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HOMETOWN A-4 HOMETOWN ONEONTA
THURSDAY, February 10, 2022
ted potrikus
08 - 2021
ONEONTA
& The Otsego-Delaware Dispatch Tara Barnwell Publisher Ted Potrikus Editor Larissa Ryan Business Manager
Kathleen Peters Graphics & Production
Kevin Limiti Staff Writer Ivan Potocnik Web Architect
Tom Heitz/Sharon Stuart Historian
shows the cases reported per month, and you will see a giant spike for January 2022 — much higher than any other point in the pandemic. Below this there is cases reported per day and, while there is a larger daily variation due to when reports are registered, there is definitely a downward trend to the curve. Things are getting better, but if you look more closely you will see that is only relative to recent numbers.
Truly we are doing well, but by no means have yet won the war. Compared to our numbers earlier in the pandemic, they are still high. The number of cases of COVIDUND 19 inE D the county year-to-date through O F R February 3 is 3182 and the number of deaths is 10. In all of 2021, the founded in 1808 number of cases was 6,032 and deaths was 21. These represent a rate of both cases and deaths about five times that of last year. So, while things are getting better, and I expect until we get the next breakout strain they will continue to do so, the actual numbers are not as great when compared to earlier in the pandemic. It’s not yet time to throw caution to the wind. According to a February 3 report from Dr. Rochelle Wallensky, •
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We’ve been hearing reports that the spike in cases and deaths from the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has peaked and is decreasing. This is certainly true in metropolitan New York. Epidemiologists have estimated that greater than 40 percent of the City’s population has been infected with Omicron even though the confirmed case rate is much lower. Most people infected there probably experienced mild or no symptoms and didn’t even bother to get tested. In my experience among my friends, many have told me they or a member of their family had mild or moderate symptoms of a flu-like illness and those who bothered to be tested almost all came back as COVID-positive. When their asymptomatic family members were also tested at about the same time, they too were positive. In my mind, COVID variant Omicron BA.1 probably has reached a herd immunity level in NYC. This would explain the decreasing case Cooperstown’s offiCial newspaper curve. I looked at our numbers in Otsego County. The most recent report that I have comes from February 3, 2022. You might want to go online and look at the Otsego County Department of Health COVID-19 Information Center while you read through this. The easiest way to get there is to Google Otsego County Department of Health and follow the links. You might notice two graphs near the midportion of the page. The first
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years ago? “OK, Boomer?” So there’s that. On the other hand, though, an old guy played the cards he has in his hand and put the spotlight on something that was important to him in a fully matter-of-fact way. It wasn’t grandstanding, it was just, well, business. We’ve turned it into grandstanding, though – Neil’s fans on one side, Joe’s on the other. As a society, we pretty much do that with everything these days. If you’re not 100 percent on my side, then I don’t want to hear a word you say. That sort of thing. It’s a big chunk of the populace suffering from Instant Expert Syndrome – because we read it once, we’re experts and by golly you’re wrong and stupid if you don’t agree with everything I just spewed back from what I read. Of course, if that same site where I read the first thing comes out later and publishes something that’s contrary or updated, then that site that we trusted two weeks ago now is full of baloney and not to be trusted. That’s the level of discourse we get these days. Lots of shouty people hiding behind the anonymity of comment pages where they are the expert because they have a keyboard and they’re going to use it. It’s corrosive. And as Neil Young so famously said, “rust never sleeps.”
Richard Sternberg, M.D.
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vote with my wallet and will find another way to share music with my daughter in Tucson. It sounds to me like Spotify shrugged at first and said, “Well, Neil, we hate to see you go, but we paid this Rogan guy $100 million so, see ya bye. This is a business.” Within a week’s t i m e , though, Spotify faced some big-time backlash which grew exponentially when recordings surfaced of Rogan using racist epithets and the business scoured its Rogan library of some 100 old episodes. Then they promised to match the $100 million they spent on him to “underheard voices” or some such corporate gobbledygook that they think will get them out of this mess. To those bemoaning Spotify’s focus on podcasts and “content” rather than music, they’re following the revenue trail the same way the music business has always followed the revenue trail. That’s nothing new. Rarely in hisotry has there been artistic merit underpinning the music industry and if podcasts bring in the bucks, then they’re going to drive the bus. One could argue that Neil Young’s influence has long expired and that it’s guys like Joe Rogan who have the proverbial floor these days. What was the idiotic derisive phrase that was popular for a couple of months a few
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY
My patient and considerate son-inlaw, Alex, had had just about enough of helping me carry seemingly countless and too-heavy crates of records from the U-Haul into the long-term storage facility, their home for the next 10 months or so. “Have you not heard of Spotify?” he half-joked as he lugged another crate. Sure I’ve heard of Spotify. I even signed up for a subscription so I could trade playlists with our daughter, who lives out in Tucson. It was a technological leap for me – I’ve listened to my music primarily on vinyl since the days of buying 44-cent albums at Newberry’s on Main Street. I still don’t quite grasp the concept of just picking songs out of some infinite digital library and, for lack of a better word, borrowing them out of thin air. And the thought of some algorithm creating a playlist FOR me is just bonkers. We’ve all heard of Spotify by now, though, after professional curmudgeon Neil Young delivered his “either he goes or I go” ultimatum over their popular podcaster Joe Rogan and his tendencies to amplify the voices of those who aren’t necessarily following the science when it comes to all things COVID. A few other topname musicians followed suit, and so did I. We curmudgeons have to stick together. Perhaps it’s because I’ve been a fan of his for 50 years now, but I believe Neil when he says he’s not trying to censor Spotify, Joe Rogan, or anyone else. He had some power in the marketplace and he chose to use it to make his voice heard. I chose to
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Otsego County District Attorney John Muehl is in a dangerous spot when it comes to what we understand his position to be on the third-rail issues of bail and discovery reform. He can see both sides. That’s poison these days — acknowledging, in this case, that those calling for reform to the criminal justice system had reason to do so but that those saying it went too far are equally justified. “Form over function,” he called it, and The Freeman’s Journal/Hometown Oneonta agrees. We support the District Attorney’s thoughtful approach. While the most ardent backers of criminal justice reform in Albany point to favorable violent recidivism statistics and declare the issue all but closed, Mr. Muehl has his own, more localized and immediate realities: a plunge in the number of drug prosecutions. He’s also watched his successful drug court drop from 50 participants to just three — those choosing drug court in the past, he said, would be in jail “on a fair amount of bail” to give them time to think about their options and choose to sober up rather than going back out onto the streets. Then there are the retailers in the County facing their own recidivism issues; because shoplifting, organized or otherwise, tends to fall outside the classic definition of “violent crime,” few thieves remain behind bars and are back stealing from the same store(s) they hit only hours before. It is a problem. But in the words of Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, “You know, an incident happens and it’s just jail jail jail.” His Senate counterpart, Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, points out a past that reform came from “a disparate impact negatively specifically on Black and Brown communities. If you had money you could get out, if you didn’t, you stayed in.” She noted specifically the case of Kalief Browder, a Bronx resident held on Riker’s Island for three years because he couldn’t make bail for allegedly stealing a backpack containing valuables. Two years after his release, he hanged himself. February being Black History Month, it’s an ideal time to consider these important points of view — the how, when, and where of bail and the impact it can have. The history of bail as little more than a tool to keep minority populations locked up. It is a problem. The loudest voices right now belong to the reform advocates who refuse to consider change to the new laws on one side and, on the other, those who demand a complete roll-back of the 2019 and 2020 statutes. This is not an all-or-nothing situation, yet sadly, our polarized culture demands that kind of sloganeering but might be better served by looking down the middle of the road. The District Attorney says he has no philosophical opposition to the concept of the reforms but that, in reality, “they went way too far.” The form-over-function anchor that weighs down reform prevents prosecutors from doing their work in favor of filling out reports that, in turn, bog down the desks of defense attorneys who now get more useless information than they need. We agree with Mr. Muehl’s fundamental premise and hope in the coming months our lawmakers in Albany will similarly agree that no law is perfect right out of the box. There’s room to keep important new criminal justice protections in place and return function to the process without tilting the scales too far in favor of one side or the other.
Rust never sleeps: Corrosive instant experts
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District Attorney has the right idea
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editorial
Director of the Center for Disease Control, studies show you are 97 times less likely to die of COVID-19 if you have received a booster shot than those who have not been vaccinated. If you received your booster more than five months ago it is time for another. Additionally, according to another CDC report published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (subscription online is free if you want to sign up) studies prove masks lower risk. They found properly worn masks decreased risk of catching the disease by 56 percent for cloth, 66 percent for surgical, and 83 percent for N95/KN95 masks. Truly we are doing well, but by no means have yet won the war. These numbers do suggest, however, that those of us properly protected are probably taking reasonable risks in going about most — if not all — of our pre-COVID activities. If only we could convince (I’m not holding my breath that we will) the remaining holdouts that if they were vaccinated and wore masks we would have this beaten down as much as possible and they and their families would not be at risk. The rest of us who have been compliant are pretty much doing well. Dr. Richard Sternberg, retired Bassett Hospital orthopedic surgeon, is providing his professional perspective during the COVID-19 threat. Also a village trustee, he lives in Cooperstown.
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Editorial Board Elinor Vincent, Michael Moffat, Tara Barnwell, Ted Potrikus MEMBER OF National Newspaper Association, New York Press Association The Otsego County Chamber Published weekly by Iron String Press, Inc. 21 Railroad Avenue, Cooperstown, NY 13326 Telephone: 607-547-6103. Fax: 607-547-6080. E-mail: info@allotsego.com • www.allotsego.com
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