LOCAL NEWS OP-ED
Now is the time
to address health
equity in New York
BY MSGR. GREGORY
MUSTACIUOLO
Two years into a pandemic
that hit low-income,
vulnerable communities
the hardest, glaring disparities
in access to essential health
services across New York
State persist and, in many
cases, have only intensifi ed.
This year marks a oncein
a-century opportunity for
New York to make meaningful
inroads in tackling these overlapping
crises head on—and
commit to a real push for equitable
access to health services
for all New Yorkers.
Not since the Great Depression
has our state been the
benefi ciary of such signifi cant
federal funding to support key
regional priorities. That money
must go to our hospitals but
just as importantly to the hundreds
of community-based organizations,
food banks, nursing
homes, and schools that
continue to be the backbone
of a healthy recovery from
Buffalo to Brooklyn.
Beyond the funding we need
for critical maintenance and
operations of our safety-net
hospitals and wages to expand
our healthcare workforce, we
must invest robustly in all the
nonprofi t providers that address
social determinants of
health like access to nutritious
food, housing, transportation,
education, and a support
system of family or friends.
As we at the Mother Cabrini
Health Foundation selected
our more than 450 new grants
to support health programs for
under-resourced New Yorkers
in 2022, these were the recurrent
themes we heard about
the challenges our communities
are facing. Of course, all
The worst of the Omicron variant-fueled COVID-19 peak appears to be behind New York, Past the peak
Rapid drop of Omicron cases in Manhattan
more than 50% decrease from
the 1,031.33 cases per 100,000
rate reported a week prior.
Every borough but Staten Island
(516.02 per 100,000) had
transmission rates under 500
per 100,000 as of Jan. 25, the
city’s Health Department noted.
Still, the transmission rates are
considered “very high,” though
that may not be the case for
much longer.
In all, 53 neighborhoods
across the Five Boroughs reported
7-day positivity rates of
10% or higher between Jan. 20-
26; not one of them had a rate
above 20%.
By contrast, just a week earlier,
49 areas of the city reported
7-day positivity rates of 20%
or higher.
On the opposite end of the
spectrum, just six areas had
7-day positivity rates below 5%.
Half of them were in Manhattan,
including the Financial
District (10004), which had
the both the lowest infection
rate (1.87%) and fewest new
CARLO ALLEGRI
infections (11) in the entire city
between Jan. 20-26.
Approximately 51 areas of the
city had fewer than 100 new infections
during the period. Nineteen
of them were in Manhattan.
Infection rates are also falling
for unvaccinated New Yorkers,
though they remain highly
susceptible to the virus and
more likely to become infected
than vaccinated New Yorkers.
The case rate for the unvaccinated
dropped from a whopping
15,238.99 per 100,000
reported on Jan. 8 to 8,288.41
per 100,000 on Jan. 15 — a
54% decrease.
By contrast, the case rate for
vaccinated New Yorkers fell
from 1,433.66 per 100,000 on
Jan. 8 to 489.59 per 100,000 on
Jan. 15 — a 34% drop.
Even so, based on the Jan. 15
numbers reported by the city’s
Health Department, unvaccinated
New Yorkers were still more
than nine times more likely to
contract COVID-19 than their
vaccinated counterparts.
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these intersecting needs remain
particularly acute amid
the pandemic.
Those of us in the private
and philanthropic sectors must
work alongside existing government
programs to complement
and expand programs
that support New Yorkers in
need. We can also help provide
a roadmap for health needs
across the state based on what
we hear from hundreds of
providers on the ground.
We’re also funding nonprofi
ts such as the Children’s
Health Fund and YMCA of
Greater New York that provide
critical early childhood intervention
services for children
in poverty and rural communities.
And we’re working with
universities across New York
to continue in our strategic
commitment to funding programs
that improve oral health
access in underserved communities
such as tele-dentistry
and mobile dental vans.
Looking ahead, New York
must rise to the challenge of
health equity and improved
access to critical health services
for all New Yorkers. To
succeed, we must support the
providers that are on the front
lines of this work in communities
every day, and we must
understand that we are dealing
with a wide breadth of
complex issues.
We must be strategic in pinpointing
the most acute needs
among vulnerable groups, and
now is the time to act.
Msgr. Gregory Mustaciuolo
is Chief Executive Offi cer
of the Mother Cabrini Health
Foundation, a private, nonprofi
t organization based in
New York City and supporting
programs throughout
Member of the National
Newspaper Association
New York State.
Member of the
New York Press Association
Member of the Minority
Women Business Enterprise
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
The rapid decline in COVID
19 cases across New
York City continued over
the past week, with no neighborhoods
exceeding a 20%
positivity rate or more than
540 new cases.
The Five Boroughs are now
well past the peak of infections
sparked by the Omicron variant
which took hold just before
Christmas 2021. Every major
indicator the city’s Department
of Health and Hygiene
uses to track COVID-19 — including
hospitalizations and
deaths — are steadily decreasing
day by day.
That includes the 7-day positivity
rate, which was down to
9.06% as of Jan. 29; just eight
days earlier, on Jan. 21, that
fi gure was 17.67%.
More good news was found
in the transmission rate, which
tracks the spread of COVID-19.
The citywide rate of Jan. 25 was
424.38 cases per 100,000 — a
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