Staff Reporter

Carr Properties Breaks Ground on 43-Story Office Tower in Downtown Austin

April 2, 2022 by Staff Reporter

Block 16 will offer over 738,000 square feet of space. Building amenities will include a fitness facility, multiple meeting areas and food and beverage offerings.

AUSTIN, TEXAS — Carr Properties has broken ground on Block 16, a 43-story office tower in Austin. Carr Properties has chosen Austin-based Manifold Development as its local partner for the project.

Block 16 will offer over 738,000 square feet of space. Building amenities will include a fitness facility, multiple meeting areas and food and beverage offerings. The development cost was not disclosed.

Designed by Gensler, each floor will offer 10-foot, floor-to-ceiling windows and a virtually column-free workplace. Additionally, Carr Properties is planning to implement improved indoor air quality measures in order to maximize the health and wellness of the customers in the building.

“I think we have a real opportunity to deliver a project of world-class design with incredible amenities that best meets the needs of today’s ever-changing work environment,” says Tyler Grooms, the president of Manifold.

Located in downtown Austin, Block 16 is situated at the intersection of San Jacinto Boulevard, Trinity and Second streets. The project will offer easy access to the Central Business District, the Rainey Entertainment District and Lady Bird Lake Hike & Bike Trail. Block 16 is also close to the Austin Convention Center and the city’s future rail station.

The project is currently available for preleasing with expected completion by spring 2026. Troy Holme and Katie Ekstrom of CBRE are the exclusive office leasing brokers marketing Block 16.

“As Austin continues to generate the strongest office demand in the country, the emphasis has been on a ‘flight to quality’, especially in the urban core,” says Troy Holme, executive vice president at CBRE. “Without a doubt, Block 16 will be an absolute best-in-class trophy asset and we are thrilled to be a part of the Carr Properties and Manifold Development team.”

Carr Properties is a Washington, D.C.-based owner, operator and developer of commercial properties in the Washington, D.C. and Boston and Austin markets. Other assets in Carr’s Austin portfolio include a 22-story, 419,785-square-foot office tower called 100 Congress. The company currently owns a portfolio of 17 commercial office properties totaling approximately 5.7 million square feet with an additional 1 million square feet in development.

— Julia Sanders

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What the ‘new normal’ of living with COVID might look like

April 2, 2022 by Staff Reporter

This is a MedPage Today story.

Less than a week after the White House released its updated COVID-19 preparedness plan, a group of 24 public health experts issued a white paper with their own ideas for moving the nation into what they call the “next” normal.

While there’s quite a bit of overlap between the two plans, the 132-page document by the COVID Roadmap Group outlines additional details and strategies for living with COVID-19 in the future.

Among its authors are high-profile names, including many who’ve become authorities on COVID-19 during the pandemic.

The group began working on the plan at the start of the year, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, Vice Provost of Global Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania and one of the authors, told MedPage Today.

The U.S. has gone a year with one strategic plan, he said. However, after expanding vaccination, surges of two different variants, and new therapies, the country is now at a very different place.

Passengers rush to check-in their luggage at the Miami International Airport, Jan. 4, 2022, in Miami.

“We needed to have a new strategic plan for the country,” Emanuel said. “Having an outside group, which is bipartisan, has a certain advantage.”

The group identified 12 key areas of focus, including:

Air Quality

According to the report, the pandemic revealed the poor air quality inside buildings.

All public buildings should have their air quality monitored and publicly graded. Schools, commercial buildings, and large apartment complexes should have MERV (minimum efficiency reporting value 13 filtration), which captures small particles, and every classroom and childcare facility in the U.S. should have either MERV 13 or HEPA filters.

Therapeutics

The virus is expected to develop resistance to any single antiviral drug, so effective therapy most likely will require a cocktail of two or three drugs.

The report calls for a new “Warp Speed” program with advanced purchase agreements and other financial and regulatory incentives to produce an oral antiviral cocktail.

Like the official White House plan, the report also calls for a test-to-treat pathway, so that all Americans who have a positive PCR or at-home test can be treated within a day or enrolled in a clinical trial.

Vaccines

Officials should continue incentives to rapidly develop novel vaccine platforms, including mucosal vaccines and combination vaccines, with the ultimate goal of developing a pan-coronavirus vaccine.

The government should also expand the industrial base for domestic and international manufacturing of vaccines, and aim to deliver vaccines around the world.

Testing/Surveillance

Testing is not at the level needed to provide a full and real-time picture of case counts in the U.S., the report stated.

PCR and rapid tests should screen for all respiratory viruses, not just SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Rapid tests also need to be ubiquitous, accessible, and free or very cheap (under $3 per test).

The report also calls for an investment in four comprehensive, real-time surveillance systems:

Monitor pathogens in the environment (wastewater and air) and animals (deer, rats, others)

Track emerging variants

Assess population immunity against respiratory viruses

Track hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and fatalities

Long COVID

The U.S. should have a national research program on long COVID that includes health, vaccination and sociodemographic data.

Researchers must get a better hold on the frequency of long COVID, whether asymptomatic or mild COVID is less likely to lead to long COVID, how well vaccines protect against long COVID, potential treatments for the condition and immunological factors that predispose to or protect against long COVID.

Workforce

The authors of the report recognize that there are a record number of healthcare jobs unfilled and that burnout among healthcare workers is “dangerously high.”

They noted that staffing shortages are the main limitation to the ability of the healthcare system to provide care. They proposed creating a pool of flexible healthcare workers to deploy in emergencies.

Equity

The report acknowledged the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on people of color, rural communities, and other underserved groups, and calls for solutions and strategies to “prioritize health equity and the reduction of health disparities, with the end goal of building an equitable public health system capable of reaching underserved and historically neglected populations.”

Other key areas the group cited were health data infrastructure, personal protective equipment, public health infrastructure, schools/child care and communications.

Staff on duty at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of United Medical Center in Washington, D.C., March 3, 2022. The United Medical Center is the only public hospital in the District of Colombia and is situated in the southeast of the city serving a prominently low income African-American local population.

As for the White House report, there are many points the group agrees with, and in some ways, the primary points aren’t that different, Emanuel noted. However, there are some areas, such as surveillance, that he and the group believe should include more extensive interventions.

For instance, according to the group, animals that can be significant reservoirs for the virus should be included in surveillance, as should population immunity and determining whether cellular immunity is durable for a long period of time.

There is also a need to upgrade and collect data from at-home COVID-19 tests, possibly through incorporating QR codes or other patient engagement tools similar to those deployed by high-tech companies.

“This roadmap reimagines how America may live with COVID, which requires getting to and sustaining the next normal, and allows for the return of the routines and joys of everyday life for a majority of the population,” the group wrote.

The report acknowledged that the U.S. isn’t quite there yet. The combined death toll from influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) can peak above 60,000 per year, which translates to 165 deaths per day or 1,150 deaths per week. However, the current COVID death toll is still about 15 times that, with 17,500 deaths per week in February — “a toll exceeded only by the great modern killers of heart disease and cancer,” they noted.

The group sketched out three possible future scenarios, taking population immunity into account:

Their optimistic scenario sees a 20% attack rate with a 0.03% infection fatality rate (IFR), for an annual mortality range of 10,000 to 30,000

Their intermediate scenario predicts a 40% attack rate, with an IFR of 0.05%, for some 30,000 to 100,000 deaths annually

Their pessimistic scenario sees an 80% attack rate with a 0.1% IFR, totaling 100,000 to 300,000 deaths per year

“Even the pessimistic forecast projects significantly fewer annual deaths than the approximately 475,000 that the nation experienced in 2021,” they wrote.

Overall, the report concluded that the “next” normal can be an improvement over life before the virus emerged.

“There is likely to be a better work-life balance with more teleworking and less commuting, a platform for rapid development of highly effective vaccines and therapeutics, better indoor air quality, fewer respiratory infections of all kinds, and more effective surveillance to anticipate and respond to new viral threats,” the group wrote.

“Getting to this better place by creating some of the tools outlined in this report will require significant resources. But lockdowns cost trillions in economic activity, and no one can put a price on the nearly one million American lives lost to COVID.

Spending tens or hundreds of billions now to protect the United States from even a fraction of that toll could be one of the best investments in American history,” they added.

For Emanuel, that mindset is critically important.

“Even if a COVID-like pandemic is once in a century, these kinds of investments are high return,” he said. “We need to think more like a business. This is capital investment that is going to generate more return to society.”

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Originally Appeared Here

CNN Report Examines Alternative Way to Build Homes

April 2, 2022 by Staff Reporter

When CNN anchor and reporter Bill Weir recently investigated lumber’s high price and scarcity, he heard all about beetle infestation, tariff wars, closing sawmills, and all the other reasons you’re familiar with.

He also witnessed a large interactive sticker poll tracking surging lumber prices at the National Association of Home Builders’ booth at the International Builders’ Show in February.

Weir’s nearly five-minute CNN report, “This fireproof material could replace lumber in your next home,” revealed supply-side issues seldom seen by the public. The CNN investigation may not make sky-high lumber prices or monthslong delivery waits any easier to stomach, but it at least helps tell a difficult story.

Like most good storytellers, Weir ends his report on a high note: American ingenuity once again rides to the rescue.

Storybook Ending

Few know that rosy ending better than John Riddle. “The message that should come across is there’s a better way to build,” says John Riddle, the custom home builder featured in the report. “I’m not necessarily talking about the quickest, easiest, or the least expensive way to build, though you can argue it’s that, too. I’m talking about a better way to build.”

Riddle is co-owner and vice president of Florida-based custom home builder Turning Leaf Custom Homes. In a typical year, the luxury home builder starts four homes a year. This year they’re on pace to deliver 12. “Our crews are maxed out,” he says.

Proven Alternative

The building method Riddle advocates is insulated concrete form (ICF). ICF creates the exterior envelope by setting cast-in-place concrete walls using steel-reinforced foam blocks, stacked Lego-like. An ICF envelope is exceptionally resilient to wind, moisture, and fire and offers occupants a higher level of indoor air quality. “Family safety and better indoor air are top of mind with our owners,” reports Riddle, noting pandemic concerns and the growing frequency of extreme weather events.

ICF construction is a proven and highly evolved building method, a fact that helps explains why Riddle spends very little time these days explaining its merits to owners. Customers typically have an advanced understanding of ICF and actively seek out Turning Leaf Custom Homes.

Challenging Reliance

Viewers of the CNN report will notice the unfinished interior of a Turning Leaf home relies on wood, as well as engineered trusses. “Lumber goes into our homes. I know all about the six to eight months’ lead time required for engineered trusses,” explains the custom home builder.

That continued reliance, and the pricing uncertainty that comes with it, reinforces Riddle’s belief in ICF as a construction solution more home builders should consider. “We need to reduce our reliance on wood. ICF represents a trusted, proven alternative that’s right for the times,” he says.

Vast Opportunity

What does Riddle say to builders looking to explore options? “Invest in knowledge. Go to YouTube. Consult ICF manufacturers. Most have great training programs. Try a project. Focus solely on quality, not ICF installation speed, which many tout.

“Be willing to think just a little bit differently. Vast opportunities await you. I guarantee it.”

Learn more about a better way to build homes with more resilience and improved indoor air quality.

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Originally Appeared Here

Bentonville nonprofit creates lasting change with clean water

April 2, 2022 by Staff Reporter

Every two minutes, a child under 5 will die somewhere in the world simply because they didn’t have clean water. Lifewater International, a Christian clean water nonprofit headquartered in Bentonville, is working to change that.

For years, Prossy, a single mother of six in Uganda, worried about her children. Using water from a dirty, stagnant pond for drinking, cooking and cleaning, her family’s clothes were never clean, their food was brown, and her children were continually sick with waterborne diseases.

Since Lifewater International dug a well for her village, Prossy can care for her family, and her children are healthy. Having fresh water also enabled her to expand her brick-making business.

“Since the water came to our village, there has been so much development because people don’t spend their time in clinics and hospitals. They’re now able to work more,” Prossy said via video.

One in 10 people on the planet, or 771 million, lack basic access to safe water, meaning they can’t get to safe water and back home in 30 minutes. One in four people lacks access to a toilet, critical to overall health.

The water crisis becomes an economic crisis when people in rural areas must spend time walking miles to gather water every day or spend their income treating waterborne diseases instead of running a business or investing in education. Access to safe water helps the economy long term. According to Lifewater, every $1 invested in safe water and sanitation yields a $5 to $28 return in increased economic activity and reduced healthcare costs.

GRASSROOTS APPROACH
Lifewater International works to end the global water and sanitation crisis in rural parts of the world. With a $65 donation, Lifewater can give one person water for life.

Founded in 1977 in California, Lifewater uses a sustainable, community development approach in rural, hard-to-reach areas in Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, and Cambodia. Lifewater’s grassroots method, ‘Vision of a Healthy Village,’ works in regions of the world with the most significant water needs, using local staff within those countries to organize projects in districts for seven to 10 years, said David LeVan, Lifewater CEO. Data-driven, the organization keeps detailed records throughout the process.

Founded in 1977 in California, Lifewater International uses a sustainable, community development approach in rural, hard-to-reach areas in Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania and Cambodia.

For the first three years, Lifewater’s field team lives in the village, going house by house helping families adopt sanitation and hygiene practices. They include handwashing with soap, learning how to safely store water, creating a drying rack for dishes away from animals, building and using a latrine and keeping homes clear of trash and feces. The team works with local schools to add enough toilets for students and teach health education. Local churches ensure the community’s most vulnerable are taken care of. LeVan said the village must partner with Lifewater for the changes to be sustainable.

“When we go into a community, often the biggest problem is open defecation,” he said. “So part of our work is helping them see their need for changing behaviors because you can bring clean, safe water into an environment, but if [open defecation] is happening, it’s polluted right away,” he said. Once each home has a functioning restroom, the local government verifies the community as Open Defecation Free (ODF), a significant health milestone.

At that point, Lifewater engineers assess the village’s water needs and construct or rehabilitate a water source like a well or capped spring. The community elects a water committee to supervise and contributes up to 15% of the water source’s cost. Lifewater monitors the water point and ODF status for five years after completion.

“That’s what I love about our approach. We go into a village to solve a problem together. We’re not there to solve it for them,” said Jim Evans, regional director of donor relations. “Once somebody’s there to teach them, they not only embrace it, but they own it. You hear of communities coming together to build 8 kilometers of road by hand so our truck can get back to their village to drill a well, or villages digging 30 kilometers of trenches to lay pipe for water. The amount of work they accomplish boggles my mind.”

Since 2016, Lifewater has served 344,000 people, intending to help 575,000 by the end of 2024.

From its inception, Lifewater has met both spiritual and physical needs. “Our vision is, ‘Safe water for every child. A healthy home for every family. The love of Christ for all.” LeVan said, stressing that the organization serves all people, regardless of religion.

“It’s not us throwing on our capes to go rescue them from their poverty. For us, as believers in Christ, it’s not our role to convert people. It’s our role to live like Christ and bring the love of Christ and the Gospel and be clear about why we’re doing it.

“For the people we are serving, it’s not about something they have to do to earn the water. It’s about us being faithful to what we’re called to.”

BUSINESS EXPERIENCE INVALUABLE
LeVan’s resume includes PricewaterhouseCoopers, Kraft and owning a consulting firm in Chicago for 20 years. After selling that business, he led a Walmart team through a three-year project in Bentonville. When the assignment ended in 2020, LeVan knew Lifewater was a good fit since he’d been a supporter and board member for years.

As CEO, LeVan moved Lifewater’s headquarters to Bentonville to be more centrally located and offer proximity to company headquarters and the supplier community in Northwest Arkansas.

Making the organization fully global, LeVan opened a hub in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and shifted programs and roles from the United States to Addis Ababa. Lifewater employs about 75 people in Ethiopia, 36 in Uganda, 25 each in Cambodia and Tanzania, and 22 in the United States.

Prioritizing technology, LeVan invested in systems, like Alturex and Asana, used by Walmart.

“We’ve got to look at technologies that work across the globe,” he said. “We want to have world-class technology so we can use data from across five countries. Right now, we’re looking at a global finance system that makes procurement fewer steps, more transparent and more collaborative across five countries.

LIfewater International constructs custom water access and sanitation solutions in the globe’s hardest to reach communities.

“There’s a balance of being a Christian organization and being the hands and feet of Jesus Christ and doing it in a way that’s sound from a business standpoint. We teach our staff about cash flow, donors, how wells are dug, and latrines because we want them to understand how the organization works. We’re doing them a disservice if we don’t talk about cash flow — that’s the No. 1 killer of any business of any size.”

STRATEGIC GOALS
Lifewater’s strategic goals are summarized in three words, “global, sustainable, and scalable,” LeVan said.

The organization has a 45-year proven track record of successfully getting clean water to those in need. “The model is good,” Evans said. “Now we’re laying the pipework to see how much flow we can get through it. We’re ready to scale.” Scaling includes intentionally expanding the donor base by getting their story out locally. “There are the resources here in Northwest Arkansas to transform the rural areas we work in in Ethiopia or Uganda,” Evans said. “With more resources, we could take a strategic look at what would it take to revitalize an entire country.”

Lifewater’s partnerships with donor corporations also benefit the corporations, Evans said. “Maybe it impacts their bottom line. Maybe it impacts their corporate social responsibility.”

Lifewater’s best years for donations were 2019, 2020 and 2021. Revenue grew from $6.3 million in 2020 to $8 million in 2021. 80% went to in-country programs, and 20% funded development and administration. Lifewater is top-rated by ECFA, Charity Navigator, Guidestar and Great Nonprofits.

Lifewater’s record of success is apparent, but work remains. In Cambodia, Reurng, her husband and nine children dug a pond in their yard to collect rainwater, but it’s deeply contaminated. “We know that the pond water gives us fever and diarrhea, but we have no choice,” Reurng said via video. During the dry season, the family must purchase water instead of buying food. “I have no hope,” Reurng said. “We only wish to have enough to eat every day.” Her family still waits for safe water.

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Originally Appeared Here

‘potable Water To Reach Tolly-jadavpur Belt In 2 Yrs’ | Kolkata News

April 2, 2022 by Staff Reporter

Kolkata: Residents in Tollygunge-Jadavpur belt will need to wait for another two years to receive potable water. People staying in this belt are now dependent on ground water. While talking to a senior citizen and a resident of this belt, mayor Firhad Hakim on Saturday said efforts were on to set up two major water treatment plants to supply potable water to lakhs of residents in Tollygunge-Jadavpur belt. This apart, the plants will also cater to the drinking water needs of residents of large areas located off Eastern Metropolitan Bypass.
“You have waited for a long time. Please wait for another two years. We have taken up a massive water augmentation project for residents of Tollygunge-Jadavpur belt and EM Bypass. I hope you will be supplied with pure drinking water in another two years,” said Hakim.
According to a water supply department source, the KMC has already invited a global tender for construction of a water treatment plant at Jai Hind Waterworks complex in Dhapa. This project, a part of augmentation of Jai Hind Water Treatment plant, will produce 20 million gallons of potable water every day. Another water treatment plant will come up at Briji, near New Garia. These two plants will take care of the water supply needs of around 10 wards that are located off EM Bypass or in the Tollygunge-Jadavpur belt.
The KMC water supply department official said besides setting up the water treatment plants, the civic body will also build several capsule water booster pumping stations so that the potable water from the treatment plants reach the households in uniform pressure.
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Originally Appeared Here

FWCS using COVID aid to improve air quality in schools

April 2, 2022 by Staff Reporter

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) — Improving air quality in the 49 schools at Fort Wayne Community Schools has been in progress for a while.

Now, with federal COVID-related dollars available to public schools to let fresh air in and reduce the spread of germs, FWCS is making greater improvements that already have reduced absenteeism from students and staff and visits to the health clinic.

The district will spend 68% of nearly $75 million in so-called ESSER funds on HVAC and ventilation related projects, Darren Hess, FWCS director of facilities said Wednesday. He met with WANE 15 Thursday at Brentwood Elementary School where two classrooms were in the process of being renovated with Temspec univentilators, a Canadian model destined for more than 300 FWCS classrooms throughout 11 buildings. About 98% will be used to improve air quality, Hess added.

The univentilator by Temspec that will be installed in 300 classrooms at Fort Wayne Community Schools.

“They (the projects) weren’t currently planned or funded through our capital projects funds or referendum dollars but they were always planned in the future,” Hess said Wednesday. The funding allows the district to make the improvements sooner.

Hess said the univentilators will help alleviate trips to the nurse’s clinic for breathing treatments.

Hess spoke in a classroom where renovations were taking place, a brand new univentilator already installed and a MERV-13 filter used to filter pollutants from the air nearby, Hess said. One of the challenges in renovating HVAC and air quality systems is the equipment availability from manufacturers who are overwhelmed with orders. There’s also competition to get contractors, Hess said.

“We’re still waiting on some equipment to show up. We’ve got contractors ready. We’ve got sheetmetal going in as much as we can ahead of time, but until that equipment shows up, we’re kind of waiting,” Hess said, adding that the projects will be finished over a two-year time frame.

With the new equipment, fresh air exchanges will take place more than the five times a day, as recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency. Brand new and unexpected at this time is the Global Plasma Systems Ionization equipment at $3.2 million, that will be installed in larger areas like cafeterias.

The district investigated the needlepoint ionization equipment through tracking and monitoring it and found it was a “proven device,” Hess said. The equipment emits positive ions into air supply that attach themselves to bad particulates, making them large. The larger particles pass through the return side and are filtered out, cleaning the air.

A MERV-13 filter used to filter pollutants and make the air quality much better in classrooms.

According to an EPA-issued report in November, nearly 20% of America’s population are school kids who spend their days inside elementary and secondary schools and nearly one quarter of those schools report unsatisfactory ventilation with nearly 20 percent reporting unsatisfactory indoor air quality.

With the CDC establishing that COVID was spread through the air, the federal government focused on “Clean Air in Buildings Challenge,” encouraging people to adopt a strategy that allowed open windows, air filtration systems such as HEPA or MERV-13 and adding ultraviolet germicidal irradiation systems to HVAC units. Studies show that with five air changes an hour reducing transmission risk by half, FWCS will go better than that. Hess estimates that the air will be changed more than 8 times an hour, he said.

FWCS isn’t the only school district to use ESSER funds to improve air quality. Tamyra Kelly, spokeswoman for the East Allen School District, said the district is currently renovating the HVAC system at Leo High School. Kelly and Paulette Nellems, an EACS board member, said that $7 million has been spent to improve air quality at EACS schools.

“We have plans to upgrade all of our buildings’ HVAC after board approval,” Kelly wrote in an email.

At Huntington North High School, where air quality was a major issue during a 2019 referendum that did not pass, school officials reported children getting sick from poor air quality. Chad Daugherty, Huntington Schools superintendent, said with the ESSER funds the district will spend $3.2 on HVAC.

The improvements will take place at Lincoln, Flint Springs and Andrews elementary schools and boilers and chillers at Horace Mann elementary school and Riverview Middle Schools. At Crestview elementary, the money will be used for boilers only and at the Salamonie Schools, boilers and chillers will be renovated, Daugherty said.

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The Masks Came Off and the Bugs Are Back

April 2, 2022 by Staff Reporter

“In the weeks after the mask mandate was lifted, there has been an increase in flu cases, influenza A predominantly,” said Stony Brook Southampton Hospital’s chief medical officer, Dr. Fredric Weinbaum.

The masks mostly came off as Covid-19 infections waned from February into March, but did that contribute to the rise in other respiratory illnesses like the flu?

“In prior years, this is when flu season is just ending, but right now, it’s just starting,” said Dr. Gail Schonfeld, whose East End Pediatrics practice in East Hampton has seen an average of five cases of flu each day over the past two weeks.

Statistics show that influenza is on the rise now, with the lifting of mask mandates as a potential driving factor, some health care professionals here said this week.

Dr. Schonfeld called it “a distinct possibility, just in my observation.”

Anecdotally, an awful lot of people are getting sick with one thing or another.

Data from the New York State Health Department show that cases of the flu across New York rose by 49 percent between March 12 and March 19, up to 50,259. During the same week last year, when Covid-19 masking policies were still in place, there had been just 99 cases reported statewide, whereas this year, that week’s number is 2,800.

Stony Brook Southampton Hospital’s chief medical officer, Dr. Fredric Weinbaum, said Tuesday that the increase in influenza across the state is mirrored in Suffolk County, and that the rise comes as Covid-19 rates are starting to creep slightly upward again.

“In the weeks after the mask mandate was lifted, there has been an increase in flu cases, influenza A predominantly,” he said. The test-positive rate for the flu was 2 percent before the masks came off, “and now, in the latest week reported, it’s up to 5.5 percent,” he said. “That’s to be expected from those changing behaviors,” such as going to large gatherings and relaxing social distancing policies.

Countywide Covid-19 statistics show that in Suffolk, as of Tuesday, the most recent date for which information was available, the daily test-positive rate was 2.7 percent. On Monday, it was 2.5 percent, and on Sunday, it was 2 percent. One week prior to that, it was 1.7 percent.

Stony Brook Southampton has seen just two or three new inpatients with Covid-19 over each of the past three weeks, according to a hospital spokesperson.

“It’s not huge numbers, but percentage-wise, there is an uptick,” Dr. Wein baum said. “The national think tanks predict, as a result of the BA-2 subvariant [of Omicron], that there is going to be somewhere around a 40-percent increase in the total numbers of cases of Covid in the next few weeks. That’s strictly due to BA-2, not necessarily related to mask mandates.”

Common colds are harder to quantify outside of drugstore shelves with fewer bottles of over-the-counter remedies in stock; there’s no hard system in place for reporting colds, and practices like Dr. Schonfeld’s do not — “and cannot,” she said — see every patient who has one.

Among those whom they do see regularly, however, are school nurses.

“We have seen an increase in influenza A and non-Covid upper respiratory viruses in the last several weeks,” Wendy Geehreng, an East Hampton School District nurse who manages the district’s response to Covid-19, confirmed in an email this week.

In schools, where many parents on the South Fork rallied to “unmask our kids,” there is still a significant number of students wearing masks, educators said this week.

Charles Soriano, the East Hampton Middle School principal, estimates that 25 to 30 percent of the children wear masks. “It depends on the day. When people have colds, we’re finding that they are wearing them out of respect for others. Always nice to see,” he said by email.

Where colds turn up, attendance in schools often goes down.

“Our absentee rate has been higher than normal, running about 10 percent versus 5 percent,” Debra Winter, the Springs School superintendent, said this week. She estimates that about 20 percent of children and 10 percent of employees are wearing masks at this point.

Jeff Nichols, the Sag Harbor School District superintendent, reported a similar rate there. “We went through a period of a week or two after the masks became optional where cold/flu seemed to be spreading more,” he said.

Seth Turner, superintendent of the Amagansett School District, said Tuesday that about a quarter of the children are wearing masks. “We’ve heard there’s a stomach bug and other things that are going around,” he said.

The good news, Dr. Schonfeld said, is that people should already be accustomed to the measures that mitigate cold and flu viruses — because they were the same as those that helped control Covid: “Social distancing, hand washing, covering your mouth when you cough, blowing your nose with actual tissues, disinfecting surfaces, staying home when sick.”

And, she said, flu vaccines do help. “It’s not too late,” she said. “It’s not as effective as I’d like it to be, but it’s more effective than not getting it.”

Dr. Weinbaum referenced vaccines when talking about Covid.

“What’s our future going to look like? There are elements that we have to think are going to be with us for a long time. One is vaccination and boosting,” he said.

On Tuesday, the federal Food and Drug Administration authorized second boosters — meaning a fourth shot — of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for adults age 50 and up.

“Boosters are going to be with us for the foreseeable future,” he said. “Just like for influenza, we get a shot every year. There may be some sort of similar process with Covid; how often it will need to be given remains to be determined, but I wouldn’t imagine it would be much less than every year, and presumably during respiratory disease season.”

He urged people with certain medical risks, such as diabetes, hypertension, asthma, cardiac or lung disease, and cancer, as well as people age 65 and up, to get vaccinated and boosted. New vaccination rates have stagnated because the percentage of those fully vaccinated is fairly high — above 75 percent, according to Suffolk County, and it’s very similar on the South Fork, Dr. Weinbaum said.

“The behavior that one adopts should be tailored to an understanding of what your individual risks are,” he said. “If you’re very young and healthy, vaccinated, and boosted, your behavior can be a lot more liberated than if you’re older and/or have underlying medical conditions.”

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Originally Appeared Here

New UV light safely kills 98% of airborne pathogens indoors

April 2, 2022 by Staff Reporter

A type of ultraviolet light that isn’t harmful to humans is able to kill 98% of airborne microbes indoors, according to a new study — making it a potentially powerful weapon in the fight against COVID-19, flu, and hospital-spread diseases.

“In terms of preventing airborne disease transmission, far-UVC lights could make indoor places as safe as being outside on the golf course on a breezy day at St. Andrews,” said senior author Kenneth Wood from the University of St. Andrews.

Your chance of catching COVID-19 inside about 19 times higher than outdoors.

Why it matters: Like many viruses, the one behind COVID-19 spreads primarily person-to-person through airborne particles — an infected person exhales the coronavirus-carrying particles, and another person inhales them.

When you’re outside, the fresh air flow can quickly disperse these airborne particles, but indoors, they can linger in the air — that makes your chance of catching COVID-19 inside about 19 times higher than outdoors.

The challenge: The best way to minimize transmitting COVID-19 indoors is by installing ventilation systems that replace the air in a room more regularly than the standard home or office rate of three times per hour.

Those ventilation systems can be costly, though, and even the best of them can’t make indoor air as safe as outdoor air — the most air replacement they can practically achieve is about 20 times per hour.

The impact of the far-UVC lights was equivalent to replacing the air 184 times per hour.

An alternative way to disinfect indoor air is by exposing it to a type of ultraviolet light called UVC light. Since the pandemic, some transit hubs have begun using robots with UVC lights to do deep cleaning, and even before COVID-19, a few hospitals were using UVC to sterilize intensive care units between patients.

The problem is that, while UV light does destroy microbes, it also damages human eye and skin cells, so it can’t be used while people are in a room.

What’s new? About 10 years ago, Columbia University scientists suggested that a type of UVC light with a shorter wavelength — far-UVC light — would be able to kill airborne microbes without harming people.

Since then, scientists have proven the theory in lab experiments, but the new study, published in Scientific Reports, is the first to show that far-UVC light can kill microbes in a full-sized room under real-world conditions.

“Our trials produced spectacular results, far exceeding what is possible with ventilation alone,” Wood said.

Within five minutes, 98% of the microbes were inactivated.

The study: For the study, an aerosol mist of S. aureus — the bacteria that causes staph infections — was sprayed into a room.

Overhead far-UVC light lamps were then turned on, and within five minutes, 98% of the S. aureus microbes in the room were inactivated. This low level of microbes was maintained in the room even as new aerosols were sprayed into it.

According to the researchers, the impact of the lights was equivalent to replacing the air 184 times per hour.

“Far-UVC light is simple to install, it’s inexpensive, and it doesn’t need people to change their behavior.”

David Brenner

The big picture: Because viruses are even more susceptible to far-UVC light than bacteria like staph, the researchers believe the lights would be even more effective against COVID-19 than they were against the bacteria.

“Far-UVC light is simple to install, it’s inexpensive, [and] it doesn’t need people to change their behavior,” said co-author David Brenner from Columbia University.

“[E]vidence from multiple studies suggests it may be a safe way to prevent the transmission of any virus, including the COVID virus and its variants, as well as influenza and also any potential future pandemic viruses,” he added.

We’d love to hear from you! If you have a comment about this article or if you have a tip for a future Freethink story, please email us at [email protected].

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Congressional delegation secures $220 million for fish passage on the Green River, TPU’s primary drinking water source – The Suburban Times

April 2, 2022 by Staff Reporter

Tacoma Public Utilities announcement.

Tacoma Public Utilities’ (TPU) Federal delegation led by U.S. Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and U.S. Representatives Kim Schrier, Derek Kilmer, Marilyn Strickland and Adam Smith secured $220 million in funding to complete design and begin construction of downstream fish passage at the Howard Hanson Dam on the Green River, TPU’s primary source of drinking water. The funding for Howard Hanson represents one of the largest allocations to an Army Corps of Engineers project under the federal bipartisan infrastructure law.

Howard Hanson Dam is a multi-purpose project operated by the Army Corps on the Green River. The Green River continues to serve as Tacoma Water’s primary drinking water source and a key supply resource to hundreds of thousands of residents in Pierce and King counties.

Downstream fish passage at Howard Hanson will help ensure additional drinking water storage to meet future regional needs, while reopening tens of miles of important salmon and steelhead habitat that will increase salmon production, critical for recovery of Southern Resident orcas. The State of Washington’s Lead Entity for salmon recovery in the Green and Duwamish rivers believes that completing Howard Hanson downstream fish passage will approximately double the available habitat for endangered salmon and steelhead in the Green-Duwamish watershed and could be the largest single opportunity to increase salmon production in Puget Sound.

“As the local sponsor of this effort, TPU appreciates the broad bipartisan and regional support for a critical water supply and salmon restoration project that directly benefits our customers,” said Jackie Flowers director of utilities for Tacoma Public Utilities. “We are grateful for the support of the delegation and our tribal partners in helping us reach this important milestone. Downstream fish passage at Howard Hanson Dam is one of the most immediate and effective ways to positively impact salmon and orca populations in our region, and we look forward to working with our congressional delegation and the Army Corps on its construction.”

“My job is to make sure the federal government understands that local priorities like the Howard Hanson Dam need to be federal priorities—today the Biden administration is getting the message loud and clear,” said Senator Patty Murray. “This funding will go a long way in our fight to save the salmon, opening up miles of critical habitat. Not only will this money make an important difference as we work to recover our iconic salmon runs and honor our tribal treaty obligations, it will help get clean drinking water to people across Puget Sound and help protect the region from flooding. This is a big victory for the Muckleshoot Tribe, our salmon and orca, the entire Puget Sound, and all of Washington state.”

“$220 million for the Howard Hanson Dam fish passage facility is a huge down payment for a project that will reopen at least 60 miles of prime salmon and steelhead habitat above the Dam, nearly doubling the amount of habitat that is available. Constructing this fish passage facility will help restore endangered salmon and steelhead, including Chinook,” said Senator Maria Cantwell.

“I am thrilled to hear that the downstream fish passage project at Howard Hanson Dam is slated for a whopping $220M in infrastructure funding. I’ve been working with stakeholders across the 8th district to ensure this critical project be included in funding from our infrastructure package,” said Rep. Kim Schrier. “This stands to do more for Chinook salmon populations than any other project to date. And that is something Washingtonians care deeply about.”

“One of the many reasons I voted to support the new bipartisan infrastructure law was to make real progress on longstanding priorities in our region – including significant infrastructure projects like the Howard Hanson Dam,” said Rep. Derek Kilmer. “I’m thrilled that today, the Biden Administration has announced a critical new investment in moving this project forward – something I’ve advocated for as a member of the House Appropriations Committee. This new federal investment will help ensure our region has the drinking water storage capacity we need to serve the citizens of Tacoma, continue to protect the Green River Valley from flooding, and help advance the ongoing work of reopening prime habitat for salmon and steelhead populations – which will also support the endangered Southern Resident orca population. It does all of this while ensuring that the cost of this project doesn’t fall on Washington taxpayers alone. It’s an exciting day for our region!”

“Construction of the Fish Passage Facility and Additional Water Storage Project at Howard Hanson Dam is instrumental to the future of our region,” said Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland. “It opens up dozens of miles of critically needed salmon habitat and increases clean water supply for communities in Pierce County. I have been advocating for this project for over a decade, and I am delighted to see the Biden Administration’s recognition of the importance of this project through $220 million in dedicated funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. I look forward to working with my colleagues and the Administration to complete this project.”

“I am thrilled that funding made available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is being dedicated to the Howard Hanson Dam in Washington State – a crucial development for the Puget Sound region. This funding will enable a multi-benefit infrastructure project that will increase water storage capacity, manage flood risk, and restore the surrounding ecosystem,” said Representative Adam Smith. “Importantly, these investments will advance work on the downstream fish passage facility for migrating salmon and steelhead populations, which also support the endangered Southern Resident orca population – a major priority for Washington state. I look forward to the completion of this project, which will benefit the wildlife and communities of our region for generations to come.”

In addition to the positive impacts on regional salmon populations, the funding will increase municipal and industrial drinking water supply to Tacoma Public Utilities and maintain dam performance to support the primary drinking water needs for Tacoma Water customers.

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Regional initiative deserves support [letter] | Letters To The Editor

April 2, 2022 by Staff Reporter

Why is there gridlock surrounding Pennsylvania’s attempt to become the 12th state to actively participate in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative?

In using the regional initiative as a vehicle to attempt to wrest executive authority from our governor, I believe that some legislators we sent to make laws on our behalf have been more attentive to the fossil fuel industry than to those of us who pay their salaries and expenses.

Last summer, the Ohio River Valley Institute found that most Pennsylvania voters no longer have a love affair with fracking: “The poll shows that voters across demographics are deeply concerned about the impacts of drilling — and a majority want to end fracking altogether.” Read the whole survey for yourself at bit.ly/PApoll21.

Some of our legislators seem to have done everything they can think of, short of importing a boa constrictor to strangle the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. In my view, they have not proposed a viable alternative to the benefits possible through the regional initiative — such as less water contamination, less air pollution, retraining people in the extraction industry and providing support for communities suffering because of the declining extraction business.

What was once regarded in Pennsylvania as lifeblood — fossil fuel extraction — has poisoned our water and polluted our air. We supported it and it can no longer support us. Now we must clean up!

Our children deserve clean air, clean water, clean streets, a good education and a clean, well-paying job. Support the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative!

Kenneth Brown, M.D.

Manheim Township

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