Last summer was the worst on record for harmful algae blooms in Long Island waters, according to a new report by Chris Gobler, a marine and atmospheric sciences professor at Stony Brook University who has monitored local waterways since 2014.

Experts say vaccine hesitancy has been around as long as vaccines, but the COVID-19 vaccine brought renewed scrutiny to immunizations. Many questioned just how vaccines work, and are they actually making you sick when they are meant to protect you? “This is a question I answer all the time,” Sharon Nachman, M.D., Chief of Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Stony Brook University, tells The Messenger.

“We’re not nearly where we need to be,” said Dr. Rachel Boykan, a pediatrician at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital and clinical professor of pediatrics at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University.

Connecting pregnant and new moms with easier access to health care as well as resources including lactation consultants and breast pumps is also key for infant health said Dr. Shanthy Sridhar, medical director of NICU and Neonatal Transports at Stony Brook Medicine.

A trio of Broadway heavyweights — Leslie Odom Jr. and Long Island’s own Patti LuPone and Adam Pascal — are among the headliners coming to Stony Brook University’s Staller Center for the Arts this spring.

Stony Brook Pediatric Hospital treated 14 children under the age of 11 for accidental marijuana ingestion in 2021 and 2022 — up from just a handful in previous years, said Dr. Candice Foy, a pediatric hospitalist at Stony Brook.

Over the last five years, 36 kids were brought to Stony Brook Children’s Hospital for cannabis intoxication. “Most of the gummy dosages are built for adults, and children are not small adults, so they’re not able to process the same,” said Dr. Candice Foy, a pediatrician at the hospital. “And they also weigh much less, so there’s less distribution for the drugs to travel.”

Dr. Susan Schuval, chief of pediatric allergy/immunology at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, said data shows the prevalence of food allergies has tripled since 2007, with one emergency room visit occurring every three minutes nationwide.

Adam Gonzalez, a licensed clinical psychologst at Stony Brook Medicine, said the health system has programs to boost employee wellness and safety. Credit: Danielle Silverman

Co-authors Kevin A. Reed, Ph.D., Professor and Associate Dean of Research in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University, and Michael F. Wehner, Ph.D., of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, note that tropical cyclones such as Hurricane Ian are devastating events worldwide, endangering lives and causing damage costing billions of dollars to repair. Therefore, the public, media, and governmental leaders affected by such extreme storms turn to scientists to understand more about the weather event and how climate change may have affected it.