About 16 years ago, I stood on the warning track and held my then one-year old son high in my arms above the blue, outfield fence in right center field of the old Yankee Stadium. We asked him to extend his glove as if he had leapt in the air to catch a home run.
Now, as he prepares to graduate from high school, my wife and I are pondering the end of an era filled with the numerous triumphs and challenges of youth sports.
In the last few weeks, while we have awaited the time outs, batting glove adjustments, pauses to look for signs from the catcher, and warm up tosses by each pitcher, we have been replaying our own montage from his years on a baseball field.
A few years after his Yankee Stadium debut, our son donned a baggy uniform that hung from his slight four-year old frame, standing with his left arm out, hoping to catch a ball I tossed with a slight arc toward him.
As the years advanced, his skill set and intensity for the game grew more rapidly than the developmental rules of the sport.
Station-to-station baseball was an abomination for him. When he was six, he caught a ball at shortstop, tagged the runner jogging from second and stepped on third for, what he considered, an unassisted triple play. He tossed the ball to the mound and jogged off the field, only to hear that everyone hadn’t batted so he had to stay on the field. I can still see the disappointed look on his face as all the runners moved to the next base.
Every moment wasn’t athletic heaven. He struggled to find the strike zone when he was pitching, swung and missed at pitches he knew he could hit and suffered through the inconsistent coaching and advice of everyone from his father to the parents of his teammates to semi-professionals eager to give back to the community.
Despite playing a game of failure, he continued to venture to fields close and far for another opportunity to compete, get some exercise and join teammates who have become long-time friends.
He learned how to pick up his friends after their moment in the spotlight didn’t end the way they wanted.
He took us to places way off a tour guide’s map of the eastern United States, as we drove from single traffic-light towns, with their one gas station and one diner, all the way up to Cooperstown.
We paced along frigid sidelines, hoping darkness or snow would grant us a reprieve from frozen bleachers and numb toes. We drove on roads in which the car thermometer read 113 degrees.
When he was old enough, he stood on a 90-foot diamond, looking from third to first as if he needed binoculars to see his teammate and a strong wind to help his throw reach the target.
As he got taller and stronger, the distance became more manageable.
As parents, we made our share of errors on the sidelines and in the stands. While we told him it was the effort that mattered, not the result, he could see the joy in our faces after a win and the slumped shoulders after a tough loss.
While he’ll undoubtedly play other games down the road, that road won’t be as close as the ones we’ve traveled together.
In a recent game, our son raced back and caught a ball against the wall, in a place on the field similar to the one where he extended his tiny glove at Yankee Stadium. We have shared such a long and inspired journey between those two mirrored moments.
Why, if there are 9,700,000 Americans looking for work now, some six percent of our population, are there so many signs outside businesses seeking helpers? Granted, many of those signs are in front of restaurants looking for waiters and shops needing salespeople, service industries in the main, but why the disconnect? And this is not just a regional problem but one in large cities like New York, villages like ours, as discussed at a recent local chamber of commerce meeting, and even rural communities.
The situation could have some unwelcome consequences as the economy tries to recover. “It could act as a brake on growth and cause unnecessary business failures, long lines at remaining businesses and rising prices,” according to an article in last Saturday’s The New York Times, entitled “Businesses Challenged to Fill Jobs.”
The story, written by Neil Irwin, goes on to offer some possible answers. First is the suggestion that benefits are too generous. “The government is making it easy for people to stay home and get paid. You can’t really blame them much. But it means we have hours to fill and no one who wants to work.” That’s a quote from a pub owner in upstate Baldwinsville, New York, that appeared in the Syracuse Post-Standard and was reprinted in the NYT.
Some people can make as much or more, thanks to the expanded weekly unemployment payments and the various stimulus cash that has been delivered by the government, at least for awhile. With the reawakening of restaurants and services now, there are more jobs than applicants, which doesn’t drive workers to seek work, compared to the opposite, when the pandemic first hit and jobs were disappearing. The recipients of the cash are doing what economists hoped they would do: spending it. That encourages businesses to reopen, but without enough help. Hence the problem. But it may cure itself when expanded benefits run out in September.
There are other reasons workers may not be inclined to rush back into the workforce. Some, especially those with public-facing jobs, may be afraid of getting sick themselves or perhaps bringing the virus home to vulnerable family members. There does seem to be a relationship between vaccinations of people and a rise in their employment rate, according to the NYT. Researchers have found that a “10-percentage-point increase in those fully vaccinated results in a 1.1 percentage-point increase in their employment.” It would make sense that vaccinated people are more comfortable serving the public.
Here is another possible explanation for the labor shortage. Some of the workers are still needed at home, especially women who might be caring for children, some taking classes remotely, or elderly members of their family. The Times goes on to quote a survey indicating that 6,300,000 million people “were not working because of a need to care for a child not in a school or day care center; and a further 2,100,000 were caring for an older person.” Many of those people, especially women, have disappeared from the rolls of the unemployed and are not even counted any longer. The answer here, as in everywhere else, is in conquering the virus and establishing herd immunity so schools and day care centers can open.
For those businesses that have thrived during the pandemic and have been able to raise the wages they pay workers, like Amazon or construction companies, there is less of a supply problem. But those businesses take away potential workers from industries like restaurants, with thin profit margins. And those workers may not return if they have found better berths for themselves elsewhere.
These issues will sort themselves out eventually, as public health improves and supply-and-demand comes to equilibrium. But one thing is certain. The return to any sort of “normal” will not happen without bumps in the road.
Ryan and Aneta McGann with their daughter Mia stand in front of one of the climate-controlled containers where they grow produce on their East Setauket property. Photo by Rita J. Egan
An East Setauket husband and wife are looking for a change that has caused a bit of controversy in their neighborhood.
Inside the containers are movable walls where produce grows. Photo by Rita J. Egan
Ryan and Aneta McGann will ask the Suffolk County Agricultural and Farmland Protection Board to recommend their Main Street property to be part of a certified agricultural district during an April 22 Zoom meeting. Once the request is presented to this county board, the McGanns will then have to appear before the Suffolk County Legislature for a final decision.
The McGanns currently have three climate-controlled containers that they use to grow produce and herbs on their property. Their request for the designation has raised some concerns by neighbors who contacted the Three Village Civic Association and local elected officials. Many are worried that if the property is designated farmland that the number of climate-controlled containers will increase and become unsightly. They also wonder if there will be customers coming and going, and will there be a potential for the couple to grow cannabis and hemp in the containers.
George Hoffman, president of the Three Village Civic Association, said the attempt to be included in the county’s agriculture district program could be seen as getting around local zoning, and that even one container on the lot could interfere with neighbors enjoying their own property.
Hoffman said the civic association is concerned with a violation of town zoning as the property is in a residentially zoned neighborhood in the East Setauket Historic District.
“Many of Mr. McGann’s neighbors reached out to the civic association to complain about the commercial use of the property and how it is diminishing their enjoyment of their property in having to live next to an industrial use,” Hoffman said.
“Many of Mr. McGann’s neighbors reached out to the civic association to complain about the commercial use of the property and how it is diminishing their enjoyment of their property in having to live next to an industrial use.”
— George Hoffman
The McGanns recently began running a vertical farm on their slightly more-than-1-acre land called HydrOrganic Farms. Crops are grown along vertical walls set up in three 40-by-8-foot climate-controlled containers. Each container has its own environment, according to Ryan McGann, where one is used for growing produce such as lettuce, while another can be used for herbs such as basil, sage and even edible flowers.
Ryan McGann said growing crops in the containers has many benefits including produce and herbs not being subject to the elements and the elimination of the use of pesticides. He added selling fresh produce helps to build relationships with local business owners and chefs.
“I get good feedback on the produce, and it’s fun to see what they do with it because it’s a little bit different than standard field-growing produce,” he said.
HydrOrganic Farms is approved to produce cannabis and hemp through the New York State pilot program. However, Ryan McGann said the couple have no plans to grow the products except maybe for a small yield study, to see if it grows vertically in such containers at the East Setauket location.
“Any large-scale production projects will be at another expansion site specifically for hemp,” he said.
He added that they have such a high demand for their current produce that it wouldn’t make sense to grow hemp on a large scale on their East Setauket property.
Bill Zalakar, president of the Long Island Farm Bureau, said it can cost “millions” to grow cannabis and hemp due to licensing fees, operations and security measures. He added the hemp plant also grows too tall to be in a container.
Zalakar said he has seen the McGanns’ containers and has been helping them with the process, which also included going before the Brookhaven Town Board.
“Any large-scale production projects will be at another expansion site specifically for hemp.”
— Ryan McGann
The McGanns have “been trying to do it right,” he said. “It’s not like they are trying to hide anything.”
Regarding adding more containers to the property, the McGanns said they have no plans to, but they are in the process of building a barn on their land. They also deliver the produce to their customers, which includes local restaurants, so there aren’t people coming to their home. Ryan McGann said with the property being a flagship-shaped lot they feel that the containers are not visible from the street, and he has taken the time to explain the process to neighbors.
The husband said if they do expand, they will have containers in other locations. This is possible, he said, because the containers can be controlled through the internet, and he can change parameters remotely from his home. The hope is to place more farming containers in a Huntington location to be closer to some of the restaurants they do business with.
Town of Brookhaven Councilman Jonathan Kornreich (D-Stony Brook) said while such pods are an excellent idea when it comes to growing produce, he said there need to be rules as to where the containers can be set up and they can’t be placed just anywhere.
“It can really change the look and feel of a neighborhood,” the councilman said. “That’s why we have zoning.”
He added it could set a dangerous precedent townwide if the McGanns were able to receive an agricultural district designation from
the county.
State Assemblyman Steve Englebright (D) wrote a letter to the Suffolk County Agricultural and Farmland Protection Board to object the possibility of the property being included in an agricultural district. Englebright echoed the civic association’s concerns that the McGanns live in a residential zone in a historic district. He added in the letter that in 1971, the New York State Legislature created Article 25-AA Agricultural and Farmland Protection Program as a part of the Agriculture & Markets Law. Englebright said it was clear that the intent of this law is to protect farm operations and the land base associated with it.
“Granting inclusion of the landowner’s 1.1-acre residential neighborhood parcel in an agricultural district is contrary to the legislative intent of the law as the landowner’s agricultural model does not involve soil, or land, or even sunlight,” Englebright wrote.
The McGanns said they are curious to find out the history of their property in the future to discover whether or not farming was ever done there in the past.
For now, the couple said they are hoping that the Agricultural and Farmland Protection Board will recommend their property for inclusion in an agricultural district so they can continue growing and delivering locally grown produce to nearby customers.
Brookhaven Town Supervisor Ed Romaine recently stopped by the Town’s Rose Caracappa Senior Center in Mount Sinai — the site of a two-day COVID-19 vaccination “pop-up POD” for Brookhaven residents over the age of 50.
During his visit, there was a continuous flow of residents into the center who were scheduled to receive their vaccine. The senior center has been closed in response to the COVID-19 health crisis.
“The Rose Caracappa Senior Center has been closed for over a year and this was an appropriate reason to open the doors again,” Romaine said. “I am greatly encouraged by the number of people who registered for the vaccine and I thank New York State for working with us to make them more convenient for residents. We hope to assist New York State with distributing more of vaccinations soon.”
For more information, eligibility, COVID-19 vaccine registration and more, call 1-833-NYS-4-VAX (1-833-697-4827) or go to covid19vaccine.health.ny.gov. There is no charge for the vaccine.
The Suffolk County Police Department and Suffolk County Crime Stoppers have been highlighting several unsolved cases on the department’s social media pages during National Crime Victims’ Rights week from April 18 through April 24.
Crime Stoppers is offering fast-cash rewards for information leading to an arrest in each of the cases. The rewards will be issued within 72 hours of an arrest.
Crime Stoppers has been proven to be an effective crime solving program since its inception in Suffolk County in 1994. During that time, more than $665,000 has been rewarded to tipsters who reported information anonymously and close to 2,800 arrests have been made.
“Our partnership with Crime Stoppers has been instrumental in solving cases during the last three decades,” said Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart. “By highlighting these unsolved cases, we hope to bring justice to these victims and their families.”
Cases being featured include: A homicide during which Alejandra Vargas-Diaz shot and killed Albert Luis Rodriguez-Lopez during an argument at Billiards DBM in Port Jefferson on July 22, 2018. Detectives believe Vargas-Diaz may have fled to the Dominican Republic; The fatal-hit-run of 17-year-old Jenna Lopez who was walking home from work on Route 347 in Port Jefferson Station on Aug. 24, 2019. Lopez was struck by a vehicle, causing her to fall, and she was subsequently struck by additional vehicles. The first driver failed to stop. Drivers of the additional vehicles stopped and called 911, however, Lopez died at the scene; The fatal hit-and-run of Ronald Destefano who was struck while walking to work on Route 347 in Stony Brook on Dec. 20, 2020.
“We are asking the public to reach out anonymously with any information to aid in these unsolved cases,” said Crime Stoppers president Nick Amarr.
Anyone who wants to submit information on a crime can call 1-800-220-TIPS. Tips can also be submitted by downloading the P3 tips mobile app or online at p3tips.com.
Assemblywoman Jodi Giglio joined Brides of Long Island founder Heather Cunningham asking the state to lessen wedding restrictions. Photo by Kimberly Brown
By Kimberly Brown
The Brides of Long Island organization, state Assemblywoman Jodi Giglio (R-Riverhead) and other Republican lawmakers gathered at the H. Lee Dennison building in Hauppauge last Friday, April 16, to call for action by Gov. Andrew D. Cuomo (D) to lessen the overly restrictive COVID-19 regulations on weddings.
Some of the state’s pandemic regulations include up to 150 guests or 50% of a venue’s capacity whichever is smaller with mandatory COVID-19 testing, distanced dancing in designated areas, congregating only at guests’ assigned tables, and wearing face coverings unless while eating or drinking.
Brides of Long Island founder Heather Cunningham. Photo by Kimberly Brown
Heather Cunningham, founder of The Brides of Long Island — a website and Facebook group that consists of thousands of brides across the Island — expressed her concern for the overmanagement of regulations the state has put in place, causing brides to postpone their weddings to unknown future dates.
“We take for granted that the world will wait for us, but time can take away a father who is supposed to dance with his daughter and it can send a fiancé halfway across the world in early deployment,” Cunningham said, “It may be easy for elected officials like Governor Cuomo to say that weddings are nothing but parties, but weddings are so much more than a party, they are the days that connect us to our roots, beliefs, values and to each other.”
Questioning the science behind the regulations around weddings, Giglio said the state government has gone too far when it comes to preventing COVID-19 in large gatherings.
“Honestly, does the virus pack up and leave after midnight or 1 a.m.?” Giglio said, “Because that’s what the governor wants you to do at your wedding — pack up and leave.”
Since the shutdown began last year, wedding businesses have been one of the many industries that have taken a hard hit financially.
The wedding industry on Long Island generates an estimated $6 million a year in sales tax, as well as being one of the state’s largest employers.
John Salkowsky, owner of Silverfox Studios located in Lindenhurst, said the wedding industry has been brought to its knees, and lessening restrictions will help bring the businesses back to life.
“People make their decisions at the ballot box, and hopefully the governor will hear that and realize that by doing the right thing and lifting these restrictions will do great justice to this industry,” he said.
Ronkonkoma business owner of Absolute Entertainment, Kevin McClafferty, said planning a wedding is supposed to be one of the most joyous experiences for couples.
However, he has found that his clients are overly stressed when trying to plan their wedding around the state’s restrictions.
“A successful day at work for us is seeing exciting, smiling, happy faces — no masks,” he said.
Pointing out the flaws in the state’s regulations and restrictions on weddings, McClafferty mentioned a few of the over-managed rules he observed while on the job.
One of his observations included the state’s enforcement of “dance boxes,” where guests are allowed to use the dance floor in restricted zones with only the immediate members of their party.
He said this is one of the most over-managed of all the reopening strategies.
“It’s a good idea in theory, but a terrible idea in application and needs to be eliminated now,” McClafferty said.
Brides who joined Cunningham last Friday also expressed their disappointment in not being able to plan their weddings properly, with some brides being forced to cancel or relocate their weddings to other states in order to celebrate appropriately.
“We just want fair treatment.” Brittany Burton, an upcoming bride, said, “The people who are making the rules don’t see behind the scenes or worry about financials. They see money on their end before us.”
With over 6,500 signatures as of April 20 on Cunningham’s BOLI petition, titled Lessen the Overly Restrictive COVID-19 Regulations on Long Island Weddings, the brides of Long Island are waiting to see if their voices will be heard.
Every morning when we wake up, we’re reminded that we are still enduring this global pandemic.
Whether you think so or not, everyone’s lives have been impacted by it. Some people have lost loved ones to COVID-19, some have gotten so sick they suffer severe trauma and some haven’t seen their families in over a year. Beyond the physical, businesses have suffered financially, some even closing their doors for the last time.
But luckily the vaccine has lifted the weight off a lot of shoulders — especially for the young people in our community.
Now that New York State has opened the vaccines to people ages 16 and over, more and more high schoolers and college students are looking to get the jab.
And we think that’s wonderful. They are trusting science and doing so to protect not only themselves, but their elderly or high-risk loved ones.
We want things to go back to normal for everyone, but the high schoolers specifically.
Remember last year when the Class of 2020 missed out on their final high school sports, senior trips, proms and graduations?
Some of them have even been robbed of the college experience of living in a dorm, taking classes in a lecture hall and meeting new people.
If we as a whole do not band together to combat this virus, then the classes of 2022, ’23, and ’24 may miss all those key lifetime moments, too.
The Class of 2021 has already lost their junior year — and most likely will not have the same “normal” experiences this spring as the rest of us had.
We know the unknown is terrifying, and people may not agree with getting a vaccine.
But is it worth not getting vaccinated? To constantly live in fear of the virus, or to not trust the medical professionals who saw death every day for more than 365 days?
We don’t think so.
We are grateful and commend these young people for getting their shots.
The more people who do it, the more we’ll all be able to live as we did before.
On a conference call with New York college students last month, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) presented his plan to cancel up to $50,000 in debt for federal student loan borrowers.
The plan is derived from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass), who proposed national debt forgiveness as a promise in her presidential campaign. Both Warren and Schumer’s joint plan involves using a presidential executive to nullify student debt up to $50,000.
“College should be a ladder up,” Schumer said during the call. “But student debt weighs people down, it is an anchor, and we have to do something about it.”
President Joe Biden (D) has the executive authority to substantially cancel student loan debt for students through the Higher Education Act, according to Schumer. This would also bypass the requirement to present the motion to Congress.
Biden has said that he supported alleviating students of loan debt up to $10,000, and now the call to action is being echoed loudly by his fellow Democratic Party members.
On his first day in office, the president addressed the ongoing dilemma regarding student debt, where his plan was to extend the pause on federal student loan payments and keeping the interest rate at 0% through the end of September.
The United States national student loan debt has accumulated at an alarming rate. An Experian survey indicated the total amount reached a record high of $1.57 trillion in 2020, an increase of about $166 billion since 2019.
Nearly 2.4 million New Yorkers owe $89.5 billion in federal student loans as of March 2020, Schumer said. The average New Yorker owes $34,600 in student loans, greater than the national average of $32,700.
To relieve loan borrowers of their debts, Schumer mentioned that if the federal government forgave debts up to $50,000, it would greatly bounce the economy. He detailed how instead of repaying their loans, people can instead allocate their money for other immediate and urgent payments, as well as leisure spending.
Schumer told conference attendees that the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 includes roughly $2.6 billion for New York’s colleges and universities, with half of the allocations distributed as financial aid to students in addressing hardships brought about by COVID-19.
Some of the local institutions benefiting from the American Rescue Plan for “estimated minimum amount for student grants” were listed by Schumer during the conference call: City College $23.6 million, CUNY Queens College $25.8 million, Syracuse University $15.4 million, SUNY Buffalo $31.7 million and Stony Brook University $26.8 million.
Schumer also made an urgent request for the call participants, primarily college students, to stay informed by reading local and student-run newspapers. He likewise reinforced the importance of those attending the conference to take a call to action to write, call and email Biden and get their friends and family to do so to spread awareness.
“Student loan payments are on pause, but they are not going away if we don’t do something once the pandemic is over,” Schumer said. “These debts are just going to keep piling up.”
Centereach battles midfield in the quarterfinal playoff round on the road against No.1 Ward Melville April 16. Photo by Bill Landon
Centereach senior Nicole Fabris settles the ball midfield in the Class AA quarterfinal April 16. Photo by Bill Landon
Ward Melville junior Kate Ancona (R) after scoring the first goal of the game is congratulated by Abigail Foster #9 in the Patriots 5-0 shutout over Centereach April 16. Bill Landon photo
Centereach Ward Melville forward Emma Ward charges down the left sideline against Centereach April 16. Bill Landon photo
Centereach senior Nicole Fabris with a cross in the Suffolk Class AA quarterfinal April 16. Photo by Bill Landon
Centereach sophomore Lauren Hoppe cuts inside in in the Class AA quarterfinal against Ward Melville April 16. Photo by Bill Landon
Ward Melville freshman Peyton Costello clears the ball in the Suffolk Class AA quarterfinal at home against Centereach April 16. Bill Landon photo
Ward Melivlle midfielder Kate Ancona shoots in the Suffolk Class AA quarterfinal at home against Centereach April 16. Bill Landon photo
Ward Melville forward Peyton Costello (L) battles freshman Grace Lien in the Suffolk Class AA quarterfinal at home against Centereach April 16. Bill Landon photo
Ward Melville sophomore Emma Ward (L) battles freshman Grace Lien for possession in the Suffolk Class AA quarterfinal at home against Centereach April 16. Bill Landon photo
Nicole Fabris a senior at Centereach in control against Ward Melville April 16. Photo by Bill Landon
Ward Melivlle junior Kate Ancona in pursuit in the Suffolk Class AA quarterfinal at home against Centereach April 16. Bill Landon photo
Ward Melville co-captain Jessica Tampori heads the ball midfield n the Suffolk Class AA quarterfinal at home against Centereach April 16. Bill Landon photo
Ward Melville freshman Peyton Costello scores in the Suffolk Class AA quarterfinal at home against Centereach April 16. Bill Landon photo
Co-Captain Katie Cosenza (L) scores for the Patriots at home against Centereach April 16. Photo by Bill Landon
Ward Melville sophomore Eliana Hamou pushes up-field at home in the Class AA quarterfinal April 16. Photo by Bill Landon
Ward Melville sophomore forward Emma Ward controls in 5-0 shutout over Centereach in the Class AA quarterfinal April 16. Bill Landon photo
Ward Melville sophomore Eliana Hamou heads the ball at home in the Class AA quarterfinal April 16. Photo by Bill Landon
Centereach keeper Gianna Oliveri with one of her six saves in the Suffolk Class AA quarterfinal April 16. Bill Landon photo
Centereach goalie Gianna Oliveri bats the ball away in the Class AA quarterfinal against Ward Melville April 16. Photo by Bill Landon
Fresh off their win in the opening round of the Class AA playoffs, Centereach (8 seed) hit a road block in the quarterfinal against top seeded Ward Melville where the Patriots struck early and often blanking the Cougars 5-0 at home April 16.
Junior midfielder Kate Ancona’s strike found the net seven minutes in followed by senior Katie Cosenza who found gold a minute later to take a 2-0 lead. Nicole Fabris was the go-to senior for Centereach but was doubled teamed all game and struggled to find a look for the Cougars.
With 24 minutes left in the half, Peyton Costello’s foot spoke to put her team up by three.
Abigal Foster answered the call 16 minutes into the second half when her shot found its mark for the Patriots to take command of the game, and teammate Ryley Meckley joined the scoring frenzy to ink the 5-0 win and with it, advance to the semifinal round.
Centereach senior Gianna Oliveri had six saves in net and Elyse Munoz the sophomore stopped five for the Patriots.
The Patriots retake the field April 21 in the semifinal round where they’ll host Northport (No. 4) at 4pm.
Stony Brook, NY; Stony Brook University: School of Medicine 2018 Convocation Photo by Arthur Fredericks
Stony Brook, NY; Stony Brook University Medical Center: The White Coat Ceremony in the Student Activities Center. (8/14/2016)
Stony Brook, NY; Stony Brook University MART & Children's Hospital Pavilion: MART ribbon cutting, November 1, 2018. Left to right: New York State Assemblyman Steve Englebright; SUNY Trustee and Stony Brook Foundation board member Cary Staller; Stony Brook University President Samuel L. Stanley Jr., MD; New York State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle; SUNY Chancellor Kristina Johnson; Jim and Marilyn Simons; New York State Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan; Kevin Law, President of the Long Island Association and Chair of the Stony Brook Council; Kenneth Kaushansky, MD, Senior Vice President for Health Sciences and Dean of the School of Medicine; Director of the Stony Brook University Cancer Center Yusuf Hannun, MD; representing Governor Andrew Cuomo, Marta Santiago-Jones, Consultant Nurse Hospital Services Administrator at the New York State Department of Health.
Stony Brook, NY; Stony Brook University Medical Center: Donors David and Cynthia Lippe and Dean, School of Medicine and Senior Vice President of Health Sciences Ken Kaushansky outside of the garden area of the MART/Hospital Pavilion
Stony Brook, NY; Stony Brook University Hospital: Stony Brook Medicine rolled out new Mobile Stroke Units on March 18, 2019, to treat people who are having a stroke.
Left to right: Kimberly Noel, MD, Director, Telehealth, Stony Brook Medicine, Michael Guido III, MD, Neurologist, Director, Stony Brook Neurology Stroke Program, Ken Kaushansky, MD, Dean, Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, David Fiorella, MD, PhD, Neurointerventionalist, Director, Stony Brook Cerebrovascular Center, Trevor Marshall, MD and Eric Niegelberg, Associate Director, Operations, Emergency Services and Internal Medicine
Stony Brook, NY; Stony Brook University: Chancellor Jim Malatras and Stony Brook University President McInnis Announce Partnership with SUNY Upstate Medical University to Launch Pooled Surveillance Testing for COVID-19.
Stony Brook to Test 5200 Students Each Week. Testing Expansion Follows FDA Approval of Groundbreaking Saliva Swab Test Developed at Upstate Medical University
By Daniel Dunaief
Like so many others, Ken Kaushansky had to alter his plans when the pandemic hit last March. Kaushansky had expected to retire after over 10 years as Dean of the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University and the Senior Vice President of Health Sciences, but the public health needs of the moment, particularly on Long Island which became an early epicenter for the disease, demanded his attention.
“Now that COVID hopefully is coming under control, it seems more logical” to retire this year, Kaushansky said in a wide-ranging interview about the pandemic, his career, and the medical school. In January, he stepped down as the dean, while he plans to retire as Senior Vice President of Health Sciences at the end of June.
Views on the Pandemic
Dr. Kenneth Kaushansky
Looking back at the immediate challenges in the first few months, Kaushansky said SBU did “extremely well” in caring for patients who were battling COVID-19 and was gratified by the school’s effort to catalog and understand the disease. “I’m very proud that we’ve been able to study this infection on all sorts of levels and make a real impact that has helped others,” he said.
Early on, as the medical team at Stony Brook met, Kaushansky urged the hospital to study COVID “to the hilt” and to “extract every little bit of data we can. We must keep all that data on all these patients.”
Indeed, Stony Brook has created a database that continues to grow of close to 10,000 people, which includes 3,000 inpatients, 4,000 who weren’t sick enough for hospital admission, and around 3,000 who thought they had the disease, but had other illnesses. “We’ve learned a ton from that, and it’s not just learning for learning’s sake,” Kaushansky said. The demand for the use of the database is so high that a steering committee is reviewing proposals.
Stony Brook had heard from doctors in Italy that COVID patients were having problems with blood clotting. This symptom was particularly meaningful to Kaushansky, who is a hematologist.
SBU studied the symptoms and “did a trial to see if aggressive anticoagulants would produce better outcomes” than the standard of care at the time, he said. “Our [intensive care unit] patients who were on this more aggressive anticoagulation protocols had half the mortality” of other patients, so the hospital “quickly adopted all of our care” to the more effective approach.
The hospital preemptively used biomarkers to determine who should and should not get aggressive anticoagulation. A subsequent study using the database confirmed the school’s early conclusion. Stony Brook published over 150 papers on the structure of the virus, clinical observations, sociological interventions, and a host of other areas, according to Kaushansky.
Carol Gomes, Chief Executive Officer of Stony Brook University Hospital, appreciated Kaushansky’s hands on approach, which included participating in daily calls as part of the hospital incident command center.
She likened Kaushansky to an orchestra leader, coordinating the research and patient care, making sure there was “no duplication of effort.”
Kaushansky believes federal research funding agencies and policy makers will recognize the importance of gathering information about this pandemic to treat future patients who might battle against variants and to provide a playbook for other health threats. “We really do need to prepare for the next one” as this is the third and deadliest of three coronaviruses, including SARS and MERS, he said.
Vaccines
As for vaccines, Kaushansky said Stony Brook was making it as “convenient as we can” to get a vaccination for health care workers. As of about a month ago, over 80 percent of Stony Brook’s health care workers had been vaccinated.
The black and brown communities have benefited from seeing leaders and role models receiving the vaccine. “This is beginning to erode the mistrust,” said Kaushansky, which developed as a byproduct of the infamous Tuskegee experiment, in which black men with syphilis did not receive penicillin despite its availability as an effective treatment.
Kaushansky added that a concern he’s heard from a range of people is that the vaccine was developed too quickly and that the side effects could be problematic. He cited the simultaneous steps doctors, pharmaceutical companies and others took to accelerate a process that didn’t leave out any of those steps.
Kaushansky participates in a group email interaction with prominent European hematologists. Looking at the data for the Astrazeneca vaccine, these researchers have calculated that anywhere from one in 500,000 to one in a million have developed blood clots.
“Not a single person on this mass email believes that they should stop the Astrazeneca vaccines for that kind of incident,” he said.
What He Helped Build
Kaushansky has been such a supporter of expanding the facilities and expertise at Stony Brook that he said the campus developed a joke about him.
“What’s the dean’s favorite bird?” he asked. “A crane.”
Fixtures on the campus for years, those cranes — the construction vehicles, not the birds — have changed the university, adding new teaching, research and clinical space on the campus.
That includes the Medical and Research Translational building and Bed Tower, which started in 2013 and opened in 2018, and the Hospital Pavilion, which has an additional 150 beds. Those extra beds were especially important a year after the pavilion opened, providing much-needed space for patients battling against COVID.
Gomes appreciated what Kaushansky built physically, as well as the interactive collaborations among different parts of the university. “An active collaboration and communication between researchers, clinicians and academics is a very different model” from the typical separation among those groups, she said. The work “reaped great rewards on the front end with the ability to collaborate to bring new ideas forward.”
As for the type of care patients received at Stony Brook, Kaushansky recalled a discussion over six years ago about central line infections. The data came from a 12 month period, starting six months prior to the meeting and going back to 18 months earlier.
“How are we going to know why all those central line infections occurred by looking at data” from so much earlier, Kaushansky recalled asking. The hospital created real time dashboards, which is an effort that has “paid huge dividends.”
Kaushansky cited the hospitals’ top 100 health grade for three years running. These grades assess whether patients survive a procedure, have complications or need to be readmitted.
“You’re going to get the best care possible when you come to Stony Brook,” Kaushansky said, as the top 100 rating puts Stony Brook in the top 2 percent of hospitals in the country.
Apart from the buildings Kaushansky helped develop, he’s proud of the program he helped build for medical school students.
About six years ago, Stony Brook instituted a new medical school curriculum that had translational pillars. The school starts students in the clinical realm considerably earlier than the classic program that involves two years of basic studies, followed by two years of clinical work.
Stony Brook provides basic science, followed by earlier exposure to the clinic, with a return to basic science after that
“It’s much more effective if you teach the basic science after the student has witnessed the clinical manifestation,” Kaushansky said. These approaches are part of translational pillars in areas such as cancer, physiology and infectious diseases.
As for what he’ll miss after he leaves, Kaushansky particularly appreciated the opportunity to speak with students. He used to hold a monthly breakfast with four or five students, where he learned about each student, their career goals and their medical journey.
A former colleague at the University of California at San Diego, John Carethers, who is the Chair in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan, visited Kaushansky as a speaker twice at Stony Brook.
Carethers saw “first hand the wonderful impact he had on students — knowing their names, and providing wonderful advice,” he wrote in an email.
The Next Steps
For a decade, Kaushansky said he wanted to create a course about the future of medicine.
“There are a lot of great innovations in medicine that are fascinating from a scientific and clinical perspective,” Kaushansky said.
He will work on a course for use at Stony Brook in the main campus, the medical campus and for whichever program is interested in sharing these innovative medical and scientific steps in medicine.
He also plans to continue to be the lead editor of the primary textbook in hematology, called Williams Hematology. The textbook has gone through 10 editions.
Kaushansky and his wife Lauren, who is an author and education professor at Stony Brook, aren’t likely to remain on Long Island in the longer term. The couple has a getaway home in Santa Fe and may go there.
Kaushansky’s hobbies include wood working and running. He made a sofa when he was an undergraduate at UCLA, while his second significant work was a 16-foot sailboat he made as a second-year resident. He estimates he has made 40 pieces of furniture.
Kaushansky runs four miles a day four to six times a week. In 1990, he ran the Seattle Marathon which was the Goodwill Games Marathon, finishing in a time of around three hours and twenty-five minutes.
Culturally, Kaushansky hopes the school continues to embrace his focus on generosity.
“You’ve got to be generous with your time,” he said.
“No more can you say that you are too busy to talk. You have to be of a personality that takes pride and that gets the endorphins going from seeing the people you have brought, the people you have entrusted in leadership roles, succeed.”
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