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Health Board discusses reasons why some haven’t received COVID-19 vaccine

Chautauqua County Board of Health officials note there are a number of reasons why some people haven’t gotten the COVID-19 vaccine, including misinformation, trust of medical professionals and struggles with using the internet. During this week’s Board of Health meeting, Breeanne Agett, the county Health Department’s epidemiology manager, went over statistics about how the county is doing thus far, in terms of COVID-19 and the vaccine. She shared that the number of new cases continue to drop. “As more people are getting vaccinated in those older age groups, we’re starting ...

President: ‘Focus’ helped SUNY Fredonia through semester

COVID-19 may have dampened educational spirits across U.S. college campuses when many students had to learn remotely, but not at the State University of New York at Fredonia. Dr. Stephen Kolison, who just ended his first year as university president, described the recently completed semester to the SUNY Fredonia College Council on Wednesday during his 2020-21 wrap-up report. “A number of interventions were done on the campus,” he said, describing five areas of focus: sanitation, behavior, testing, telework and vaccination. Getting students and staff to change their behavior was a ...

Legislators take aim at ‘vaccine misinformation’

Some state legislators are ready to fight what they term as vaccine misinformation being posted on social media platforms. A.7581 was introduced recently by Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy, D-Albany, with S.4512 introduced by Sen. Anna Kaplan, D-Carle Place, would define vaccine misinformation as a public expression, either verbally, in writing or through images, which intentionally is misleading about vaccines, vaccine side effects, vaccine components, vaccine efficacy, the relationship between illness and vaccines, or any other substantive information as it relates to vaccines. “This ...

New guidance won’t bring back County Fair in 2021

Even though Gov. Andrew Cuomo has provided guidance for county fairs, it’s “too little, too late” as far as Chautauqua County is concerned. On May 4, the local County Fair Board of Directors posted on its website that it was canceling this year’s event due to a lack of guidance ...

New COVID cases slow to trickle, hospitalizations at 4

Only four new confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported Thursday by the Chautauqua County Department of Health. Hospitalizations also remained low, currently at four. As of Thursday there are 57 active cases and 248 people in quarantine; the seven-day positivity rate was at 1.2%. To date there have been 9,168 total confirmed cases, 8,958 recoveries and 153 virus-related deaths.

Vax and scratch: NY offers $5M lottery for newly vaccinated

ALBANY (AP) — Anyone who gets vaccinated at a state-run vaccination site in New York next week will receive a lottery scratch ticket with prizes potentially worth millions, as Gov. Andrew Cuomo tries to boost slowing vaccination rates. The pilot program will offer prizes from $20 up to $5 ...