Adviser Note: Due to the Closure of School Buildings, Knight Life Will Not Be Able to Produce Its Traditional Newspaper
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Adviser Note: Due to the closure of school buildings, Knight Life will not be able to produce its traditional newspaper. Instead, the staff will be posting stories on a range of topics, including highlighting our athletes, seniors, and people in the school and the community who have made a difference during the COVID-19 pandemic. They plan to share ideas for things to do while confined to your home such as good books to read, videos to watch, and exercise workouts available online at no cost. They also plan to write "Stay Positive" stories. For example, the waterways in Venice have cleared because no boats are clogging the waterways; the smog in New Jersey has eased because there are fewer cars on the roads polluting the air; the price of gas has plummeted; and people who are doing the right thing in Old Bridge. FDA approves coronavirus vaccine for emergency distribution BY LEXI SOLIMAN Feature Editor After nine months since the Coronavirus shutdown began, new hopes of an effective vaccine have come about in the past weeks. Companies Pfizer and BioNTech announced in early November that their vaccine has successfully passed through Stage 3 of testing with a 95 percent efficacy rate. The Food and Drug Administration has deemed it safe and effective, approving it for emergency use on Dec/ 10. First rounds of doses were administered to ICU doctors and nurses on Dec/ 14 at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, New York. There were only minor side effects reported in the trial such as fatigue and headaches after the second dose of the two-shot vaccine. Only 6 percent of subjects reported these side effects. Pfizer’s vaccine has been proven to be the most efficient of those in trial testing with the AstraZeneca trials trailing far behind yielding only a 70 percent efficacy. “I do hope the vaccine’s efficacy is as high as trials suggest Photo by Lexi Soliman as top scientists agree that in order to get things back to normal, we need at least 70 percent of the population vaccinated,” said English teacher Daniel Lanzafama. According to the Centers for Disease Control, vaccines will begin to be distributed as early as December 2020 to health care professionals and essential workers at risk of high exposure. More doses will be made available throughout 2021, starting with those older in age or with pre-existing conditions. “I don’t think it will slow the spread instantly, but over the next year or so as they are more widely distributed it will become much better,” said senior Nirupa Shiwcharan. “They were rushed considering the circumstances, but numbers don’t lie, and the trials do show promise.” It is still unknown how long the vaccine will provide immunity. The CDC stated on its website that all but one currently in testing requires a round of two shots to gain effect. After that it is expected to last between six months and a year, requiring annual boosters like the Flu shot. Concerns of the production being completed too quickly to be safe have spread as the vaccine is being made in record timing. Former Presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and George Bush along with President-Elect Joe Biden announced that they will take the vaccine publicly and on camera to prove its safety as well as their trust in the science and work that has gone into it. “It’s best to trust science and the experts in their field,” said Lanzafama. “It’s much safer to take the vaccine than it is to take your chances of contracting the virus.” The United States has already ordered 100 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine, enough to distribute to 50 million people. While that only covers about 15 percent of the population, larger batches will not be available to order until at least the new year. Three Old Bridge Residents Set to Be Sworn in to School Board on Jan. 7 BY LINDSEY WILKINSON Staff Writer Five people -- incumbents Matthew Sulikowski, Jill DeCaro, and Lisa Lent, along with former board member Frank Weber and newcomer Allison Vass-- ran in the November Old Bridge Board of Education election. They each were looking to fill one of three, three-year terms up for grabs. Because it was a presidential election and a pandemic, voters cast their ballots primarily by mail and as a result a record number of votes were tallied, according to board member Jill Cali. During the Nov. 24, board meeting, business administrator Joseph Marra confirmed that Sulikowski and Jill DeCaro, along with Weber were the candidates who received the most votes. They are set to be sworn at the school board’s annual organization meeting set for 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 7, 2021. Sulikowski, who has been a school board member for 12 years, garnered 14,915 votes; DeCaro came in second place with 11,793 votes. At present, she is the vice-president of the school board and is now entering her second term on the board. Weber came in third place with 11,403 votes. He previously served on the school board for 18 years. "There is still so much work to do," said DeCaro. "I would like to get past this pandemic, get our students back in the building, and get back to the business of education, understanding there is so much more to it than academics," she said. Both Sulikowski and Weber were unavailable for comment. Soccer league raises $2,500 for OBHS student diagnosed with Leukemia BY MATTHEW MANGAM Sports Editor The Old Bridge Soccer League (OBSL) hosted a fundraiser soccer game for an Old Bridge High School freshman Bryce Lomas, who was recently diagnosed with AML Leukemia. The league sponsored “Kickin’ for A Cause” on Nov. 21 at Geick Park to help raise money for Bryce and his medical bills. To play in the soccer game, there was a $20 fee and OBSL sold drinks and snacks; the $2,500 raised all went to the Lomas family to help pay for Bryce’s medical bills. “When I arrived at Geick Park to see so many children and parents, I was truly humbled,” said Alicia Sidlowski-Lomas, Bryce’s mother. “To see our community come together for a family they may or may not have known was absolutely beautiful. I am so proud to be a part of OBSL and Old Bridge Township. My family is eternally grateful for all who made last night possible.” “It was a truly overwhelming event to help one of our families,” said Kathleen Murawski, OBSL president. “This past year has been a very difficult one and hearing the news about Bryce made it even harder, but seeing the strength in Bryce, his mom, his friends, and the community showed us that together we can tackle anything.” “I was very proud to help organize this event,” said Jeff Michaels, an OBSL coach. “This event could not have taken place without the help of Kathleen Murawski and Brian Morrissey. It was so well organized with a great turnout, and I was very pleased. There were even two kids, who never played soccer before but wanted to support Bryce. This event shows what a tightknit group this soccer family is. We united for a cause and for this I am thankful to all the families that showed up.” According to Bryce’s GoFundMe page, Bryce will be undergoing constant transfusions of blood and platelets to help him. Iconic Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dead at 87 BY ERIN HELLHAKE News Editor Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was regarded as an unlikely feminist icon and a crusader for women’s rights, passed away at the age of 87. Justice Ginsburg was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in 1980 by President Jimmy Carter, then to the Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton in 1993. She was just the second woman to be on the Supreme Court. She passed away on Sept. 18. Ginsburg had suffered metastatic pancreatic cancer, the ultimate cause of her death. Though she had a number of previous health complications, such as a rib fracture and colon cancer in 1999, Ginsburg never waved on her appointment, planning to stay on the court until the day she died. She was on the court for 27 years. Ginsburg prided herself on bipartisanship, even befriending well-known conservative judge Antonin Scalia for a large part of her time on the court, up until his death in 2016. “You can disagree without being disagreeable,” Ginsburg had said. Justice Ginsburg was a well-known advocate for women’s rights, many younger women regarding her as an unlikely crusader due to progressive ideas amid her older age. Ginsburg’s countless achievements in the world of feminism include launching the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project, paving the way for the Equal Opportunity Credit Act (allowing women to take out a mortgage or open a bank account without a male co-signer), pushing to wider protections for pregnant women in the workplace, and argued that women should be allowed to serve on juries on the federal level. Justice Ginsburg advocated for protections the average American woman would not even realize needs affirmation -- such as the 1996 United States v. Virginia case, in which Justice Ginsburg wrote the majority opinion that it is unconstitutional for schools funded by taxpayer dollars to not allow women to attend. "I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks,” Ginsburg famously said, quoted in the CNN documentary titled RBG.