Some school districts have acted swiftly to launch COVID-19 vaccine efforts for educators, though the eligibility announced last week by the governor has not appeared to hasten return plans in schools that have been fully remote for an entire year.
Jersey City and Paterson both announced programs to vaccinate teachers starting Monday, in efforts to return to in-person instruction for the first time since last March.
Roughly 3,000 vaccines in Jersey City for the week of March 15 would go directly to teachers and staff from the city public school system, Mayor Steve Fulop told New Jersey 101.5.
That number was based on initial response to a form sent out to staff, Fulop said, adding that some teachers already have received first shots from other clinics. Vaccine doses will be administered at two city schools, as appointments are being coordinated to serve co-workers from the same locations at the same time period, to minimize school day interruption.
Look to the Stars
March 10, 2021
Actor and comedian Tracy Morgan presented the “Tracy Morgan Award for Excellence in Rehabilitation Nursing” to a nurse who has been working to heal patients with brain injuries for more than two decades.
In an emotional, virtual event to recognize Brain Injury Awareness Month, Morgan congratulated Patricia Bosompem, RN, CRRN, on being this year’s recipient. Bosompem is an experienced brain injury nurse at Hackensack Meridian JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute.
“Congratulations Patricia and thank you for all you do for patients. Thank God for you and nurses like you,” Morgan said. “You all told me, ‘Trust in the doctors, trust in the nurses, trust in the process and you will get better.’ You trust and you can get better.”
arrow Zenaida Morales holds a framed image of herself with her late husband Reinaldo Rojano at her home in Elizabeth, New Jersey, March 2, 2021. Reinaldo Rojano died of COVID-19 at age 44. Stefan Jeremiah / Gothamist
After having a light cough for three days last spring, Miguel Mestiza Valderrabano called his partner Ana Maria Lorenzo to say that, when she got home from work, he planned to go to the hospital. He would never make it, and the mental image of his 32-year-old lifeless body on their living room floor still haunts her.
“I couldn’t believe that had happened in minutes,” Lorenzo said. She had just arrived home from her cleaning job her first assignment in weeks after she’d lost work during the shutdown and a neighbor warned her that Valderrabano said he was struggling to breathe.
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HACKENSACK, N.J., March 10, 2021 /PRNewswire/ Convalescent plasma, the use of survivors antibodies transfused into sick COVID-19 patients is safe and significantly improves clinical outcomes when using high levels of antibodies, according to a new publication by scientists at Hackensack Meridian
Health, New Jersey s largest and most comprehensive health network.
The treatment was safe, transferred the survivors antibodies, and did not prevent the recipients from making their own antibodies, according to the results published recently in the journal We have developed this technique and methodology to save the lives of patients, said Michele Donato, M.D., FACP, CPE, chief of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy at John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center, and who is leading the study. We believe our hard work is paying off.
Record-setting spending by lobbyists in NJ, 2020
Of all the endeavors that have been decimated in New Jersey by the coronavirus pandemic, one notable exception is lobbying. In fact, lobbyists in the Garden State spent a record-busting $105 million in 2020, an increase of almost 3.4% over their 2019 outlay. According to Jeff Brindle, Executive Director of the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission, the very pandemic itself or at least “state efforts to confront the COVID-19 outbreak” was key to driving lobbying expenditures to the new record as lawmakers enacted scores of bills to address the crisis.
Another issue that soaked up lobbying attention and investment last year was marijuana, with most of the money coming from advocates of legalizing the drug for adult recreational use in New Jersey. “Obviously, their investment paid off,” Brindle said, “since the state has enacted two medical marijuana laws, a decriminalization bill and a broader legalization bi