2,905,611 VISITORS VISIT 8,324,077 TIMES 3 TIMES EVERY DAY IN ONE YEAR. HIGHEST ACTIVITY IN WPCNR HISTORY.White PlainsCitizeNetReporter lifted its worldwide visits from unique visitors to wpcnr.com to 8,324,077,a 1,306,419 increase in visits in one year from 7,017,658 visits to the site last year which covers White Plains and Westchester County. The 8,324,077 visits were made by 2,005,611 unique visitors who visited wpcnr an average of 3 visits a day. ON JULY 20- -2026 visitors have accessed wpcnr and made 3,072 visits an average of 1.6 visits. In the last week 33,495 individual vistors made 54,458 visits, averaging 1.6 visits. In the last month, 152,940 visitors recorded 229,338 visits (1.5 visits)
WPCNR THE FEINER REPORT.By Geenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner. March 23, 2023:
At Tuesday’s Greenburgh Town Board work session the Greenburgh Town Board spent some time meeting with our Albany lobbyist, John Emrick. We discussed seeking state funding to help the town implement one of Governor Kathy Hochul’s goals: more housing (including affordable housing) near train stations.
The 4 corners in Hartsdale (East Hartsdale Ave, Central Ave, West Hartsdale Ave) would be an excellent location for mixed use housing. But, we will need state financial help creating turning lanes and safety improvements on West and East Hartsdale Ave (to reduce traffic congestion) and will also need state funding to address flooding conditions on Central Ave.
Because housing near train stations is such a high priority for the Governor, we believe that this is a perfect opportunity to seek help from Albany. The discussion with John Emrick can be watched on the link below (first topic on work session agenda).
This is a link to the Hartsdale Neighbors Association posting about the four corners in Hartsdale: a nice history of community efforts to create mixed use housing at this site.
The Greenburgh Town Board also supports a county grant that will help us move the 4 corner redevelopment initiative forward.
Westchester County has a Downtown Improvement Grant (if chosen the County provides a Consultant no cost to carryout market studies which we would use to focus on the redevelopment potential of Four Corners; if chosen the grant also provides $250,000 for use following the market studies – this is envisioned as funding for a consultant to prepare Zoning Code language to enable redevelopment at Four Corners).
2. A resolution approving a NYSDOT contractor to rent the Town owned site on West Hartsdale Avenue for a monthly fee for 3-6 months. This contractor will be carrying out a NYSDOT project to update the traffic signal and make new ADA compliant curb ramps at each 4C intersection.
It’s been close to 6 months since the initial rollout of the fall (bivalent) booster. A lot of people are wondering: Do I need a spring booster?
The answer hinges on more questions: What is the purpose of vaccines? Does that purpose change depending on age or health status?
The purpose of the vaccines
Last month, the FDA and CDC made it clear that the primary purpose of vaccines is to prevent severe disease and death. Decreases in infection and transmission are a bonus at this point, and unfortunately, protection against infection is only temporary.
This makes sense for younger and healthier people. They are staying out of the hospital from COVID-19 for three main reasons:
Hybrid immunity. Younger people are more likely to have been infected. People with both vaccination and infection history have protection that lasts longer.
Less likely to have comorbidities. Their immune systems are less taxed.
Robust immune memories, particularly T-cells. Their thymuses (the organs that give rise to T cells) haven’t gradually degraded into useless blobs of fat, yet.
This means that even if antibodies are waning after 5-6 months, this is okay because protection against severe disease isn’t waning yet.
The story is different for immunocompromised and other very high-risk groups, like older Americans with comorbidities. The purpose of the vaccines for this group should also be to prevent severe disease and death. However, one could argue that in order to do that, we also need to prevent illness.
There’s one big reason for this: SARS-CoV-2 infection can exacerbate potentially fatal underlying illnesses, like heart failure or diabetes. Protection against viruses and underlying illnesses relies on antibodies to act quickly before the immune system is pulled in multiple directions. If it is pulled in multiple directions, it can lead to hospitalization and death.
Immunocompromised
Of the COVID-19 hospitalizations today, 25% are among the immune-compromised. (Immune-compromised make up 3% of the general population). There are really two subgroups to think about:
Non-responders to vaccines. At this point, this is a very small group of people, like organ transplant patients. Some people who did not respond to 2 or 3 doses eventually did respond to 4 or 5 doses. For the remaining non-responders, one could argue that there’s no point in boosting them, but the downsides of trying seem low.
Protection wanes quickly. The majority of immunocompromised people belong in this second group. The vaccine works, but just not as well and not as long. For them, vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization with the fourth dose peaks at 51% at 0-2 months, then drops to 28% by 2-4 months. (The bivalent booster may increase protection and duration, but we don’t know yet.)
Figure from Chemaitelly et al., Long-term COVID-19 booster effectiveness by infection history and clinical vulnerability and immune imprinting. The Lancet Infectious Diseases. Source link here.
There are few downsides to boosting this group every 6 months. It’s actually possible that the immune-compromised are somewhat protected against imprinting by virtue of their sluggish immune systems.
Older Americans with comorbidities
Those 65 years and older are contributing more and more to the proportion of deaths over time. Among adults hospitalized for COVID-19, 96% had at least one underlying condition.
This is because 2 of the 3 defense walls have more holes than those of younger people. Comorbidities also increase with age, which means the immune response in general is a lot more taxed.
So this is another group in whom we want to prevent infection in order to prevent severe disease.
The latest data from the last ACIP meeting shows waning protection against infection among this group after 4-5 months.
(ACIP slide)
The good news is that we clearly see that the risk of severe disease even in the very elderly dramatically declines with vaccination. In fact, very few people are in the hospital today who are up-to-date on vaccines. However, will this change with time? How much each booster helps (or does not help) incrementally is something that we really don’t have a good grip on prospectively.
What are other countries doing?
Canada and the U.K. have offered the bivalent vaccine to the following groups this spring. To our knowledge, this wasn’t based on any new data but rather a similar thought process as above.
Both countries used loose language: people “can” as opposed to “should” get a booster 6 months after the last dose:
People aged 65 to 79 years, particularly those with no history of SARS-CoV-2 infection
Will this be needed every 6 months until we start seeing predictable COVID-19 patterns? We don’t know. The WHO is meeting in Geneva this week to discuss global COVID vaccine recommendations going forward.
Bottom line
If you’re immunocompromised and/or an older adult with a comorbidity (and it’s been 6 months since an infection or last booster), a spring booster may be a good idea to stay ahead of the virus. Will it be official U.S. policy? We don’t know. There are rumors of FDA conversations happening behind closed doors. Hopefully, we will have an answer soon. But, as you can tell, it’s not a straightforward call.
New York State’s annual budgets are the product of a fast-moving, multistage process. When Governor Hochul presented her Executive Budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year on February 1, the Legislature had exactly two months to review the $227 billion Executive Budget, generate and present counterproposals, and negotiate with the Governor to develop the final State budget by the April 1 deadline.
Since February 1, the Assembly and State Senate have conducted 13 joint hearings on the Executive Budget, analyzed thousands of documents, and received information from seemingly countless State employees and private advocates. In the Assembly, individual and groups of Assembly members also sent hundreds of budget letters to Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, making specific funding requests and suggesting specific means of raising revenue.
Late last week, the Assembly and the Senate reached a critical point in the process. By passing their respective One-House budget bills, each legislative house has put forward its suggested changes and revisions to the Executive Budget. At this point, negotiations will proceed among the “three people in a room” — Governor Hochul, Speaker Heastie, and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins — to come up with a final fiscal plan. Supporting those negotiations is a joint General Conference Committee process between both houses of the Legislature. (I am participating as an alternate on the subcommittee evaluating programs and funding for general government and local assistance).
The Governor and Legislature have voiced agreement on numerous major issues, including completing the Foundation Aid funding for our public schools, moving toward all-electric buildings, and raising the minimum wage. Other issues, such as the Governor’s housing proposals and her aid packages for SUNY and CUNY, have been rejected in major part by the Legislature. It remains to be seen whether there will be a comprehensive budget agreement, or if areas of disagreement will remain. The process for resolving any such disagreements is analogous to the process for other legislative disputes — the Governor can reject specific legislative appropriations and line items, and the legislature may override her decisions by a two-thirds vote of both houses.
Here is a list of some of the highlights from the Assembly’s One-House bill:
Public Schools and Childcare:
$2.6 billion for Foundation Aid (fully funding our public schools for the first time ever);
$280 million for free school meals for all students statewide;
No increase in the charter school cap;
$200 million for universal pre-K (Executive Budget proposed $125 million);
$198 million for child care funding, and two-year tax incentive for employer-provided child care
Higher Education:
No tuition hike at SUNY or CUNY;
$1.8 billion increase for SUNY funding (Executive Budget proposed an $879 million increase);
$1.3 billion increase for CUNY funding (Executive Budget proposed a $397 million cut);
Expansion of the Tuition Assistance Program income threshold from an $80,000 to $100,000;
4% increase in community college funding
Health and Mental Health Care:
$2.7 billion for Medicaid funding;
$1.32 billion for hospitals;
$266.5 million for nursing homes;
8.5% cost-of living adjustment for home care workers and direct support professionals
Housing and Development:
$1.5 billion for assistance programs for homeowners and tenants;
$500 million in housing creation incentives for villages, towns, and cities ex-New York City;
Exclusion of the Executive Budget proposals to override local zoning laws and mandate transit-oriented development within 50 miles of New York City
Environment:
All-Electric Building provisions, phasing out gas service in all new buildings by 2029;
$600 million for clean water infrastructure (Executive Budget proposed $500 million);
$435 million for the Environmental Protection Fund (Executive Budget proposed $400 million);
$400 million for energy affordability and home retrofit assistance programs
Transportation:
$1.33 billion to maintain and repair aging transportation infrastructure;
$275 million for PAVE-NY program (Executive Budget proposed $175 million);
$8.3 billion to the MTA, and no fare increase;
Exclusion of the Executive Budget’s MTA payroll tax increase for New York City and its suburbs; alternative funding proposals include an increase in the top corporate tax and fees on three remaining downstate casino licenses
Public Safety and Criminal Justice:
$275 million for discovery within the court system;
$198 million for the Office of Indigent Legal Services;
$69.3 for SNUG, GIVE, and other anti-gun violence initiatives
Workforce and Communities:
Increase in the minimum wage and indexing it to the inflation rate;
$102.5 million for the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA)
Happy spring! With warmer weather comes a calming of the respiratory season. Hopefully. Viruses are definitely still circulating, but we are seeing some encouraging signs.
A look back
Doctor visits for fever and a cough (i.e., “influenza-like illnesses” or “ILI”) were back to pre-pandemic levels this season, but had some uncharacteristic patterns:
Shifted to earlier in the season;
Descended as quickly as it ascended (ILI usually peters out);
Hospitalizations for respiratory viruses peaked in December, which is ~3 months early. COVID-19 continues to take the lead for hospitalizations. Interestingly, RSV, COVID-19, and flu peaked at different times. This no doubt helped our healthcare systems and makes me continue to wonder if there is some sort of virus-to-virus interaction (RSV pushes flu and then pushes COVID-19, for example).
Different age groups experienced very different risks of hospitalization this winter:
0-4 years: RSV was out of control, peaking at 65 hospitalizations per 100,000. This was 244% higher than the 2018-2019 season. (We really need an RSV vaccine for our kiddos.)
65+ years: COVID-19 clearly led hospitalizations.
Hospitalizations per 100,000. Black= overall; Green=RSV; Blue= Flu; Red=COVID (Keep in mind that the y-axis is different, which drives me insane, but beyond my control).
During this respiratory season (week 40-week 10), we lost 64,180 Americans to COVID-19. This number is higher than any pre-pandemic flu season (see yellow in graph below).
Excess deaths (red line below) continue to be above the “epidemic threshold” (black line). We haven’t had a national conversation defining the new baseline. What do we now consider normal given that we have an additional threat in our repertoire? As we move out of the pandemic phase, this black line needs to shift up.
SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater is nosediving. However, levels in the Northeast have started to plateau. If this trend continues, having a high baseline throughout the year would be incredibly inconvenient.
SARS-CoV-2 continues to mutate quickly, as expected. The international community is keeping an eye on two Omicron subvariants:
XBB.1.9- In the U.K., this is causing a slow uptick across metrics, including hospitalizations. In the U.S., the growth advantage of this subvariant is only ~35%. (As a comparison, the original Omicron had a 500% growth advantage causing the tsunami.) In other words, we shouldn’t fret.
XBB.1.16–This has a case growth advantage of ~250% in India (17% increase in deaths). But, it’s hard to tell how much this is due biased testing and/or changing behavior due to the celebration of Holi.
XBB.1.16 could possibly disrupt a quiet spring in the U.S. But, a wave is not only dependent on weather, a new subvariant, or changing behavior, but also the number of susceptible people. This precise number is incredibly difficult to grasp because it depends on a number of factors: Who has been infected, when, and by what variant?
In other words, future waves are getting harder and harder to forecast.
With COVID-19 declining, flu may have the opportunity to start inclining for an out-of-season resurgence, especially since the Flu B strain hasn’t shown its colors yet in the Northern Hemisphere. No signs yet, but time will tell.
Norovirus
Norovirus wasn’t part of the “triple-demic” winter talk, but positive tests keep going up. It’s not entirely clear how high this will go, but in pre-pandemic times it typically peaked in March. Regardless, wash your hands.
Bottom line
Every pandemic winter has been unique and, thus, created unique challenges. While disease levels may be back to normal, the usual patterns are off. It may be years until we know how COVID-19 permanently changes the landscape.
In any case, reprieve is now here. For parents, flu and RSV are in the rearview mirror. For older adults and immunocompromised people, COVID-19 is declining. It will sure be interesting to watch how the rest of the year plays out.
Love, YLE
“Your Local Epidemiologist (YLE)” is written by Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, MPH PhD—an epidemiologist, data scientist, wife. During the day she works at a nonpartisan health policy think tank and is a senior scientific consultant to a number of organizations, including the CDC. At night she writes this newsletter. Her main goal is to “translate” the ever-evolving public health science so that people will be well equipped to make evidence-based decisions. This newsletter is free thanks to the generous support of fellow YLE community members. To support this effort, subscribe below:
