How the Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Pause Affects New York |
Weather: The mostly sunny skies this morning will turn cloudy after noon, with a chance of showers. Today's high will be in the mid-60s. Expect a partly cloudy night with temperatures in the low 50s. |
Alternate-side parking: In effect until April 29 (Holy Thursday, Orthodox). |
 | | James Estrin/The New York Times |
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On Sunday, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease expert, said that a decision should come by the end of the week about whether to resume administering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. |
That decision could have consequences for New York City, where officials have been grappling with how to adapt without the vaccine, a crucial tool in inoculating hard-to-reach populations. |
Over all, case counts, hospitalizations and deaths are all trending downward in New York, according to city data. The average number of hospitalizations for the last four weeks was 1,530; last week, there were 949 hospitalizations. |
Vaccine access continues to expand. Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Saturday that New Yorkers who are 50 or older could walk in and receive vaccines without an appointment at more than 30 city-operated sites. They can bring someone with them who can also receive a shot. |
The chairman of the City Council health committee, Mark D. Levine, said on Sunday that the "crushing demand" for vaccine appointments in the city was ebbing, and thousands of slots were available. |
Still, the pause on Johnson & Johnson vaccinations forced the rescheduling of at least 4,000 appointments last week and has slowed the city's ability to vaccinate groups like homeless people, people with disabilities or older people who cannot leave their homes. |
City officials have said the ease of the one-shot vaccine made it preferable to other vaccines, which require two doses spaced weeks apart. A city program to vaccinate homebound older people was suspended because of the pause. |
On Brian Lehrer's show on WNYC on Friday, Mr. de Blasio said that there were still thousands of homebound people whom the city hoped to reach. |
On Sunday, Dr. Fauci said that he expected experts advising the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to recommend either a warning or restriction on the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. |
And Mr. de Blasio said the details of those restrictions could affect which vaccine will be used to reach homebound people. |
"Remember that will then take a more cumbersome process with a second shot," he said. "And it will just take longer obviously to reach everyone." |
A Connecticut man is facing federal charges after police said he attacked officers with a Molotov cocktail and an unspecified chemical on Saturday. [amNY] |
For the second time in a month, an undercover Asian police officer was the victim of a racist verbal attack. [N.Y. Post] |
A man tried to break into the pop star Taylor Swift's TriBeCa apartment, police said, at least the second break-in attempt in recent years. [Daily News] |
And finally: A Sheep Meadow, on Governors Island |
 | | Timothy Schenck/The Trust For Governors Island |
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The Times's Daniel E. Slotnik writes: |
An ovine battalion is fighting back an invasion on Governors Island this summer. |
Five sheep will spend the warm months bivouacked on the island in order to crop back invasive flora, mainly mugwort and phragmites, that could crowd cultivated plants. |
The sheep will mostly graze in a fenced-in area that will be moved through a seven-acre section of the park called Hammock Grove, said Clare Newman, the president and chief executive of the Trust for Governors Island. |
Ms. Newman said that using sheep is far better for the environment than potent herbicides, and the island is an ideal summer destination for the sheep, who relish the plants they've been brought there to crop. |
Using hoofed animals to maintain city parks is nothing new — Sheeps Meadow in Central Park once held sheep, after all — but many parks have used goats, which are not ideal for Hammock Grove because they eat things like tree bark. |
The sheep are "going to go for the down-low greenery, as opposed to the vertical trees," which is perfect for the grove, where many young trees are planted, Ms. Newman said. |
The five sheep come from Tivoli Lake Preserve and Farm in Albany and are named Flour, Sam, Evening, Chad and Philip Aries. They will be introduced to the media and the public at an event on the island today. |
Keeping them on the island will cost around $4,500 for the season, plus food and veterinary costs. The sheep are likely to return in years to come. |
Ms. Newman encouraged people to visit the sheep but to keep a respectful distance. |
"They can't climb in and hang out with the sheep," she said. |
It's Monday — flock together. |
Metropolitan Diary: In the wee hours |
When I was a teenager growing up in the Morris Park section of the Bronx in the 1970s, there were many nights when my friends and I would trek into "the city" to go to concerts at the Garden or in Central Park. |
Invariably, the trip home at the end of our night out would land us back in the Bronx in the wee hours. |
Knowing that the bakery across from the church there would be baking bread before dawn, we would knock on the screen door in the back. |
One of the guys would come out and give us a few loaves of "Italian" and a block of butter to share. |
I don't remember all of the music that I heard on those wild nights, but I do remember sitting on the curb under a streetlight and eating hot bread and butter before heading home. |
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