LOCAL • INDEPENDENT • FREE Volume 15
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Issue 32
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Week of August 7 -13, 2020
Saratoga Scholar Puts
Talking Heads on the Map by Thomas Dimopoulos Saratoga TODAY
Chris Frantz, who has just published his autobiography “Remain In Love: Talking Heads: Tom Tom Club: Tina,” talks about David Miller - Professor Emeritus at Skidmore College, and David Miller talks about Chris Frantz.
SARATOGA SPRINGS Consider the sonic arsenal in the Talking Heads songbook – “Once In A Lifetime” and “Burning Down The House, to “Life During War Time,” among them. Now for good measure add the Tom Tom Club’s iconic “Genius of Love,” and consider these likely would have never been created were it not for David Miller, Professor Emeritus at Skidmore College. No party, no disco, no foolin’ around. See Story pg.. 23
LOCAL SCHOOLS prepare 2020 plans by Opal Jessica Bogdan Saratoga TODAY SARATOGA SPRINGS – With little time left before the school year begins, school districts and parents need to begin conversations about what to expect for the 2020-21 school year. This week, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that parents would be the “ultimate decision makers” on sending children to school. He added another decision would
be made this week on whether or not to reopen schools entirely based on infection rate. At this time there has been no announcement. See Story pg. 16
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518- 581-2480
Antibody Tests Show 9% Positive by Thomas Dimopoulos Saratoga TODAY SARATOGA SPRINGS – They are two different things. The first, which can be done via a nasal swab, tests whether a person is infected with COVID-19. The second, which uses a drawing of blood, indicates whether a person may previously had been infected with the virus and built-up antibodies to potentially provide virus immunity, at least for the time being. In the first instance, more than 50,000 people in Saratoga County have been tested for the COVID-19 virus, according to the state Department of Health, with about 750 of those people – a rate of approximately 1.6 % having tested positive. In the second scenario, examining for antibodies, local tests indicate about 9% of those tested had previously been infected with COVID-19 – although it would be misleading to subsequently assume that 9% of the overall local population has previously had the disease. “Probably in our community, it’s
going to be a couple of percent,” says David Mastrianni, MD Senior Vice President, at the Saratoga Hospital Medical Group. “I don’t think it’s going to be very high, a few percent of people. Whether it’s 2, 3, or 4 percent I don’t know, but it will probably be in that range,” he says. “It’s going to be low so the point is we’ve done a really good job here (in Saratoga) of shutting down Covid. The bad news is that we‘ve got to keep doing a really good job because we have a lot of people who are not immune.” Mastrianni says the initial tests that look for the virus have taught that some people who get infected may not have any symptoms at all for a couple of days. “You could be asymptomatic and that’s one of the tricky parts about it. There are probably people out there who have some of the virus,” he explains. When people do get symptoms, they can range erratically from person to person. The virus typically will stay in the body for about 10 days, and one of the ways the body’s immune system fights it off is by producing antibodies. See Story pg. 9
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