Friday, April 10, 2020

Pence Discusses COVID-19 with African American Leaders


This morning, Vice President Mike Pence and Dr. Robert Redfield held a conference call with African American leaders to discuss the impact COVID-19 is having on the American people, specifically the African American community. African American leaders and organizations that participated in the call include: the NAACP, National Urban League, 100 Black Men of America, United Negro College Fund, Thurgood Marshall College Fund, National Medical Association, National Black Nurses Association, African American Mayors Association, and the Congressional Black Caucus.

The Vice President provided an update on the Administration’s efforts to combat the virus and highlighted the importance of the President’s Coronavirus Guidelines for America: 30 Days To Slow The Spread. 

The Trump Administration is ensuring all Americans have access to equal and proper care in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic, and will continue to fight for all Americans.

Source: The Office of the Vice President

Recognizing Its Critical to Reopening the Economy, New York State to Ramp Up Antibody Testing


Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew Cuomo today announced New York State is ramping up antibody testing, a key component of any plan to reopen the economy. The state is currently conducting 300 of these antibody tests, and is on track to conduct 1,000 per day by next Friday and 2,000 per day by the following week. As part of the state's continued efforts to bring mass testing to scale, the Governor offered a full partnership with the federal government to conduct this important work. In the interim, the Governor announced that New York, Connecticut and New Jersey will create a regional testing partnership to bring mass testing to scale for residents in these states. 

Source: The Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo

Cuomo Launches Video as Part of Ongoing Awareness Campaign to Reach All New Yorkers


Earlier today, amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew Cuomo launched a video as part of an ongoing awareness campaign to reach all New Yorkers and encourage them to follow the State's guidance to stay home. The video builds on ongoing state efforts to reach all communities in New York with life-saving stay home message.

Source: The Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo

Thursday, April 9, 2020

Five New COVID-19 Testing Facilities in Minority Communities Downstate


Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew Cuomo earlier today announced five new testing facilities downstate, primarily in minority communities. A drive-through mobile testing facility will open at the Sears Parking Lot at 2307 Beverly Road in Brooklyn tomorrow at 12:30 p.m., and a drive-through mobile testing facility opened at the Club House at Aqueduct Race Track Parking Lot, 110-00 Rockaway Blvd, in Queens on Monday April 6th. In addition, the state is opening three walk-in facilities at health care centers in the South Bronx; Jamaica, Queens; and in Brownsville, Brooklyn. The walk-in facilities will open next week and will be by appointment only.

Source: The Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo 

Dying Young: COVID-19 is Killing More and More People in Their 20s

THE G-MAN INTERVIEWS: JEFFREY WILLIAMS-MAISONET

Reporter Loses Close Friend to the Virus, Issues
Strong Message to President Trump and NYC Youth

By Gary Glennell Toms

Jeffrey Williams-Maisonet is an activist and reporter in Rockaway, New York. Born and raised in the heavily-populated and popular beachfront community, he also views himself as an advocate for all New Yorkers. In 2019, he graduated from the Borough of Manhattan Community College with an Associate’s Degree in Business Management and plans to enroll in Brooklyn College to obtain a Bachelor's Degree in Communications.

The ambitious and inquisitive 25-year-old launched his own news site in 2015, which he named Rockaway Primetime Reporting, in order to make residents in the eastern and western sectors more aware of the issues impacting the peninsula. Eventually, with the help of elected officials and community members, Rockaway Primetime Reporting attracted viewers from not just the New York City area, but all over the country. “The best thing about that is the fact that people were learning about the Rockaways, its beaches, its history, and how resilient this community is and has been in the wake of the September 11th attacks and the crash of Flight 587,” said Maisonet.

According to the aspiring communications major, accomplishing his goals would serve as confirmation that young people are more than capable of assuming responsibility and leadership roles. “I can think of no better way to repay those who invested their time in me, namely my parents and mentors, than to become a leader in my community and help others of my generation do the same,” he said.

For the sake of full disclosure, I served as a mentor to Mr. Maisonet for several years. He recently informed me that his close friend, Brandon, died of COVID-19 several days ago at the age of 24. He joins me for this very special edition of The G-Man Interviews to discuss his late friend and two troubling incidents he recently witnessed in his community regarding the coronavirus.

The interview was conducted on April 8.

Correction: During the interview, Far Rockaway was referenced instead of Rockaway. 

Bernie Sanders on the 'Difficult and Painful' Decision to Drop Out


CBS News: Senator Bernie Sanders released a video explaining his decision to suspend his presidential campaign, saying that while he believes he is "winning the ideological battle,"he is too far behind Joe Biden in the delegate count to have a path to victory.

U.S. No Longer the Go-To Superpower in a Crisis?


FRANCE 24 English: World Politics Review's editor-in-chief Judah Grunstein on the repercussions of Donald Trump turning his guns on the World Health Organization just when what's needed is a boost for the very institutions that facilitate collective global response.

WHO Urges World Leaders Not to Politicize COVID-19 After Trump Criticism


Global News: The head of the World Health Organization gave a strident defence of his agency's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic on Wednesday, in response to a question about U.S. President Donald Trump's criticism and suggestion that Washington could review funding.
 
During the press briefing, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned world leaders to not politicize the response to COVID-19, saying doing so will lead to more deaths. 

Coverage begins at the 37:12 mark.

Click here for additional information. 

Subway and Bus Workers Are Bearing a Disproportionate Coronavirus Death Toll

 
Politico: The workers who toil on New York City’s subways and buses are disproportionately male, disproportionately a minority and disproportionately middle-aged. In the age of the coronavirus, they also appear to be paying a disproportionate price.

Click here for the report. 

Fear and Frustration Rise as Virus Spikes in Jewish Enclaves

 
The New York Times: Rockland County, N.Y., currently has the highest per capita rate of coronavirus infection in New York State.

Click here for the report. 

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

Plasma Treatment Being Tested in New York May Be Coronavirus 'Gamechanger'


NBC News: One of the first recovered patients to donate his blood plasma said he feels "blessed" he is now healthy and can volunteer his antibodies to help others.

Click here for the report. 

From The Manhattan Borough President: COVID-19 Update


By Gale Brewer

Friends,
It's Tuesday, April 7, 2020.
At press time, the Johns Hopkins COVID case tracker currently shows New York City has 72,867 active cases and 4,009 deaths.
The City's Dept. for the Aging (DFTA) has to do a better job of managing the senior food program. It's Week Three of the transition from group meals within senior centers to the free home-delivered meal model (with an intermediate stop at "Grab and Go"), and still too many Manhattan senior centers have no list of who DFTA is sending meals to despite weeks of center staff submitting names and information. (And that's just in Manhattan!) The contrast between what is said in televised briefings or by the agency and the reality on the ground is too great to ignore any longer.
To be clear, if you are a senior who needs a food delivery, you are instructed to call your local senior center, or Aging Connect (212)244-6469, or 311 to sign up for this program. But the staff at many centers we talk to are finding that both regular clients and those newly-added are not receiving the food. 
This lack of communication and confirmation compounds the anxiety already felt by many older adults. And it makes a difficult situation all that much harder on the senior center staff who are working hard to assist their clients. Please email me at info@manhattanbp.nyc.gov if you are having difficulty requesting or receiving these meals, and I will try to help.

---
This year’s Passover dinners are being done virtually; here is a roundup of the ones I’ve heard of:
---
I wrote an appreciation of Arlene Stringer Cuevas, Scott Stringer's mother and a force in her own right in Washington Heights (Council Member, District Leader, women's rights activist, and cousin to Bella Abzug) for the Manhattan Times. Arlene died from COVID-19 at the age of 86. 
I first met Arlene in 1974, on the Mary Anne Krupsak for Lt. Governor campaign, and she was one of the nicest and most upbeat people I've ever met-- and that kindness masked a keen political mind. We stayed friends over the decades since. My warmest condolences go to Scott and his family. ---

Click here for other announcements. 
Source: The Office of the Manhattan Borough President

Earl Graves Sr., Founder of Black Enterprise, Passes Away at 85


Black Enterprise: Black Enterprise Founder and Publisher Earl G. Graves, Sr., the quintessential entrepreneur who created a vehicle of information and advocacy that has inspired four generations of African Americans to build wealth through entrepreneurship, career advancement and money management, has died. According to his son, Black Enterprise CEO Earl “Butch” Graves Jr., he passed away quietly at 9:22 p.m. on April 6, after a long battle with Alzheimer’s. Graves was 85.

Click here for the full report.

From The G-Man and The G-Man Interviews salute the life and legacy of Earl G. Graves, Sr. and offer condolences to his family, friends and colleagues. May he forever rest in peace.  

'Future Hope' Column: Camus' Plague, and Our Own

 
By Ted Glick

“The truth is that nothing is less sensational than pestilence, and by reason of their very duration great misfortunes are monotonous. In the memories of those who lived through them, the grim days of plague do not stand out like vivid flames, ravenous and inextinguishable, beaconing a troubled sky, but rather like the slow, deliberate progress of some monstrous thing crushing all upon its path.”
                                                                                       -Albert Camus, The Plague, p. 179

I’ve read Camus’ classic novel, The Plague, three times, the third time just a couple of days ago, and each time the experience deepened my commitment to taking action for a better world. The main characters in the fictional book, all men, some from the beginning and some later, all throw themselves into the desperate, difficult and emotionally draining fight to prevent a hideous and deadly plague that erupts in the town of Oran, population 200,000 in North Africa, from overwhelming it. As they do so, Camus explores how, through their thoughts, their journal entries and their conversations, they try to handle the existential immensity and uncertainty of what they are experiencing.

There are a number of essentially surface differences between Camus’ plague and the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. His is concentrated in one town; it is more deadly than, so far at least, it appears COVID-19 will be; his takes place right after World War II, over 70 years ago; and, as mentioned above, all of the main characters are men.

From everything I’ve observed via the news, there are an awful lot of women—nurses, doctors, epidemiologists, media spokespeople, some political leaders—who are major characters in the real-life plague the world is contending with now. I’m glad that’s the case. Women playing hands-on and leadership roles in just about anything improves the chances for better outcomes.

It was not a major theme of Camus, but he did address the issue of price gouging, something which has begun to make the news today in relationship to the exorbitant raising of prices for essential health equipment such as masks and hand sanitizer, and even toilet paper. In the fictional Oran, “Profiteers were purveying at enormous prices essential foodstuffs not available in the shops. The result was that poor families were in great straits, while the rich went short of practically nothing. Thus, whereas plague by its impartial ministrations should have promoted equality among our townsfolk, it now had the opposite effect.”   p. 237

It has been striking that those part of the world’s power elite or famous people have come down with COVID-19. Without a doubt, that explains why those like Trump, who tried to wish it away until it became ridiculous to keep doing so, finally had to take it seriously. But it is also true that the lowest-income people, those whose health is not as good, who live in crowded apartment buildings, who have lost their jobs or who have little in savings to fall back on, or those incarcerated, will certainly end up disproportionately impacted by the virus.

Click here for the full article. 

Source: tedglick.com 

American Medical Association President Delivers Remarks on Coronavirus


C-SPAN: American Medical Association President Dr. Patrice Harris discusses the coronavirus pandemic at a virtual event hosted by the National Press Club.

Schumer, Murray, Casey, Udall, and Peters Press Call on Increased Pay For Workers

 
C-SPAN: Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA), Senate Committee on Aging Ranking Member Bob Casey (D-PA), Senate Committee on Indian Affairs  Vice Chairman Tom Udall (D-NM), and Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Ranking Member Gary Peters (D-MI) held a press call to announce Senate Democrats' legislative proposal to increase pay for frontline coronavirus workers.

Click here for audio. 

New Jersey Governor Murphy Coronavirus News Conference


C-SPAN: Phil Murphy (D) announces another 232 have died from the coronavirus, bringing the number of fatalities to 1,232. Another 3,361 people have tested positive for the virus, bringing that total to 44,416.

Click here for video. 

Newsday: Tracking the Coronavirus on Long Island

Click on the image to increase its size.
 
Click here for the very latest information.

Staggering Surge of New Yorkers Dying in Their Homes Suggests City is Undercounting Coronavirus Fatalities


Gothamist: If you die at home from the coronavirus, there’s a good chance you won’t be included in the official death toll, because of a discrepancy in New York City’s reporting process.

Click here for the report.

Monday, April 6, 2020

Why Decarceration is 'the Only Solution' to the COVID-19 Crisis in U.S. Prisons


Democracy Now!: U.S. Attorney General William Barr issued an emergency order Friday calling for the release of vulnerable federal prisoners into home confinement amid the coronavirus crisis. This news comes as at least 16 states have also released prisoners. Meanwhile, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has said he'll release about 300 people from Rikers Island and other city jails, but advocates are calling for far more to be freed. We speak with José Saldana, director of the group Release Aging People in Prison, about the treatment of incarcerated people in New York state, where Governor Andrew Cuomo has yet to grant anyone freedom despite at least 24 confirmed cases among state prisoners. "Unfortunately, for those who are incarcerated — especially the elderly and those with underlying conditions — [Cuomo] has totally ignored their plight," says Saldana. "All of the health experts agree that in a prison setting that is breeding grounds for this virus, decarceration is the only solution to stopping the spread of this virus. And he has yet to listen to the experts."

Cuomo Announces NYS on Pause Functions Have Been Extended


Earlier today, amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced all NYS on Pause functions will be extended for an additional two weeks. The Governor also directed schools and nonessential businesses to stay closed for an additional two weeks through April 29. The state will re-evaluate after this additional two-week period.
 
Governor Cuomo also announced the state is increasing the maximum fine for violations of the state's social distancing protocol from $500 to $1,000 to help address the lack of adherence to social distancing protocols. The Governor reminded localities that they have the authority to enforce the protocols.
 
The Governor today is asking the federal government to allow the USNS Comfort hospital ship to be used for COVID-19 patients. President Trump has already granted the Governor's request for the Javits temporary hospital facility to be used for only COVID-19 positive patients, and the addition of the USNS Comfort would help relieve pressure on the state's hospital system with an addition of 1,000 beds for COVID-19 patients.
 
The Governor also announced that 802 ventilators have been distributed downstate through the state's "surge and flex" system where all hospital systems are working together as one and sharing supplies, equipment and staff. Of the 802 ventilators, 38 were deployed to Rockland County, 36 were deployed to Westchester County, 505 were deployed to New York City and 223 were deployed to Long Island.
 
Governor Cuomo also announced the creation of the First Responders Fund to assist COVID-19 health care workers and first responders with expenses and costs, including child care. The State Department of Health is accepting donations for the fund, and Blackstone is making an anchor $10 million contribution to the fund. Donations can be made electronically here or by check sent to below address. Donors should specify the donation is for "COVID-19 NYS Emergency Response."

Health Research, Inc.
150 Broadway
Suite 560
Menands, NY 12204


The Governor also announced that the state is partnering with Headspace, a global leader in mindfulness and meditation, to offer free meditation and mindfulness content for all New Yorkers as a mental health resource for residents coping with the unprecedented public health crisis. New Yorkers can access a collection of science-backed, evidence-based guided meditations, along with at-home mindful workouts, sleep and kids content to help address rising stress and anxiety here.

The Governor also announced that the South Beach Psychiatric Center in Staten Island and the Brooklyn Center Temporary Hospital at 170 Buffalo Avenue will open this week and will be used specifically for COVID-19 patients. 

Finally, the Governor confirmed 8,658 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 130,689 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 130,689 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:

County
Total Positive
New Positive
Albany
319
14
Allegany
17
1
Broome
76
5
Cattaraugus
12
2
Cayuga
11
3
Chautauqua
15
4
Chemung
47
9
Chenango
46
3
Clinton
36
3
Columbia
59
8
Cortland
13
3
Delaware
29
2
Dutchess
1,189
112
Erie
1,023
105
Essex
7
0
Franklin
10
0
Fulton
11
2
Genesee
23
1
Greene
24
0
Hamilton
2
0
Herkimer
25
3
Jefferson
33
7
Lewis
6
3
Livingston
22
3
Madison
82
3
Monroe
574
26
Montgomery
15
0
Nassau
15,616
1,218
Niagara
120
4
NYC
72,181
4,630
Oneida
100
13
Onondaga
271
3
Ontario
32
0
Orange
3,397
295
Orleans
13
2
Oswego
29
1
Otsego
34
5
Putnam
345
31
Rensselaer
62
2
Rockland
5,703
377
Saratoga
153
5
Schenectady
138
10
Schoharie
11
0
Schuyler
4
0
Seneca
9
0
St. Lawrence
59
4
Steuben
75
12
Suffolk
13,487
1,082
Sullivan
253
19
Tioga
8
1
Tompkins
94
6
Ulster
372
40
Warren
26
1
Washington
19
1
Wayne
34
2
Westchester
14,294
571
Wyoming
23
1
Yates
1
0

Source: The Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo