NY health officials move to expand wastewater monitoring

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NY health officials move to expand wastewater monitoring

Public health officials in New York are planning an expansion of infectious disease monitoring in wastewater in order to detect more illnesses that may be otherwise quietly spreading through a community.

The state Department of Health on Monday announced its plan through $21.6 million in funding, including a $6.6 million grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Under a series of pilot programs, health officials will begin testing for Influenza A, RSV, Hepatitis A, Norovirus, and antimicrobial-resistant genes. The initial monitoring programs will begin in Erie, Onondaga, Jefferson and Westchester counties.

How to calcuate what percentage income a person is using R and Census Microdata

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Here is how to a create a table of percent income using R and Census Public Use Microdata and the Qauntile function.

library(tidycensus)
library(tidyverse)
library(hutils)
library(gt)

# Grab Public Use Microdata for Albany County, with 
# PINCP = Total Personal Income see View(pums_variables) 
# puma areas can be found with tigris and mapview for an interactive
# map of the puma areas: mapview::mapview(tigris::pumas('ny'))
aci <- get_pums(variables = 'PINCP', state = "NY",puma = c('02001','02002'))

# next use hutil's weight2rows to expand out the dataframe so that 
# eached weighted observation has one row per observation
# then filter to only include persons with salary income, > $2
# extract out only the .$PINCP variable, then calculate quantile for
# 0, 5, 10, ... 90, 95, 99 percent
aci %>% 
  weight2rows('PWGTP') %>% 
  filter(PINCP > 2) %>%
  .$PINCP %>%
  quantile(c(seq(0,0.95,0.05),.99)) -> y

# create a tibble with the quantile ranges 
# (what percentage am i)
# and calculated quantile values (how much income)
df2 <- tibble(
  x=100-c(seq(0,0.95,0.05),.99)*100, 
  y=y
)

# Zero out the 100% value, to overcome 
# how the Census stores $1, $2, etc.
df2[1,2] <- 0

# Create the table with gt
df2 %>%
  select( Salary = y, `Top Percent` = x) %>%
  gt() %>%
  fmt_currency(1, decimals = 0) %>%
  fmt_percent(2, scale_values = F, decimals = 1) %>%
  opt_stylize() %>%
  opt_css('body { text-align: center} ') %>%
  cols_align('center') %>%
  tab_header('What percent is a salary in Albany County?',
             'Includes only persons with a yearly income of more then $1 a year.') %>%
  tab_footnote(html('Andy Arthur, 1/22/23.<br /><em>Data Source:</em> 2016-2020 Public Use Microdata, <br />Total person\'s income,  NY PUMA 02001 and 02002.'))

January 23, 2023 Morning

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Good morning! Snow and 32 degrees in Delmar, NY. ❄ There is a north breeze at 9 mph. 🍃. There are 3 inches of snow on the ground. ☃ ️Things will start to thaw out at around 9 am. 🌡️

Out for the morning walk 🚶, the snow is quite wet and sloppy. Sticking to my boots it’s would seem. Sidewalks are plowed which helps. But it’s still pretty wet and slushy. There was a either a telephone or cable line that came down on Elm Avenue this morning, there was already a police officer directing traffic around it, 🚨 but I stayed well away from it, just because you never know how much voltage it could have. If it’s a telephone wire, it could be as much as 90 volts when ringing, and I don’t know how much voltage is used for cable lines, or if they are all fiber optic at this point. I don’t own a TV or have internet at home, so I don’t know what’s up and down. Kind of sucks for people though who plan to work from home.

Today will snow before 2pm, then rain and snow likely. 🌧 High of 35 degrees at 2pm. Four degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around February 14th. Northwest wind 9 to 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. Total daytime snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches possible. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 24 degrees. The record high of 64 was set in 1906. 10.6 inches of snow fell back in 1963.❄

Maybe it was mistake to leave my umbrella home. ☂ I did plan on bringing it but I was already on my way down to the bus stop 🚏 when I realized I didn’t pack it with my lunch. Not a big deal, but I am hoping the snow doesn’t turn to rain and it’s wet by evening. That said, it seems like it will be clearing as the day progresses. Another mild night ahead, which is good, because you know how much I love to pay for heat.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:08 pm with sun having an altitude of 27.9° from the due south horizon (-42.9° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 11.3 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:14 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (237°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (244°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:57 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 14 seconds with dusk around 5:27 pm, which is one minute and 16 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon in the southwest (230°) at an altitude of 16° from the horizon, 227,713 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 6:02 pm. At sunset, look for a chance of rain, 🌧 and temperatures around 35 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 11 mph. Tomorrow will have 9 hours and 44 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 3 seconds over today.

I’ve decided to continue on my journey through more-mindful eating, 🍽 which means eating only when I’m hungry and not stuffing my face when I’m already full. Walking is great, but it doesn’t necessary translate to lost weight, nor does it save money. If I try to be more careful on how much I eat, then I can stretch food further, 🍎 put more away in the freezer to eat a later date. Might not add up to a lot 💰 but with inflation, you really have to stretch every dollar as far as it can go. Plus less food consumed means less food packaging to burn or take to the transfer station, which is better for the environment. 🌎 Kind of a win-win for a better tomorrow. Little things, done over a decade, can really add up. Worse thing is that it seems like the veggies and fruit get eaten up before I’m ready to shop, but I can buy more.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 27 degrees at 11pm. 12 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around March 18th. Maximum wind chill around 20 at 10pm; Northwest wind 8 to 14 mph. In 2022, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 6 degrees. The record low of -17 occurred back in 1948.

Maybe my fears of having to walk home in the rain with an umbrella are overblown. 🌧 That’s good, as it should be good for walking tonight, assuming the sidewalks aren’t too icy. I don’t know how late I’ll get home tonight, but I don’t think it will be super late.

Another mild and cloudy weekend ahead. ☁️ Saturday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 38. Sunday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 34. Typical average high for the weekend is 33 degrees. I would like to get out of town this weekend for Friday into the weekend, but I want to give it one more day to decide what my plans are for sure, as if looks cloudy I might hold off. 🌲🌲 But it would be fun for my 40th birthday.

Looking ahead, there are 2 weeks until Save the Pine Bush Turns 43 🦋 when the sun will be setting at 5:16 pm with dusk at 5:44 pm. On that day in 2022, we had mostly sunny and temperatures between 36 and 12 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 34 degrees. We hit a record high of 55 back in 1991.

Frozen Lake