By Eric W. Schoen
Let me start out by being clear. I am not a doctor. I speak to a lot of health care professionals and like to share their advice with my good readers. Why? Because frankly we are all going ‘meshuggah’ over Covid and it’s variants and mask wearing.
I support the wearing of masks indoors and when you are around people with comorbidities. I support vaccinations and boosters with one caveat. Washing your hands, well that’s something you should have been doing since you were 2 years old. Shame on you if you have not been rinsing your hands with water, applying soap, rubbing your hands for 20 seconds (sing ‘Happy Birthday to You’ twice), rinsing them off and drying them with a ‘clean’ paper towel.
No paper towels but those stupid hand dryers? Make sure your hands are cupped so that the air bouncing off your hands is not blowing on your face. That air could be spreading droplets of the virus in the air right onto your face. No good!
The mask policy announced by Governor Hochul last Friday though well intentioned was put into effect poorly. Businesses and the public need more than 4 days to to fully understand the law and attempt to enforce it. The Governor should have given businesses and municipalities at least one full week if not ten days or two weeks to figure out what’s going on. I’ll get into the problems shortly. But let me tell you about my visit to the gym Tuesday morning.
I went to my gym’s Yonkers location for my aqua exercise class. I recommend it highly as it is a low impact, high intensity full body exercise program. I take aqua exercise classes at my gym’s Bronx location Thursdays when I am not on the radio where the class is offered Tuesday through Thursday mornings. I go to sign in and am told by the receptionist I need a mask per Governor Hochul’s new policy.
I said wait, I had to provide proof of vaccination at your Bronx location so why do I need a mask? They said Westchester does not have a vaccination policy whereas the Bronx does. So to use the Yonkers facility one needs to mask up. I thought about that as I splashed through my exercise class. I apologized to the receptionist for questioning her.
A Vaccination Policy in Westchester? Something our poor County Executive George Latimer should think about as he recovers from Covid. At least a vaccination policy that covered those areas in New York City’s initial Vaccination policy. This way we have some uniformity
People were wearing masks upon entrance to the gym. When I looked at the two gym floors chock full of people exercising on equipment, most folks either had their masks off, were wearing them below their chin or were not covering their nose and mouth as required. So much for mask policy! People were paying no attention to the announcements over the intercom that they were required to be masked in the gym. I told the manager that they have to assign a staff member to go around the gym telling people to mask up.
On Monday I went to a major name convenience store in Yonkers open 24 hours a day and maybe 50% of the people were wearing masks. They had the same sign on the door saying unvaccinated people must mask up that was posted before Governor Hochul’s mask policy went into effect. The poor clerk tried to tell people they had to mask up but frankly after some stupid idiots gave her a hard time she gave up. It’s not worth $13.50 an hour right now to deal with idiots that are going to fight you. Not even worth the $15 minimum wage in New York City to deal with people over masks and Covid!
The minute the Governor announced the policy she should have communicated with every registered business in the state giving them full details as to what the policy is, signs that say NO MASK, NO SERVICE, PLEASE DO NOT ENTER signed by the Governor Herself making it crystal clear as to what is expected of them and who to call if they run into a problem.
Another major issue. This law come with fines up to $1000 per violation. But who is going to enforce it? The County Health Department staff is busy inoculating people with first, second and booster doses, a public relations campaign to get vaccinations in people’s arms and testing for Covid. The Governor provided them with bubkis, nothing. You want to enforce this policy. Provide counties with bodies to go store to store checking for enforcement. Call in the National Guard if need be to do the job. But don’t give counties like Westchester 4 days to get properly staffed. It don’t work that way!
Speaking of boosters, I know of 2 people who got their booster shots and died. I had no problem neither did my sister with our booster shots. But a friend of mine from South Africa who is a doctor offered the following advice. Talk to your doctor about it and don’t rely on me or my friends. My friend the Doctor from South Africa thinks we are making too big a deal over the Omicron variant. In fact he feels that it has peaked and we need to concern ourselves with the Delta variant.
The South African doctor made a good point. He is in his late 30’s, early 40’s and did not get a booster. Instead he went to have his blood drawn to see if he had antibodies and if they were strong. They were so no booster shot for him. His father, also a doctor from South Africa is 68 years young and he made the decision to get the booster. The younger doctor explained his rationale as follows. Whenever he is admitted to practice in a new hospital he must provide proof of all of his childhood immunity. If he can’t the hospital will require him to have his blood drawn to check that he has still has antibodies for things like MMR. If he doesn’t he has to be vaccinated again. Why should the coronavirus be any different? Another doctor friend of mine did the same thing and was found to have antibodies and did not get the booster shot. Again before you follow this advice check with your health care professional because each and everyone of us has a different body composition.
Governor Hochul. I am not faulting this policy but businesses are going meshuggah trying to enforce is with overburdened staff and mass confusion out there. We know you want to keep everyone safe this holiday season, but we have to put policies in place thoughtfully giving more than 4 days for enforcement!
Briefs: The Infrastructure Bill our Congressman Jamaal Bowman voted against could have provided funds for the reconstruction of the exit northbound on the New York State Thruway that takes you across three lanes to get to the Cross County, the Sprain, the Bronx River and the Hutchinson River Parkways. This exit is long overdue to be reengineered, repaired, redesigned, whatever word you want to use. Have you been receiving crazy amounts of emails from Bowman like I have. I think he finally woke up and realized he represents Yonkers and a good part of Westchester! His support for the Build Back Better bill does not makeup for his disgraceful vote against our nation’s infrastructure.
My sister was waiting on the South East Corner of South Broadway and Caryl Ave in Yonkers when Bobby Kennedy’s motorcade came by. He was campaigning. She asked for his autograph. He asked her to wait until he spoke to reporters and he would give it to her. She waited . He spoke to the press. Then he did what he said he would do and gave her an autograph. California Governor Gavin Newsome should ignore the members of the Kennedy family who want Sirhan Sirhan released and keep him in jail. Bobby Kennedy by the way was Governor Newsome’s role model.
Every year at this time we pray for those poor souls who lost their lives in the Jewish Community Center fire on South Broadway in Yonkers December 20, 1965. The largest loss of life in a fire in the City of Yonkers. May their memory forever be a blessing. After all these years still so many residents and firefighters and their children remember it!
Reach Eric Schoen at thistooisyonkers@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @ericyonkers. Listen to Eric Schoen and Dan Murphy on the Westchester Rising Radio Show Thursday’s from 10-11 a.m. On WVOX 1460 AM, go to WVOX.com and click the arrow to listen to the live stream or download the WVOX app from the App Store free of charge.
