Vox clamantis in deserto
Martha Bebinger: COVID-19 taking an axe to Mass. health-care workers' pay
BOSTON
Just three weeks ago, Dr. Kathryn Davis worried about the coronavirus, but not about how it might affect her group of five OB-GYNs who practice at a suburban hospital outside Boston.
“In medicine we think we’re relatively immune from the economy,” Davis said. “People are always going to get sick; people are always going to need doctors.”
Then, two weeks ago, she watched her practice revenue drop 50 percent almost overnight after Massachusetts officials told doctors and hospitals to stop performing elective tests and procedures. For Davis, that meant no more non-urgent gynecological visits and screenings.
Late last week, as Davis and her partners absorbed the stunning turn of events, they devised a stopgap plan. The 35 nurses, medical assistants and secretaries they employ would have two options: move from full-time to part-time status or start collecting unemployment. Doctors in the practice would take a substantial pay cut. Davis said she’s hearing from colleagues who may have to permanently close their offices if the focus on crisis-level care continues for months.
“It’s shocking,” she said. “Everyone has been blindsided.”
Atrius Health, the largest independent physician group in Massachusetts, said patient volume is down 75 percent since mid-March. It is temporarily closing offices, placing many nonclinical employees on furlough and withholding pay for those who remain. The average withholding is 20 percent and the company pledges that pay withheld will be returned. The lowest-paid workers, those earning up to $55,000, are exempt.
Steven Stongwater
“What we’re trying to do is piece together a solution to get through the crisis and keep employed as many people as we can,” said Dr. Steven Strongwater, Atrius Health’s CEO.
Atrius cares for 745,000 patients in clinics that often include primary care, specialists, radiology and a pharmacy under one roof.
Strongwater said physician groups must be included when the federal government distributes $100 billion to hospitals from the $2 trillion stimulus package.
It’s not clear if that money will stop the tide of layoffs and lost pay at hospitals as well as in doctor’s offices. A Harvard Medical School physician group will suspend retirement contributions starting April 1.
Part of Beth Israel Lahey Health.
Beth Israel Lahey Health, the second-largest hospital network in Massachusetts, announced executive pay cuts Monday.
“The suspension of elective procedures and decline in visits to our primary-care practices and urgent care centers have resulted in financial challenges,” wrote CEO Dr. Kevin Tabb in an email to employees. Tabb said he would take a 50% salary cut. Other executives and hospital presidents in the system will forgo 20% of their salaries for the next three months.
“Although executive leadership compensation is being reduced, we will never compromise on doing the things that are essential to protect your safety and the safety of our patients,” Tabb told staff.
Dallas-based Steward Health Care has told hospital employees in Massachusetts and eight other states where it operates to expect furloughs focused on nonclinical staff. In a statement, Steward Health Care said it prepared for the pandemic but is experiencing a “seismic financial shock.”
“Elective surgeries are the cornerstone of our hospital system’s operating model — and the negative impact due to the cancellations of these procedures cannot be overstated. In addition, patients are understandably cautious and choosing to defer any nonemergency treatments or routine visits until this crisis has passed.”
Dr. Kaarkuzhali Babu Krishnamurthy, an assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School who studies medical ethics, said employers need to think more carefully about the ethics of asking doctors and nurses to live on less when many are working longer hours and putting the health of their families at risk.
“At a time when health-care systems are calling on doctors and nurses to do more, this is not the time to be making it more difficult to do that,” said Krishnamurthy.
There’s talk of redeploying laid-off health care workers to new COVID-19 units opening in shuttered hospitals or to patient overflow sites. Tim Foley, executive vice president for the largest health care union in Massachusetts, 1199SEIU, is promoting the development of a staff registry.
“It is more important, now more than ever, to explore all options to maintain the level of urgent care needed across the state and we look forward to working with all stakeholders to do just that,” Foley said in an email.
This story is part of a partnership that includes WBUR, NPR and Kaiser Health News.
Martha Bebinger is a reporter for WBUR, in Boston.
Martha Bebinger, WBUR: marthab@wbur.org, @mbebinger
Cynthia E. McGrath: Squeezed N.E. colleges seek ways to save on employee health benefits
On Wentworth Institute of Technology’s quad, in Boston
Via The New England Journal of Higher Education, a service of The New England Board of Higher Education (nebhe.org)
BOSTON
The COVID-19 pandemic is top of mind for everyone. There’s no aspect of our lives that’s been untouched. For colleges and universities, the novel coronavirus crisis has caused a major educational shift. Campuses are closed to students. Courses have moved online. And many graduation ceremonies will be canceled or postponed. How long the new norm continues is unknown, but there is bound to be an effect on higher education budgets.
Before COVID-19 entered our lives, colleges and universities were already facing enormous pressures on their bottom lines. Sixty percent of higher education institutions (HEIs) missed their fall 2019 enrollment goals, according to a recent Chronicle of Higher Education story. Changing demographics and drops in international enrollments are primary reasons. Moreover, the Great Recession of 2008-2013 caused a significant drop in the U.S. birthrate, leading to projected enrollment declines for the foreseeable future.
To close the budget gap, many HEIs are developing student recruitment pipelines. However, colleges and universities should also look for cost-curbing strategies. Compensation and benefits comprise as much as two-thirds of an HEI’s budget, and taking a hard look at health insurance costs for faculty, staff and family members is a winning tactic. “Demographic changes and travel restrictions are affecting the revenue side of a school’s ledger, so it’s important for colleges and universities to not only find solutions that maximize revenues, but also look at containing expenses,” said William Hall, vice president for administration and chief financial officer at Salve Regina University, in Newport, R.I.
“The number of 18-year-old students is going down, and colleges and universities need to look at all of their expenses to offset lower revenues, if applicable,” said Margaret Card, Wentworth Institute of Technology’s (in Boston) human-resources director. “Frequently there are economies-of-scale opportunities, such as for training, temporary agencies, joint contracts and healthcare purchasing that are worth pursuing so that the savings can be invested in scholarships and other priorities.”
In late 2006, the Boston Consortium, which brings together Boston-area colleges and universities to develop and implement cost-saving and quality-improvement ideas, gathered a group of chief financial and chief HR officers to find out how to slow health insurance cost increases. Fast forward to 2013, and the results of those efforts, in collaboration with other college and university groups, was the formation of edHEALTH, a healthcare purchasing consortium of HEIs.
“The rising costs of our employee healthcare benefits were putting a strain on the operating budget of Boston College. We were determined to find a solution to the healthcare cost conundrum,” said John Burke, financial vice president and treasurer at the college. “Our objectives were to preserve our plan design, which varies by educational institution, and realize cost savings in our healthcare benefit budget. The ultimate solution we landed on with edHEALTH achieved both objectives.”
How the funding works
The self-insurance arrangement of edHEALTH means member HEIs aren’t paying profits on top of claims. If a college’s healthcare utilization is lower than budgeted, the excess funds remain in the individual school’s account instead of staying with the carrier. However, going from an insured to a self-insured arrangement can be daunting, particularly for small institutions.
“Most colleges and universities that are considering edHEALTH have an employee population of at least 200,” said edHEALTH President A. Tracy Hassett. “A self-insured arrangement can be risky for a small school that doesn’t have the resources to weather a high-claims cost year.” Under the edHEALTH captive arrangement, member schools pick their own self-insured retention level based on their risk tolerance, philosophy, financial status and experience. They can further protect their risk by purchasing aggregate stop-loss coverage in addition to the coverage they automatically receive.
“Our school already had a self-insured arrangement when we joined edHEALTH, so that wasn’t a barrier,” said Wentworth’s Card. “By working together with other schools, we could leverage the group buying power to decrease our administrative and re-insurance costs, which was a win-win.”
edHEALTH recently entered into a prescription drug carve-out arrangement with a larger consortium of colleges and universities that has led to additional savings. All member HEIs now receive 100% of the pharmacy rebates. In the first year, every member HEI saved 18% of its pharmacy expenses because of this initiative. “We’re always looking for innovative ways to provide high-quality benefits while reducing costs,” said Hassett.
edHEALTH can help with attracting and retaining talent
Many HEIs that have joined edHEALTH have passed along some of the savings to their employees, which has helped with hiring and retaining employees. Olin College of Engineering, for example, offered its employees a month of free healthcare premiums in December 2016. Wentworth and Salve Regina have each offered a month of free premiums twice. Wentworth also reduced the percentage of premium that employees pay.
Dean College, which recently joined edHEALTH, was looking for a competitive edge when it decided to improve its employee health benefits and join edHEALTH. The move halved employees’ out-of-pocket deductible. “Offering robust healthcare benefits enables us to attract and retain quality employees,” said Daniel Modelane, vice president of financial services and treasurer at Dean. “The previous deductible was a lot of exposure for our employees, and we were able to cut it in half, which is a helpful recruiting tool.”
Collaboration is an added bonus
Saving money isn’t the only reason HEIs join edHEALTH. Collaboration and transparency with peers combined with data insights are integral benefits.
Member owners share and learn from one another. Representatives from each member institution (typically benefits administrators) meet monthly to determine plan year design options. The Plan Design Committee’s collaboration with the third-party administrators (TPAs) and consultants helps to ensure the optimal suite of choices. “Moving to edHEALTH is a long-term healthcare strategy,” said Sean Carney, partner at 360 Corporate Benefit Advisors, Dean College’s benefits consultant. “This group of edHEALTH schools provides a sense of community and camaraderie for the betterment of the higher education industry.”
Getting a college or university’s finance and HR departments to work together to find healthcare solutions is sometimes a challenge. At Salve Regina, HR resides under the administration and finance umbrella, so this has not been an issue. However, that’s not always the organizational structure. “HR and finance have to partner together because finance looks at the money and HR looks at the quality of care,” said Card of Wentworth. “If both points of view are represented, you can make a better decision.”
In 2019, edHEALTH entered into an agreement with a national administrator so it could offer access throughout the country. Sarah Lawrence College became the first New York school to join. The recently expanded edHEALTH website and the launch of other communication vehicles improve member and business partner engagement. New population health initiatives help improve care coordination and reduce costs for high-risk, high-cost employees and family members. And data mining tools help members realign strategies to drive behavior.
“Higher education is competing for students, faculty and staff,” said edHEALTH’s Hassett. “edHEALTH has consistently beat the rising healthcare cost curve with an average 3.5% premium increase over the last five years compared with the industry average of 8.1%. That’s money that schools can invest in their core business of educating students.”
“Sixty percent of our budget is compensation and benefits, and the edHEALTH solution has improved our cash flow, given us access to affordable stop-loss coverage, reduced administrative plan costs and enabled us to offer our employees premium holidays (no payroll deduction) on two occasions,” said Hall of Salve Regina. “Since joining in 2016, our budget savings have exceeded $2.5 million on an annual healthcare budget of $4.3 million.”
Cynthia E. McGrath is a senior healthcare and HR marketing communications consultant. Email: cemcgrath@educatorshealth.org.
Tim Faulkner: COVID-19 shoves aside climate crisis
A year ago last week the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide was 411.24 parts per million. Last week’s reading had the CO2 concentration at 415.52.
— Center for International Climate Research)
From EcoRI News (ecori.org)
There’s not a lot to cheer about for the environment in the federal response to the COVID-19 crisis.
The $2-plus trillion economic stimulus signed on March 27 didn’t include a lifeline to the climate crisis or the renewable-energy industry, which according to wind and solar industry groups, is at risk of losing up to 155,000 jobs, or about half of the sector’s workforce. Rhode Island has about 16,000 jobs in its so-called “clean economy” industry.
Republicans in Congress fought renewable-energy and environmental stimulus by characterizing it as a political ploy.
“Democrats won’t let us fund hospitals or save small businesses unless they get to dust off the Green New Deal,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said. The Kentucky Republican, though, pushed, unsuccessfully, the creation of a $500 billion business-relief program that would be controlled by the Department of the Treasury and have little oversight — although the Trump administration is now fighting that agreed-upon oversight.
A House plan was axed from the final stimulus package that would have required airlines to cut their emissions in exchange for $29 billion in aid.
Solar and wind trade organizations asked for, but didn’t receive, direct funds to help renewable-energy companies and their employees. Extensions of the Renewable Electricity Production Tax Credit and the Solar Investment Tax Credit weren’t granted. A request was also omitted from the massive aid plan that would have allowed a portion of the tax credits to be offered as direct payments to financial backers of renewable-energy projects, who, during a year with many expected losses, would have a greater interest in cash than tax credits.
Local solar installers are weathering the crisis as they report steady demand, while taking extra health precautions with customers. They are reporting a well-stocked supply chain and an increase in requests for home solar-battery storage systems.
The stimulus package provided no direct funding for the coal, oil, and gas industries, but pipeline and other fossil-fuel workers have been deemed essential and are staying on the job for infrastructure projects around the country, including the controversial natural-gas pipeline compressor station in Weymouth, Mass.
The coronavirus hasn’t curtailed a 30-day comment period for a controversial Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposal that limits the use of research in regulatory decisions. Basically, the Trump administration has fast-tracked a proposal to limit the use of human health science in environmental decision-making.
On March 26, the day before the stimulus package was approved, the EPA relaxed penalties against and enforcement of regulated polluters such as wastewater treatment facilities and generators of air pollution and hazardous waste.
Former EPA Director Gina McCarthy, now the president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said, “This is an open license to pollute. Plain and simple. The administration should be giving its all toward making our country healthier right now. Instead, it is taking advantage of an unprecedented public health crisis to do favors for polluters that threaten public health.”
Prevention, reporting and clean up are still required under the EPA rule-easing for oil spills and the release of hazardous chemicals and waste. But violators can’t be punished if the violations are the result of COVID-19 restrictions.
Climate-justice areas, such as those near the industrial port along Providence’s waterfront, are expected to endure added health and safety risks from reduced regulatory compliance.
A silver lining, however, of the public-health crisis is the reduction in air pollution and fossil-fuel use. Home confinement has sharply curtailed vehicle traffic and air travel. Between 50,000 and 75,000 people may have been saved from dying prematurely thanks to improved air quality, according to Marshall Burke, an assistant professor at Stanford University’s Department of Earth System Science.
Images taken during the first three weeks of March show less nitrogen dioxide — created from fossil-fuel use by cars, trucks, buses, power plants, and off-road equipment — over parts of the United States than the same time last year, according to a recent CNN story.
Elsewhere in the media, climate experts are making connections between the climate crisis and COVID-19 pandemic, showing a range of hope and fear over the struggle between economic growth and producing less to mitigate climate change.
In an opinion published in The Boston Globe, Craig Altemose, executive director of the climate-activist group Better Future Project, argued that after the crisis subsides businesses should embrace telecommuting as a means of reducing emissions from the transportation sector, the largest source of greenhouse gases. He also suggested that consumers should scale back long-distance travel. He wrote that getting health-care aid to the most needy and developing countries would allow vulnerable populations to better manage the impacts of extreme heat and other climate impacts and would reduce the flow of climate refugees.
“There’s still much to learn from our response to the coronavirus,” Altemose wrote, “but we should aim to move forward on the other side of this pandemic with the right lessons rather than going back to flawed and failing systems.”
The public-health crisis and economic slowdown, however, hasn’t brought carbon emissions to a halt or reduced atmospheric concentrations, as the weekly atmospheric CO2 count at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii shows emissions at more than 415 parts per million.
“Any cuts in emissions as a result of the economic crisis triggered by COVID19 are not a substitute for concerted climate action,” according to the World Meteorological Organization.
A year ago last week the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide was 411.24 ppm. Last week’s reading had the CO2 concentration at 415.52. (Center for International Climate Research)
Tim Faulkner is an eco RI News journalist.
Gas-pipeline compressor facility like the one being built in Weymouth
'Full of Romance'
On the Franconia Range of the White Mountains
“It has often been said that the New World is deficient in the elements of poetry and romance ; that its bards must of necessity linger over the classic ruins of other lands; and draw their sketches of character from foreign sources, and paint Nature under the soft beauty of an Eastern sky. On the contrary, New England is full of Romance....we have mountains pillaring a sky as blue as that which bends over classic Olympus; streams as bright and beautiful as those of Greece and Italy, and forests richer and nobler than those which of old were haunted by Sylph and Dryad.”
― John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-92), Massachusetts poet
Gaze at the greening
From Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com
“I’m not sure why I touched it.
A crocus tip can be more dazzling,
And a boy would rather throw dice
Or marbles than be soft-hearted.’’
-- From “Last Patch of Snow,’’ by George Abbe (1911-89), a New England poet and novelist
Back in the ‘80s, the French still sometimes used a macabre phrase about lovely weather that translates to “the most beautiful weather since 1940.’’ That’s in reference to the lovely late spring of that year, which helped the Germans invade France and commence their homicidal plus-four-year occupation. I think of that when walking around and admiring the tree buds opening and the flowers that have been blooming so early this year after our mild and nearly snowless winter. Beautiful wild nature and not-so-beautiful wild nature (e.g., viruses) meets human nature. Not that nature cares one way or another.
Enjoy gazing at the slowly greening grass. Green is a soothing color.
Say 'Ah'
Boston Back Bay skyline as seen from South Boston.
“I've been meaning to tell
you how the sky is pink
here sometimes like the roof
of a mouth that's about to chomp
down on the crooked steel teeth
of the city….’’
— From “Boston,’’ by Aaron Smith
The story beneath
Work by Stephanie Roberts-Camello (encaustic relief over book pages and casein)
She writes:
“Layers of wax literally cover up the past. Revealed, exhumed, manipulated, up-ended, exposed, all of these actions give me a sense of freedom, and the ability to step outside myself. Seemingly destructive to the surface, the peeling plays a positive roll in removing a build up and seeing what has been lying dormant. The depth created working this way is jarring to me, confrontational, alluring and frightening. There is risk involved, but the presence of this relief work conveys a sense of resilience and life which keeps me returning. It speaks with a boldness and beauty which is also fragile. This opposition between image/content and material is the catalyst for the development of my encaustic relief series. This work continues to evolve as I find new ways to shed light on subjects I want to confront.’’
Quaker meeting house in Pembroke. Southeastern Massachusetts was an early center for Quakers in America.
The artist, a member of New England Wax (newenglandwax.com) lives in Pembroke, Mass., where she and her husband have a business called Queen Bee Honey.
The geography of the once rural, agricultural and fishing town Pembroke, now a Boston suburb, is dominated in the northern part by streams flowing through woods that once provided the lumber for the North River's shipbuilding industry. These streams are famous for their fish runs, including of herring, blue fish and striped bass.
The southern half is dominated by several ponds and Silver Lake, where the towns of Pembroke, Kingston, Plympton and Halifax meet.
Early industries also included smelting bog iron and cutting and selling ice from the town’s many bodies of fresh water.
From Marshfield, looking across the North River toward Pembroke. It’s a fine fishing area.
Gray and green
“Here where everything is granite –
from the steps that prop the baby
for her first spring photograph
to the stones gossiping in the cemetery
two doors down – even the green
is lined with gray, and from
the blood-red buds just breaking
will comes leaves of waxy green
that raise their hands as if in protest,
showing palms of silver.’’
From “Connecticut in March,’’ by Sue Ellen Thompson. Before moving to Maryland in 2006, she spent most of her life in Mystic, Conn., on Long Island Sound.
Bascule bridge being raised in Mystic
March 27 COVID-19 update from New England Council
From The New England Council (newenglandcouncil.com)
The March 27 update on the COVID-19 pandemic:
“As our region and our nation continue to grapple with the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic, The New England Council is using our blog as a platform to highlight some of the incredible work our members have undertaken to respond to the outbreak. Each day, we’ll post a round-up of updates on some of the initiatives underway among Council members throughout the region. We are also sharing these updates via our social media, and encourage our members to share with us any information on their efforts so that we can be sure to include them in these daily round-ups.
You can also check our COVID-19 Virtual Events Calendar for information on upcoming COVID-19 related programming – including Congressional town halls and webinars presented by NEC members.
Here is the March 27 roundup roundup:
Medical Response
Southern Maine Community College Develops Device to Aid Shortage of Ventilators – A professor at Southern Maine Community College has created a connecting device that would allow up to four patients use the same ventilator at a time. The device can be printed using a 3-D printer, increasing the ease and access with which medical centers can extend the usefulness of their ventilators, already in high demand and increasingly shorter supply. Read more in the Portland Press Herald.
Beth Israel Launches Clinical Trial with New Drug – Entering the next stage in its research toward a treatment for the coronavirus, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center began clinical trials using remdesivir on patients diagnosed with COVID-19. The investigational antiviral drug developed by Gilead has garnered significant international attention in recent weeks as a potential treatment. While the trials are in their earliest stages, the hospital joins New England’s research and medical institutions as a leader in the search for a treatment. Read more in the Boston Business Journal.
South Shore Health Begins Producing and Sharing Protective Equipment – Facing a shortage of protective equipment for its healthcare workers, the print shop at South Shore Health—usually responsible for marketing materials and paperwork in the system—has utilized online blueprints for face shields to begin producing their own supply. The staff has also shared their creative methods as well as blueprints for assembling the equipment with other healthcare systems as they brace of an influx of patients. Read more in Wicked Local.
Economic/Business Continuity Response
Banks Promise Security for Employees, Relief Measures for Borrowers – As employers around the world are forced to cut hours or lay off employees, Bank of America has pledged that the over 200,000 people employed by the bank will not face layoffs through the end of the year. Morgan Stanley has made a similar promise to its more than 60,000 workers. In addition to this promise to its employees, Bank of America has offered deferred loan payments to its customers. CNBC has more.
Community Response
Home Base Develops At-Home Wellness Program – The Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital Home Base Program launched a platform for those without access to regular health, nutrition, and fitness instruction to obtain advice and guidance on staying well during difficult times. From mental health skills to daily workouts, Operation Health@Home hopes to build resiliency and community through wellness.
Eos Foundations Offers $1 Million in Emergency Grants to Combat Hunger – To support school districts and nonprofits fighting hunger in Massachusetts, the Eos Foundation has provided $1 million in emergency grants. The funds will be used to provide meals directly, as well as to increase equipment and supplies necessary for delivery to children who may experience heightened food insecurity as a result of the virus. Read more.
Health Care For All Compiles Resources for Minority Communities – Health Care for All has created a resource page to highlight what programs—from testing and treatment to changes on “public charge” rules—exist to support minority and immigrant communities, who are especially vulnerable during the pandemic. The website provides information and updates in multiple languages to ensure these communities can receive the help they may need.
Stay tuned for more updates each day, and follow us on Twitter for more frequent updates on how Council members are contributing to the response to this global health crisis.’’
Flag of the New England Governors Conference
Sea urchins may be a climate-resilient aquaculture crop for R.I.
Atlantic Purple Sea Urchin
From ecoRI News (ecori.org)
NARRAGANSETT, R.I.
Atlantic purple sea urchins are common in coastal waters along the East Coast, and University of Rhode Island scientist Coleen Suckling believes that the Ocean State could become the home of a new industry to raise the spiny marine creatures for consumption in Japan and elsewhere.
She has teamed with a company called Urchinomics, which is pioneering urchin ranching around the world. Suckling is testing a sea urchin feed the company developed in Norway to see if Rhode Island’s urchins will eat the product and, in turn, become commercially appealing.
“Sea urchins are generally good at coping with climate change; they appear to be resilient to warming and ocean acidification,” said Suckling, URI assistant professor of sustainable aquaculture. “So they’re a good species to turn to for commercial harvest. And you can get a good return on your investment from them.”
The global sea urchin market is valued at about $175 million annually, with about 65 percent to 70 percent of the harvest being sold to Japan. Urchins are primarily used for sushi, though they are also an ingredient in a variety of other recipes.
Red urchins and Pacific purple urchins are harvested in California, Alaska and British Columbia, while green urchins are captured in Maine and Atlantic Canada. Little is known about how successfully Atlantic purple urchins would compete in the marketplace, but Suckling is taking the first steps to find out.
The edible part of the sea urchin is its gonad tissue — which chefs refer to as roe or uni and Suckling describes as tasting “like what you imagine a clean ocean smells like” — but the tissue must be firm and bright yellow or orange to get the best prices.
“Wild urchins typically have small gonads and the color isn’t great, so commercial harvesters are collecting wild-caught urchins and feeding them an enriched finishing diet in cages in the open water for a few months to allow them to grow larger gonads and develop good color,” Suckling said.
At URI’s Narragansett Bay Campus, undergraduates Max Zavell, Anna Byczynski and Alli McKenna are undertaking a three-month food trial on purple urchins caught in Rhode Island waters. The animals are being fed a variety of foods to see how well they grow and if they become marketable. The students monitor water quality and regularly weigh and measure the urchins, and by February they should have preliminary results.
“If they become marketable, then it opens up a whole interesting range of potential options,” Suckling said. “Under future climate conditions, there may be a need to diversify what we produce in the seafood sector. And since urchins are good at coping with acidification, this could be a good opportunity here in Rhode Island to exploit sea urchins.”
Even if the formulated diet works as expected, many additional questions remain to be answered before urchins could be raised commercially in the state.
“It’s a local species, so we can potentially grow them here, but is it something the Coastal Resources Management Council and the Department of Environmental Management would be interested in?” Suckling asked. “Are there aquaculture farmers interested in growing them? Can we ranch them reliably? We’re just taking the first step to see if it’s worth the effort to answer these other questions.
“Part of my role is to try to understand what seafood we may need to turn to in a sustainable manner so we can maintain food security and economic security in the future.”
Digital love: The safest variety
“Unrequited Love 2,’’ by Jeroen Nelemans, in the group show “Love Letters,” at Helen Day Art Center, Stowe, Vt. — COVID-19 permitting.
The gallery says that the show “examines love by focusing on individual relationships and love past, love lost and love lived. The artists explore the theme of love as it exists beyond preconceived notions and societal structures, viewing it as an action, an emotion and a driving force. In the artwork of ‘Love Letters,’ love is memory, honor, hope and so much more. The concept of love is one of the rare truly universal aspects of humanity, and ‘Love Letters’ taps into that universality, framing it in the context of the much newer concept of the digital era.’’
Llewellyn King: Thank God for electricity, especially now; but the grid is always under threat
WEST WARWICK, R.I.
Nothing will be the same again
Those are words that that challenge the heart and the imagination. The heart because, as in a death or the loss of a job, some things will be very missed. The imagination because it needs inspired speculation to know how the present crisis will reshape the way we live; how we are governed, how we educate, how we do business and how we play.
Some losses are somewhat predictable. Most of us may never sit in a movie theater again because there may be no movie theaters. They were already having a hard time with the competition from streaming services, now many may just not reopen. Question: What will be done with those buildings? They are mostly part of shopping centers where many of the tenants for restaurants and specialty shops will also go out of business.
Here’s my answer: In that glorious time when we have licked COVID-19, many new entrepreneurs will get their start in those empty shells. A myriad of yet-unknown businesses will crop up, coming out of these times of ultra-difficulty. Failing shopping centers offer habitat to startups.
We are in a state of war and in war, despite its horror, there is invention. As we try to defeat this pandemic, there will be inventions aplenty.
War has always spurred creativity, in art and in science, and in its aftermath, a time of optimism and opportunity. Catastrophe shakes up society and reorients it. There is a high price but a great reward
Needs must, there will be a re-evaluation of values and the goods and services which are essential. High on that list will be electricity. Over and over again we will be asking ourselves if the electric grid is safe and if so, how safe?
As Morgan O’Brien, co-founder of Nextel and now CEO of Anterix, which offers utilities secure communications systems, told me, “The coronavirus pandemic is putting more stress on the infrastructure which keeps our society functioning. Critical infrastructure like the electric grid will be more stressed as it is the essential lifeline for Americans sheltering in place.”
A loss of all or part of the grid is an existential fear that has had experts worried since the first computer hackers had a go at it. Utility presidents have told me that it is grid security that keeps them awake at night. It should. CPS Energy, the utility in San Antonio, gets more than 2 million hits a day, I believe.
Late last year the president’s National Infrastructure Advisory Council warned strongly of the dangers of cyberattack. It said the electric utility industry is good at tackling small, short-term outages but it is essentially unprepared for catastrophic outages lasting a long time.
Earlier this year James Woolsey, a former CIA director and an honorary co-chair of the Secure the Grid Coalition, wrote to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission demanding it order more physical security for transformers, pylons, etc. Woolsey cited a lack of improved physical security since that became an issue with the sophisticated disabling of Pacific Gas & Electric’s substation in Metcalf, Calif., in 2013.
John Savage, professor emeritus of computer science at Brown University, who is writing a book on cybersecurity, raises a less-mentioned dimension of threat to the grid: the role of GPS. With the advent of global positioning satellites, he explained, the utility industry switched from using atomic clocks to using GPS timing as the basis for its nationwide synchronization.
Savage told me, “Dependence on GPS for timing is a security risk. If GPS timing signals are distorted or lost, serious damage may be done to the grid.
“GPS signals can be lost due to a local jamming, blackouts, produced by a solar flare, or spoofing. A GPS anomaly alone or a cyberattack combined with one can cascade and bring down a large portion of the grid for an extended period of time.”
Gen. James Jones, a retired Marine commandant and NATO commander, told me, “For the past several years, I have been preoccupied by the proximity of threats, particularly in the cyber realm.”
Much will change, but the need for reliable electricity will remain paramount.
Llewellyn King is executive producer and host of White House Chronicle, on PBS. His email is llewellynking1@gmail.com, and he’s based in Rhode Island and Washington, D.C.
Ready for mill work
The Pawtucket Canal in Lowell, Mass., lined with old mill buildings
— Photo by John Phelan
“The New Hampshire girls who came to Lowell {to work in its new textile mills in the early and mid 19th Century} were descendants of the sturdy backwoodsmen who settled that state….Their grandmothers had suffered the hardships of frontier life…when the beautiful valleys of the Connecticut and the Merrimack were threaded with Indian trails from Canada to the white settlements. Those young women…were earnest and capable, and ready to undertake anything that was worth doing.’’
From A New England Girlhood (1889)
Don Pesci: Time to cut the regulatory kudzu
VERNON, Conn.
Kudzu, everyone knows, is a perennial vine native to much of eastern Asia that destroys growth by wrapping itself around native plants and trees and shadowing them so that they do not receive the proper sunlight to grow and flourish. Unnecessary regulatory schemes are to the economy what Kudzu is to vegetation. The operative political rule should be – less is better.
At some time in the future COVID-19 will have petered out. We know this not from any assurances of politicians, their brows moist with concern. COVID-19 will be whipped when the United States can be shown on a bell curve marking the progress of COVID-19 to have reached past the top of the curve in a descending mode. People who measure epidemics and pandemics call this process the flattening of the curve. Just as surely as the sun rises in the morning and sets in the evening, pandemics have their ups and downs – always, without exception.
But pandemics leave in their wake medical and economic disruptions that last far beyond the flattening of bell curves. And they leave behind as well gaping holes in the hearts of people whose lives have been torn apart by death and sorrow. For these reasons it would be best for politicians to adopt as a working moral presumption an instruction found in Hippocrates’s work Of the Epidemics – “First, do no harm.”
Looking towards the future, the Yankee Institute, one of the most thoughtful think tanks in Connecticut, has proposed meeting the long-term effects of COVID-19 by cutting the kudzu. After thanking Gov. Ned Lamont for his efforts in battling the virus, Yankee notes, “The collapse of the financial markets and the closure of businesses and schools are certain to cause long-term economic problems for the country and, in particular, Connecticut.” Voices proclaiming that much of the data underlying the measures taken by politicians thus far is, at best, unreliable are few and unnoticed.
So, what can we do additionally to allow the sun to bring forth new economic growth to the state while, at the same time, avoiding harm?
Yankee praises the governor for having issued “executive orders waiving certain occupational regulations for pharmacists, face-to-face interview requirements, expanding telemedicine coverage for Medicaid recipients and [allowing] the Department of Economic and Community Development to defer loan payments for 800 or so small businesses that have loans from the state,” all positive measures that will breathe new life into an economy racked by COVID-19. Some of these measure surely should be adopted permanently.
In addition, the state should issue a temporary “hold harmless” provision to small businesses -- restaurants, gyms, child-care facilities and numerous others -- that have been forced to lay off employees due to the COVID-19 virus. In the normal course of business, layoffs expose such businesses to a more costly state unemployment insurance tax. Temporarily, wave the higher taxes. “Gov. Lamont,” Yankee notes, “has already eliminated the requirement that an individual receiving unemployment benefits demonstrate they are searching for a job. A similar waiver or exemption of the unemployment tax on affected small businesses should be considered as well.” Why not grant tax deferrals to freelance or other self-employed individuals impacted by temporary government business shutdowns? The U.S. Treasury already is offering such deferrals without interest or penalty to individuals and small businesses affected by a government-enforced slowdown.
Occupational-licensing requirements and filing fees should be waved for an extended range of services. Colorado allows immediate licensing for medical professionals licensed in other states. Gov. Jared Polis, Yankee notes, has “expedited the licensing process for those seeking medical licenses, reducing the amount of time and requirements it takes for qualified individuals seeking to practice medicine to join in the response to fight the virus.” Additionally, he has “expanded the ability of people to administer the virus test to include retired, semi-retired or professionals whose license has lapsed to be reactivated easily and efficiently so that testing can be conducted on a larger scale.”
Why haven’t Connecticut’s leaders suspended for one year the state’s increase in the minimum wage? Shouldn’t we remove all regulatory impediments to “distance learning” for school children ordered by the state not to attend school?
First, do no harm. But if harm there must be, the state that has caused the harm should offer reasonable mitigations. After the war on COVID-19 has been concluded -- and all the shelves have been restocked with toilet paper – Connecticut’s politicians must bind up the wounds they have caused. And the binding can start right now.
Don Pesci is a writer who lives in Vernon, Conn.
E-mail: donpesci@att.net
'Not to think so far away'
Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.
Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.
And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.
For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfill.
“A Prayer in Spring,’’ by Robert Frost (1874-1963)
Nordic dreams
“Fjord’’ (fiber; triptych), by Agusta Agustsson, at Galatea Fine Art, Boston (closed for the time being by COVID-19)
John H. Fitzhugh: A plan for America to reopen for business
Ironically, New York might be one of the first places to reopen for business in the COVID-19 pandemic.
President Trump has been widely criticized for expressing a desire that Americans return to work by Easter. He later modified his remarks to say that reopening of businesses would depend on such local factors as population density and infection rates for the COVID-19 virus.
I am a “Never Trumper” but in this case applaud the president for raising two critical issues: one, how we decide when to return to work, and two, the importance of work.
The current strategy of fighting this virus, based on current medical advice, is to distance ourselves from each other, thus “flattening the curve” of infection to better use our limited medical resources, such as hospital beds and ventilators. This approach, we are told, will lengthen the period during which people are at risk for infection but save innumerable lives.
Some areas of the country have been better at this than others or, because of population density, are simply already “socially distanced.” New York City, unfortunately, is not, it being one of the most densely populated cities in America. Its attack rate (ratio of those infected to those tested) is very high, which means that the infection period will be shorter but potentially more deadly than elsewhere in the U.S.
Ironically, this also means that New York City may be one of the first places that could reopen for business because most residents will have been infected and either recovered or unfortunately passed away.
But now let’s turn to the importance of resuming business, and how we decide to do so.
American business is, with some notable exceptions, closed for business. It is dead in the water, to use a nautical expression. Critical industries are still functioning, either with limited staffs or on-line, but most are idle. This is especially true of small businesses, retail shops and many service industries. My guess is that the gross domestic product (GDP) overall is not 20 percent of what it should be, or was before the virus shutdown.
Congress has passed legislation directing some $2 trillion to offset this shutdown. The Federal Reserve has made an additional $4 trillion available. This is the largest financial bailout ever and, it is said, will help for maybe “a few months.” In my opinion, already one crucial month has passed. Now, I’m not an economist, but I don’t think that even the federal government has the wherewithal to do such a recovery effort a second time. If it tried to do so, I believe, it would lead to hyper-inflation, a drastically lower stock market, and even violent social protest. Thus we have one opportunity to get this right before a much greater catastrophe engulfs us.
The bottom line is that to sustain America the way we know it, or knew it before March 1, Americans must get back to work, the quicker the better.
So then, how do we decide when that is, or even, who decides? Is it the president, Congress, state legislators, governors? Health officials, business owners? The people themselves? And what are the criteria?
One thing to me is clear. We can’t wait until everyone has been infected or until the last person with the infection has died. That would be months into the future. We must accept the risk, in fact the likelihood, that some persons will sicken and die after we resume working. That is certainly unfortunate, but the economic consequences of not resuming work are even more dire to our society.
Here are my suggestions, but they should be examined by statisticians and epidemiologists because these decisions are largely data driven:
First, employers must decide individually the risk to their enterprise, employees and customers from reopening. What are the COVID-19 trends in the community in which they operate? How well have they been able to function on line? How has the virus affected their market? (For example, if your business model depends on a large crowd of people gathering, it may take months for people to feel comfortable doing it.)
Second, how well have the local hospitals been handling those who need treatment? If they are overwhelmed, and people are dying from lack of care rather than from the virus itself, it’s hard to support a general reopening of business that runs the risk of increasing the number of patients.
Clearly one size does not fit all. It may be prudent to reopen business in Nebraska or Texas, for example, but not in New York or Los Angeles. Then again, if the infection rate is soaring in New Hampshire but the worst is over in New York, it might make sense to resume operations in New York but not New Hampshire.
When it comes to government oversight, our 50 governors have a better handle on local COVID-19 conditions than our national government. Working with the local businesses, I think that governors using their emergency public-health powers can individually decide when and who should reopen. This power could extend, as it does now, to in-state operations of large multi-state or international enterprises. Governors can give a go-ahead but it will be up to each business how to respond.
The federal government can provide resources and coordination. The president can use his bully pulpit to set the general direction ( as he has done by broaching the subject of return to work). What would help a lot is a computer model that considers for each enterprise the risks to itself and its customers and community of reopening its business. Certainly mathematicians and economists now have time and reason to build such models. Governors or private groups could then set markers for when resumption of business is prudent.
John H. (“Josh”) Fitzhugh is chairman of Montpelier, Vt.-based Union Mutual Insurance Co. as well as journalist and farmer. He was founding editor of the National Law Journal and was legal counsel to former Vermont Governors Howard Dean and Richard Snelling.
Linda Gasparello: Some soothing Southern cuisine for stressed Rhode Islanders in the COVID-19 crisis
Shrimp gumbo with pieces of okra: industrial-strength Southern cooking
Watergate Salad!
As I surveyed what remained on the shelves at the supermarket I frequent in Rhode Island, I was reminded of the saying, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”
Hurricane or coronavirus pandemic, Rhode Islanders — as befits the Italian heritage and food preference of many of them — had cleared the shelves and frozen food cases of pasta (except that made with chickpeas), canned and jarred tomato sauce, and frozen pizza.
Expectedly all the standard frozen and canned foods (except the dreaded whole and sliced beets), milk, butter, eggs, tuna, soup, bread, cookies and snack food had been cleared out, too.
What to buy? I viewed the rejected food not as Italian-American Rhode Islander, but rather as a Virginia transplant to the state. And I found heaps to buy.
Many of the ingredients for classic Southern dishes were still on the shelves and the frozen food cases. Here are some ingredients I saw and some ideas for what to do with them:
— Shrimp and grits: Buy frozen wild or farmed shrimp and grits (look on the bottom shelves in the breakfast cereal aisle). Yo, Italian-Americans up North! If you like polenta, you’ll love grits. “I ga-ron-tee!” as the late Cajun chef and humorist Justin Wilson used to say.
— Okra: If you live in the North, it will be the only vegetable left in your supermarket’s frozen-food case. Dip it in buttermilk, dredge it in a seasoned cornmeal-flour mixture and fry it until it reaches that beautiful golden brown. Okra tastes like eggplant: In fact, you can make parmigiana with it.
— Jarred pimentos: When life gives you pimentos, make pimento cheese. Southerners call it “pate du Sud” (Southern pate). It’s a dip, a spread, but mostly it’s chopped pimentos mixed with mayonnaise and cheddar cheese. As Jeremy, the bigger and funnier of the two Jeremys who used to fix things around our house in Virginia, said of pimento cheese, “Put that on top of your head and your tongue would beat your brains out trying to get to it.”
— Stone-ground cornmeal: Cornbread. Nuff said.
— Instant pistachio pudding: You could make Shut the Gate Salad, also known as Watergate Salad. I first ate this salad in college in Washington in the mid-1970s. This salad was never served at the Watergate complex, site of the June 17, 1972, break-in of Democratic Party headquarters during the Nixon administration; the origin of its name remains obscure.
“But the particular mix of ingredients that became the standard Watergate Salad likely originated with the Jell-O brand, which introduced a line of pistachio pudding mix in 1976. This was two years after President Richard Nixon resigned, and the Watergate scandal was still fresh in Americans’ minds. (A spokesperson for Kraft, which now owns Jell-O, once said that pistachio mix was introduced in 1975),” NPR said in a Weekend Edition Sunday broadcast.
Salad in the South is often devoid of leafy green vegetables. The green food coloring in the pudding legitimizes eating this pudding, Cool Whip, crushed pineapple, toasted pecan and mini marshmallow concoction as a vegetable serving. (Sound of incredulous gasping in the North.)
The supermarket checkout lines were long, so I only picked a few items off the shelves, including the despised and rejected canned beets and chickpea pasta. And, yes, I was tempted to grab the makings for Watergate Salad: A little Southern comfort food in the time of COVID-19.
My husband says we should try barbecue sauce on the chickpea pasta.
Linda Gasparello is producer and co-host of White House Chronicle, on PBS. This first ran on InsideSources.com.
Let it wave unbound
Breathes there the cat with tail so long
That it gets twisted up all wrong
And knotted, tangled, coiled, and curled,
Instead of splendidly unfurled?
If such there be, release it well
And let its glory grow and swell
Till once again it waves unbound,
Untied, unfettered, and unwound.
— “A New Twist,’’ by Felicia-Nimue Ackerman
COVID-19 update from New England Council
From The New England Council (newenglandcouncil.com):
“As our region and our nation continue to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, The New England Council is using our blog as a platform to highlight some of the incredible work our members have undertaken to respond to the outbreak. Each day, we’ll post a round-up of updates on some of the initiatives underway among Council members throughout the region. We are also sharing these updates via our social media, and encourage our members to share with us any information on their efforts so that we can be sure to include them in these daily round-ups.
“You can also check our COVID-19 Virtual Events Calendar for information on upcoming COVID-19 related programming – including Congressional town halls and webinars presented by NEC members.
“Here is a roundup:
Medical Response
* Southern New Hampshire University Opens State’s First Hospital Overflow Space– A gym at Southern New Hampshire University’s campus in Manchester, NH, became the first “clinical flex area” in the state, holding as many as 250 beds as hospitalizations due to COVID-19 increase. The gym will be used by Catholic Medical Center and other area hospitals to accommodate patients who have improved or are not facing complications as a result of infection. The Union Leader has more.
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Develops COVID-19 Test – Dartmouth-Hitchcock has developed and prepared for use its own test to screen for COVID-19 that can produce results in as few as six hours. At present, the team at Dartmouth-Hitchcock can run about 100 tests per day; the number is expected to increase to over 1,000 by next week. Read more in the Union Leader.
Economic/Business Continuity Response
National Fire Protection Association Issues Reminder on Building Safety – As businesses around the world shutter to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has issued new guidance to officials on the importance of building and fire safety regardless of occupancy. The NFPA stresses that essential safety measures should not be ignored as to avoid adding to the existing strain on emergency services. NFPA also included a list of recommendations to ensure safety even as buildings empty. Read the guidance here.
General Electric Partners with Ford, 3M to Produce Protective Equipment for Healthcare Workers – General Electric (GE) is collaborating with Ford and 3M to speed up production of face masks, face shields, and other personal protective equipment (PPE) for workers directly working in fields affected by the novel coronavirus. In addition to this commitment to new PPE, General Electric has partnered with Ventech to increase production of ventilators. Investors
Community Response
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Commits Funds, Resources to Massachusetts Resiliency and Nonprofit Organizations –Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (Blue Cross) has committed to aiding its community through $300,000 in donations to local non-profits and charities. . Ranging from donations to the Boston Resiliency Fund to online giving platforms for Pine Street Inn, the resources from Blue Cross will be deployed across Massachusetts to provide relief efforts to those in need. Read the press release here.
AT&T Supports First Responders and Crisis Response – FirstNet, AT&T’s network designed specifically for emergency management and first responder personnel, has utilized its systems to optimize networks, support quarantine zones, and strengthen public safety’s command of connectivity as they communicate vital information. Read more.
“Stay tuned for more updates each day, and follow us on Twitter for more frequent updates on how Council members are contributing to the response to this global health crisis.’’