Good Tuesday morning.
Spring REALLY has sprung – with a vengeance. Everywhere you look, bright green things are sprouting and unfurling and flowers, and trees, and grasses, and shrubs are spreading their pollen everywhere.
I happen to love it. But if you are an allergy sufferer, well, this is basically your worst nightmare. (Or one of them, anyway).
One of the many nasty byproducts of climate change is that pollen counts are higher and allergy season is longer. And experts say things are only going to get worse from here.
A study published in the journal Nature Communications found pollen season could start 10-40 days earlier and last 5-20 days longer, with pollen levels that could triple in some places if carbon emissions aren’t curbed.
According to allergists, the U.S. pollen season used to start in mid-March around St. Patrick’s Day and now often starts in mid-February around Valentine’s Day. (Perhaps they didn’t account for the unusually late start of upstate Spring? Just saying…it felt like it was NEVER going to get warm this year).
Of course nowadays, things have grown far more complicated for people with allergies, because the symptoms they experience – runny nose, itchy eyes, cough, headache, sneezing, sinus congestion – are also associated with COVID-19, and infection rates are steadily climbing upstate.
So, basically, every time you turn around you have to wonder: Have I been exposed and test – yet again? – or is this just the pollen talking? Also, if you have asthma, infection with the virus could lead to an attack, pneumonia, or other serious lung disease. And if you have moderate-to-severe asthma, you’re more likely to be hospitalized as a result of COVID.
Another complicating factor: Asthma, which often accompanies allergies. The very same substances to which so many people are allergic – dust mites, pollen, pet dander – may also be signs of symptoms of asthma. And in some people, food or skin allergies can cause asthma.
Today happens to be World Asthma Day, which is organized by the Global Initiative for Asthma, (GINA) (www.ginasthma.org), a WHO collaborative organization founded in 1993.
Approximately 25 people in the U.S. ALONE (1 in 13 people, about) suffer from asthma, which is is a long-term disease that causes inflammation and swelling of the airways that carry air from the nose and mouth to the lungs.
Asthma is one of the most costly AND common diseases in this country, and is the leading chronic disease in children, though Black kids are about three times more likely to suffer from it than their white counterparts.
On average, 11 people across the nation die from asthma each and every day, and in 2020, the death rate from asthma rose for the first time in 20 years. Nearly all of these deaths are avoidable with the right treatment and care.
The focus of this year’s world asthma day is “Closing Gaps in Asthma Care” – which focuses on the disparities in treatment and diagnosis for different socioeconomic, ethnic, and age groups, as well as in various countries across the world.
Approximately 300 million people worldwide have asthma, and its prevalence increases by 50 percent every decade. There is no cure for asthma, but it can be successfully treated with medication and by reducing triggers in an individual’s environment.
It will be cloudy today with temperatures in the high 60s. The pollen count will be medium-to-high.
In the headlines…
The U.S. Supreme Court is poised to overturn the landmark 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade that protects the federal right to abortion, according to a draft majority opinion published last night by Politico.
The 67-page document, described as an initial draft majority opinion, would effectively eliminate abortion protections at the federal level and hand authority over abortion access to the states.
Penned by Justice Samuel Alito, one of the court’s staunchest conservatives, the opinion concludes by declaring that Roe and the court’s 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey have no grounding in the Constitution.
“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” Alito writes. ““We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”
If the five justices maintain their votes to strike down Roe once the opinion is announced, likely in June, the immediate consequence is that abortion would become illegal in about half of all U.S. states.
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) offered a blistering rebuke of the draft ruling to overturn the landmark 1973 decision.
While Democrats denounced the substance of the draft ruling, GOP leaders condemned the leak itself, with some saying it was evidence of hostility toward conservative views.
Planned Parenthood reacted with horror and dismay, saying: “While we have seen the writing on the wall for decades, it is no less devastating, and comes just as anti-abortion rights groups unveil their ultimate plan to ban abortion nationwide.”
“For the sake of women across the country, this should not be the Supreme Court’s final opinion when it comes to abortion rights,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement.
President Biden said that he has “not yet” made up his mind on the amount of federal student loan debt he would seek to forgive as White House press secretary Jen Psaki said a final decision might not come until the end of August.
Biden met with the parents of American journalist Austin Tice, who was abducted in Syria nearly 10 years ago, the White House said.
Biden had lunch with President Bill Clinton, the White House said, a sit-down between the nation’s 42nd and 46th commanders-in-chief that comes six months ahead of the midterms.
Biden will visit Cincinnati on Friday to meet with manufacturing leaders and promote legislation aimed at creating incentives for technology.
Biden plans to host the 2020 and 2022 U.S. Olympic teams at the White House tomorrow, celebrating athletes from the most recent winter Games while staging a much delayed, in-person celebration for participants of last summer’s Tokyo Olympics.
Russian President Vladimir Putin could formally declare war on Ukraine as soon as May 9, a move that would enable the full mobilization of Russia’s reserve forces as invasion efforts continue to falter, US and Western officials believe.
The U.S. is rushing more arms to Ukraine as the country tries to fend off a renewed Russian assault on its eastern and southern regions.
The only way Russia’s war in Ukraine ends is with Putin dead, Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine’s top military spy said.
In Brussels, the European Commission is expected to propose the sixth package of EU sanctions this week against Russia, including a possible embargo on buying Russian oil.
Russia resumed pulverizing the Mariupol steel mill that has become the last stronghold of resistance in the bombed-out city, Ukrainian fighters said, after a brief cease-fire over the weekend allowed the first evacuation of civilians from the plant.
Vice President Kamala Harris tested negative for COVID-19, six days after she tested positive for the virus, and has been cleared to return to the White House today, wearing a “well-fitted mask” around others.
While it’s tempting to say much of life is getting back to normal, it’s probably more accurate to say it feels more comfortable and normal living alongside Covid-19.
Jimmy Kimmel, host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” has Covid-19 and will hand the reins of his late-night show to guest host Mike Birbiglia starting today, the comedian announced on Twitter.
Moderna’s lifesaving COVID-19 vaccine was produced with unprecedented speed, but the pharmaceutical firm now faces multiple lawsuits which could leave taxpayers paying the tab.
Relative to the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, the Moderna version confers slightly more protection against infection—but not hospitalization, intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, or death—90 days after the second dose, a new study shows.
Upstate New York has become the epicenter of a wave of COVID-19 infections that is now expected to spread to other parts of the country, as local officials face rising tensions over federal calls for people to wear masks indoors to curb outbreaks.
New York City’s “COVID alert level” rose from “low” to “medium” yesterday amid an uptick in cases around the five boroughs, Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan announced.
It marks the first time the health department has adjusted that level since debuting the new system under Mayor Eric Adams’ administration earlier this year.
The city has now surpassed a rate of 200 infections per 100,000 people, across the five boroughs. A rate that is 4 times greater than the rate on March 2nd.
A bill that calls for another investigation into COVID-19 nursing home deaths has made it out of the state Senate Health Committee.
Hochul has signed into law legislation that will allow Democrats to remove her indicted former running mate Brian Benjamin from the ballot for lieutenant governor.
“I think most voters would prefer not to have an indicted person on their ballot,” Sen. Liz Krueger said.
The legislation was introduced last Friday, at Hochul’s request, and moved swiftly through Assembly and Senate committees on yesterday before a lengthy floor debate and vote. A handful of Democrats joined Republicans in opposing the measure.
Benjamin released a statement on Twitter, saying that he would sign the necessary paperwork to remove his name from the ballot. “I am innocent of these unsubstantiated charges. However, I would be unable to serve under these circumstances,” he said.
With the balance of the House at stake, national Democrats made an 11th-hour appeal to a federal court to intervene in New York’s heated redistricting dispute, hoping to reinstate House maps thrown out by the state’s highest court last week.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo could enter the race for governor this year if the gubernatorial primaries scheduled for June are moved to August under new challenges being waged in state Supreme Court to the redistricting maps.
Hochul announced the birth of her first grandchild, tweeting: “Welcome to the world, Sofia!”
Mayor Eric Adams unveiled the city’s new effort to get drivers to slow down and prevent fatal car crashes: A 30-foot-wide billboard in Brooklyn urging drivers to step off the gas.
In an effort to confront the city’s ongoing homeless crisis, Adams stood alongside elected officials and union members to support a plan that would clear the streets and subways, and put a near-record number of unhoused New Yorkers into underutilized hotels.
A former New York City police officer who claimed he was acting in self-defense when he swung a metal flagpole at a fellow officer during the attack on the Capitol last January was convicted of all charges, including assault.
For the second time in less than a week, New York City canceled plans for a shelter in Chinatown, where community opposition has complicated Adams’s efforts to move homeless New Yorkers off the streets.
Whether New Yorkers are ready or not, casinos will soon be coming to the New York City area. Precisely how soon and how many remains to be determined. What we know now the state approved the issuance of three new casino licenses intended for the area.
In New York, where landlords typically move to evict more people than in any other city in the nation, the housing courts sat in an unusual stupor for some two years. But as pandemic restrictions ease, they are beginning to hum anew.
Amazon workers voted against unionizing at a facility on Staten Island, a win for the company after a loss at another warehouse in the borough last month.
Employees cast 380 votes to be represented by the union and 618 against, according to the National Labor Relations Board. About 1,600 workers at the warehouse were eligible to vote.
Adams took time out of his busy schedule to treat himself to a pedicure ahead of the city’s fashion event of the year.
Adams made his debut at the annual Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute benefit in a tuxedo by designer Laulu emblazoned with the slogan “End Gun Violence” on the back — a staple of his platform to reform the Big Apple.
Kim Kardashian channeled the late Marilyn Monroe at the Met Gala, wearing one of the actress’s iconic looks to celebrate the event’s “gilded glamour” theme, walking the red carpet in the actresses’ “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” ensemble.
Dubbed the “world’s most expensive dress,” the crystal-studded creation set a Guinness World Record when Ripley’s Believe It or Not! acquired it at auction for a whopping $4.8 million (over $5 million including auction fees).
See more Met Gala looks here. The night’s dress code was “gilded glamour.”
City Hall in Saratoga Springs ordered popular nightclub and bar Gaffney’s to close yesterday, at least temporarily.
A former Cobleskill man pleaded not guilty to a one-count indictment charging him with the April 13 stabbing death of 35-year-old Philip L. Rabadi, the man who married the defendant’s former girlfriend last September.
Veteran talk radio host Joe Gallagher is returning to the airwaves and to the station that let him (and many others) go in 2020. WGY made the announcement live on air yesterday during Doug Goudie’s morning show.
A teacher in Rochester, N.Y., was placed on leave and is being investigated after parents said he told students to pick cotton during a lesson on slavery, school district officials said.
A special grand jury was selected to hear evidence in a county prosecutor’s probe into efforts by former President Donald Trump and others to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results.
Democrats have quietly accepted the 88-year-old California senator’s Dianne Feinstein’s memory issues as the status quo, even as her inner circle frets that the spectacle of her difficulties on the job could tarnish her legacy.
Naomi Judd, who was public about her struggles with acute anxiety and depression, died by suicide, sources told People.
A wild turkey that has been terrorizing Washington, D.C., residents has crossed into Maryland and is eluding five agencies from as many jurisdictions.
