I have brought three fictional characters in to discuss their thoughts for 2021. Please welcome Yoda from the “Star Wars” series, Jack Ryan from Tom Clancy books, and Jane Craig from the film “Broadcast News.” I will call you all by your first names. Well, except for you, Yoda.
TBR: After such a tumultuous 2020, I wanted to ask you what you all thought would likely happen next year.
Yoda: Tough to say, the future is. If the answers you don’t like, the questions you must change.
Jack: Look, I’m not sure what we’re doing here, but I think the vaccine offers real hope for change. Your world, such as it is, should be able to move in the right direction.
Jane: The trends at this point are horrific. You have enormous numbers of positive tests each day, hospitalizations are up and the number of dead continues to rise.
TBR: Yoda, you’re kind of off point and sound like a backwards fortune cookie. Jack, I appreciate the optimism and Jane, I think you’re focusing on the negatives.
Jane: We can’t preclude the possibility that the positive infections will continue to climb for months. While it’d be swell to have a big party to celebrate the vaccine and the return to whatever version of normal each of us has, it’s important that we protect ourselves and our families.
Jack: She’s right. Everyone doesn’t have the vaccine and everyone hasn’t taken it, which means we won’t reach herd immunity for a while. While this is killing the entertainment industry, among so many others, it’s necessary for us to sit tight for a while. At the same time, we need to consider the possibility that other governments will become opportunistic about this messy transition at the White House. We need to protect ourselves and remain vigilant. This is a dangerous time, in so many ways, and we need to analyze all kinds of traffic.
Yoda: Know something about vigilance, do I. Messy, this world has become. Goodness, hope and optimism, there remains. Effort to get there will it take.
TBR: Jane, this question, in particular, seems right up your alley. What do you think about the news business in 2021?
Jane: I’m not going to lie to you, it’s been a tough year for everyone, particularly in the news business. We are not the enemy. When we do our jobs well, people get to hear the truth. They can make informed decisions that affect their lives. Are there problems? Of course, but that doesn’t make the entire industry corrupt, any more than it would in any other business.
Yoda: Inside each of us, the enemy resides. Confront it, we must.
Jack: I’ve dealt with journalists all the time. They are a competitive group, I’ll give them that, but they are necessary to shine light, at the right time, on everything from the fight against the virus to the battle against corrupt governments.
TBR: Do you think we’ve learned any lessons from 2020?
Jack: It’s been a brutal year and so many people have lost so much. The numbers don’t tell the entire story. We can only live with what we know: we can protect ourselves and our family through policies that have nothing to do with politics. Careful analysis and science brought us the vaccines. We need to make informed decisions about using them.
Jane: Exactly my point, Jack. We can and should make informed decisions, which the media, at its best, can support.
Yoda: Mistakes, everyone makes. Opportunities to learn, we have. Family and those fortunate enough to share life with us, we must cherish.
They know what happens. They’re just not sure how it happens.
Carlos Simmerling, Marsha Laufer Endowed Professor of Physical and Quantitative Biology and Professor of Chemistry at Stony Brook University, has spent over 22 years trying to answer the question of how processes at a molecular level occur.
Using chemistry, physics and computer programs he helped create, Simmerling determines the intermediate structural changes that occur with biomolecules such as nucleic acids and proteins, which would be extremely difficult to impossible to do at a bench or in a laboratory.
In March, as the United States was in the beginning of various school and office lockdowns in response to the spread of the pandemic, Simmerling endured the same discomfort and loss of control.
Researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory, including Kerstin Kleese van Dam, Director of the Computational Science Initiative, reached out to Simmerling to see if his lab might use their experience and tools to understand the spike protein on the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
Except for two people who were on the cusp of finishing their PhD’s, everyone else in the lab “shifted to work on this instead. We put everything else on hold and it’s been nonstop since March.”
Simmerling said he and his lab group decided at a special lab meeting on March 13th that it was important to contribute whatever they could to this unprecedented crisis.
Without the same kind of restrictions or limitations that lab groups that depend on working at a bench or conducting in-person experiments might have, the Simmerling group could work every day, forging ahead to understand the way the protein operates and to look for critical steps or weaknesses that might assist doctors down the road.
Recently, Simmerling and his lab group exchanged emails over Thanksgiving, during which the group felt this commitment to COVID research gave them a “shared purpose” and helped them feel as if they were “doing something.”
While the Simmerling lab appreciated the opportunity to contribute to efforts to combat COVID-19, they also recently received a national award in high-performance computing. Called the Gordon Bell Special Prize, the award recognizes “outstanding research achievement towards the understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic through the use of high-performance computing.”
The award, which was announced at the virtual SuperComputing 2020 Conference and recognizes the work of the Simmerling lab and some collaborators they worked with since early in the pandemic, includes a $10,000 prize.
The kind of research Simmerling and his team conducted may help either with this specific virus or with any others that might threaten human health again.
“We were not well prepared in science and humanity in general,” Simmerling said. “We have to come up with better tools.”
While he is pleased that pharmaceutical companies are getting closer to introducing vaccines for COVID-19, Simmerling said any such solutions would apply to this specific virus and not to any subsequent forms of coronavirus or other potential threats to human health.
People who contracted SARS or MERS, which are coronavirus cousins, didn’t develop an immunity to COVID-19.
“Even if we all get vaccinated, that won’t help us for the next one, and we’ll likely have other ones,” Simmerling explained. “Science needs to do a better job getting deeper into how these work.”
At this point, the models Simmerling and his staff have created are working and are providing the kind of clues that could contribute to providing suggestions for future experiments. The lab is “now at the stage where we are seeing new things not seen in the experiments and suggesting new experiments to test our hypotheses,” said Simmerling.
His lab has focused on the dynamics of proteins and other biomolecules to see how they move around in time. He simulates the shape changes when molecules interact, including in the 2000s when he worked on proteins in the human immunodeficiency virus.
Simmerling likens the study to the process of shaking other people’s hands. When two people come together, their hands adapt to each other when they interact, changing shape as they move up and down.
With the spike protein in COVID-19, scientists have seen what it looks like before it interacts. The structure after it unlocks the cell is fuzzier and scientists aren’t sure if they are relevant to the actual virus or something vaguely similar to it.
“We only get snapshots at the beginning and the end,” he said. “What we need to do is figure out how it works.”
He uses software his lab has developed with a few other labs in the country. Scientists around the world use this Amber system. They take steps in time and calculate the forces on the atom, which requires millions of iterations.
Simmerling said other people sometimes think he and his team download the structure, plug it into a computer, run it and then publish a paper. That’s far from the case, as the computer does the number crunching, but people like Simmerling spend considerable time trying to understand a molecule like the spike protein well enough to develop ideas about how it might move and change.
Simmerling took a circuitous route to the world of using chemistry and physics on a computer. When he entered college at the University of Illinois at Chicago, he wanted to be a chemist. The only problem was that he didn’t enjoy working in the lab with all the chemicals.
Half way through his college education, he left school and started working at a computer company. Eight years later, he decided to return to college, where he planned to earn his chemistry degree.
“When I went back to school, I told my [teaching assistant] that I wish I could do [chemistry] on computers rather than experiments,” Simmerling said. “He introduced me to the professor [Ron Elber] who became my PhD advisor. That brought together things I was interested in.”
He knew programming and how to use computers.
“Sometimes, you’re the sum of your choices,” Simmerling said.
He and his wife Maria Nagan, who also does computer modeling at Stony Brook University, live in Port Jefferson. In non-pandemic times, Simmerling enjoys sailing throughout the year.
As for the prize, Simmerling said the “recognition is nice” and he would like his lab to contribute to “models to change how we combat infectious disease.”
What if James Bond had to wear a mask? What would it look like and would it become a fashion accessory and a multi-functional gadget at the same time?
It could be all black to match his dapper tuxedo. If he ever wore a bow tie that was a different color, he could coordinate the two items to keep the visual integrity of the ensemble.
Then again, maybe it’d be pink with a small ribbon, to show that he’s finally caught up to the times and, after all those years of leading ladies who fall in love with him at their own peril, he sees an opportunity to show his appreciation for women and the fight against breast cancer.
Maybe the mask would have a bright light built into it. He could use the light to interrogate someone, to shine it in someone’s eyes who was about to shoot him or to distract a vicious dog or lion that was about to eat him, but who followed the light around the room instead. He could also use the light in dark tunnels or underneath pyramids.
A problem with masks, even the ones we change each day, is that they don’t change what our faces do beneath them. It’s hard to sense the difference between a hidden smile and a smirk.
Remember those mood rings, which changed color depending on how we were feeling? A modern Bond could have a mood mask.
A James Bond mask wouldn’t simply be colorful. It would also be a communicator, akin to Maxwell Smart’s shoe in “Get Smart.” By tilting his head once to the right, Bond could speak with M or Q or any other one-letter person or, perhaps, another 00 like him, who would be able to speak with him through their mask. Tilting his head twice to the right would hang up the phone. He could dial by touching his tongue to a keypad in his mask.
By tilting his head to the left once, Bond could order a vodka martini, shaken not stirred, from the nearest bar.
In fact, keeping up with modern times, maybe Bond wouldn’t need to speak at all, but the mask could pick the ideas in his head, like, “hey, that woman over there looks intelligent. I can’t wait to speak with her about her hopes and aspirations. After we get to know each other well, we can establish a trusting relationship and then blow stuff up, kill some bad people, save the world and then spend some time undercover, if you know what I mean.”
A James Bond mask would also be the modern version of his all-purpose watch. Contoured to his face, he could whistle, causing the mask to break glass by releasing a supersonic sound. It could also shoot out a lifesaving dart or even provide oxygen for him if he were trapped underwater by a bad guy who didn’t realize that you can’t drown Bond while he’s wearing his mask.
Given the physical demands of the job, the mask would also come with a built-in coolant. Instead of sweating into the mask, the mask would be made of a dry-fit material while, on cue, it would release a comfortable and sweet-smelling coolant that would also cover up his bad breath.
Maybe he’d have a mask that played the theme song from his movies. Each time he bit down, he could sway and swagger to the familiar and engaging theme, annoying the evildoers with a song that almost always signals a Bond victory.
Snow blanketed the ground as a winter storm hit the North Shore Dec. 16 into 17. Photo by Kyle Barr
*Update: This version of the story includes the number of homes who are still without power as of 4 p.m.
The Nor’easter that hit the east coast cut out power to thousands of homes on Long Island. By 4 p.m. on Thursday, the number of homes without power declined to 348. Earlier in the day, 3,444 homes were without electricity. PSEG Long Island said it had restored power to more than 98% of the homes affected by the storm.
PSEG LI expected to restore power to all homes by the end of the day.
“We expect to restore power to all remaining customers today,” PSEG LI said in a statement.
PSEG added personnel, including tree and line crews, to repair damage and restore outages. The utility had more than 1,300 line workers, tree trimmers, surveyors and other personnel on site to restore power.
“This storm brought down trees and wires throughout our service area,” John O’Connell, Vice President, Transmission & Distribution, PSEG Long Island, said in a statement. “We know that being without power for any length of time is a hardship and we thank our customers for their patience as we work through the damage and difficult conditions to restore their power [as] safely and quickly as possible.”
In an update on the storm, County Executive Steve Bellone (D) described the number of power outages as “good news,” as outages were a “big concern here because of the nature of the storm.” Bellone spoke with reporters at the Department of Public Works in Commack.
“We did not see a significant number of power outages in this storm,” Bellone added.
Bellone suggested that outages may have been lower because some of the limbs and trees that could have come down had already fallen or been removed.
Suffolk County Police Department Chief Stuart Cameron, meanwhile, thanked the Department of Public Works and the police department for working through the night.
As of 8 a.m., Chief Cameron said the county had 171 accidents since 4 p.m. the night before. Police were working on two active crashes, which is lower than they would normally have.
Chief Cameron also wanted to thank many residents of Suffolk County for heeding the advisory and staying off the roads.
Some of the ramps for the Long Island Expressway still had plenty of snow and slush on them. Chief Cameron advised drivers to consider taking the next ramp, if their exit appeared challenging from the conditions.
Chief Cameron also urged residents to give themselves plenty of time to clear their car of snow and ice before they need to leave their homes.
“My car was heavily iced,” Chief Cameron said. “It took me a long time to clean” it off.
Looking at the forecast for Friday, Bellone said the colder temperatures could create conditions for black ice. He urged people to be “careful throughout [Thursday] and into tomorrow as well.”
A look at Port Jefferson Harbor from the Village Center during Winter Storm Grayson as blizzard-force winds and more than a foot of snow pound the coast in January, 2018. File photo
As the nor’easter bears down on the mid-Atlantic states, the forecast for Long Island continues to include considerable snow, although the forecast varies by area.
The estimated snowfall ranges from 6 inches to 13 inches.
“We know the storm will be hitting us harder on the west end of Suffolk County, rather than the east end, where we’ll see lower amounts,” County Executive Steve Bellone (D) said during a weather update at the Commack Department of Public Works.
The storm will also hit harder in the north, rather than the south shore.
“This is going to be a heavy, wet snow, which is, of course, something that creates its own set of challenges,” Bellone said.
Bellone urged residents to return to their homes as early as possible tonight. The storm is expected to increase in intensity this evening through the overnight hours. During that time, snow could accumulate at the rate of one to two inches per hour.
“You should be off the roads by the latest, at 9 p.m. tonight.
While the east end will get lower snow totals, the area will have higher winds, with gusts of up to 57 miles per hour.
The county is opening its emergency operations center today and expects to have it open through tomorrow at 4 p.m..
The Department of Public Works has 200 vehicles ready, with about 19 tons of salt at their disposal to help clear the snow and ice from the roads.
Bellone urged residents to try to work from home on Thursday, if they can.
“Tomorrow is a day, if you can, to stay home,” Bellone urged.
Suffolk County Police Department Chief Stuart Cameron said this type of heavy snow can clog the chute of a snow blower.
“You should never, ever stick your hand” in the chute, Cameron cautioned, even if the device is turned off, because a blade can rotate and severely injure someone’s hand.
Cameron also advised against bringing a barbecue or generator inside the house because they release carbon monoxide, which can be dangerous to homeowners.
At this point, Bellone said there were no changes to the bus schedule. He urged residents to check for any modifications, particularly tomorrow after the snowstorm passes.
To report and receive status updates on an outage Text OUT to PSEGLI (773454) or to report an outage online visit www.psegliny.com
To register, have your account number available and text REG to PSEGLI (773454)
Downed wires should always be considered “live.” Do not approach or drive over a downed line and do not touch anything contacting the wire. To report a downed wire, call PSEG Long Island’s 24-hour Electric Service number: 1-800-490-0075
A snowstorm that took place Nov. 15, 2018 blindsided drivers on their way from work. Suffolk workers are trying to avoid that same situation. File photo by Kyle Barr
With a snowstorm the Weather Channel has already named Gail bearing down on Long Island, packing 50 mph winds and predicted snowfalls of around a foot, Suffolk County officials urged residents to avoid the Wednesday evening and Thursday morning commutes, if possible.
Suffolk County Police Department Chief Stuart Cameron said people driving in the snow during either commute could create dangerous conditions.
“People haven’t driven in snow for some time,” Cameron said Tuesday at a press conference at the Department of Public Works Yard Salt Barn in Commack. “If you can work remotely tomorrow, I would advise that.”
Similarly, Chief Cameron said the Thursday morning commute could be “much more impacted” and suggested “if you can stay home, that would be great.”
Additionally, he said temperatures close to freezing might create the kind of conditions that favors heavy, wet snow.
“If you have health conditions, it might be wise to pay someone to clear your driveway,” Chief Cameron suggested.
County Executive Steve Bellone (D) said last year was a “light” year for snow, which means that the supply of salt for clearing snow-covered roadways is “plentiful right now.”
As of early on Tuesday, Bellone said the forecast called for snow to start around 2 p.m. and should worsen through the evening.
The combination of high winds, sleet and snow increases the possibility of power outages.
In a press release, PSEG indicated that the conditions could cause tree limbs to break and pull down wires.
PSEG is bringing in mutual aid crews to work with the company’s personnel on the island.
“Our workforce is performing system checks and logistics checks to ensure the availability of critical materials, fuel and other supplies,” John O’Connell, vice president of Transmission & Distribution at PSEG LI said in a statement.
During the storm, Long Island may create an enhancement to the outage communications process. With this enhancement, customers can contact the Call Center early in the storm to receive an “Assessing Conditions” message, rather than an estimated time of restoration.
This will give crews time to assess storm impact before setting power restoration expectations.
This procedural change comes after PSEG LI encountered numerous communication problems amid Tropical Storm Isaias earlier this year, during which customers couldn’t contact the utility and PSEG provided misleading estimated times to restore power.
PSEG said residents can report outages by texting OUT to PSEGLI. People can also report outages through the app, website at www.psegliny.com/outages or with their voice using Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant app on their smartphones.
Residents who would like to report an outage or downed wire can call the electric service number, at 800-490-0075.
Bellone said county officials would monitor the power restoration process.
“Through the emergency operation center, we will be working closely with PSEG, making sure they are doing everything they can to keep power on and to restore power if it does go out,” Bellone said.
The forecast conditions may mean that plowing could take longer, as drivers operate during white out conditions, Bellone said.
“It’s slow going in these kinds of conditions,” Bellone said.
Bellone said the crews are prepared and will work in overnight hours to make sure roadways are cleared.
Recognizing all the challenges 2020 has brought, Bellone said it is “not surprising as we get towards the end of this very strange year that we’ll have another first: our first pandemic snowstorm.”
Healthcare workers Feliciano Lucuix, Gene Rogers and Carolyn Germaine share their stories of testing positive for COVID-19 earlier this year, saying that their stories should serve as a warning during this second viral wave. Photos from St. Catherine and Mather
Health care professionals often sympathize with their patients, offering support as they deal with painful and difficult symptoms. With COVID-19, some health care professionals in the local area also became patients themselves. Feliciano Lucuix, Gene Rogers, two patient care assistants at St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center, and Carolyn Germaine, Director of Nursing for the Transitional Care Unit at Mather Hospital, shared their experiences with TBR News Media.
Feliciano Lucuix
Feliciano Lucuix, whose last name is pronounced like “lou quicks,” battled through COVID-19 in the first few weeks after the pandemic hit Long Island. A patient care assistant at St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center, she was in a restroom in March with a COVID-19 patient who vomited on her. Days later, she said she had a high fever and struggled to breathe.
Feliciano Lucuix, a patient care assistant at St. Catherine hospital, was a COVID patient herself earlier this year. Photo from St. Catherine
When her symptoms started, she had a 99.7-degree fever and pain throughout her body. She lost her sense of smell and her fever climbed to 102.8. She took a COVID test, which would take three days to provide results.
Before her diagnosis, she reached a point where she couldn’t tolerate losing her appetite and having her throat “feel like sandpaper,” she said.
Lucuix, who never smoked and practices yoga twice a week and swims, drove herself to the hospital, where she remained for six days, from March 24 through March 30. During that time, her daughter and son couldn’t visit.
Her son called every day and spoke to the nurses. Lucuix said he didn’t believe her when she said she was okay. The son also spoke with the doctor, who said his mother’s condition was improving.
While she endured challenging symptoms and discomfort, she appreciated the help and attention she received.
“Everybody take care of me wonderful,” said Lucuix, who was born in Argentina to an Italian mother and a French father and speaks Spanish, Italian, English and some French.
Even after she left St. Catherine, she couldn’t return to work for 37 days, as she traversed the slow road to recovery.
During Lucuix’s rehabilitation, her son, whose wife had his first child and Lucuix’s fourth grandchild, urged her to consider retiring.
Lucuix couldn’t wait to return to the COVID floor at St. Catherine. She has used her experience to offer patients on her floor empathy and support.
“I tell my patients, I take their hands, I say, ‘Listen, I was in there, too. I know what you’re feeling,’” she said. “I know you’re scared. I know you’re feeling you can die. If I can do it” then the patient can, too.
COVID-19 continued to affect her in other ways, even after her fever broke and she started to recover. Lucuix had headaches and started to lose her hair. She also had trouble sleeping, as viral nightmares interrupted her rest. Her doctor recommended that she speak with a therapist.
“I feel more comfortable every day,” she said.
Lucuix does what she can to protect herself, including taking vitamins, using personal protective equipment and washing her hands regularly.
Lucuix shares her experiences with her coworkers and her patients. She has also donated her antibody-filled plasma twice.
“I donated blood so other people can survive,” Lucuix said. “I’m proud to do that.”
Lucuix’s daughter, who works as a Patient Care Assistant, is following in her footsteps. Her daughter has applied to nursing programs to study to become a registered nurse. Lucuix with her granddaughter about considering the same field.
They would “like her to follow” in their footsteps, Lucuix said.
Lucuix said she is prepared to help patients during the second wave, which started to hit the Long Island community amid the colder weather and as families and friends gather in smaller groups.
“I’m ready to fight again,” Lucuix said. “I want to be strong for my patients, strong for my family.”
Gene Rogers
A patient care assistant at St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center, Gene Rogers started to feel ill March 23. He had a 101-degree temperature and was told to take a few days off, drink plenty of fluids, and take Motrin. He locked himself in his room, in case he had COVID, preventing his wife Bethan Walker-Rogers, their 16-year old son Phoenix and 10-year old son Charlie and even his dogs from having any contact with him.
St. Catherine Patient Care Assistant Gene Rogers suffered in th ER during his own bout with COVID. Photo from St. Catherine
Two days later, he was so uncomfortable that he decided he needed to go to the hospital. Walker-Rogers asked if she wanted her to drive him, but he said she should stay home and take care of their younger children. The Rogers also have an older child, Maya, who is 21.
As he drove, Rogers said he felt the car swerving when he passed a police officer.
“I was shocked he didn’t pull me over,” Rogers said.
When he arrived at St. Catherine, his temperature had spiked to 103.8.
Mary Jane Finnegan, Chief Nursing Officer at St. Catherine, offered Rogers reassurance.
“I don’t remember the whole thing about the ER that night,” Rogers said. “I remember [Finnegan] coming over to me and saying, ‘We’re going to take good care of you.’”
Like Lucuix, Rogers had no appetite. He was also having trouble breathing. The nurses kept telling him to lay on his stomach.
He had an odd sensation in his feet and was achy. He was in the hospital for eight days.
Rogers felt that the entire staff lived up to Finnegan’s promise. When he had a fever of 104.1, the nurses put ice packs under his arms.
“I’m putting them at risk while they are taking care of me,” he thought to himself on the bed. “Everyone I see, I try to say, ‘Thank you.’”
Walker-Rogers works in the dietary department at St. Catherine. Even while he was in the hospital, she couldn’t visit. She did walk by and look in the window, but she wasn’t allowed in.
Rogers entered the hospital on March 26 and was discharged April 3.
Although he was eager to return to work, a low-grade fever and, eventually, double pneumonia, kept him out for seven weeks.
Yet again, he isolated from the family and his dogs, who were scratching at the door regularly to see him.
During the worst of his condition, Rogers lost 35 pounds, which, he said, he has since regained.
Rogers added he never considered leaving his profession or St. Catherine.
“The people here are like my second family,” said Rogers, who has been at St. Catherine for 35 years. “I see them more than I see my own family.”
Rogers’s mother, Janice Foote, who lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, suggested that it might be time to retire or to do something else.
He said he had to return.
“I love my job,” Rogers said. “I enjoy what I do. I couldn’t wait to come back.”
When he started to work, Rogers said he was short of breath from running around.
Recalling the uncertainty and difficulty he and his family faced when he was sick, Rogers said his wife asked him what she’d do if anything happened to him. During the worst of his experience, Rogers said his oldest daughter Maya got so upset that she had to leave and take a walk.
As for how the experience affected him professionally, Rogers said, “you definitely look at it from a different perspective, being in someone else’s shoes.”
Rogers described himself as the type of person who is always asking if a patient needs something else.
“It look at it even more now, after being to that point” with his own illness, Rogers said.
Rogers’s daughter Maya, a junior at St. John’s University in Queens, is following in her parents’ footsteps. A biology major, she aspires to be a physician and is leaning towards emergency medicine.
Carolyn Germaine
Of all the tangible and intangible gifts Carolyn and her husband Malcolm Germaine have exchanged during the over four decades they’ve known each other, this had to be the worst.
Carolyn Germaine, the Director of Nursing for the Transitional Care Unit for Mather, had to make it through high fevers and extreme nausea during her fight with COVID-19. Photo by Stu Vincent/Mather
Director of Nursing for the Transitional Care Unit, Carolyn Germaine contracted COVID-19 in March and, soon thereafter, passed it along to Malcolm.
Her husband was choking at night and, despite being a nurse, Carolyn Germaine felt helpless, particularly in the earlier phases of the disease when health care workers weren’t using steroids that have become a part of more effective treatment.
“I feel terrible he got sick,” Germaine said. “It’s not something you ever want to bring home with you.”
Germaine’s battle with COVID-19 started March 23, when she developed a fever and aches all over her body that felt like every one of her joints had arthritis. By the 26th, she had a positive diagnosis. When she started to feel better, she thought she might return to work.
The next morning, she woke up with a 103-degree fever and, like so many other COVID patients, struggled to catch her breath.
“Nurses are bad patients,” Germaine said. “We think we can manage everything ourselves.”
Nonetheless, by Tuesday, the 31st, she recognized that the oxygen in her blood, which she tested on her own at home, was dropping to the low 90s. She went to the ER, where she convinced her colleagues to let her return home.
Another hospital official called and said, as Germaine recalled, “What are you doing? You need to come back.”
She was admitted on Tuesday evening, where she struggled through the most extreme discomfort she’s ever had. Her nausea, fatigue, and brain fogginess made her so uncomfortable that she asked her doctor to knock her out.
“It’s terrifying because you are isolated, and you want to stay isolated,” Germaine said. She didn’t want any of her friends or staff members to come into the room, where she could expose them to the virus that was challenging her system.
Germaine described the care she received as “exceptional.” The staff at Mather regularly checked in on her, even if it was just from the door. Struggling with thirst, she received numerous drinks at the door.
She knew the staff managed through extreme stress. Even in her brain fog, she could hear all the code blues and rapid response alerts all day.
“I’ve been in the hospital for 33 years and that doesn’t happen,” she said. “If there’s a code blue or rapid response, those are rare occurrences.”
While she was trying to recover in the hospital, Germaine said she was incredibly short of breath, even when she made the short walk from the bed to the chair. She forced herself to go back and forth, which she knew was better than remaining in bed all day.
Germaine vomited so frequently that she lost 15 pounds in the five days she was hospitalized.
“I didn’t think I was ever going to feel better,” said Germaine, who also lost a sense of smell that has only partially returned nine months later.
When she finally left the hospital, it took her five weeks to return to work. Germaine credits her daughter Laura, who lives with Carolyn and Malcom and is a social worker at Northwell, with taking care of her parents. Somehow, despite being around them through the worst of it, Laura, who is hoping for a “normal” wedding next summer, didn’t get sick.
During that period, the Germaine’s first grandchild, Greyson, was born April 12. She and her husband couldn’t visit him in person right away.
An avid walker who runs up and down the stairs at the hospital, Germaine needed a few more months to feel more normal.
She said she has also felt some sense of survivor’s guilt, because she wasn’t able to help out at the hospital when the need was the greatest.
Germaine said the staff has already been dealing with the effects of the second wave.
Within a 90-minute period recently, the hospital had four rapid responses, which means a dramatic change for patients, either because of oxygen levels dropping, a change in mental status, a drop in blood pressure or anything that might require immediate attention.
The rapid response call brings a whole medical team to the bedside.
The hospital would normally have a few of these in a week but having four in 90 minutes is extraordinarily stressful.
“People who don’t work in the field do not understand the amount of stress that the staff is feeling,” Germaine said. “It’s the entire staff. It’s every department that works here. It’s a very unpredictable time.”
Unlike the first wave, when other states sent medical teams to help in Suffolk County, those states are in the midst of their own crises, which means that no help will be coming, she said.
Germaine urged people to wear masks, remain socially distanced and limit any gatherings, even during the holidays.
Despite the anxiety, tension and memory of her own hospitalization, Germaine said she never considered leaving the hospital or her profession.
“Nothing is more satisfying than taking care of patients and helping families,” Germaine said. “You’re made to do it. I can’t imagine not doing it.”
Having the virus affects Germaine’s approach to her job.
“Every personal experience makes you a better nurse,” Germaine said. “You can go to patients and their families from a place of knowledge.”
If the job is too easy, Dennis Plenker isn’t interested.
He’s found the right place, as the research investigator in Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cancer Center Director Dave Tuveson’s lab is tackling pancreatic cancer, one of the more intractable forms of cancer.
Plenker joined Tuveson’s lab in 2017 and is the technical manager of a new organoid facility.
Organoids offer hope for a type of cancer that often carries a poor prognosis. Researchers can use them to find better and more effective treatments or to develop molecular signatures that can be used as a biomarker towards a specific treatment.
Scientists can take cells from an organoid, put them in miniature dishes and treat them with a range of drugs to see how they respond.
The drugs that work on the organoids offer potential promise for patients. When some of these treatments don’t work, doctors and researchers can continue to search for other medical solutions without running the risk of making patients ill from potentially unnecessary side effects.
“Challenges are important and there is a sweet spot to step out of my comfort zone,” Plenker explained in an email.
Dennis Plenker Photo by Bob Giglione, 2020/ CSHL
In an email, Tuveson described Plenker as a “pioneer” who “likes seemingly impossible challenges and we are all counting on him to make breakthroughs.”
Specifically, Tuveson would like Plenker to develop a one-week organoid test, where tissue is processed into organoids and tested in this time frame.
Organoids present a cutting edge way to take the modern approach to personalized medicine into the realm of cancer treatments designed to offer specific guidance to doctors and researchers about the likely effectiveness of remedies before patients try them.
Plenker and others in Tuveson’s lab have trained researchers from more than 50 institutions worldwide on how to produce and use organoids.
“It’s complicated compared to conventional tissue culture,” said Plenker, who indicated that considerably more experience, resource and time is involved in organoid work. “We put a lot of effort into training people.”
Tuveson explained that the current focus with organoids is on cancer, but that they may be useful for other conditions including neurological and infectious diseases.
The way organoids are created, scientists such as Plenker receive a biopsy or a surgical specimen. These researchers digest the cells with enzymes into singular cells or clumps of single cells and are embedded. Once inside the matrix, they form organoids.
When they “have enough cells, we can break these down and put them into multi-well plates,” Plenker explained. In these plates, the scientists test different concentrations and types of drugs for the same patient.
It’s a version of trial and error, deploying a range of potential medical solutions against cells to see what weakens or kills cells.
“If you do that exercise 100 times, you can see how many times compound A scores vs. C, E and F. You get a sense of what the options are versus what is not working,” Plenker said.
While scientists like Plenker and Tuveson use targeted drugs to weaken, cripple or kill cancer, they recognize that cancer cells themselves represent something of a molecular moving target.
“There is a very dynamic shift that can happen between these subtypes” of cancer, Plenker said. “That can happen during treatment. If you start with what’s considered a good prognosis, you can end up with a higher fraction of basal cancer cells” which are more problematic and have a worse prognosis. “We and others have shown that you have a mixture of cell types in your tumor all the time.”
Part of what Plenker hopes to discover as the director of the organoid center is the best combination of ingredients to foster the growth of these versatile and useful out-of-body cancer models.
The gel that helps the cells grow is something Plenker can buy that is an extracellular matrix rich matter that is of murine, or rodent, origin. He hopes to develop a better understanding of some of these proprietary products so he can modify protocols to boost the efficiency of the experiments.
Plenker is “trying to innovate the organoids, and so he may need to adjust conditions and that would include inventing his own recipes,” Tuveson explained.
The facility, which received support from the Lustgarten Foundation, will engage in future clinical trials.
The type of treatments for pancreatic cancer patients typically fall into two arenas. In the first, a patient who is doing well would get an aggressive dose of chemotherapy. In the second, a patient who is already sick would get a milder dose. Determining which regimen is based on the current diagnostic techniques.
Plenker and his wife Juliane Dassler-Plenker, who works as a post-doctoral fellow in the lab of Mikala Egeblad at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, live in Huntington. The pair met in Germany and moved to the United States together.
Plenker calls himself a “foodie” and appreciates the hard work that goes into creating specific dishes.
In his career, Plenker always “wanted to help people.” He has appreciated the latest technology and has disassembled and put back together devices to understand how they work.
Prior to the pandemic, Plenker had gone on short trips to Germany to visit with friends and relatives. He is grateful for that time, especially now that he is much more limited in where he can go. He appreciates his landlord and a second American family which helps the couple feel welcomed and grateful.
In 2017, Plenker recalls attending a talk Tuveson gave in Washington, D.C. in which he invited anyone in the audience who wanted to improve a test to come and talk to him after the presentation.
“I was the only one in that regard who talked to him” after that lecture, Plenker said.
My wife wanted to get out of the house and move beyond the daily walk in our neighborhood for her birthday. We decided to take our teenage children to the zoo.
Back when our son and daughter were younger, a trip to the zoo was a cause for celebration, as they got to see animals from all over the world, watch various shows, spend about four seconds reading an interesting fact about their favorite creature, and continue to hop, skip and jump from one exhibit to the next.
These days, their thumbs do most of the hopping, skipping and jumping. Given the importance of birthdays in our house and the willingness to do whatever the birthday celebrant desires, our teenagers gamely climbed into the car.
As with most zoos this year, we had to preregister for tickets. Indeed, the Bronx Zoo requires visitors to use a date-specific ticket.
The experience of entering the zoo was remarkably quick and smooth, saving us the customary wait.
Zoos require guests to remain socially distanced and to wear masks. All but about eight of the other visitors we saw wore masks.
Most of the time, other guests also maintained social distancing, taking their turns to the glass to look at gorillas and apes, who didn’t seem at all curious about the appearance of people whose lips and noses disappeared behind masks.
While we circumnavigated the walking trail, all four of us reveled in the appearance of numerous animals, including an enormous bison and a swaying elephant.
It seemed slightly unfair to the ostrich, who is over nine feet tall and is the largest bird in the world, to share a pen with the 20-foot giraffe, which dwarfs a bird that also has the largest eye of any bird in the world.
Something about seeing all these animals, including a lemur resting in a tree, an arctic fox and a pair of lions, restored a sense of normalcy in an abnormal year. It was also comforting to hear the excitement from other people who all expressed similar sentiments in several languages when the giraffe started to run.
On our first trip out around the zoo, we stopped at three bear exhibits in which the celebrated occupants were either not there or hidden. Once we had circled the zoo and headed back towards the car, my wife played her birthday privilege, urging us to take one more look at the black bear, the grizzly bear, and the polar bear.
The first two bears remained out of view on our way back to the car. Standing alone along the railing at almost exactly 4 p.m., which was closing time, we saw the polar bear slowly emerge, then retreat, then emerge from a darkened den. We suspected he might have a keen sense of time and know when it as safe to come out and avoidlarger crowds.
He or she (we didn’t read anything about the bear’s gender) played with a toy that looked like the top of a garbage can and then reached up to a ledge to pull down a bone with some meat on it. After giving us an eight-minute private show, the polar bear took his bone and, as if on cue, exited stage right.
While the zoo might not be at the top of your list or top of mind, particularly during the winter, it offers a pleasant chance to get away from our own 2020 pens. The Bronx Zoo has a know before you go page, which you can see by searching Know Before You Go — Bronx Zoo, with details about visiting this year.
People aren’t just testing positive for COVID-19 during the second wave; they are also entering the hospital and, in some cases, dying.
Suffolk County has reported over 1,000 positive tests in recent days, as area hospitals have seen an increase in patients needing treatment for their COVID symptoms.
Hospitalizations are now at 394 people, with 67 residents in the intensive care unit. Gregson Pigott, Commissioner in the County Department of Health, said about 2/3 of the people admitted to the hospital were over 64.
The number of deaths has also been climbing over the last six weeks. During the entire month of November, 35 people died. In just the first week of December, COVID has contributed to the deaths of 34 people.
Those numbers are up from six in October, 15 in September and five in August.
“We are not even halfway through this month [and the number of deaths] are more than August, September and October combined,” County Executive Steve Bellone (D) said on a conference call with reporters. These figures are a “stark reminder of the danger this virus poses.”
Bellone urged residents to continue to wear masks and remain socially distanced.
Even as the first night of Hannukah, during which some families gather together to celebrate the Festival of Lights, Bellone urged caution amid small gatherings.
The Suffolk County Health Department is monitoring 13 clusters from Thanksgiving or family gatherings, some of which were below the 10-person limit.
A small gathering in East Islip involved five people, who have all tested positive for COVID-19. Another get-together in Manorville resulted in six out of nine people contracting the virus, while another in Southampton triggered seven out of 10 with the virus.
“None of these gatherings violated the state’s limit,” Bellone said. “That doesn’t mean the virus won’t spread.”
Testing
Bellone said the county is continuing to expand its testing, which “remains one of our most valuable tools.”
After testing over 2,000 students in Hampton Bays, Riverhead and East Hampton, the county started testing in East Islip on Thursday.
The county is also launching a new testing initiative for first responders. Members of fire, rescue and emergency services and emergency medical service providers will have access to rapid testing at six sites throughout the county. That testing will occur on weekends and will start this Saturday.
The county will also make testing available to county law enforcement and partner agencies.
SCPD Limits
The Suffolk County Police Department has reinstated policies to limit contact for officers. While precincts remain open, the SCPD is encouraging residents to limit visits. The SCPD is also providing limited public access to the lobby at police headquarters in Yaphank.
Residents can file police reports online at www.suffolkpd.org or by phone at (631) 852-COPS.
Crimes residents can report online include harassing communications, lost property, crmiinal mischief, non-criminal property damage, minor motor vehicle crashes, identity theft and some larcenies.
The Pistol Licensing Section will be open for purchase orders and pistol license renewals only.
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