  A PERHAPS  OVERCONFIDENT PUBLIC BY THEIR BEHAVIORS AND LACK OF RESTRICTIONS SENT INFECTIONS SOARING IN JANUARY TO 36,000 INFECTIONS.

GOING INTO THIS YEAR THE COUNTY HAS A DO-OVER TO DO SCHOOL AND SOCIALIZING OF THE FALL BETTER THAN THEY DID LAST YEAR

THE  REASON IS THE COUNTY HAS TURNED ITS JULY NUMBERS AROUND TURNING  IN ITS  6^TH WEEK IN ROW OF SIGNIFCANT REDUCTIONS  IN COVID CASES.

WESTCHESTER CUT ITS RATE OF NEW INFECTIONS THE FIRST 3 WEEKS OF AUGUST 49%

WESTCHESTER REPORTED 162 PERSONS POSITIVE SATURDAY BRINGING AUGUST 14 TO 20 NEW INFECTIONS DOWN 22%  FROM 1,664 A WEEK AGO DOWN TO 1,299:

1,229  IS THE LOWEST NUMBER OF INFECTIONS IN A WEEK IN 5 MONTHS

YOU HAVE TO GO BACK TO MARCH 27 TO APRIL 2ND WHEN THE COUNTY REPORTED 1,095 INFECTIONS FOR A LOWER NUMBER OF INFECTIONS.

LAST YEAR AT THIS VERY DATE THE 3^RD WEEK IN AUGUST.  AUGUST 23, 2021 BRENDA STARR’S BIRTHDAY,  WESTCHESTER HAD 5,704 NEW CASES.

TODAY AUGUST 23, 1 YEAR LATER OUR COUNTY HAS RECORDED 5,025 CASES, 673 PERSONS — 12% LESS THAN LAST YEAR AT THIS TIME. THIS IS GOOD.

In July of 2021 Westchester showed 1,724 new positives generating 5,704 cases last August.

AT THE END OF JULY THREE WEEKS AGOTHE COUNTY HAD 10,298 COVID POSITIVES—AND THE THE 10, 298 SO FAR HAVE SPREAD COVID TO JUST 5,025.

THIS MEANS DENNIS — ONE OF TWO THINGS EITHER PEOPLE ARE NOT GETTING PRC LAB TESTS AFTER THEY AGGREATE TEST POSITIVE, MEANING OUR POSITIVES ARE BEING UNDER REPORTED OR HERD IMMUNITY HAS SUNK IN.

LET’S GIVE THE CITIZENS CREDIT FOR BEING SMART, TOUGH, CAREFUL AND CONSIDERATE OF THEIR FAMILIES, STRANGERS AND THE PUBLIC.  YOU SHOULD CONTINUE TO DO SO.

A REPEAT OF LAST FALL WHEN THE DISEASE GATHERED MOMENTUM EVEN WHEN TESTING WAS MANDATORY AND POSITIVE INFECTED PERSONS QUARANTINED, COVID TRACING WAS IN EFFECT, AND QUARANTINES TOO, THE DISEASE BLASTED OFF IN DECEMBER AFTER GROWING STEADY IN SEPTEMBER, OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER.

SCHOOL DISTRICTS SHOULD THINK SERIOUSLY ABOUT THIS. 

WE WILL FIND OUT HOW WHITE PLAINS WILL OPEN ITS SCHOOLS OFFICIALLY IN ABOUT A WEEK

BUT THERE IS ONE HUGE FACTOR IN THE COUNTY DIRECTLY AFFECTING THE SCHOOL REOPENINGS.

PARENTS ARE NOT VACCINATING THEIR UNDER-5 CHILDREN, EVEN THOUGH THE VACCINE FOR UNDER 5’S HAS BEEN AVAILABLE FOR TWO MONTHS, CURRENTLY. THIS IS A COVID SURGE WAITING TO HAPPEN.

THE NEW YORK STATE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH VACCINATION TRACKER YESTERDAY REPORTS

97% OF UNDER 5’S ARE NOT VACCINATED

45% OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN IN THE COUNTY ARE NOT FULLY VACCINATED

10% OF MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS ARE NOT FULLY VACCINATED

20% OF COLLEGE STUDENTS 18 TO 25S ARE NOT FULLY VACCINATED.

AT THIS MOMENT TWO WEEKS BEFORE SCHOOLS STARTS– THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE SUBJECT TO INFECTION BECAUSE THEY HAVE NOT BEEN FULLY VACCINATED.

LAST YEAR WITH REMOTE LEARNING IN EFFECT THAT WAS LIFTED IN THE SPRING, WHITE PLAINS HAD 25% OF ITS 7,979 STUDENTS, STAFF, TEACHERS AND ADMINISTRATIVES TEST POSITIVE, 1,994 PEOPLE.

THAT HAPPENED   WITH SOCIAL DISTANCING, MASKING, PLASTIC SHIELDS BETWEEN DESKS. AND RANDOM TESTS AS CHILDREN ENTERED SCHOOL.

IT APPEARS MANY DISTRICTS ARE GOING BACK TO ELIMINATING THOSE SHIELDS, SOCIAL DISTANCING AND DUMPING MASKS

MONKEYPOX HAS 75 CASES REPORTED IN WESTCHESTER AS OPPOSED TO NEW YORK CITY THAT HAS MORE MONKEYPOX CASES THAN NEW COVID CASES.

IN WHITE PLAINS, THERE’S A NEW CONTROVERSY IN WOODCREST HEIGHTS. IT WAS LIKE OLD TIMES AT THE PLANNING BOARD WITH WOODCREST HEIGHTS RESIDENTS PROTESTING THE PLANS OF THE OWNERS OF A SLOPED PROPERTY UP IN THE HEIGHTS WHO WISH TO BUILD A HOUSE INTO THE SIDE OF A HILL. ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF PEOPLE NOT ALLOWING AN OWNER TO BUILD SOMETHING ON PROPERTY THEY OWN.

ALSO DOWN TOWN ON BARKER AVENUE, THE KINGSLEY TWO—A BUILDING BUILT IN 1968 AS PART OF THE MITCHELL LAMA PLAN PASSED IN 1965..WAS REMODELED INTERIORLY BY THE STATE OF NEW YORK.  

AT THE RIBBON CUTTING MAYOR TOM ROACH REAFFIRMED HIS COMMITMENT TO AFFORDABLE HOUSING, SAYING HE WANTS EVERYBODY TO BE ABLE TO AFFORD TO LIVE IN WHITE PLAINS. THE COMMISSIONER OF NEW YORK STATE HOMES AND COMMUNITY RENEWAL, RUTHANNE VIS NOW SKAS SAID IN 5 YEARS THE STATE HAS RENOVATED AND MODERNIZED 25,000 MITCHELL-LAMA BUILINGS ACROSS THE STATE.

I HOPE EVERYBODY IS GOING TO COME ON UP OR COME ON DOWN TO WHITE PLAINS NEW YORK USA FOR THE JAZZ FESTIVAL STARTING SEPTEMBER IN SEPTEMBER. GO TO WPBID.COM FOR PERFORMANCE TIMES AND THE ARTISTS APPEARING.

 WE HAVE A NEW EVENT: PURDY HOUSE WILL HOST `STEVEN PAUL DEVILLO AUTHOR OF “THE BATTLE OF WHITE PLAINS: WASINGTON AND HOWE  IN WESTCHESTER ON SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 18 AT THE HISTORIC JACOB PURDY HOUSE…AND IT IS FREE BUT YOU NEED TO RESERVE EARLY.

IT’S BEEN A PLEASURE, DENNIS AND TONNY.

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WPCNR VIEW FROM THE UPPER DECK. By “Bull” Allen. August 21, 2022:

It is too late.

The confidence has been shattered.

The team goes through the motions.

The New York Yankee collapse is in free fall.

For the second straight season Aaron Boone has continued to refuse to learn from his mistakes of last year.

I’m sitting in the old Yankee Stadium WPIX BOOTH, looking out on the Field of Champions in the late night. The sound of beer cups being popped by fans taking last looks at the Field of Champions, the echoing green of greatness, where the ghosts of Ruth, Gehrig, Joe D., The Mick, Hank Bauer, Bobby Richardson, The Moose, Yogi, Elston, Enos Slaughter, Whitey, The Bulldog, Mel Stottlemyre, Raschi, Lopat, Maris,  Lazzeri, Crosetti, Meusel, Dickey cavorted and play in memory. I’m smoking a White Owl Wallop, and sipping a Ballantine slow. Remembering and seeing my old team fade into infamy and laughter and ridicule.

In my day, no teams ridiculed the Yankees. When you came to “The Stadium” in New York every player, every fan knew it was Yankee Stadium. They gave you the standard by which you were measured against.

No more.

For the second straight season the General Manager Brian Cashman has banked on unproven high priced talent that specialize in hitting homeruns with the bases empty.

Why are the bases empty? They strike out a lot swinging for the fences and rarely get on in front of the home run hitters with the .240 batting averages.

You could say that this is not the manager’s fault. He’s not responsible for hitters failing to hit.

Well no, but they are 4 and 15 since the All-Star Break. They cannot score runs.

Where did that .700 ball team as John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman my savvy successors in the Yankee booth point out every inning of every broadcast. I must say despite every sentence they say being sponsored, their slow involved pace reminiscent of a couple married a long time, eases the pain and the dispair of this unfolding debacle that has stunned the baseball world’s eyes on them.

The Yankee Collapse is the big story in sports. The ultimate argument for the balance of baseball.

I remember 1965 when the Yankees collapsed and finished last.  Johnny Keane had taken over managing and he took over an old group of champions from 1964. The bottom dropped out and Keane had a very short tenure as Yankee manager. But they were still good, just aging up, slightly past their prime.

The Yankees are a team based on analytics. But baseball is execution in all phases of the game. It is situational. You have to be able to put the ball in play at key times, not strike out. You have to move the runners. Make pitches to spots. Avert walks. defense intelligently. So many things. When the home run is glamorized like the long pass in football (at the expense of the short pass) is stressed, the same thing has happened. The Yankees wanted power throughout the lineup they had that then, a funny thing has happened. They were scouted heavy. The strikeout of the free swinger, with high gas and junk and God knows what new mystery pitches are getting out. The weakness of the hitters are being exploited and every team who plays them knows it.

But the collapse of 1965 was not proportionate to this one. I can never remember when the Yankees lost this many games this badly.

The collapse all but assures the Yankees will not resign Aaron Judge. Judge is trying to carry the team, but he has to think if he has any desire to remain with the Bronx Bombers, how is the team going  to change next year. Management always has to prove they are right.

The Yankees are about to play the Upstart Mets. Slowly becoming the darlings of the sycophantic sports press what there is of it. I mean I am tired of articles about golf, soccer, misbehaving quarterbacks

The Mets are beating everyone in sight in the National League East. But they too are feeling the long season: a 10 game lead over the Bravos?We got this.

Well that 10-game lead is now 3 games. Atlanta has won 9 of the last 10. They know the Mets at 5-5 are struggling they can smell first place.

 The Mets rent-a-pitching staff takes a leaf right out of the Yankee playbook. And De Grom has already indicated he’s going to free agent. The Mets will try for Judge, if Judge wants to stay in New York. The Mets should sweep the Yankees badly, but the Yankees could surprise. It’s baseball. If they do surprise and take 2 of 3, they could turn things around. But taking the Met Series is not going to change things.

The weakness of an unbalanced offensive lineup will remain and continue to put an undue burden on starters to go longer into games, work harder. Cole has had a mixed season. Every starter has had mixed seasons.

Since Manager Boone has followed the Sparky Anderson of  pitching staff by bullpen which Anderson used in the 1970s, (when he had the best lineup in the National League, but only won 4 times, 1970, 1973, 1975 and 1976 time, Boone has showed that without adequate reliable starters, the bullpen no matter how “durable” gets overworked. Their arms get tired and they become inconsistent. Boone has a knack for putting the wrong pitchers in at the wrong times. The Yankees have lost many games with poor bullpenning in the final frames against bad teams. The losses to the Orioles in the beginning month. The inconsistency of Chapman kept despite the fact they knew he was inconsistent. 

The hitters carried them to 70 wins by the All Star Break. They now have 73.  3 and 15 since the Break. Yankee fans filling the stadium have been very supportive. The Yankees have very loyal fans.

The Yankee 14 game lead  over Toronto is 7 games. It’s 8 games over Tampa Bay.  Even Baltimore at 10-1/2 and Boston at 13 games could overtake them.

What New York needed was  two strong pitchers. But the pitcher acquired from Oakland  pitching staff has not delivered as expected. This often happens when you pick up players expected to fill a hole, when they are used to playing in games that do not matter, well they have to adjust to the pressure of every team hating you because you are the Yankees. It is tough to step up to that pressure. The kid will. Baseball is pressure.

But the inconsistency of the lineup, the Molotov cocktail throwers in the bullpen will continue to throw gasoline cocktals on rallies and ignite them, not snuff them. Bedraggled, overused and used in unfamiliar spots, consistently failing to hold leads or coughing up the run that puts a game out of reach as Abreu did yesterday with a 408 foot home run into Monument Park (the old monuments) is a good example of that. It turned a 2-run lead (surmountable with a Sterling “Bloop and a Blast,” ) into a 3-run lead. This happens a lot now. It was particularly visible in the 9-7 “Slog” in the Bronx a week ago on a 100 degree humid day a 4 and a half hour 9 inning game. The bullpen just could not plug the gap the way they used to.

Now, there is no precedent in 119 years of Yankee baseball, for this kind of Yankee collapse.

If the Yankees continue this pace, and drop out of the lead and the playoffs, the 2022 Yankees will become a part of baseball lore, stuff of dread.

Lore the Yankee franchise has never had a part of ever. The lore of a catastrophic loss (with the exceptions of the hideous loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1960 after having a 3 run lead in the 8^th, AND the Yankee loss to the Florida Marlins in 2003 in the 9th), has never been a stigma attached to the franchise on the playing field.

The Yankee collapse-in-progress is similar to that the “Phillie Fade-out” of 1964.

I was reminded of this by Suzyn Waldman the best prepared  color commentatorette on the air yesterday in the 8^th inning when she recalled the 1964 Phil Linz harmonica playing that provoked Yogi Berra’s tirade that sparked a 30-7 finish that won the pennant. Suzyn, thank you for that. And I salute your unfaltering analysis of the Yankee debacle in progress. Listening to Suzyn and John is pleasant, lazy like baseball, punctuated by flares of excitement and drama. They never upcut each other and unlike the babble of most baseball announcing teams, they are always interesting and audible, not having pileups of comments on top of each other.

If the collapse goes into freefall, the Yankees and Aaron Boone will be recalled by sportscasters of the future saying on EBN (The Eternal Baseball Network):

“This,  Harry Kalas, is so much like the 1964 Phillies collapse of  1964, when the Phillies had a 6 game lead with 10 games to play and lost all 10 games, Philadelphia has never forgotten it.”

“Absolutely, Vin. I will never forget it. I saw it, we were a great club:  Tony Taylor, Johnny Callison, Dick Allen, Wes Covington, Tony Gonzalez, Clay Dalrymple, Coolie Rojas, Bobby Wine Ruben Amaro. Pitchers in the starting rotation that could pitch: Jim Bunning (19-8), Chris Short (17-9) Art Mahaffey(12-9) Ray Culp (8-7), and great reliefers  Jack Baldschun ( 6-9, 21 saves) and  Ed Roebuck  5-3 (12 Saves).”

I can hear them saying that in the decades in the future.

The 2022 Yankees will be remembered as a team that disindegrated from .700 ball the first half to .200 ball the second half. The 2022 season will be remembered in New York as the Yankee Collapse year.

The team that wins the World Series will be overshadowed by this flawed team.

The hitting has not been able to be corrected. The manager rarely plays for one run (moving the runners, by bunt, hitting to the right side, stealing, hit and run), and batting his best hitters Kiner-Felafa and Trevino who get on base at the bottom of the lineup.

I’ve having three Ballentines tonight if Toronto beats them again today

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INFECTIONS OF NEW COVID DECLINE 53% IN 5 WEEKS, NOW INFECTING AT 6.7 %

GANNET AS REVENUES PLUMMET. STOCK PRICE DECLINES 54%–GANNETT DISMISSES REPORTERS