THE WORLD READS WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER — 8,324,077 VISITS IN ONE YEAR

By Dr. Katelyn Jetelina.

Your Local Epidemiologist. August 10, 2022. Reprinted with permission.

School is starting. And, with it, the contentious debate on what schools should and should not do. While the pandemic ravages on, the landscape continues to morph, and because of that, every subsequent school year has looked very different (hopefully for the better).

Unfortunately, student absences continue. As seen in London, (BELOW) students’ absences continue to be higher than before the pandemic. They were especially high at the end of this school year when BA.5 took hold. (Editor’s note: this was true of the White Plains City School District, too).

We know this is partially driven by reinfections, as children have the highest reinfection rate compared to any other age group.

(Source Kit Yates)

It’s imperative that schools remain open, but they continue to seem stuck between “do everything” and “do nothing.” 

How many layers can a school feasibly implement given pandemic fatigue, limited resources, strong opinions, and differing risk calibrations?

The answer is multi-level; it requires a balance of tradeoffs from students, parents, teachers, schools, and the community. Our primary goal should be to maximize the number of days children are present. This can be accomplished many ways, but I think there are three buckets schools should really focus on.

Back-to-school vaccination campaign

We need strong, universal vaccine campaigns at schools.

Parents report that schools, pediatricians, and health departments are the most trusted sources of information about vaccines. Schools can also significantly improve access to vaccines, as 38% of parents say they do not have enough info on where their kid can get vaccinated. A fall back-to-school campaign could really help move the needle for vaccinations, and thus school absences. And not just for COVID, but other vaccine preventable diseases.

• COVID-19: The number of children vaccinated against COVID-19 remains abysmally low. (Only 10% of 5-11 year olds and 27% of 12-17 years olds are up to date.) Vaccines are safe, they prevent infections (especially within a few months of vaccination), prevent severe disease, and reduce risk of long COVID. But parents have a lot of great questions; we need to anticipate concerns.
• Flu. The flu season in Australia just wrapped up, and it wasn’t pretty.This is notable because, historically, Southern Hemisphere patterns predict what is to come in the Northern hemisphere. (We’ve been worried about a “twin-demic” since COVID-19 began, but it hasn’t happened yet. We are not sure why.) We should heed Australia’s warning and prepare for the worst.

• Other routine vaccines. New York is strongly warning parents about a dip in routine vaccinations. For example, 13.8% of children have not been vaccinated against polio. This reflects patterns we’ve seen nationally and internationally with other routine vaccinations, too. We cannot lose decades-long progress towards eliminating vaccine-preventable diseases.

We can reimagine how vaccines and information reach students and parents.

For example, the Teens for Vaccines campaign in Detroit was highly successful by empowering student ambassadors.

A school district in Florida recognized that active communication and education promoted vaccine confidence and uptake, so they sent text reminders, posted on social media, and provided credible information. Los Angeles School District even had a TikTok campaign.

Ventilation and filtration

Schools need to upgrade their ventilation and filtration systems.

This is one of the most powerful tools we have to curb COVID-19 and other viruses because it happens in the background—it’s an institutional-level intervention that doesn’t require the teachers, parents, or students to do anything. Unfortunately, a small proportion of schools report using these strategies, especially in rural and mid-poverty schools. Many administrators aren’t aware that federal funding is available for ventilation improvements.

Layman wording on how to improve ventilation and filtration is difficult to find. I worked with Dr. Whitney Robinson and Katie Harper, fellow epidemiologists, on a one pager that outlines available strategies and how to test effectiveness. This may help.

Testing and isolating

Now that everyone is eligible for vaccines, and treatments (monoclonal antibodies, antivirals and Evusheild) are available for high risk family members, a more targeted approach to testing, isolating, and masking in the upcoming school year is reasonable:

• Testing. Sick, symptomatic kids should stay home. At-home or at-school antigen tests would be a great tool to use for this. (Do not use PCR tests, as these could stay positive for weeks).
• Quarantining. Attending school far outweighs benefits of quarantining for a respiratory virus that is out of control in the community. It’s reasonable (and overdue) to remove quarantine requirements.
• Isolation. The ideal scenario is that a child tests-to-exit isolation using antigen tests. But this can mean a lot of school missed (and a lot of work missed for parents), with the average infection lasting 8-10 days.
• The CDC says people can leave isolation after 5 days if they remain positive as long as they mask. If children need to go back to school at that time, it’s certainly reasonable and should be expected that kids mask if they are still positive.
• Masks.
• Masks are effective to the wearer. They are even more effective if everyone is masking.
• If a school is in an area of high transmission, it’s certainly reasonable to mask to reduce transmission and, thus, reduce missing school.
• However, for that strategy to work, the wearer must mask everywhere else in the community. I don’t think it makes sense for a school to mandate masks if the larger community does not do so either. We shouldn’t ask students to hold down the fort if the larger community hasn’t also committed either.

Other random thoughts

Preparedness needs to be the name of the game. Schools need a plan in case we do get another Omicron-like event or if there’s is a big superspreader event, like a homecoming dance.

There need to be very important conversations about normalizing decisions around masking, even if not required. Very important conversations may also need to ensue if a child is high risk in a classroom, so they, too, can attend in person learning.

Bottom line

This pandemic landscape continues to change and, with it, we should adapt. But if we continue to fail to act, children will continue to have their education disrupted by COVID19. There are a number of measures schools can put in place to maximize the number of days children are in school so they can have a safe and successful school year.

 CON EDISON HOLDS SUSTAINABLE WESTCHESTER SUPPLY RATE FOR MOST CUSTOMERS IN JULY GOES UP NOW IN AUGUST

DELIVERY WIRES HUM KILLERWATTS AT 15 CENTS PER KILOWATT HOUR.

AC AT 80 DEGREES DOUBLES POWER BILL IN 90-IN-THE-SHADE-SUMMER

NO NEW SUSTAINABLE RATE YET FROM SUSTAINABLE WESTCHESTER.

GRID REWARDS PROGRAM INTRODUCED TO HELP CUSTOMERS SAVE POWER COSTS

WPCNR THE POWER STORY. By John F. Bailey. August 9, 2022

Power consumption hit an all-time high in the month of July  in Westchester County.

Inflation  forced customers to purchase less for necessities like gas and food who are now Buck-smacked with doubling power bills in soon to double once more if the heat keeps on coming.

Power bills doubled this past month of July for a Sustainable Customer directly attributable to 95 degree in the shade-plus average temperatures which have scorched Westchester for 9 days.

The air conditioning has been humming non stop and the Con Ed Delivery charges delivering the juice 24/7 at 15 cents a kilowatt hour purchased.

The Con Edison Media Relations Department confirmed to WPCNR today that the Sustainable Westchester Green Energy Rate of 7.48 cents per kilowatt hour was kept in effect on Sustainable Westchester customers, as well as I believe the Sustainable basic rate (non green exclusive sources).

 WPCNR asked Con Edison Media Relations why Con Edison did not charge a higher rate than 7.48 cents for Green Energy for Sustainable Westchester Customers (not matching the market rate for July, which in mid July a Con Edison consumer representative said was averaging 9 to 10 cents kilowatt hour.

A Con Edison spokesperson in a written state answered:

My question is: on my Con Ed bill the 7.48 cents green rate charged by Constellation Energy the previous Constellation supply charge is still in effect. — is this because Con Edison was able to supply electricity at a rate very close to the 7.48 rate and chose to honor the 7.48 cent an hour charged in June as a good will courtesy to Sustainable customers?  

Constellation New Energy was the supplier on the bill provided in your email. You will be a Con Edison full service customer on your next bill.

My second question is why is the “Delivery Charge” up to 14.9 cents?

The delivery rate reflects higher delivery charges in the summer months. Delivery rates are set by the New York Public Service Commission.

Sustainable Westchester asked to explain why the 7.48 cents/rate was still charged in July saving about $60, wrote in a statement:

“ The current contract expired on June 30th and as such depending upon folks billing cycle (meter reads) many (to most) will still see the Westchester Power rates (and Constellation) on their bills in July.

That said, most (to all participants) will see their August bills reflect Con Edison isupply and supply rates.

We cannot speak to the intel you received from ConEd that the kWh rate (once switched to them) will reflect and increase vs.the Westchester Power prior contract fixed-rate.

While that would be our educated guess, we cannot confirm that nor predict where their rates might go.

We do hope to be able to have something to share (and a contracted rate by September as you suggest). That said, we are not in a position to confirm that today.”

That being said, we do have news to share about our GridRewards program. The residential demand response program executed with our partners Logical Buildings has been particularly this summer with unprecedented high temperatures and the resulting demand on the grid.

Currently the approximate 2500 Westchester County Con Ed utility area enrolled residents are experiencing a 4-day streak of demand response events. The events provide an opportunity to reduce electricity demand, save energy and money and earn cash rewards for actions taken and overall performance. It surely has newsworthy potential — its environmental impact, ability to reduce usage and earn participants savings and cash is potentially important messaging for your viewers.

GridRewards is the first-of-its-kind residential demand response program in the NorthEast and was piloted in 2020 in partnership with us in Westchester County. You can learn a bit more here https://sustainablewestchester.org/gridrewards/ (on our website) as well as https://www.gridrewards.com/ (Logical Buildings website for the program).

Background:

That rate to create electricity for customers who are not members of the Sustainable Westchester power cooperative (White Plains is a member), is set based on an average of a month of Con Ed costs to buy or create the electricity. The delivery rate is dependent on the demand running through the system.

  Sustainable paused for a time to  resubmit Requests for Proposals for a new  flat rate going out perhaps one, two, or three years and hired the national leader in energy auctions to find Sustainable a rate that works to keep green energy competitive.

The electric supply companies Sustainable had gone to (apparently on their own not using again Transparent Energy Systems the negotiator of the previous contract), came back with rates that all were higher than last year regardless of the markets they were serving from the very small to the very large.

The pause was still going on , just  when Sustainable Westchester turned over its customers temporarily to Con Edison while it searched for a sustainable Kilowatthour price it could live with (and is still in the process of negotiating).

Meanwhile the cost of Con Edison delivering electricity through its systems soared to 15 cents a kilowatt hour. If you  have an airconditioning system or an window unit, keeping that full house zonal system on will still double your consumption of kilowatt hours in this relentless heat wave, even killing certain zones in your house you do not use.