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Judith Rodin is the former president of the Rockefeller Foundation and of the University of Pennsylvania and has served on nine public-company boards. She is the author of The Resilience Dividend: Being Strong in a World Where Things Go Wrong.

New federal infrastructure dollars will be aimed at projects that are shovel worthy, not shovel ready, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told an audience recently.

Thats a critical distinction, because the law passed in November raises federal infrastructure spending to its highest share of GDP since the early 80s. Will the money help make the country more environmentally resilient and industrially competitive, as the legislation promises? And how should the financial markets and decision makers determine what makes an investment shovel worthy? The choices investors and policy makers make now will determine how effective this once-in-a-generation investment will be.

Investors piled into infrastructure stocks after the bill passed the House. But three factors suggest that a critical and significant strategy shift is needed.

First, following the COP26 United Nations climate summit, investors say they want to ratchet up blended finance, with public funds spurring private investment. Much of the infrastructure funding earmarked in the law provides great leverage for sustainability-focused investor capital. But there must be significant innovation in how government and the private sector work together to create the desired multiplier effect.

Second, as the federal money flows to state and local governments over the next five years, there are significant risks. Our ports are clogged, our roads need repair, and our bridges are failing. Our regional public transit is far surpassed by other countries. All of these act like a tax on business and our economy, as the New York Times put it.

Government investment can jumpstart solutions. But weve seen how local infrastructure projects run into huge delays and enormous cost overruns. The right government partners who have shown they can deliver, as well as rigorous project selection and management oversight, will be critical for investors. On the other hand, mayors and city commissioners have often taken the lead on innovation. To cite just one example, in Tallahassee, Fla., several hundred acres of undeveloped land at the airport were turned into a solar farm supplying power to City Hall, the airport terminal, a sewage treatment plant, and more. Miami-based Origis Energy owns and operates the system after installing it on the airports property. The infrastructure bill allocated $25 billion to airports, promising many more similarly innovative partnerships.

Third, both COP26 and the infrastructure act emphasize climate adaptation and resilience. Yet, a new report from Wellington Management notes that the investment community has been slow to focus on adaptation, given its traditional focus on short-term profits at the expense of long-term survival. But the climate crisis is no longer a far-away threat. To cite one of scores of growing vulnerabilities, McKinsey predicts that companies could face supply-chain disruptions lasting at least a month every 3.7 years. Its essential to focus more on both transparent risk-disclosure standards for investors and robust resilience planning for decision makers and asset owners.

Measuring a full array of resilience variables is critical to determining capacity to withstand climate impacts or, indeed, any crisis. For example, many business-continuity plans are insufficient when location makes infrastructure, such as the local power-supply lines or transit options, vulnerable to heavy winds, flooding, or wildfires. Few environmental assessments in the E of ESG account for these challenges. That is why I have argued for adding an R, resilience, to this metric.

New resilience-measurement frameworks and industry practices are emerging. For example, Boston Consulting Group has developed a source, make, deliver framework to help companies build resilience into global supply chains. This approach requires establishing more options for diversifying and regionalizing manufacturing and supply networks, adding more backup production and distribution capacity, and reoptimizing inventory.

When I was at the Rockefeller Foundation, we supported the development of resilience tools such as the City Resilience Index, which identifies 52 metrics that contribute to urban resilience. It could be readily adapted for companies and investors. Our work with the World Bank Group resulted in creating a resilience screen that helps investors evaluate infrastructure projects. Excellent AI-based data-mining tools, such as those developed by One Concern, are also emerging to measure resilience.

How we invest in and build new types of infrastructure to withstand more extreme weather, more failing systems, and more compounding shocks will determine whether this infrastructure law and all the private capital to be spent will build both greater resilience and greater economic growth for our future. Business as usual is a risk we cannot afford.

Guest commentaries like this one are written by authors outside the Barrons and MarketWatch newsroom. They reflect the perspective and opinions of the authors. Submit commentary proposals and other feedback to ideas@barrons.com.

Original post:

Infrastructure Investments Need to Focus on Resilience to Generate Maximum Impact - Barron's

Steven Cherry Hi this is Steven Cherry for IEEE Spectrums podcast, Fixing the Future.

Hospitals are where we go to get cured of infections and diseases, but sadly, sometimes tragically, and ironically, they are also places we go to get them. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, On any given day, about one in 31 hospital patients has at least one healthcare-associated infection.

Yet, according to Dr. Lee Harrison, The current method used by hospitals to find and stop infectious disease transmission among patients is antiquated. These practices havent changed significantly in over a century.

Until perhaps now. Doctors at UPMC, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, have developed a new method that uses three distinct, relatively new, technologies, whole genome sequencing surveillance, and machine learning, and electronic health records to identify undetected outbreaks and their transmission routes.

Dr. Lee Harrison is a Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, where hes the Associate Chief of Epidemiology and Education. and, more to our point today, the head of its Infectious Diseases Epidemiology Research Unit. Hes a co-author and corresponding author of a new paper that describes the new outbreak-detecting methodology, and hes my guest today.

Lee, welcome to the podcast.

Lee Harrison Thanks, Steven. Nice to be here.

Steven Cherry Maybe we could start with the practices that havent changed in over a century ... How do hospitals currently find and stop infectious disease transmissions?

Lee Harrison So, most hospitals use an approach that focuses on somebody noticing something, something happening. So, for example, a nurse on a particular nursing unit notices that there are three patients with C.diff

Steven Cherry And C.diff is

Lee Harrison is Clostridium difficile. Its a serious infection that occurs in patients who have had antibiotics, and typically well will alert the infection prevention folks in the hospital and then an investigation will be started.

Steven Cherry That 1-in-31 statistic is more than a little scary. Does that mean that if Im in the hospital for three days and nights, I have like a one in 10 chance of picking up an infection I wouldnt have gotten if I werent in the hospital?

Lee Harrison There are different ways that people get infections in the hospital. Sometimes the infections the patients get are actually from their own bodies. So, for example, if you come into the hospital and youre already colonized with MRSA, as an example, then if you have surgery, then you can develop a wound infection from that. But in other people, the infection acquired in the hospital is actually transmitted to them in the hospital. So theres two ways that patients get hospital-acquired infections. But yeah, they are quite common, as you cited in the CDC study.

Steven Cherry So this new system, which you and your colleagues call the Enhanced Detection System for Healthcare-Associated Transmission, or EDS-dash-HATwhich, by the way, that abbreviation works better on paper than over the airstarts by using genomic sequencing of all hospital infections as soon as theyre detected or suspected? How does that work?

Lee Harrison Yeah, so, we tried to make the acronym easy. We actually call it edhat. Yeah, the way it works is that we determined a long time ago that we were missing outbreaks by the traditional method. And so what we decided to do was combine several novel approaches. One is, as you pointed out, whole-genome sequencing surveillance. And the difference between that and what we currently do is reactive whole-genome sequencing. So in the scenario I painted before, when somebody in the hospital thinks theres an outbreak, we can get the bacteria from the suspected outbreak and do whole-genome sequencing and confirm or refute the outbreak. And what we find is a lot of times we refute the outbreak. It looks like there may be an outbreak, but when we do the sequencing, the cases are unrelated. So EDS-HAT uses whole-genome sequencing surveillance, which basically says anybody who has been in the hospital for at least three days and has one of our target high-impact bacterial infections, we go down to the clinical microbiology lab. We collect those bacteria and we sequence all of them.

Steven Cherry And then that sequencing is entered into the patients electronic health record?

Lee Harrison No, its not because the sequencing itself is not used for individual patient care. So the genetic makeup of the bacteria that theyre infected with really is not that relevant for the treatment because for treating, you just need to know what antibiotics will kill the bacteria, and thats what the clinicians will use. We keep a separate database of EDS-HAT whole-genome sequencing,

Steven Cherry I see. So the algorithms that look through the electronic health records, theyre doing a kind of contact tracing.

Lee Harrison Yeah, so thats a really good question. So the first step is the whole genome sequencing surveillance. And when we identify highly related bacteria, that tells us that there is an outbreak. It does not tell us whats causing the outbreak. And traditionally, you know, people would go into the electronic health record and fish around. But traditionally mostly would be looking for clusters that are occurring at the same time on the same nursing clinic. We know that misses a lot of outbreaks. So, the reason we go into the electronic health record is basically to identify that transmission route that is causing the outbreak that was identified by the sequencing.

Steven Cherry So the algorithms are looking for things like the proximity of two patients in terms of their hospital beds or whether they both had a procedure that uses the same equipment, or the same doctor or nurse treated them. So, all of that information is in the electronic health record, or is it somehow inferred by the algorithm?

Lee Harrison That information is in the electronic health records. So a really important thing about EDS-HAT, and this is in contrast to when youre investigating a community outbreak of, say, salmonella. If youre trying to figure out the transmission route in an outbreak of salmonella, youve got to track down the patients, hope they will answer the telephone, hope they remember where they were exposed to it. And so figuring out how transmission is occurring in the community is very difficult.

In the hospital, all of the epidemiology is available in the electronic health record: where they were, when they were there, who they had contact with through their roommates, or who their health care providers were. And importantly, any procedure that was done to them. So, when hospitals do a procedure, they need to get paid for it. So, they put a charge code in the electronic health record pretty quickly. And so, we can exploit all of that information to say, 'lets take our ten patients in a supposed outbreak defined by whole-genome sequencing surveillance. And lets compare them to all the other patients in the hospital and see which exposures are more common in the cases of the outbreak as compared to the rest of the patient population.' And thats how the data mining works and identifies those exposures that are likely causing these outbreaks.

Steven Cherry Were speaking with Dr Lee Harrison. When we come back, well talk about more about this data mining of electronic health records and about the infectious disease thats currently ravaging the entire planet.

Fixing the Future is supported by COMSOL, the makers of COMSOL Multiphysics simulation software. Companies like the Manufacturing Technology Centre are revolutionizing the designs of additive manufactured parts by first building simulation apps from COMSOL models, allowing them to share their analyses with different teams and explore new manufacturing opportunities with their own customers. Learn more about simulation apps and find this and other case studies at comsol.com/blog/apps.

Were back with my guest Dr Lee Harrison of the University of Pittsburghs Medical Center.

Steven Cherry Lee, I should disclose at this point that I have my own connection to the University of Pittsburgh. I teach there, though not at the Medical Center; Im in the English Department, but my primary care physician is a UPMC doctor, and last year I was in a UPMC hospital for kidney stones, so I guess I have my own stake in all this working.

Lee Harrison Interesting to know.

Steven Cherry So does this system involve there being a lot more information in the electronic health records than most hospitals currently have? Or could most hospitals start doing this right away?

Lee Harrison Yeah. I mean, the beauty of EDS-HAT is that we are mining data elements that are present in basically all electronic health records. And so the potential for expansion outside of UPMC, we think, is tremendous.

Steven Cherry There are no particular implications for patient privacy in all of this?

Lee Harrison Well, I mean, anytime you access medical data, you have to be very conscientious about how you treat those data. We are part of the infection prevention team and so we have access to electronic health records as part of our contributions to infection prevention at our hospital. But whenever youre dealing with electronic health record data, you have to be very aware of the regulations involving patient data.

Steven Cherry And are there any additional burdens placed on doctors and nurses? I mean, as you say, this uses information thats basically always in the health record to begin with. I mean, my understanding is that these electronic health records are a little bit intrusive, or at least doctors and nurses sometimes resent them as intruding in their relationships with their patients, and it takes an amount of time that they could be devoting to their patients in other ways.

Lee Harrison I think thats somewhat of a different issue. Yes. So, there has been some pushback about the amount of time needed to enter data and the electronic health record. I sort of view it differently. I remember an era when I was writing handwritten notes. My handwriting is illegible. Oftentimes, I was rounding [i.e., on rounds] with a team of infectious diseases fellows and residents and medical students, and theyd have to stand around and watch me write this illegible note. And it was a great waste of time. So now its much more efficient, in my view, where we can round on everybody and theneither back in my office or at home in the eveningI can put in my consult notes on whatever infectious disease patient Im seeing.

There are some downsides, but in my view, its a great improvement in how we care for patients, particularly because, you know, we used to roam around the hospital trying to find a patients chart. Now you can access a patients chart really anywhere. And so again, there are disadvantages, but I think its been a great improvement in how we care for patients.

Steven Cherry And lets just close the loop on how you how the system is actually used ... when you detect an outbreak and you do this sort of machine-learning contact tracing. Whats the next step to limit the outbreak?

Lee Harrison OK, so first of all, we have just completed a several-year validationdevelopment and validationof EDS-HAT. It had, up until now, in our hospital, run in the background, with a very long lag period. So we would wait six to 12 months to actually sequence the isolates. And the idea was that we would be able to compare it to running in the background with what we traditionally would do in terms of infection prevention.

Now that weve proven that EDS-HAT could potentially really make dramatic improvements to patient safety, we are just now moving it to [be] a real-time infection prevention tool. But the way it works is you identify an outbreak, you identifythrough the electronic health record, you identify the transmission route, and then we work hand in hand with our infection prevention team. So, anything that requires intervention, we immediately notify the infection prevention team so they can initiate the appropriate intervention. And that varies depending on what the transmission route is that weve identified.

Steven Cherry And if the transmission route is said to be people who use the same device, how would that work?

Lee Harrison Yes, thats a great example. So, one of the outbreaks we identified in this retrospective two-year analysis is a very serious set of infections caused by a contaminated gastroscope. When the machine-learning tells us that gastroscope is the likely transmission route and we manually go into electronic health record and say, how plausible is this? In this case, the patients had gastrostomy from the same gastroscope. And we also had other genetic evidence that in fact, it was the cause of the outbreak. So, the bottom line is you basically go and you remove that gastroscope from circulation and figure out why its causing the outbreak. In the case of a device like that, the intervention is basically 100 percent effective. You just stop using that device.

Steven Cherry Are there particular potential benefits to a system like this, if we should happen to be suffering a once in a century pandemic?

Lee Harrison Well, I mean, so separate from the pandemic. I mean, what weve shown is that this has potential to really improve patient safety by identifying. ... The most striking thing about our analysis is that we identified outbreaks that were very serious and that were unidentified by traditional approaches. And to me, thats the most striking fact.

We had an outbreak. It was occurring at interventional radiology that had been going on for at least a year and we have no idea when it started. It definitely wasnt identified by traditional methods. And also, you know, it allowed us to intervene immediately and stop the outbreak. So thats really the value of EDS-HAT. And the other thing that we found is that it has the potential to save hospitals money.

I was surprised by the result, but when you think about it, whole-genome sequencing is relatively cheap. And these infections that we can prevent are very, very expensive. So you dont have to prevent very many infections to pay for all the costs of running the system. We estimated we could have saved UPMC anywhere from just under $200,000 to just under $700,000 over the two-year period.

But I didnt understand your question about the relationship to the pandemic.

Steven Cherry Well, Im just wondering if theres intra-hospital transmission of COVID.

Lee Harrison Thats a great question. So before ...traditionally EDS-HAT has been for bacterial infections. And when Im rounding on the inpatient consult service for infectious diseases at our hospital, Ive noticed that, for example, you know, you have ... A patients been in the hospital for three months and all of a sudden they develop a respiratory syndrome. You test them and theyre positive for influenza. Now, you know, for a fact, they acquired that influenza in the hospital because theyve been in the hospital so long. So, before the pandemic started, we had just started to look at expanding EDS-HAT into respiratory viruses. And then when the pandemic hit, we rapidly pivoted to sequencing not only influenza, but also SARS-CoV-2. And the answer to your question is yes, there is value. There is evidence for transmission of SARS-CoV-2, just like other respiratory viruses, in the hospital. Weve shown that whole-genome sequencing can tell you how transmission of COVID and other respiratory illnesses is occurring in hospitals.

Steven Cherry And so, you know, if hypothetically, every hospital in an area were using this system, would it be possible to replace some of the human contact tracing and do it more efficiently?

Lee Harrison Yeah, thats a great question. So what were finding with EDS-HAT is that the data mining of the electronic health record can help us to identify transmission routes that are very difficult to identify by traditional EHR review. But were also finding that oftentimes the data mining results basically give us a listing or a ranking of likely transmission routes, and that does require some manual review to determine the plausibility of the various transmission routes that are being given to us. So the data mining is, I think, a huge innovation and a huge advance. But I dont think its ever going to [not] require that need for some human intervention to figure out the bestthe most likelytransmission route. And then decide what to do about it.

Steven Cherry If I could ask you one other question, more or less unrelated to this new system, in the midst of a once-in-a-century pandemic, its easy to forget other diseases and other vaccines. Recently the UK had a real-world test of a vaccine for meningitis B, the first large-scale test for children. You co-wrote an editorial for an article about this vaccine in the New England Journal of Medicine. Apparently, this is an incredibly dangerous disease. One of the papers authors is quoted as saying its one of the fastest, most vicious infections you can have. The child can be sneezing in the morning and be dead in the evening, even if they get to the hospital. Are you worried about the way vaccines are becoming politicized and refused, even as we seem to be entering a golden age of developing new vaccines for ancient, but still terrifying, diseases?

Lee Harrison Yeah, thats a great question. I view the politicization of vaccines as both irrational and very dangerous. Because what were seeing now with the COVID pandemic is that what your political beliefs are are somewhat correlated with whether youre getting vaccinated or not. And what were seeing is that is leading to a lot of unnecessary illness and deaths from COVID. And Im hoping that somehow we can move past this at some point because from a public health standpoint, its very, very concerning and its also not only the risk of the individual not getting vaccinated, but youre seeing whats happening in the US with the Delta variant. Were having still a devastating pandemic with almost 1200 deaths a day from COVID, and most of those are preventable by a very, very safe and effective vaccine.

Steven Cherry Well, Lee, I think anytime a new technology, or three different technologies woven together, can change the way weve been doing things for a century, its a pretty exciting development. Thank you for your role in making hospitals safer and for joining us today.

Lee Harrison Thanks for inviting me, Steve. Its really been a pleasure.

Fixing the Future is brought to you by IEEE Spectrum magazine and sponsored by COMSOL, makers of mathematical modeling software and a longtime supporter of IEEE Spectrum as a way to connect and communicate with engineers.

IEEE Spectrum is the member magazine of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, a professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity.

This interview was recorded 9 December 2021, on Adobe Audition via Zoom, and edited in Audacity. Our theme music is by Chad Crouch.

You can subscribe to Fixing the Future wherever you get your podcasts, or listen on the Spectrum website, where youll also find transcripts of all our episodes. We welcome your feedback on the web or in social media, and your rating us at your favorite app.

For Fixing the Future, Im Steven Cherry.

See the original post:

Stopping Infection Outbreaks with AI and Big Data - IEEE Spectrum

Compute North is working with Greenville officials to locate a data mining facility in the community after intense opposition from residents in the Belvoir area forced the company to give up its plans to locate a facility there.

The Greenville Planning and Zoning Commission voted unanimously at its Tuesday meeting to recommend changes to the city code that would permit modular data processing facility and data processing center as two separate uses in the city. The changes also set standards and zoning districts where the facilities could be located.

The recommendation now goes to Greenville City Council for final approval.

Kristyan Mjolsnes, Compute North vice president of marketing, confirmed Friday that the company was still looking for possible locations in the Greenville-Pitt County area.

As we shared and committed at the last (Pitt County) commissioners meeting, we are focusing on locations that are zoned industrial, Mjolsnes said. The size/scale of the facility is expected to be similar, however, that will be finalized as we work towards a preferred site and related development approvals.

There was no discussion during Tuesdays meeting about where Compute North might locate.

Compute North was not discussed by name during Tuesdays meeting, but two company officials, Jeff Jackson, vice president for development and Patty Varra, site development manager, were presented as subject matter experts.

Are we getting ready to learn about data mining? commission chairman Kevin Faison asked when Chief Planner Chantae Gooby began her presentation.

Yes you are. I feel like youve done a lot of my work for me, Gooby said. "This is a relatively new use. Weve had to add this to our ordinance and in the process educate ourselves about it.

Data processing centers are defined as a large group of computer systems and accessory components housed in a building. The equipment is used for remote storage, processing or distribution of large amounts of data.

A data processing facility is a space, which can be inside or outside a building, where modular structures house large groups of computer systems and accessory components. The modular structures are typically cooled with a collection of fans built into each unit.

Modular data processing facilities are an intensive land use because its rows of modular structures will have fans and possibly generators operating, Gooby said.

Gooby said the fans are on the outside of the modular data processing facility some may have generators depending on the type of facility it is.

The proposed new rules will state that equipment and structures shall not exceed 35 feet and all equipment and structures must be 100-feet from the property line. All wiring has to be located underground, Gooby said.

Because the site will have a utilitarian look, larger vegetative buffer yards are required to cut down on the visual aspects. If a facility is near a residential, multifamily classification , there will be a 50-foot wide buffer yard and, for every 100 linear feet, eight large evergreens, 10 small evergreens and 36 small shrubs will be required.

While Greenville has a noise ordinance within its city limits, its industrial park is located outside the city limits so its noise ordinance would not apply there, Gooby said.

The proposed new rules would apply the citys noise ordinance of below 65 decibels near residential property and below 75 decibels near industrial property to modular data processing facilities, Gooby said

Sound walls can be used to reduce sound levels.

Since data processing centers are contained in buildings, its land use classification isnt as intensive. That use can be permitted in various office, commercial, industrial and fixed institution districts but not in the medical districts, Gooby said.

The same noise regulations will apply to the center as the modular facilities.

Uconda Dunn, vice president of business development with the Greenville-Eastern North Carolina Alliance, urged the commission to support the recommended changes to the city code.

Its become evident that the tech sector is an open and available market for Greenville, Dunn said. As we continue to work to diversify our industrial base it has become apparent to us that we need to address this ordinance to reflect sectors that we see are growing and are opportunities to attract to our local community.

A couple of commission members asked staff if any other municipalities in eastern North Carolina had data processing facilities and what their rules were.

Gooby said she knew of no North Carolina communities with data processing facilities so planning staff researched communities across the United States, including Kearny, Nebraska, where Compute North has a facility similar to the one it wanted to build in Belvoir.

There is no uniformity in the standards, Gooby said, because the industry is new.

Faison asked how many jobs would be generated by a data processing facility and what would its tax base be.

Jackson, the Compute North vice president, said the company expects to invest $55 million in the project and hire 15 people. Jackson said the company hasnt calculated its new tax revenue projections.

Last fall Compute North sought a special use permit to open data processing facility with 89 containers cooled by more than 1,000 fans near Belvoir Elementary School. The company faced fierce opposition from parents who believed noise from the fans would disturb students and from activists upset that the company did little outreach to the areas majority African-American and Hispanic residents.

Other individuals worried about the sites environmental impact because it requires large quantities of electricity. There were also concerns the site could drive up electric rates as a facility in New York state did in one community.

Greenville Utilities Commission officials said there is sufficient electric resources to supply Compute North.

When asked Thursday if GUC was continuing to work with Compute North to locate in the area, General Manager and CEO Tony Cannon said, Due to the competitive nature of business and industrial recruitment, we do not discuss any details, including the identity, of a potential business or industry, unless or until there is a public announcement regarding the same or the matter comes up for approval in a public bodys open session.

Read the original here:

Greenville planning board recommends city code changes that will permit cryptomining operations - Greenville Daily Reflector

HOUGHTON An article published in the Dec. 20 edition of the Daily Mining Gazette titled Christmas and alcohol can be a toxic formula, addressed a relationship between excessive drinking during the holidays and arguments between family members. What the article did not address is the hazards that accompany intoxication at holiday gatherings and parties.

Despite being the most wonderful time of the year, Cherry Digital Content reported in a Dec. 14 email, statistics show that the festive period is the deadliest on Americas roads.

In 2018, in one week alone, there were 285 deaths due to drunk driving according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). On New Years Day, drunk driving-related deaths skyrocket to 129% above the baseline average, making it the most dangerous holiday of the year in terms of intoxicated road use.

In Michigan, the situation has become so critical that more than half of residents polled reported they will choose to spend the night with family rather than risk being struck by a drunk driver.

A survey conducted by DesertHopeTreatment.com, a leading provider of addiction treatment, polled 3,510 Americans revealing that almost two-thirds of Michiganders (63%) will choose to stay over with family at Christmas in order to avoid drunk drivers on roads and highways this year. That is significantly above the national average of 59%.

Given that Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are on a Friday and Saturday this year, suggested cherrydigitalcontent.com, it may be the wisest choice to stay over, if possible, considering 62% of drunk driving-related fatalities occur over the weekend.

Choosing not to drive on Christmas Eve is not an overreaction. The Michigan State Police website reports that Impaired Driving in 2019 accounted for:

Alcohol- and Drug-Related Fatalities, 419.

Fatalities, 985.

Injuries, 74,963.

Total Crashes, 314,377.

The Dec. 20 Daily Mining Gazette article was posted to a social media page with the purpose of maligning it. One respondent, Ceric Lasentri, posted the comment:

Facepalms at this tabloid level crap. Especially before the holidays. Way to p**s in the punch, bud. Lets kick off this weekends festivities with an air of *SSHOLE about us. Its S**T like this, that feeds the negativity. And you know the old saying The demon or angel you feed the most prevails.

Yet, on August 18, 2020 a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), found that excessive alcohol consumption is responsible for an average of 93,296 deaths in the U.S. every year (255 per day), shortening the lives of these people by an average of 29 years (2.7 million years of potential life lost).

Michigan is eighth highest in terms of total deaths among all 50 states and 17th highest in age-adjusted alcohol-attributable deaths per 100,000-population, the CDC reported.

In consideration of these new data, the report stated, the Michigan Liquor Control Commission today urges moderation in alcohol consumption.

These findings are a huge wake-up call toward keeping alcohol consumption in check, MLCC Chair Pat Gagliardi is quoted as saying in the report.

The CDC reports that 55% of these premature, preventable deaths are from long-term drinking that causes various cancers, liver disease, heart disease, and other health problems. Overall, 71 percent of these premature deaths are among men, and 56 percent are people ages 35 to 64. Not surprisingly, alcoholic liver disease was the leading chronic cause of alcohol-attributable deaths overall, most predominantly among men.

Excessive alcohol consumption at holiday parties and social events is included in what is termed binge drinking. Binge drinking was addressed in the CDC study.

Michigans alcohol epidemiologist, Patrick Hindman, drew attention to the rising prevalence of binge drinking, the report stated.

These new data are a reflection of drinking patterns, particularly binge drinking, as approximately 90 percent of adults who report excessive drinking, binge drink. According to a January 2020 CDC report, there were significant increases in total binge drinks per adult from 2011 to 2017 among adults who reported binge drinking for both men and women, and those aged 35-44 years (up 26.7 percent) and 45-64 years (up 23.1%).

EDITORS NOTE: Tomorrow, the Daily Mining Gazette will examine the impact of drinking parents on minor children.

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Excessive alcohol consumption is life-threatening, particularly during holidays - Daily Mining Gazette