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April 19, 2023

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9/21: Mr. Obama Goes to New York…Squelches Mr. Paterson’s Chances?

September 21, 2009 | by Marist Poll

By Dr. Lee M. Miringoff

With an approval rating still scraping bottom at 20% and with only 27% of New York State voters even wanting Governor David Paterson to seek election in 2010, it’s little wonder the White House is getting itchy. Why is Washington so worried about the bluest of the blue states?

Lee Miringoff

It’s not just the governorship that’s at stake. It’s also about what could happen down ballot if Paterson is heading the ticket. Paterson’s pick to replace Hilary Clinton in the U.S. Senate, Kirsten Gillibrand, also has very shaky numbers. In fact, her 26% approval rating statewide is nothing to write home about. She trails former Governor George Pataki by 48% to 44% in an hypothetical pairing, and there’s always the possibility of Rudy Giuliani re-trying his 2000 Senate campaign. More on that shortly. Losing a Democratic U.S. Senate seat from New York would be nothing short of a disaster for the Obama Administration in next fall’s mid-term election.

The only thing not surprising in all this White House political pressure is that team Obama has already cleared the path for Gillibrand so that she can win her party’s nomination sans a primary fight. Is this step two in their efforts to keep New York’s U.S. Senate seats in Democratic hands?

Of course, the immediate impact of the White House pulling the rug out from under Paterson is, I’m sure, not lost on any future occupants of the capital’s second floor in Albany. That’s where the Crown Prince of New York politics Andrew Cuomo no doubt has set his sights. Attorney General Cuomo is waiting in the gubernatorial wings holding the highest approval rating of any state official. He cleans Paterson’s clock in a Democratic primary matchup and the White House has just provided Cuomo with all the political cover he could ever need to challenge fellow Democrat Paterson should Paterson decide to run. Cuomo also bests Rudy Giuliani by 10% points should that be the eventual pairing.

What will Rudy do? There are three schools of thought. He can run for governor, but the odds just increased that heavyweight Andrew Cuomo will be his opponent. He could challenge Gillibrand who seems more vulnerable. Or, he could drop out of school altogether when it comes to campaign politics. After all, his recent foray into the electoral college wasn’t particularly rewarding. Rudy remains the marquee name in New York GOP circles but he hasn’t won anything in a very long time (1997). He needs to make his intentions known soon if he really wants to get back into the political swing of things.

9/21: An Interview: The 2009 Mayor’s Race

| by Marist Poll

By John Sparks

Jay DeDapper is a veteran television political reporter who has covered New York politics for more than a decade. In an interview with the Marist Poll’s John Sparks, DeDapper considers the matchup between New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Democratic challenger Bill Thompson, and he discusses the impact of the $36 million the mayor has spent on his re-election campaign.

John Sparks
Jay, back in July, 51% of registered voters in New York City told The Marist Poll it was time to oust Mayor Michael Bloomberg from office and elect someone else. Now in that same poll, Bloomberg led Bill Thompson 48% to 35%. Do you sense that, as we get closer to the general election, that the Mayor’s pulling away and widening his lead?

Jay DeDapper
I think there’s a limit to how much of a lead that he can get, even though he’s not a Republican, a registered Republican anymore. He’s not registered in any party. He’s created his own party to run, and he’s running on the independent line. I think that in a city that this is overwhelmingly Democratic, there is a limit to how many votes anybody can get that’s not on the Democratic line. That being said, he is widely seen, and the Marist Poll has shown this, previous Marist Polls have shown this, he’s widely seen to be politically independent and not really a Democrat or a Republican, and I think that appeals to a lot of people. So, I think his wide lead that he has now, and it is sizeable, I don’t think it’s going to grow much more. I think that there is a limit to how wide a lead that he can get in this race.

John Sparks
Now you mentioned he’s an independent. He’s also independently wealthy. He spent a reported $36 million on getting re-elected. Is it the money that makes this an insurmountable race for Bill Thompson?

Jay DeDapper
Well, money is always important and he spent — Mike Bloomberg spent $70 some odd million for the first time around. He spent $80 some odd million last time. There’s been talk that he’d spend $100 million by the time all the final checks are cut in this election, and that’s a huge disadvantage for Bill Thompson. Bill Thompson is participating in the public finance system in New York City, which is pretty progressive. It’s one of the most advanced in the country, but it doesn’t account for people who spend all of their own money, and there’s kind of no way to account for that under the law right now. So, it’s a huge disadvantage for Bill Thompson. But, to say that it’s only money, I think misses a point, and that is that there have been lots of candidates with a lot of money that have lost races. In fact, until Mike Bloomberg came along, the rule was you could spend — that super rich people could spend all the money they wanted and didn’t have a very good chance of winning election, all other things being equal. All other things are not equal in this case. Bill Thompson has not been an aggressive, an assertive candidate. He has had fewer public events, campaign events, than Mike Bloomberg, and if you’re the guy who is the underdog in the money race, then you’ve got to out-hustle the guy who’s got all the money. Bill Thompson isn’t out-hustling anybody right now.

John Sparks
So, what would it take for Thompson to win in November?

Jay DeDapper
He would have to become a different candidate. New York … I think New Yorkers, and you look back at the mayor’s races and the mayors that have been elected in the past, New York has a long history of electing characters. There’s, of course, Fiorello La Guardia. There was Ed Koch. There was Rudy Giuliani. Lindsay was in his own way a character. And, in between these characters, there have often been kind of quiet technocratic kind of people. Abe Beame was one. You could argue that Dave Dinkins was. He certainly wasn’t much of a character. He was historic, but he wasn’t much of a character. Mike Bloomberg has turned into a character. As much as he was kind of a colorless billionaire when he first ran, he’s turned into a bit of a character, a little bit a hottie [sic]. The Marist Poll has shown over the years that people don’t really like his attitude. They don’t think he relates to them or that he understands their concerns, but at the end of the day, he’s got a character, and they think he does a pretty good job. Bill Thompson is not a character. He is as colorless as you can get, and he hasn’t demonstrated any knack for becoming a character in people’s minds. In the very short period between now and election day, Bill Thompson would have to become a different person. That maybe is something he can do. Candidates have done that in the past, but he’d have to become a different person.

John Sparks
I was going to follow-up and ask–does he really have enough time to accomplish that?

Jay DeDapper
I think maybe the way I’d like to answer that is: Could a candidate in this amount of time accomplish what has to be accomplished? And, I think in the hypothetical, yes. Bill Thompson is going to have to go from zero to 60 tomorrow to be able to pull this off.

John Sparks
I’m curious about something else. Is Governor Paterson hurting Bill Thompson’s chances to be elected?

Jay DeDapper
I don’t think there’s any evidence of that. Paterson has plenty of his own problems, and that’s a whole other story. He’s gotten tremendously high negatives and a real, real problem with trying to get re-elected next year. But, I don’t think there’s any link in voters’ minds between Bill Thompson and David Paterson. They haven’t appeared together. They aren’t particularly close. Certainly, David Paterson’s not going to come and campaign for Bill Thompson, because Bill Thompson probably doesn’t want David Paterson to come and campaign for him. So, I don’t think that’s his problem. I mean Bill Thompson is not tainted by the leading Democrat in the state having low poll numbers. Bill Thompson is tainted by the fact that he simply is not running a campaign so far that has energy, ideas, attitude, assertiveness, aggressiveness, fire in the belly. There’s no fire in the belly.

John Sparks
Hindsight’s 20/20. Did Anthony Weiner make a mistake by dropping out?

Jay DeDapper
That’s a hard question. I mean, I think most people, most political analysts, myself included, believe that Anthony Weiner had a much better shot at winning — at beating Mike Bloomberg than Bill Thompson did. But, could he have beaten him? I don’t know, and Anthony Weiner in a purely political calculation, I think, looked at the map and said, “Look, I can run again in four years, and I will have been out there in two different cycles. I will have a lot of name recognition. I will be able to continue to raise issues and get free media and talk, and Mike Bloomberg won’t be running again in four years, and I won’t have to face his $80 million or whatever it’s going to be.” I think that Weiner, I’m sure, thinks in his own mind that he made the right choice because he’s a young guy, and he’s looking at the long run. He wasn’t looking at the short-term advantage. It would’ve been a tough race. It would’ve been … I think it would be a much competitive race if it was Anthony Weiner versus Mike Bloomberg than it is shaping up to be with Bill Thompson versus Mike Bloomberg.

John Sparks
You addressed what Bill Thompson would have to do in order to prevail in November, but I want to ask you: What must Mike Bloomberg do to hold onto his lead and to win in November?

Jay DeDapper
Bloomberg has real vulnerabilities, and The Marist Poll, this one and previous ones have pointed it out, and I’ve alluded to at least one of them, people, New Yorkers, the average New Yorker doesn’t think that he understands them nor is particularly concerned about what affects them. He is seen as a fairly aloof kind of sarcastic, not necessarily very nice rich guy, but he’s also seen as someone who is effective. And, in this case and in this economy, effectiveness seems to trump likability, at least so far, at least according to the polls. He has to work on the likability thing though because the danger is that he is seen as even more arrogant than he’s already seen if he simply goes forward assuming that he is going to win because he’s the right guy for the right time, and he’s got the track record to do it. So, I think you are going to see that. I think you are going to see the campaign working on trying to make Mike Bloomberg a little less of the out-of-touch billionaire and a little more of the I may not feel your pain, but at least I understand it billionaire.

John Sparks
Jay, do you think there’s any lingering resentment toward Bloomberg over the third term?

Jay DeDapper
I think that if you polled people, and you asked them that question specifically, and the further away we get it from it, it probably diminishes, but there has always been a lot of lingering resentment, at least in the polls that I’ve seen since this — since the term limits went through. But even at the time that the term limit debate was at its hottest, and the vast majority of New Yorkers said, “We don’t think the term limits should be overturned,” when those same voters were asked: “Well do you think Mike Bloomberg deserves a third term?” almost the same majority who were opposed to overturning term limits said: “Well, yeah, we think Mike Bloomberg should get a chance at a third term.” So, there’s a contradiction in voters’ minds, and I don’t think this has hurt him. I don’t think that whatever lingering resentment there is, I don’t think it’s enough to drive his supporters into the arms of Bill Thompson right now, and Bill hasn’t done a particularly effective job of stoking that resentment. It’s not an issue we’ve heard very much about in the last three months, and if you can’t make that an issue during the slow summer months, the dog days of August, you’re not going to make it an issue in October I don’t think.

John Sparks
I would think in the short time between the primary and the general that he’s going to really have to mount up an attack on the mayor. Having said that, do you think that there’s any chance in that short period of time that the mayor will stumble?

Jay DeDapper
There is. The mayor has shown over his eight years in office a tin ear to the perceptions of him. One of the most egregious cases was when a reporter in a wheelchair in the front row of a news conference inadvertently, or it was thought, had inadvertently played back a little piece of his tape recorder and it sounded like — it was a noise that interrupted the on-going press conference. And, the mayor castigated him in terms that were just nasty. It turned out it wasn’t even this guy’s tape recorder, and it took the mayor awhile to apologize. That kind of thing, and it got some attention in the press, that kind of thing in the heat and the glare of an election battle in the really hot campaigning over the last three or four weeks of campaigning, a talented opponent could take that and really hurt the mayor with it, with that kind of thing. The mayor is capable of that kind of gaffe. He’s demonstrated it repeatedly, and he is certain enough of his own success that his closest advisors are not going to keep him — be able to keep him from making a gaffe like that if it’s going to happen. The question would be: If a gaffe like that happens, would Bill Thompson be able to take advantage of it? That’s the bigger question to me than will the mayor make a gaffe.

John Sparks
Do you think that the Democrats could’ve fielded a more formidable opponent?

Jay DeDapper
Yes. Anthony Weiner, the polls showed repeatedly, would’ve been a more formidable opponent, and clearly, here’s a guy who knows how to get free media. He learned at the feet of Chuck Schumer, the king of free media. He knows how to get attention. He knows how to throw a punch. He knows how to appeal to the resentment about the term limits. He knows how to appeal to the anger there is, especially among ethnic blue-collar workers about the state of the economy and playing outer borough against Manhattan. He knows how do that, and that’s how you’re going to win. That’s how you’re going to beat Mike Bloomberg. Not that it would be an easy thing to do, but he would’ve been a formidable candidate. He was the only name that was out there mentioned that was serious. People talked about Bill Clinton running or something like that. I mean, yeah, Bill Clinton probably would’ve been a formidable candidate, but in terms of the realistic possible candidates, they could’ve fielded someone better, and his name is Anthony Weiner.

John Sparks
Jay, it’s always interesting to talk about your observations. You’ve covered New York politics for well beyond a decade. Anything else that you’d like to comment on the mayor’s race?

Jay DeDapper
I think what’s probably most interesting is this notion, and I’ve alluded to it, but this notion of effectiveness versus likability, and Rudy Giuliani, to some degree, succeeded in the same way. I remember in 1997, we went out to an African American middle class neighborhood in Queens, St. Albans, after Rudy Giuliani was re-elected overwhelmingly. Rudy Giuliani had had a terrible relationship with the African American community from … really from 1989 on … but from 1993 his election on … terrible relationship. He … I don’t recall if he came very close to winning, or he did win in St. Albans. And, when we talked to people on the street: why? They all said they didn’t like him, but crime was down. The streets were safer. Things were better. And, I think, at the end of the day, that voters, as much as we talk about how much voters vote just about who they like, who would they most like in their living room, when you’re talking about incumbency, effectiveness trumps likability, and I think there’s case-after-case of that, at least in New York City, where that is true. And, Mike Bloomberg is not very well liked, but he is well respected, and that, in this year with this economy, with the troubles facing the city, is an advantage that will be very difficult for Bill Thompson to overcome.

9/21: Bloomberg Approval Rating Steady

Three Decades of Teaching and Polling

September 11, 2009 | by Marist Poll

We’ve been at it since 1978. Take a look at how far we’ve come!

9/9: School Days: A Parental Breakout?

September 9, 2009 | by Mary Griffith

Mary Azzoli

For many schools, including the New York City public schools, today marks the first day of classes. As I drove into work this morning, I heard a newscaster refer to today as, “Parents Liberation Day.” This sentiment is echoed on ads pimping school supplies across TV airwaves. Granted, summer can be a challenge for parents. Finding activities to keep their little ones (and big ones) busy can be difficult. Full disclosure — I am not a parent. However, is this the kind of message that we want to send to our kids? That parents want, and perhaps, need to be “liberated” from their children? Since when did parenting become a part-time job? It also begs that long suffering issue of schools as babysitters. Perhaps, it’s time for a reality check.

9/3: Vacation from Hell

September 3, 2009 | by Mary Griffith

Disaster? Disaster doesn’t even come close.

Dateline: Summer 1999. Destination: Hilton Head, South Carolina. Twelve family members embark on a mini-family reunion. How could a long weekend of fun in the sun go so awry? A cacophony of events so unforeseen it rivals a Hollywood screenplay.

Lowlight Number 1: Scorching heat & oppressive humidity.

The upside: The backdrop for our trip was beautiful sunny skies. The downside: Those sunny skies were coupled with mercury-rising heat and choking humidity. As soon as we arrived, we were greeted with sweltering temperatures. When the hotel’s bathtub sized pool with bath warm water was taken into consideration, there was little relief. In fact, my uncle tried to get in a round of golf at 7 A.M. and returned dripping in sweat.

Lowlight Number 2: Not being evacuated from a restaurant with a gas leak.

Waiting to eat in a restaurant that will eventually be evacuated — without us.

Yes, you read that correctly. My mom’s cousin, Loretta, is a seafood lover and was looking forward to a good, lobster dinner. So, on either the second or third night of the vacation, we received a restaurant recommendation, and off we went. The night started off great! The décor was wonderful, and we were in a semi-private room upstairs. We ordered a ton of appetizers and drinks, but when it came time for the entrees to arrive, we waited close to an hour and a half for them to reach our table. My family’s patience wore thin, and we couldn’t even find a member of the wait staff to ask what was going on. Then, Loretta decided to go outside and have a cigarette. As she stepped into the humid air, she noticed a number of fire engines. Not thinking anything was wrong with the restaurant we were in, she went to light up. Then, a firefighter came rushing towards her! The restaurant had a gas leak, he informed her, and had been evacuated! That is, everyone inside the restaurant except for the twelve members of my family seated in a now-private, upstairs room. When Loretta returned, our meals had arrived – ice cold. We hypothesized that the restaurant chose not to sacrifice the hefty tab my family ran at the risk of our lives. Infuriated, Loretta’s husband went to the manager who still insisted that we pay our bill. A minor argument ensued, and the only compensation we received was having the drinks knocked off of our check.

Lowlight Number 3: Physical injury while on a wave runner.

After our culinary fiasco, we didn’t think the trip could get much worse. Were we ever wrong! The more adventurous members of the family (the men) hit the ocean by renting a few wave runners. Unfortunately, for one, the term “hit the ocean” was all too literal. You see, my godfather’s nephew (who was visiting from Lebanon) was thrust into the air while doing quick turns on the wave runner. On his way back down, he fell on top of the watercraft injuring his lower back. The problem: Poor William didn’t have medical coverage in the states. He suffered great pain, in silence, for the remaining couple of days of our trip. It was only upon our return to New York did he discover the true extent of his injury – a broken tailbone — after a family friend who is a nurse examined him.

Lowlight Number 4: Shower collapse, leaky air conditioner, and, yes, a roach.

I’m not a snob when it comes to hotel accommodations. I can rough it with the best of them. However, three strikes, and you’re out. When I first got to our room (a well-known chain which shall remain nameless), the air conditioner was leaking and left a puddle all over the floor. No big deal, it happens. We went to the front desk and got a new room. However, the conditions in the inn quickly deteriorated. Forget that the room number placard of our old room was adhered outside our new room. (A quirk, we thought.) But, about midway through the vacation, my mom and I swung by our cousins’ room. When we got there, we were informed that their shower fixtures had caved in. And, to top it all off, on the last night of our stay, we found a palmetto bug (a.k.a. roach) in one of the rooms.

The dark spot on the ceiling is an uninvited guest — a roach.

That was the last straw! My mom and her cousins stormed off to the front desk to complain. In the midst of the hubbub, my mother turned to a security guard who was less than alert at the front door and asked what his purpose was. His response was short and ridiculous, “Stealin’.” That was the end. Loretta flew back to her room and began calling other hotels to see if we could find rooms – even if for the night. No luck. We were stuck for the evening and happily escaped the next morning.

Parasailing was one of the highlights of the trip.

With all of the vacation’s insanity, there were some good moments like parasailing and knocking a volleyball around on the beach. To this day, none of us who were there can believe the events of that trip. Yet, we just laugh it all off!

9/2: Is This the Year?

September 2, 2009 | by Marist Poll

By Dr. Lee M. Miringoff

If this fall’s re-election campaigns of NYC Mayor Bloomberg and NJ Governor Corzine don’t provide sufficient distraction for the staff at The Marist Poll, you can count on the intense rivalry of baseball’s “Three Hundred Club” to test the statistical savvy of Poughkeepsie’s pollsters. Dating back to 1949, two Boston brothers each picked 10 major league batters to see whose total average would be higher. The “Three Hundred Club” was born.

Lee Miringoff

Since then, a collection of baseball buffs have joined the fray, including many of the poll prognosticators at Marist. Unfortunately, as the ol’ professor Casey Stengel used to say, “It is very difficult making predictions, especially about the future.” For the most part, The Marist Poll’s record for picking political winners has exceeded its ability to field a winning lineup of baseball’s best batters.

The breakout year was 2004 when Marist Poll Director Barbara L. Carvalho and I ran one-two for most of the summer (Barbara had won the mid-season prize the previous year.) I faded in the stretch. Barbara was nipped in the final weekend of the 2004 season by mere tenths of a percentage point… well within the error margin she often pointed out, but not enough to win the Tiffany Bowl.

Fast forward to 2009 where current standings place Barbara in second among the club’s 85 contestants. I’m laboring in 11th position. Marist’s Director of Interactive Media Systems Mary Azzoli, Web Senior Editor John Sparks (a distant relative of Casey Stengel), and Program Manager Stephanie Calvano trail. Stephanie is in third place for pitchers. We’re all also keeping an eye on the homers and RBI competition.

All of these baseball numbers are findable on the Three Hundred Club’s website.

9/1: Swine Flu from “Ground Zero”

September 1, 2009 | by Marist Poll

By John Sparks

The swine flu outbreak began last spring when the first cases were reported at St. Francis Preparatory School in Queens, New York. In an interview with the Marist Poll’s John Sparks, Assistant Principal Patrick McLaughlin recalls last April’s outbreak and addresses steps the school is taking this Fall to meet the threat of the swine flu epidemic. Read the full interview below.

John Sparks
One of the first incidents of Swine Flu, or what is now known as H1N1, began at St. Francis. Were you surprised of the outbreak taking place at St. Francis?

Pat McLaughlin
We were very surprised. In fact when we started having some cases come in, we didn’t know what it was, and that was about April 23rd or so of this year. And, it took us a day to find out from the Department of Health that it may have been the Swine Flu going through the building. So, yeah, we weren’t ready for something like that.

John Sparks
Have you ever been able to determine why it took place at St. Francis?

Pat McLaughlin
We had some senior students who went on a trip to Cancun, Mexico, and it was not school sponsored. They went on their own. We know that a couple of those students were ill when they came back from the trip and then came to school while they were ill. So, as we look back, when they entered the school, I guess it was the 19th or 20th of April, quickly the organism, the pathogen started spreading from one student to another. And, as you know, being in a classroom with bodies in close contact, it’s very easy for a pathogen to spread very quickly. So, we think that’s how it started here.

John Sparks
As we approach the flu season, we’re also approaching the beginning of school for the Fall semester. What preparations are you taking to meet the threat of the Swine Flu epidemic?

Pat McLaughlin
Just to say that we’ve been through this once, and that was a great education for us. We did close for a week. We removed people from the building – staff, faculty, and students. We scrubbed the building down. Now, we think coming into September to a new school year, it’s a lot about education, and first and foremost, we’re going to meet with faculty and staff and students, and one of the first things we’re going to say is if you feel sick, don’t come to school. If you have symptoms of a flu, don’t come into the building. We’re going to say that at the assemblies. We’re going to put it on the website. We are going to have it scrolling on monitors that we have set up in the public areas of the building, the lobbies. We’ll have it in much of our paperwork that goes home to parents as well. So, we have to make a stand in terms of educating everyone within the community as to what the symptoms are of any type of flu and what precautions to take. So, that’s going to be one of the jobs we have at hand for the beginning of school.

Our nurse has been traveling throughout the summer to a variety of workshops to give her expertise to other educational administrators as to what she went through, and she also has come up with a plan for the medical office in terms of dealing with those students coming down with any type of illness. And, if they show signs of fever and flu-like symptoms, they’ll be immediately quarantined into a part of our auditorium, and it’s been advised that they wear protective masks as well so they don’t transmit the disease to someone else. So, I think coming into this school year, we’re ready in terms of getting the information out, in terms of educating the people within the community, and ready to just get into action with anything that we’re confronted with.

John Sparks
We conducted a national poll, and we asked the American public how concerned they were about Swine Flu, and about 36% of the American public said that they were very concerned or somewhat concerned, but 64% said that they were not very concerned or not concerned at all. I’m just curious to your reaction to that and whether you anticipate another outbreak of Swine Flu?

Pat McLaughlin
Well, you can me put in the category that says very concerned at this point, because we’re dealing with a population that is a target population for the disease. We’re dealing with a population that is always in close contact, and from our experience in the Spring, we saw how quickly the incubation period for the Swine Flu is. So, it concerns us greatly that we have everyone onboard in terms of the information that we’ll give them, everyone onboard understanding what to do if they feel ill or if they see other people who are ill. So, that’s a great concern for us. And, I would dare there say that any school should be very concerned about the precautions that they need to take. They should be very concerned about knowledge within the building of illness. So, I think that’s something any school has to take seriously coming into the new school year.

John Sparks
Now, I spoke with some people in the health services community who told me that even if they put all efforts and resources toward manufacturing vaccine for H1N1, that there would not be nearly enough and that would also impact the reserves for what we call traditional flu vaccines. I’m just curious, have any of your students been getting vaccinated?

Pat McLaughlin
I can’t speak to that right now, because they have not been in the school yet. Our new incoming freshman class will be in the building starting on Monday and Tuesday. So, that’s the first that we’ll see of them. But we don’t have a measurement on how many students or faculty have gotten the flu shot yet.

John Sparks
You mentioned about your school nurse and some of the things that have been going on. I’m just curious what role the city or state health departments may have been playing in all this since the outbreak last Spring.

Pat McLaughlin
They were a tremendous help to us. We immediately contacted the Board of Health. Again, when it first hit us that, I guess it was the Thursday the 23rd, and we had a number of students come down to the medical office ill, we didn’t know what it was. We didn’t know whether it was a flu, whether there was something in the air or what it was. So, we immediately contacted the Department of Health when we saw the numbers that we were facing. They sent a person in the next day who did some swabs and identified that it was indeed the Swine Flu. So, we followed their direction from that very beginning of the episode, and they’ve been extremely helpful. They were in contact with us through the entire spring semester, the rest of the entire spring semester, guiding us, helping us, giving us feedback, and we have been awaiting their recommendations on what school should do for the upcoming school year. So, we’re going to implement those as well. But, I have to say that the Department of Health in consultation with the Centers for Disease Control and the mayor’s office were a great help to us in getting through this whole episode.

John Sparks
Since that episode last spring, has it had an impact on your enrollment for the fall?

Pat McLaughlin
I don’t get that impression. In freshmen that we talk to and parents of freshmen who are incoming, that didn’t seem to play a role. I think people looked at it as we just got a little bit unlucky here in the spring, and it doesn’t seem to have played a role in the school itself, because I think people know the quality of the education here. They know that the — when they come here, they’re going to get a caring, nurturing environment. So, I don’t think that episode really played a role in enrollment.

John Sparks
I’m just curious, Pat, how you might characterize the feelings of the parents, the students, and the faculty – fearful, cautious, anxious, unconcerned?

Pat McLaughlin
Learned. I think we went through a situation together, and I have to say that when the Department of Health followed up with a survey about what we did here and who got sick and what they did with medical care, we had a tremendous outpouring of parental support, and I think the people within the school also stepped up to keep everything going in terms of the academic work for the students. So, it was… that was, I guess, the most positive thing that could’ve come out of a negative situation was that the community came together and realized that we just got a little bit unlucky, and we have to do the best with it as we could at that point.

John Sparks
I’m just curious in looking back, and hindsight is 20/20, what you might’ve learned from the incident last spring? Was there anything that you would do differently? And, as a result of what happened, I would think that, perhaps, Saint Francis certainly is doing everything possible to deal with this in the future.

Pat McLaughlin
I think if we knew then what we know now, we would’ve implemented the things that we’re going to implement this September. If we knew the Swine Flu was coming our way, there would’ve been a great effort on our part to educate people about the aspects of influenza, of the Swine Flu, and how to prevent it, also what to do if you feel ill. If you have a fever and you feel sick, stay home. And, we had some students who felt sick, had a fever and still came to school and still tried to push it, and that’s commendable that they want to be in school, and they want to learn; but at the same time, it perpetuated the illness within the community and made it worse. So, we learned that about the influenza at that time. We also learned that if we do have a number of students come down with these symptoms, to quarantine them. Our nurse’s office wasn’t big enough to take care of a quarantine at that time. So, now we’ve… in our emergency plan, we have sectioned off a part of our auditorium where we can put those students and isolate them until we can make contact with their parents and have them come up and pick up their child to get medical care. So, I think we learned a lot from that experience, and what we learned, we are now implementing at this point.

John Sparks
Pat, I sure appreciate your time this afternoon. Anything else that you would like to add or speak to in regard to H1N1?

Pat McLaughlin
Well, I just want to say, John, that we do a cleaning during the summer anyway. The building’s spotless when the students come back, and we did the same thing. And, when this first hit on the 23rd, that weekend we spent the money, we brought a crew of our maintenance people in, and they scrubbed down the entire building. So, I’d like to say that we’re ready to go with the school year; we’re prepared, and I’m hoping that the information that we have will help us deal with anything that comes in.

** The views and opinions expressed in this and other interviews found on this site are expressly those of the speakers or authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Marist Poll.

9/1: Preventing Swine Flu…An Interview with the CDC

| by Marist Poll

By John Sparks

Should Americans be concerned about H1N1 influenza, and what precautions should they take to be protected from the swine flu? The Marist Poll’s John Sparks talks with Joe Quimby of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Read the full interview below.

John Sparks
Joe, The Marist Poll conducted a national survey of the American public, and we found that 64% of the American public told us that they were not very concerned or not concerned at all about H1N1 Should folks be concerned?

Joe Quimby
Short answer to that is yes, the American public should be concerned about 2009 A H1N1 influenza because flu is very unpredictable. We’ve had over 8,800 hospitalizations to date since April, and 556 people have died in the United States. Although we don’t know the exact number of people who have been ill, as of late May, we knew that well over a million people had either been sick or were sick and certainly that number’s increased. So, people do need to be concerned with this and both seasonal flu.

John Sparks
Well what precautions should people take about H1N1?

Joe Quimby
Well, it’s the same precaution for this flu as for seasonal flu. They need to … if they’re becoming ill, they need to stay home and stay — self-isolate themselves. If they have an underlying health condition, they need to seek attention from their medical provider, particularly people like pregnant women, who, unfortunately, of those who have died, we’re seeing about an unproportional number of deaths of pregnant women, 6% on average, whereas only 1% of the population is pregnant at any one time. People who are asthmatic, other people with underlying health conditions certainly should not wait at all, should contact their health providers. But a generally healthy person who becomes ill should not flood to emergency rooms or whatever and be overly worried. If you’re in generally good health, you’re going to probably pull through this in a couple of days, probably don’t even need to see a doctor, but that’ll be an individual call. But we want people to be prudent about seeking medical care, particularly if they do have an underlying health condition.

John Sparks
You know you mentioned seasonal flu, and we are approaching the seasonal flu season, and of course the word always goes out that people should get inoculated. Should people get H1N1 shots?

Joe Quimby
Well, first of all, a seasonal flu vaccine is in doctor’s offices now as we speak. I know here in Georgia it’s out, and it’s going to be distributed in the coming days across the country if it’s not already in your doctor’s office. So, people should first get a seasonal influenza shot. 80% of the Americans fall into the groups of people who are recommended for seasonal. And ,if you are recommended for a 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine, certainly please get in line. There’s 159 people who are recommended, and people like I talked to before of, with underlying health risk and particularly pregnant women… and healthcare workers and children, school aged children, need to be vaccinated as soon as possible.

John Sparks
You mentioned getting in line, is there enough vaccine for H1N1 for everyone in America that needs it?

Joe Quimby
We believe that there’ll be enough vaccine starting in about middle of October. About 45 million doses will be initially available for those who want to have a vaccine. Like seasonal influenza, this is a voluntary vaccine program. So, we believe that with the initial 45 million and then follow-on distributions in the days and weeks that follow and months that follow, that everybody who wants a vaccine should be able to get one.

John Sparks
I know that CDC works in cooperation with city, county, and state health departments on something like this. I’m just curious what some of these other agencies are doing in preparation for the fear of a pandemic?

Joe Quimby
Well it’s not the fear of a pandemic, we already have a pandemic. It’s getting ready at all levels has been a top priority at all levels of government. As you know, the president called for a flu summit, if you would, in the early days of July, and three cabinet secretaries got together along with hundreds of people at state and local and federal levels to begin their plans, if they already hadn’t. And, I think we’re seeing now with the beginning of schools, some people becoming ill in school settings and colleges and universities, we’re seeing the execution of well played — well laid and planned scenarios to take care of sick people and to keep healthy people healthy.

John Sparks
The last time I remember the country getting this excited about Swine Flu, Gerald Ford was president. I recall lining up at a shopping center and getting a free shot for the Swine Flu. Are we going to see something of that level again?

Joe Quimby
What we will see will be a combination of things. We’ve been effectively distributing flu vaccines through primary care providers, different scenarios for decades, and so we’re going to see a combination of vaccine distributed initially to all the states on a prorated basis so that if 4% of the population lives in a particular state, that’s how much of the initial vaccine they’ll get. And, various states and cities, depending on the population, will adapt and employ different scenarios. So, the first and foremost thing that people can do to find out about vaccines in their area is to contact their primary care provider; and certainly when H1N1 vaccine becomes available, people are going to know about any public offerings in a community setting, in addition to in their physician setting.

John Sparks
Joe, I know it’s hard to look into a crystal ball and into the future and see what we might expect, but do you have any prediction on what we may experience this flu season in regards to H1N1?

Joe Quimby
Actually if I had a crystal ball, it’d be real easy to predict what the flu season would look like, but we don’t have a crystal ball. What we can say is that flu is very unpredictable. We just don’t know what the extent of illness will be when you combine a new influenza strain as the 2009 H1N1 influenza combined with an act of seasonal influenza season. Our seasonal flu season is October to May. We’ve seen the flu activity throughout these past couple months in the summer at unprecedented levels, and not since the pandemic of 1968 have we seen such an active flu activity summer — flu activity in the summer months.

John Sparks
How well would you characterize our preparations? Are we going to be prepared?

Joe Quimby
Well, I think it’s a little too early for us to give ourselves a report card. I think the report card and any kind of grading of such will come afterwards. But, I believe that – – I know in my heart of hearts that there are 14,000 people here at the CDC, and there are thousands more at the federal level and state level and at schools and cities across the country, in health departments that are ready, have been working really hard and you’re going to see a true combined effort. But, you asked me first what can people do, there is a shared responsibility. It’s not just what the government can do for you, it’s what people can do for themselves to protect themselves against becoming exposed. Simple things: Keep your hands washed. Wash your hands with soap and water often. Use alcohol-based hand gels. If they’re coughing, cough into their elbow and avoid the people who are ill, and if you are ill, stay at home, self-isolate and don’t return back to society, be it school or work environment, until you’re free from fever 24 hours without taking anything to suppress that fever. So, there’s some — a lot of personal responsibility that each individual in America can be accounted for.

John Sparks
Joe, I appreciate your time. Is there anything else that you’d like to add?

Joe Quimby
No, just that it’s going to be a very unpredictable flu season and that for each American out there to do their part to protect themselves, their children, their parents, and the people that they live, work, and play with and go to school with. And, if we all work together here, I think we’ll all get through this. But, it is a combined effort at all levels of government and certainly with the personal efforts of the people. We don’t know what’s going to happen, but I think you’re going to see a good effort at all levels.

** The views and opinions expressed in this and other interviews found on this site are expressly those of the speakers or authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Marist Poll.

9/1: Swine Flu from “Ground Zero”