SUFFOLK CLOSEUP
By Karl Grossman
COVID-19 has taken a substantial toll in Suffolk County. As of last week, exactly 4,000 people have died from the disease since it appeared in Suffolk last year, according to the county’s Department of Health Services figures. The number of “reported” COVID-19 cases in Suffolk, says the department, has been 201,070.
Meanwhile, some “57.6% of the [county’s] total population of 1,481,093 has received at least one dose” of an anti-COVID-19 vaccine. This includes “70.1% of the population ages 18+” receiving “at least one dose.”
These figures are presented by the department on its COVID-19 website at: https://suffolkcountyny.gov/Departments/Health-Services/Health-Bulletins/Novel-Coronavirus
Also, last week the 600,000th death in the United States from COVID-19 occurred. There have been 52,995 people in New York State who have lost their lives to the disease. The first death from COVID-19 death in Suffolk happened on March 16, 2020.
Governor Andrew Cuomo announced last week that because more than 70% of adults in the state had received at least one dose of an anti-COVID vaccine, New York is lifting most COVID restrictions. “This is a momentous day and we deserve it because it has been a long, long road,” said Mr. Cuomo. The easing means “a return to life as we know it.” Can it really be “a return to life as we know it?” One sure wishes so after a harrowing, isolating, extended ordeal since the disease struck.
There was a realistic front-page headline last week of Newsday: “COVID CAUTION.” Its article began by reporting that “a day after…Cuomo lifted COVID-19 restrictions across a wide swath of social activities, some on Long Island said…they are not ready to abandon the safety measures adopted to stop the spread of the virus.”
The Newsday story importantly noted: “Two of the three available vaccines require two doses, spaced weeks apart, to be considered complete. On Wednesday, the level of adults in the state who had one shot was 70.4%, but only 51% of the total state population was fully vaccinated, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
It quoted a Columbia University School of Public Health professor of epidemiology and medicine, Wafaa El-Sadr, saying: “I feel nervous about it. Our biggest shield against this is vaccinations, and we still have a long way to go to get sufficient coverage of vaccinations.”
Vaccination has been the key to challenging COVID here and elsewhere.
“Take Your Shot” was the title of the Suffolk County campaign to encourage people in here to get vaccinated. As Suffolk Health Commissioner Dr. Gregson Pigott said as the drive kicked off in December: “Immunization is one of the greatest medical advances of modern times. We’ve used vaccines to entirely wipe out smallpox, and in the U.S.” with vaccines” we’ve come extremely close to eradicating polio, diphtheria, measles, mumps, rubella, and tetanus, among others. We are hopeful that Suffolk County residents will look to the successes of immunization and get the vaccine as soon as it becomes available to them.”
But some don’t take seriously the amazing medical research that the COVID-19 vaccines represent. And in nations around the world, there are inadequate supplies desperately needed.
Meanwhile, Daily Mail.com just headlined: “EXCLUSIVE: The post-pandemic summer is in full swing in The Hamptons.” It reported: “People were lined up at restaurants and the house parties…that had disappeared from Hamptons agendas during the shutdown have struck up again,” it reported.
The Times ran a front-page story this month stating: “As reports of new COVID-19 cases and deaths plummet, and as many Americans venture out mask-free into something approaching normalcy, the slow-down in vaccinations present a new risk, especially in the South. As coronavirus variants spread and restrictions are eased, experts fear that the virus eventually could surge again…Experts now believe that the United States may never achieve herd immunity, the point at which the virus dies out.” The article ran next to the lead story on the Times front page with a headline about the Biden administration sending 500 million doses of anti-COVID vaccines “To Nations in Need.” The piece included President Biden’s declaration that “we have to end” COVID “not just at home, which we’re doing, but everywhere.”
It’s not just the South. Consider Livingston and neighboring Linn County in Missouri. Both had “confirmed” cases “down to zero” but in late May “had the highest number of new COVID-19 cases…not just in Missouri but the country,” said USA Today. Their “fully vaccinated” rate: “under 30% of residents.”
With COVID-19 a highly-infectious disease and with variants continuing, this worldwide plague must be dealt with fully and globally if we are to really be in a post-pandemic period.
Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books.