Massachusetts Towns Research Articles

Municipal capacity for water justice: a cross-case comparison of affordability and equity policies in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts

ABSTRACT Water unaffordability is a growing environmental justice crisis for vulnerable groups in the United States due to increasing water rates. These injustices disproportionately affect low-income and minority groups. We investigate how organizational capacity and learning processes influence the ways publicly managed water utilities develop and implement policies addressing water unaffordability. We also investigate the connections between financial, relational, and technical capabilities on offered customer assistance plans (CAPs). Combining these two areas of analysis, we examine how organizational capabilities and contextual factors (e.g. citywide poverty) influence the quality and efficacy of CAPs. This comparative case study of 11 cities and towns in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania draws on 33 semi-structured interviews with utility staff and other local officials, as well as a review of policy documents from utilities and online resources. Our findings demonstrate that organizational dynamics undermine the efficacy and adoption of CAPs. From interviews, the efficacy and adoption of CAPs depends on how utilities handle fixed costs and mediate knowledge gaps, and their ability to innovate around financial barriers to meet customer needs. Utilities in high-poverty cities were best situated to leverage organizational capacity in administering CAPs, regardless of utility size.

Jeffrey A. Norton and the Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Syndromes.

Jeffrey A. Norton could have been a professional football player but instead he chose to pursue a career in medicine and in the process became an outstanding academic surgeon. This story recounts his ascent from a small town in Massachusetts to the pinnacle of academic surgery. After graduating from high school in Albany, New York, Jeff continued his education at Dartmouth University, the State University of New York Upstate Medical University at Syracuse (SUNY Upstate Medical University), and the Department of Surgery at the Duke University School of Medicine. When he completed the surgical residency, he spent 10 years at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) where he and his colleagues made significant contributions to the diagnosis and treatment of patients with endocrine tumors. After leaving the NCI, he had highly productive years as a Professor in Departments of Surgery at Washington University, the University of California at San Francisco, and Stanford University. He became a member of every major academic surgical society and won numerous awards for his accomplishments in research. His expertise in educating medical students and surgical residents is legendary. In addition to his academic accomplishments, Jeff trained legions of young surgeons who subsequently made significant contributions in surgical investigation and clinical surgery. It is most fitting that the Stanford University School of Medicine has assembled a group of Jeffrey Norton's colleagues in academic medicine and surgery to pay tribute to his achievements as a surgical scientist.

THE DIRECT EFFECT OF COMMUNITY-LEVEL RISK FACTORS ON LUNG CANCER INCIDENCE IN FOUR NEW ENGLAND STATES

Abstract Lung cancer is the most common cancer globally and 70% of diagnoses are among the 65+ population. This study identifies what town-level risk factors are contributing to geographic disparities in 65+ lung cancer in N=796 towns in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. Multiple spatial-based analyses (e.g., Moran’s I, Getis-Ord Gi*, mapping) were conducted before running a series of spatial regression models to determine the association between town-level risk factors (i.e., environmental exposures, respiratory conditions prevalence, education rates, smoke free legislation) and lung cancer incidence. Mapping and Moran’s I test suggested the 65+ rates of lung cancer in our sample were non-randomly distributed and clusters of high and low rates were present. A hot spot analysis was conducted in ArcMap 10.8 which identified several significant clusters of 65+ lung cancer. Spatial regression models showed that community rates of comorbid respiratory conditions (65+ asthma, COPD, and tobacco use disorder (TUD)) increased lung cancer incidence by 7%, while increasing ozone emissions were directly associated with a 10% increase in incidence. Comprehensive smoke free legislation coverage was significantly associated with lung cancer incidence, but no increasing or decreasing relationship was found. No effects were found for the percentage of 65+ with low education, or 60+ who were current or former smokers. Spatial regression models allow for results which are specific to the geographic sample used and this study suggests that comorbid respiratory conditions and ozone emissions are directly associated with increased rates of 65+ lung cancer incidence in our sample.

Risks of obstructive genitourinary birth defects in relation to trihalomethane and haloacetic acid exposures: expanding disinfection byproduct mixtures analyses using relative potency factors.

Some disinfection byproducts (DBPs) are teratogens based on toxicological evidence. Conventional use of predominant DBPs as proxies for complex mixtures may result in decreased ability to detect associations in epidemiological studies. We assessed risks of obstructive genitourinary birth defects (OGDs) in relation to 12 DBP mixtures and 13 individual component DBPs. We designed a nested registry-based case-control study (210 OGD cases; 2100 controls) in Massachusetts towns with complete quarterly 1999-2004 data on four trihalomethanes (THMs) and five haloacetic acids (HAAs). We estimated temporally-weighted average DBP exposures for the first trimester of pregnancy. We estimated adjusted odds ratios (aORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for OGD in relation to individual DBPs, unweighted mixtures, and weighted mixtures based on THM/HAA relative potency factors (RPF) from animal toxicology data for full-litter resorption, eye defects, and neural tube defects. We detected elevated aORs for OGDs for the highest of bromodichloromethane (aOR = 1.75; 95% CI: 1.15-2.65), dibromochloromethane (aOR = 1.71; 95% CI: 1.15-2.54), bromodichloroacetic acid (aOR = 1.56; 95%CI: 0.97-2.51), chlorodibromoacetic acid (aOR = 1.97, 95% CI: 1.23-3.15), and tribromoacetic acid (aOR = 1.90; 95%CI: 1.20-3.03). Across unweighted mixture sums, the highest aORs were for the sum of three brominated THMs (aOR = 1.74; 95% CI: 1.15-2.64), the sum of six brominated HAAs (aOR = 1.43; 95% CI: 0.89-2.31), and the sum of nine brominated DBPs (aOR = 1.80; 95% CI: 1.05-3.10). Comparing eight RPF-weighted to unweighted mixtures, the largest aOR differences were for two HAA metrics, which both were higher with RPF weighting; other metrics had reduced or minimally changed ORs in RPF-weighted models.

Manganese in residential drinking water from a community-initiated case study in Massachusetts

BackgroundManganese (Mn) is a metal commonly found in drinking water, but the level that is safe for consumption is unknown. In the United States (U.S.), Mn is not regulated in drinking water and data on water Mn concentrations are temporally and spatially sparse.ObjectiveExamine temporal and spatial variability of Mn concentrations in repeated tap water samples in a case study of Holliston, Massachusetts (MA), U.S., where drinking water is pumped from shallow aquifers that are vulnerable to Mn contamination.MethodsWe collected 79 residential tap water samples from 21 households between September 2018 and December 2019. Mn concentrations were measured using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. We calculated descriptive statistics and percent of samples exceeding aesthetic (secondary maximum containment level; SMCL) and lifetime health advisory (LHA) guidelines of 50 µg/L and 300 µg/L, respectively. We compared these concentrations to concurrent and historic water Mn concentrations from publicly available data across MA.ResultsThe median Mn concentration in Holliston residential tap water was 2.3 µg/L and levels were highly variable (range: 0.03–5,301.8 µg/L). Mn concentrations exceeded the SMCL and LHA in 14% and 12% of samples, respectively. Based on publicly available data across MA from 1994–2022, median Mn concentration was 17.0 µg/L (N = 37,210; range: 1–159,000 µg/L). On average 40% of samples each year exceeded the SMCL and 9% exceeded the LHA. Samples from publicly available data were not evenly distributed between MA towns or across sampling years.Impact statementThis study is one of the first to examine Mn concentrations in drinking water both spatially and temporally in the U.S. Findings suggest that concentrations of Mn in drinking water frequently exceed current guidelines and occur at concentrations shown to be associated with adverse health outcomes, especially for vulnerable and susceptible subpopulations like children. Future studies that comprehensively examine exposure to Mn in drinking water and its associations with children’s health are needed to protect public health.

Community outreach in vulnerable populations: Skin cancer screening for firefighters.

e21587 Background: Firefighters have both an increased risk (21%) and 20-year younger median age (42) at diagnosis of melanoma compared to the general population. The World Health Organization classifies firefighters’ occupational exposures as "carcinogenic to humans," but there is limited knowledge regarding sun protection habits, skin cancer history, and community outreach in this at-risk population. Methods: Free, full-body skin examinations conducted by board-certified dermatologists using the American Academy of Dermatology’s SPOT Skin CancerTM screening form were offered to firefighters from 26 cities and towns in Massachusetts on two separate days in August 2021 and October 2022. Data from the screening form and subsequent skin biopsy results were obtained and reported. Results: Of 195 firefighters screened, 30 (15.4%) were referred for biopsy. All were white males, mean age was 44.7 years, 26.7% had prior tanning bed exposure, 80% had prior blistering sunburns, 20% used sunscreen regularly, 86.7% did not have a regular dermatologist, and 6.7% had a history of keratinocyte-based skin cancer. Nineteen (63.3%) had biopsies, most frequently on the back or face, which resulted in three nodular basal cell carcinomas and 11 dysplastic nevi (seven moderate-to-severe). Conclusions: Firefighters are an underrecognized vulnerable population for the development of skin cancer. Community outreach in the form of free skin cancer screenings is a successful model for increasing awareness and early diagnosis of skin cancer among this population. In addition to providing access to care, community screenings offer tailored educational opportunities that promote skin cancer prevention in this high-risk group.

The pursuit of permanence: regulating land for socio-economic stability in a colonial Massachusetts town

ABSTRACT This paper first reviews how England’s middle-class Puritans developed various anxieties regarding their socioeconomic security in the emerging capitalist economy of early modern England. It then investigates three local land practices developed by Puritan colonists in New England to better secure their status in the New World, as revealed in a survey of town proceedings from Watertown, Massachusetts, from 1634 through 1773. These were restricting access to landownership, ‘warning out’ poor outsiders beyond town bounds, and managing land use. These practices enabled the middle-class, small-scale property owners who dominated local government in colonial Watertown to preserve the utility of land assets for future generations, manage the tax burden they associated with poor relief, and prevent conflicts arising among users of private and shared property. In doing so they maintained their households’ status in keeping with their notions of material and spiritual well-being. The paper aligns these practices with later local land practices, including restrictive covenants and zoning, that middle-class communities have used to manage the particular pressures they face in the development of capitalist economies.

Illuminating History: A Retrospective of Seven Decades

Illuminating History: A Retrospective of Seven Decades

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Previous article FreeBack CoverPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreThe Price of FalsehoodsJames Fisk, Jr., was still more original in character. He was not yet forty years of age, and had the instincts of fourteen. He came originally from Vermont, probably the most respectable and correct State in the Union, and his father had been a pedler who sold goods from town to town in his native valley of the Connecticut. The son followed his father’s calling with boldness and success. He drove his huge wagon, made resplendent with paint and varnish, with four or six horses, through the towns of Vermont and Western Massachusetts; and when his father remonstrated at his reckless management, the young man, with his usual bravado, took his father into his service at a fixed salary, with the warning that he was not to put on airs on the strength of his new dignity…..Personally Fisk was coarse, noisy, boastful, ignorant, the type of a young butcher in appearance and mind…. A story not without a stroke of satirical wit was told by him to illustrate his estimate of abstract truth. An old woman who had bought of the elder Fisk a handkerchief which cost ninepence in the New England currency, where six shillings are reckoned to the dollar, complained to Mr. Fisk, Jr., that his father had cheated her. Mr. Fisk considered the case maturely, and gave a decision based on a priori principles. “No!” said he, “the old man would n’t have told a lie for ninepence;” and then, as if this assertion needed some reasonable qualification, he added, “though he would have told eight of them for a dollar!” The distinction as regarded the father may have been just, since the father held oldfashioned ideas as to wholesale and retail trade; but in regard to the son this relative degree of truth cannot be predicated with confidence, since, if the investigating committee of Congress and its evidence are to be believed, Mr. Fisk seldom or never speaks truth at all.[Henry Adams, Historical Essays (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1891), 323–25]Originally featured on the December 1989 (vol. 97, no. 6) back cover Previous article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Political Economy Volume 130, Number 8August 2022 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/721829 Views: 208Total views on this site © 2022 The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

A replicable strategy for mapping air pollution’s community-level health impacts and catalyzing prevention

BackgroundAir pollution was responsible for an estimated 6.7 million deaths globally in 2019 and 197,000 deaths in the United States. Fossil fuel combustion is the major source.HypothesisMapping air pollution’s health impacts at the community level using publicly available data and open-source software will provide a replicable strategy for catalyzing pollution prevention.MethodsUsing EPA’s Environmental Benefits Mapping and Analysis (BenMAP-CE) software and state data, we quantified the effects of airborne fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution on disease, death and children’s cognitive function (IQ Loss) in each city and town in Massachusetts. To develop a first-order estimate of PM2.5 pollution’s impact on child IQ, we derived a concentration-response coefficient through literature review.FindingsThe annual mean PM2.5 concentration in Massachusetts in 2019 was 6.3 μg/M3, a level below EPA’s standard of 12 μg/M3 and above WHO’s guideline of 5 μg/M3. In adults, PM2.5 pollution was responsible for an estimated 2780 (Confidence Interval [CI] 2726 – 2853) deaths: 1677 (CI, 1346 – 1926) from cardiovascular disease, 2185 (CI, 941–3409) from lung cancer, 200 (CI, 66–316) from stroke, and 343 (CI, 222–458) from chronic respiratory disease. In children, PM2.5 pollution was responsible for 308 (CI, 105–471) low-weight births, 15,386 (CJ, 5433-23,483) asthma cases, and a provisionally estimated loss of nearly 2 million Performance IQ points; IQ loss impairs children’s school performance, reduces graduation rates and decreases lifetime earnings. Air-pollution-related disease, death and IQ loss were most severe in low-income, minority communities, but occurred in every city and town in Massachusetts regardless of location, demographics or median family income.ConclusionDisease, death and IQ loss occur at air pollution exposure levels below current EPA standards. Prevention of disease and premature death and preservation of children’s cognitive function will require that EPA air quality standards be tightened. Enduring prevention will require government-incentivized transition to renewable energy coupled with phase-outs of subsidies and tax breaks for fossil fuels. Highly localized information on air pollution’s impacts on health and on children’s cognitive function has potential to catalyze pollution prevention.

An Enduring System of Local Deliberative Democracy: The 21st Century Legal and Normative Structure of Massachusetts Town Meeting

This essay examines the legal framework for local deliberative democracy in Massachusetts, within the legislature known as “town meeting.” We review the trajectory of this system of local government allowing direct exercise of citizen power via deliberative governance. We focus on the current framework of state and local laws that were created to support and direct local deliberative systems in Massachusetts with greater attention to functional elements of the system in this legal rhetorical history. We explore the powers of town meeting, including its role within state and federal government, the laws and norms enabling and limiting deliberation, and how and why the legal framework for town meeting has allowed it to endure. Throughout our analysis, we include examples, detailing how philosophical principles of inclusion, self-determination, fairness, and fidelity to the common good underpin town meeting. We note the system's evolution and close with considerations about directions for further changes. The legal framework for town meeting, largely unchanged for close to three centuries, successfully integrates a local community voice into a broader system of deliberative democracy.

The First State Tobacco Flavor Ban: High School Tobacco Control Needs in a Changing Landscape.

Despite recent tobacco control efforts, adolescent vaping remains an epidemic in the United States. The purpose of our study was to understand high school student vaping behaviors using the perceptions of Massachusetts school personnel during the critical window from when the Massachusetts statewide flavor ban legislation was passed in November 2019 through the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. High school personnel throughout Massachusetts were invited to complete a cross-sectional survey. Analysis of survey responses was conducted in R. A total of 162 respondents completed the survey representing 137 schools that draw enrollments from 216 (61%) of the 352 cities and towns in Massachusetts. The most popular products that respondents believed their students were using were JUULs (95.7%), other e-cigarettes (85.3%), and disposable vapes (79.6%). Following the flavor ban, the majority (90.7%) did not report an increase in combusted tobacco product use. All participants (100%) reported wanting more access to prevention and treatment resources. Our findings suggest that a comprehensive flavor ban may be an effective tobacco control policy that does not appear to promote student switching from vaping products to combusted tobacco products. These data also indicate that schools report needing additional resources to address the vaping epidemic.

Class Rooms

Class Rooms

Analysis of the Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of COVID-19 in Massachusetts via Spectral Graph Wavelet Theory

The rapid spread of COVID-19 disease has had a significant impact on the world. In this paper, we study COVID-19 data interpretation and visualization using open-data sources for 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts from December 6, 2020 to September 25, 2021. Because cities are embedded in rather complex transportation networks, we construct the spatio-temporal dynamic graph model, in which the graph attention neural network is utilized as a deep learning method to learn the pandemic transition probability among major cities in Massachusetts. Using the spectral graph wavelet transform (SGWT), we process the COVID-19 data on the dynamic graph, which enables us to design effective tools to analyze and detect spatio-temporal patterns in the pandemic spreading. We design a new node classification method, which effectively identifies the anomaly cities based on spectral graph wavelet coefficients. It can assist administrations or public health organizations in monitoring the spread of the pandemic and developing preventive measures. Unlike most work focusing on the evolution of confirmed cases over time, we focus on the spatio-temporal patterns of pandemic evolution among cities. Through the data analysis and visualization, a better understanding of the epidemiological development at the city level is obtained and can be helpful with city-specific surveillance.

Estimating Historically Cleared and Forested Land in Massachusetts, USA, Using Airborne LiDAR and Archival Records

In the northeastern United States, widespread deforestation occurred during the 17–19th centuries as a result of Euro-American agricultural activity. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, much of this agricultural landscape was reforested as the region experienced industrialization and farmland became abandoned. Many previous studies have addressed these landscape changes, but the primary method for estimating the amount and distribution of cleared and forested land during this time period has been using archival records. This study estimates areas of cleared and forested land using historical land use features extracted from airborne LiDAR data and compares these estimates to those from 19th century archival maps and agricultural census records for several towns in Massachusetts, a state in the northeastern United States. Results expand on previous studies in adjacent areas, and demonstrate that features representative of historical deforestation identified in LiDAR data can be reliably used as a proxy to estimate the spatial extents and area of cleared and forested land in Massachusetts and elsewhere in the northeastern United States. Results also demonstrate limitations to this methodology which can be mitigated through an understanding of the surficial geology of the region as well as sources of error in archival materials.

Geographic Associations Between Social Factors and SARS-CoV-2 Testing Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic, February-June 2020, Massachusetts.

Widespread SARS-CoV-2 testing is critical to identify infected people and implement public health action to interrupt transmission. With SARS-CoV-2 testing supplies and laboratory capacity now widely available in the United States, understanding the spatial heterogeneity of associations between social determinants and the use of SARS-CoV-2 testing is essential to improve testing availability in populations disproportionately affected by SARS-CoV-2. We assessed positive and negative results of SARS-CoV-2 molecular tests conducted from February 1 through June 17, 2020, from the Massachusetts Virtual Epidemiologic Network, an integrated web-based surveillance and case management system in Massachusetts. Using geographically weighted regression and Moran's I spatial autocorrelation tests, we quantified the associations between SARS-CoV-2 testing rates and 11 metrics of the Social Vulnerability Index in all 351 towns in Massachusetts. Median SARS-CoV-2 testing rates decreased with increasing percentages of residents with limited English proficiency (median relative risk [interquartile range] = 0.96 [0.95-0.99]), residents aged ≥65 (0.97 [0.87-0.98]), residents without health insurance (0.96 [0.95-1.04], and people residing in crowded housing conditions (0.89 [0.80-0.94]). These associations differed spatially across Massachusetts, and localized models improved the explainable variation in SARS-CoV-2 testing rates by 8% to 12%. Indicators of social vulnerability are associated with variations in SARS-CoV-2 testing rates. Accounting for the spatial heterogeneity in these associations may improve the ability to explain and address the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic at substate levels.

Time-varying associations between COVID-19 case incidence and community-level sociodemographic, occupational, environmental, and mobility risk factors in Massachusetts

BackgroundAssociations between community-level risk factors and COVID-19 incidence have been used to identify vulnerable subpopulations and target interventions, but the variability of these associations over time remains largely unknown. We evaluated variability in the associations between community-level predictors and COVID-19 case incidence in 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts from March to October 2020.MethodsUsing publicly available sociodemographic, occupational, environmental, and mobility datasets, we developed mixed-effect, adjusted Poisson regression models to depict associations between these variables and town-level COVID-19 case incidence data across five distinct time periods from March to October 2020. We examined town-level demographic variables, including population proportions by race, ethnicity, and age, as well as factors related to occupation, housing density, economic vulnerability, air pollution (PM2.5), and institutional facilities. We calculated incidence rate ratios (IRR) associated with these predictors and compared these values across the multiple time periods to assess variability in the observed associations over time.ResultsAssociations between key predictor variables and town-level incidence varied across the five time periods. We observed reductions over time in the association with percentage of Black residents (IRR = 1.12 [95%CI: 1.12–1.13]) in early spring, IRR = 1.01 [95%CI: 1.00–1.01] in early fall) and COVID-19 incidence. The association with number of long-term care facility beds per capita also decreased over time (IRR = 1.28 [95%CI: 1.26–1.31] in spring, IRR = 1.07 [95%CI: 1.05–1.09] in fall). Controlling for other factors, towns with higher percentages of essential workers experienced elevated incidences of COVID-19 throughout the pandemic (e.g., IRR = 1.30 [95%CI: 1.27–1.33] in spring, IRR = 1.20 [95%CI: 1.17–1.22] in fall). Towns with higher proportions of Latinx residents also had sustained elevated incidence over time (IRR = 1.19 [95%CI: 1.18–1.21] in spring, IRR = 1.14 [95%CI: 1.13–1.15] in fall).ConclusionsTown-level COVID-19 risk factors varied with time in this study. In Massachusetts, racial (but not ethnic) disparities in COVID-19 incidence may have decreased across the first 8 months of the pandemic, perhaps indicating greater success in risk mitigation in selected communities. Our approach can be used to evaluate effectiveness of public health interventions and target specific mitigation efforts on the community level.

Trash, and: Dad Poem, and: The Hurricane Doesn't Roar in Pentameter

Trash, and: Dad Poem, and: The Hurricane Doesn't Roar in Pentameter Joshua Bennett (bio) TRASH The Knicks were trash. Head coldsat the outset of a South Bronx summer: trash. The second hour after she is gone,the moment the song you both used to slow dance through the kitchenetteto comes on, moving on: all trash. Death is trash. Love is a robust engagementwith the trash of another. Monthly bills of any kind are trash,although access to gas & electricity are not, so there is that to consider.Blackouts are incontrovertibly trash. Much like student loans, or the factthat we live in a culture of debt such that one must always be behind to make some semblanceof what our elders might have called living. My friends often state in the midst of otherwiseloving group chat missives that life is trash, though we all keep trying to make one for some reasonor another, and the Internet says my friends are trash, that black men and boys are trash, & it makes me thinkof the high Germanic roots of garbage—which is perhaps the first cousin of trash—that part of the animalone does not eat, and we are sort of like that, no? [End Page 40] Modernity's refuse, disposable fleshand spectacular failure, fuel and fodder, corpses abundant as the trashon the floor of the world. Aging is trash. I am years past 30 nowand so any further time qualifies as statistical anomaly,you can't expect good results with bad data, trashin trash out, as they say, and I'm really just searchingfor better, more redemptive language is the thing,some version of the story where all the charactersinside look like me and every single one of us escapeswith our heads. [End Page 41] DAD POEM We play Dip Set at eleven & the boy takes flight,drums against his mother's form in lock-step with the electric bass emanating from my modest plastic speakers, a kind of minor thunder-storm, enclosed in evening's temperate embrace.We got this house to raise him in & pack the walls with lyrics born of financial markets all but decimated, racial capitalism, warpoetry of an era we barely remember now, mainstream radio accountsof actual fugitives set free only in the air between platinum chains muted by engineers& microphones built from stolen metals,the blood binding them & the men in the mines blurred by American avarice, the romanceof narratives ending in home. We're all here.My son, my wife, and I, the three of us alive inside a Massachusetts town I discovered reading linesfrom David Berman. I was 26, seated in classroomsfull of strangers who looked the way I imagine the boy dancing as I write this does, our blacknessa bridge across every militarized zone, the musicin him so mighty it shifts the weather. [End Page 42] THE HURRICANE DOESN'T ROAR IN PENTAMETER with thanks to Kamau Brathwaite & neither does the ar-15 at 3 a.m.baptizing a city block in metal,the chestnut-colored boy behind the weapon's heft no largerthan my father was in the junglesof Saigon, ducking buckshotin the understory. Spooked witless he was, he says, long since broken in his ownway, far beyond the small redemptions our hollow,dead-end culture offers a man like that anyhow.I am not unlike him: almost as muchas forgiveness, I wanted a theory of violence, a philosophy of life at the edge of the civil, somelovelier song for the unplanned,the children of accidental birth & systemicannihilation. When the smaller girlson the block drew knives, or greasedthe sides of cheeks so punches would slip right off, you knew there was loveinvolved. Love discolored or forgotten,pummeled in the gut, thrown to the streetlike a black bag, or anything else black for thatmatter (universal glyph of loss & excessthat it is). I too was bornto leather belt & brandished fist, learned language, first, as a trapdoor through trouble. A story or joketo lessen the blow...

Longitudinal Monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 RNA on High-Touch Surfaces in a Community Setting.

Environmental surveillance of surface contamination is an unexplored tool for understanding transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in community settings. We conducted longitudinal swab sampling of high-touch non-porous surfaces in a Massachusetts town during a COVID-19 outbreak from April to June 2020. Twenty-nine of 348 (8.3%) surface samples were positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA, including crosswalk buttons, trash can handles, and door handles of essential business entrances (grocery store, liquor store, bank, and gas station). The estimated risk of infection from touching a contaminated surface was low (less than 5 in 10,000) by quantitative microbial risk assessment, suggesting fomites play a minimal role in SARS-CoV-2 community transmission. The weekly percentage of positive samples (out of n = 33 unique surfaces per week) best predicted variation in city-level COVID-19 cases with a 7-day lead time. Environmental surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 RNA on high-touch surfaces may be a useful tool to provide early warning of COVID-19 case trends.

Herd immunity for COVID-19

Herd immunity for COVID-19