Good Tuesday morning.
I’m a little bummed because I missed Holi yesterday – it’s the two-day Hindu celebration welcoming spring and marking the triumph of good over evil. It’s also known as the “The Festival of Colors” because people traditionally smear one another with paint or powder. Anyway, I’m sorry I forgot to mention it. Someday, I’d like to see it in person.
As for today, it’s National Doctors Day, which gives us an opportunity to thank all the hard working medical professionals who have been working overtime over the past year in the battle against COVID-19.
Observance of this day first started in 1933 in Winder, Georgia. March 30 was the first anniversary of a doctor – Dr. Crawford W. Long – using ether anesthesia. Interesting local connection – he did an 18-month internship at a hospital in New York after receiving his M.D. degree at the University of Pennsylvania in 1839.
Long returned to Georgia after his stint in the Empire State and took over a rural practices in Jackson County. It was there that he performed a surgery in 1842 to remove a tumor from a patient’s neck using an inhaled form of sulfuric ether as an anesthetic. He went on to introduce the technique into his obstetrics practice and also used it for amputations.
Long first used an inhaled anesthesia technique on a pregnant woman when his wife gave birth. In 1849, he announced his discovery in a small local magazine, but did not receive significant recognition until Marion Sims, a New York surgeon, published the first major article on the subject.
It wasn’t until 1879 that the National Eclectic Medical Association declared that Long was the official discoverer of anesthesia. There have since been a number of buildings named after him, a museum dedicated to his life, a monument erected in his honor, and a U.S. postage stamp memorializing his significant contribution to the world of medicine.
Also worth noting: It’s National Take a Walk in the Park Day. I have mentioned many times before the wide range of benefits gleaned from simply walking outside – better still if you can do this in nature (you know, among trees, grass, mountains etc.)
It’s going to be a good day for being outdoors, too, especially compared to that weird situation we had yesterday – snow flurries turning into bright sunshine. Today we’ll have a lot of sun and temperatures in the low 60s. And then two days from now? Snow again. MAKE UP YOUR MIND PLEASE, MOTHER NATURE!!
In the headlines…
A joint World Health Organization-China study on the origins of COVID-19 says that transmission of the virus from bats to humans through another animal is the most likely scenario and that a lab leak is “extremely unlikely,” according to a draft copy.
Far more work is needed to understand how the pandemic began, the report says, but it is not clear that Beijing will cooperate. “We may never find the true origins,” an expert said.
The long-awaited report presents the findings of the four-week mission completed earlier this year by WHO-led investigators to Wuhan, the Chinese city that was the site of the first confirmed coronavirus cases in December 2019.
President Joe Biden and top health officials warned that coronavirus infections are once again beginning to climb — urging Americans, including elected officials, to double down on precautions to prevent a fourth surge.
The U.S. faces “impending doom” from a resurgent coronavirus pandemic, the head of the CDC warned. “Right now I’m scared,” Rochelle Walensky said in an emotional and unscripted moment during a White House briefing.
Walensky pleaded with Americans to “hold on a little while longer” and continue following public health advice, like wearing masks and social distancing, to curb the virus’s spread.
The number of new cases jumped by 11 percent over the past week to a seven-day average of about 60,000 cases, according to an interagency memo dated March 29.
Biden urged governors and local leaders who dropped sweeping mask mandates to reinstate their orders, indicated some states should wait to reopen their economies while condemning “reckless behavior” likely to spur more infections.
Up to 90 percent of US adults will be eligible for a Covid-19 shot by 19 April, Biden said as he announced a major expansion of the nation’s vaccination program.
A single dose of Pfizer’s or Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine was 80% effective in preventing coronavirus infections, according to a new CDC study of vaccinated health-care workers.
Consistent with clinical trial data, a two-dose regimen prevented 90 percent of infections by two weeks after the second shot. One dose prevented 80 percent of infections by two weeks after vaccination.
Top-ranking Republicans are trying to stamp out digital vaccine passports, that would allow businesses to check if customers are inoculated against COVID-19.
The White House said it expected the private sector to take the lead on the verification of COVID-19 vaccines or so-called vaccine passports, and would not issue a federal mandate requiring everyone to obtain a single vaccination credential.
Canadian authorities recommended a halt on administering the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine on people under the age of 55 in light of evidence from Europe on potentially serious side effects targeting younger women.
More than 2 million total COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered at New York State-run and FEMA-assisted mass vaccination sites. Statewide, more than 9 million total doses have been administered across all vaccination sites.
All those 16 and up in New York can begin to schedule appointments on April 6.
New vaccination sites are coming to Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx this week, bringing the total number of city-run locations where people can get jabbed to over 50. That’s in addition to a number of “pop-up” sites.
New York must immediately begin to offer Covid-19 vaccines to all incarcerated people in the state’s prisons and jails, a judge ruled, making the state one of few in the nation to provide doses to such a broad population behind bars.
The Biden administration is looking toward the middle of May to relax restrictions on travel across the borders with Mexico and Canada and on inbound international travel from the U.K., Europe and Brazil.
As of today, New York is making Covid-19 shots available to residents 30 years old and up, while New Jersey has opened vaccine eligibility to include more public-facing workers.
Tugboat horns blared and salvage workers chanted yesterday as one of the largest ships in the world was refloated and churned through the Suez Canal, opening a crucial global shipping lane that had been blocked for almost a week.
In the aftermath of one of the most consequential shipping accidents in history, the global supply chain industry will have a cascade of costly delays to contend with and much to assess.
The stuck container ship that halted global shipping traffic in the Suez Canal for nearly a week is expected to cause headaches at New York and New Jersey ports in the coming weeks. But the problems won’t be nearly as bad as those caused by the pandemic.
Progressive Senate Democrats suggested their new plan to tax unrealized capital gains at death should come with a $1 million per-person exemption, setting that line 10 times higher than an Obama administration proposal and shielding more rich households.
The Biden administration plans to give wind-power developers access to more of the Atlantic Coast and start a slate of new environmental reviews in an attempt to jump-start the country’s offshore wind business.
The plan sets a goal of deploying 30,000 megawatts of offshore wind turbines in coastal waters nationwide by 2030, enough to power 10 million homes.
To help meet that target, the administration said it would accelerate permitting of projects off the Atlantic Coast and prepare to open up waters near New York and New Jersey for development.
Leaders of the finance industry and other businesses in New York are pushing Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to bring back the full state and local tax deduction, according to people familiar with the matter.
Prosecutors said that jurors should trust their eyes in the murder trial of Derek Chauvin, a former police officer accused of killing George Floyd, but the defense said the case was more complicated than the viral video that sparked a wave of unrest last summer.
New York lawmakers could vote to legalize recreational marijuana today, which would make it the 15th state to permit the drug for recreational use.
The legalization vote will be a significant milestone for Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, who has been shepherding the bill through her house for years.
Union leaders and Democratic state lawmakers made a final push to increase taxes on the wealthy as part of a roughly $200 billion state budget due this week. The governor hasn’t yet discussed taxes with legislative leaders.
Business groups are making a final push to oppose the increase, which Democrats in the state Senate and Assembly estimate will generate billions of dollars in revenue to help bolster spending for schools and health care, among other programs in the budget.
Embattled Cuomo is going to the mat again for the hospital industry — this time in a fight over medical billing payments with health insurers and labor unions, critics claim.
Cuomo signed a bill into law that allows families to designate one person who’s allowed to visit a nursing home resident to take care of their non-medical and emotional needs.
A Rochester-area woman says Cuomo grabbed her face and kissed her on the cheek in a “highly sexual manner” while touring her storm-damaged home in 2017, adding to the growing number of misconduct claims against the embattled governor.
Sherry Vill, 55, said she was left rattled and afraid to come forward after the encounter in which Cuomo called her beautiful and twice kissed her aggressively on the cheeks during a visit to her home in Greece, a suburb of Rochester.
Vill is represented by Gloria Allred, the high-profile women’s rights attorney.
Cuomo’s attorney Rita Glavin said: “During times of crisis, the governor has frequently sought to comfort New Yorkers with hugs and kisses…(he) has greeted both men and women with hugs, a kiss on the cheek, forehead or hand for the past forty years.”
New details have emerged on how the Cuomo administration gave preferential treatment to people close to him – including family members – when it came to COVID testing during the pandemic’s early days.
Two members of Cuomo’s inner circle reportedly threatened nursing-home association representatives with fines and license revocations during a heated, emergency call about COVID-19 vaccinations — even though it was based on erroneous information.
State legislation to legalize marijuana would bring a measure of fairness to communities that have historically borne the brunt of drug enforcement laws, New York City officials said.
Many people working from home or out of a job due to the pandemic can’t access the hundreds of dollars deducted from their paychecks for transit expenses.
Mayoral contender Andrew Yang urged Mayor Bill de Blasio to set aside a sizable chunk of the federal stimulus money coming to New York City — and warned that spending the cash quickly could send the city over “a very, very steep fiscal cliff.”
Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein, was charged for the first time with sex trafficking of a minor, as federal prosecutors accused her of grooming a 14-year-old girl to engage in sexual acts with Epstein and later paying her.
A man kicked a 65-year-old woman to the ground in broad daylight on a Midtown Manhattan sidewalk, stomped on her several times and made anti-Asian remarks in what the police called another targeted hate crime.
The Big Apple saw a startling increase in crime last week compared to the same period last year, as temps warmed up with the onset of spring, the latest NYPD statistics show.
A year after the pandemic began, about 90 percent of office workers are still working remotely, according to a recent survey of major employers by the Partnership for New York City, a business group.
After accidental Taser firings inside NYC police station houses surged in 2020, a new safety warning has finally gone up in commands around the city.
Nonbinary New Yorkers who currently must declare themselves as male or female to receive Medicaid, food stamps and other public assistance say in lawsuit filed yesterday that the state is discriminating against them by failing to provide an X gender option.
The state comptroller’s office urged the Albany Water Board to ensure “only appropriate and necessary software and applications are installed on computers and mobile devices” after its audit revealed gaming, shopping and streaming apps on computers and mobile devices assigned to the city entity.
Hiking some of the most popular High Peaks trails will require a reservation for people looking to head out across the 7,000-acre Adirondack Mountain Reserve this summer, reserve owners and state conservation officials announced.
He fatally shot an NYPD cop execution-style decades ago in a Queens bar — and now Richard Rivera is helping reform police in Ithaca and Tompkins County as part of a state-mandated plan launched by Cuomo.
Following the controversy surrounding yesterday’s release (and immediate selling out) of the Grammy Award-winning hip-hop artist Lil Nas X’s “Satan Shoes,” Nike is reportedly suing the designer behind it.
The Buffalo Bills’ stadium has a new name: Highmark Stadium. Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield of WNY will take over the naming rights after the stadium went eight months without a sponsor.
In the next few months, the NCAA stands to lose control of its empire’s future over an issue its member schools long hoped to avoid: athlete compensation.
