New York’s Explosion of COVID Cases and a Flawed Vaccine Roll-Out When Covid-19 first appeared in New York in March of this year, the state, like other locations, faced a novel disease against which there were few defenses. New York faced a dire situation in March – hospitals in the New York Metropolitan area were overwhelmed. With cases and hospitalizations skyrocketing, the State imposed a lockdown, […]
COVID-19: The Harsh Tradeoffs COVID-19 created a series of dilemmas for policymakers at the state and federal levels. Actions that would reduce the frequency of infection involved measures that would limit personal interactions, causing the loss of jobs, while reopening the economy proved to result in higher levels of infection, hospitalizations and deaths. But, the difficult policy choices were […]
Positive COVID Tests and Hospitalizations More than Doubled In New York After September 1st The number of COVID-19 positive tests and hospitalizations in New York State has sharply increased since September 1st. The number of daily positive tests identified on October 28th was 1,739, compared with 677 on September 1st – an increase of 157%. Current hospitalizations increased from 457 to 1,042 during the same period – an increase […]
New York State Gave $2.6 Million to Build a Food Greenhouse that Pays One Dollar Above the Minimum Wage In April of this year, Green Empire Farms in the central New York city of Oneida became notorious as the location of more than 170 Covid-19 cases. The facility is a massive 2.8 million square foot greenhouse where vegetables and fruit, including strawberries and cucumbers, are produced. County health officials believe that the outbreak occurred […]
Covid-19 Cases Increase Unevenly in New York Through this Summer, Covid-19 case numbers remained low in New York State. Though the numbers remain far below the levels of March and April, the rate of infection statewide is increasing. In July and August, the state averaged between three and four cases per 100,000 residents per day. By October the number had increased to […]
Don’t Make Poor Districts Shoulder the Burden An opinion piece written for the Albany Times-Union: https://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/Viewpoint-Don-t-make-poor-districts-shoulder-the-15573324.php
New York’s School Aid Cuts Will Disproportionately Harm Poor Districts A recent Albany Times-Union report “recently warned officials they should expect state aid payments to be reduced by 20 percent.” The source of the report was the Questar III Board of Cooperative Educational Services State Aid and Financial Planning. The Times-Union article went on to report that “Freeman Klopott, a spokesman for the state budget […]
Covid-19 Cases Reach New Highs: What Have We Learned? As I write in late July, Covid-19 cases continue to reach new highs at the national level. The number of new cases reached more than 66,000 a day in the week ending July 18th, using a seven day rolling average. That number is about two and one half times the 24,000 new cases that were […]
Covid-19: Rapid Growth in Cases Exposes Vulnerabilities Although the Northeast, particularly New York State, was the epicenter of the Covid-19 outbreak in March and April, states like New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts imposed stringent measures that limited personal interactions, such as closing all non-essential worksites, limiting gatherings to groups of 10 or less, and requiring people to wear masks in settings […]
Despite Agitation to Reopen Businesses, Upstate Covid-19 Cases Are Not Declining Upstate areas are seeing increasing pressure to reopen currently closed businesses as the economic damage from Covid-19 restrictions increases. With millions of New Yorkers unemployed and businesses facing the prospect of permanent closure, there is real need for relief. But reopening should take place in a way that does not lead to significant growth in […]
