Send the feds to Rikers
Children with developmental disabilities and
autism must be protected amid pandemic
COURIER L 28 IFE, OCTOBER 1-7, 2021
EDITORIAL
OP-ED
Based on his comments
to the press following
his fi rst visit to turmoiled
Rikers Island on Monday
in fi ve years, it’s clear
that outgoing Mayor Bill de
Blasio can’t meet the moment
in bringing the correctional
facility out of its current chaotic
state.
The mayor offered the
same promises and platitudes,
speaking in generalities
about the need to
remedy the current humanitarian
crisis and get
inmates “the hell off” the
island as quickly as possible.
De Blasio didn’t point
to any one condition at
Rikers that bothered him
— “I’ve always been upset,”
he said — nor could
he be bothered talking to
inmates about their experience
in lockup, and the
problems they face.
Instead, the “blame”
duck mayor pointed fingers
— at the COVID-19
pandemic; at corrections
officers who called out
sick; at the state court
system for the slow processing
of pending criminal
cases. Not once did he
point a finger of blame in
his own direction.
If the first step toward
solving a problem is recognizing
there is one, de
Blasio has clearly tripped
over that step. Monday’s
press conference was demonstrative
of a mayor
who has checked out of
his responsibility to protect
inmates and corrections
officers alike, and is
committed to doing a halfassed
job of fixing Rikers
Island’s dire situation.
Now it’s time for the
federal government to intervene.
On Friday, eight New
York Congress members
wrote to President Biden
and U.S. Attorney General
Merrick Garland urging
them to step in and resolve
the crisis. They also
called upon the Justice Department
to launch a civil
rights investigation into
the city’s handling and
treatment of Rikers Island
inmates.
The Biden administration
and the Justice Department
should approve
both requests. Federal
agents should be sent to
Rikers Island to supplant
absent corrections officers
and humanely restore
order while addressing
the horrid conditions in
which inmates currently
live.
A federal investigation
is also required to not only
hold those responsible for
the Rikers chaos accountable,
but also ensure that
this correctional facility,
and any other which the
city may operate in the
future, ever falls into the
same inhumane traps.
Sadly, should this happen,
it would be the second
time the feds had to intervene
in a de Blasio crisis.
In 2019, a federal monitor
was appointed to NYCHA
after the city falsely reported
lead paint testing
results in its public housing
system.
If de Blasio can’t protect
inmates, corrections
officers and public housing
residents, who can he
protect?
BY ANGELO ANGERAME
As a long-term care pharmacist
who supplies the daily
medication needs for some
3,000 people with developmental
disabilities and autism
in New York group residences,
I have tried to use my
three decades of professional
career experience to put into
perspective what has been
happening with the COVID
vaccine.
The community I service
has a very high COVID vaccination
record.
I am most concerned at
this point about some 6,000
children, ages thirteen and
under with developmental
disabilities, and some 27,000
children thirteen and under
with autism, in New York
State. In large measure, the
Federal government has not
yet made any vaccine protection
available for this population.
Many people in this
population have compromised
immune systems due
to their conditions. Their
weak immunity makes them
more vulnerable to COVID.
While most of this population
does not reside in group
settings, most of them are enrolled
in education and program
facilities where they
are exposed to groups of people.
In many cases, all of us
have become numb to the
confl icting information and
politics communicated about
COVID. In comparison to epidemics
like polio or smallpox,
Internet/Web transparency
has laid bare the contradictory
statements made by
many of our government and
public health offi cials.
True, the U.S. Food & Drug
Administration has not yet offi
cially “approved” the Moderna
vaccine or the Johnson
& Johnson vaccine. As we all
know, this class of vaccines
were developed in record
time (similar to the effort
when science came together
for the “Manhattan Project”).
So, with the exception of the
Pfi zer vaccine (which has received
FDA “approval”), the
others are being distributed
as a part of an emergency use
authorization by the FDA.
And, the FDA has not yet announced
any guidance on the
COVID booster vaccination.
(This agency just authorized
boosters for immunocompromised
people.)
In my personal belief, the
COVID vaccines have value
and benefi t. It is important
for all people to be vaccinated
at this time. A minority of
people may have pre-existing
medical conditions that preclude
them from being vaccinated,
but all others should
receive the vaccine. In 1905
the United States Supreme
Court upheld a Massachusetts
law requiring residents
to be vaccinated during an
outbreak of smallpox. Justice
John Marshall Harlan
wrote:
“The good and welfare of
the Commonwealth, of which
the legislature is primarily
the judge, is the basis on
which the police power rests
in Massachusetts,” Harlan
said “upon the principle of
self-defense, of paramount necessity,
a community has the
right to protect itself against
an epidemic of disease which
threatens the safety of its
members.”
COVID presents a threat
to the safety of everyone in
our community. It is our
civic duty to work together to
meet the threat COVID presents.
Vaccination is the only
effective way. As Pope Francis
put it, receiving a COVID
vaccine is “an act of love.”
While we get vaccinated to
prevent ourselves from getting
a disease, all of our community
benefi ts.
As a comparison, the fl u
vaccine programs largely
undertaken by the nation’s
physicians and retail pharmacists
have operated in the
U.S., very successfully for
many years. It is a shame
that the COVID vaccine effort
turned into such a lightning
rod, which became negative
and misunderstood.
These decisions should be
about education, communication,
information, and access.
I hope that parents of
children with developmental
disabilities and autism,
who often cannot advocate
for themselves, are proactive
here. They should endeavor
to make the best decision
for their children about the
COVID vaccine.
Angelo Angerame is the
CEO of the Hudson Regional
Long-Term Care Pharmacy in
Middletown, New York.