LADY LIBERTY:
SENTINEL OF LIFE AND
DEATH
FROM THE HOPE OF
COMFORT
TO GRIM REALITY
TAGS: NYC, CORONA VIRUS, COVID-19,
CASE AND DEATH COUNT,
NYPD, FDNY-EMS, HHS
ORIGINALLY POSTED MAY 8 TBC. (UPDATED LINKS)
(Friday
May 8, 2020 Pier 39, Red Hook, Brooklyn) Since October 28, 1886 our Statue of
Liberty has proudly stood in New York harbor and has bore witness to much of
Our Nation’s history. She has served as
a beacon for immigrants, a colossal monument to our founding principles, and at
times, as a silent witness to the good and bad times of our City. Around the world she is recognized as a
singular representation of the United States of America.
On
Monday, March 30, Lady Liberty provided a dramatic background as the USN
Comfort, a Navy hospital ship made her way slowly to Pier 90 on the Westside of
Manhattan providing as many as 500 much needed beds for Covid-19 patients. As
of that Monday morning New York City had verified 38,087 cases of the virus and
a death toll of 914. Those numbers would
tragically rise steadily as March gave way to April. The “City that Never Sleeps” was a veritable
ghost town except for the long snaking lines of people waiting to get into
emergency rooms from the Bronx to Brooklyn. By April 21 the USN Comfort departed
having not been utilized as promised for reasons that are difficult to
understand given the crush on NYC emergency rooms, ICU capacity, and hospitals
in general. She arrived with much hope for the beleaguered, overburdened City
Hospitals and seemed to sail away as an afterthought. Perhaps the lesson of the USN Comfort is but
a metaphor to the Covid-19 response locally and, particularly, at the federal
level. (This is not a political statement, opinion, or partisan talking
point.)
While
so much remains to be understood about this virus that has gripped the world in
a pandemic, Epidemiologists, Virologists, Infectious Disease physicians,
Respiratory Therapists, Laboratory Technicians as well as scores of public,
private, and academic labs are laboring to break some of the most vexing puzzles
given that it appears Covid-19 is more than a “respiratory infection”. It often presents in unusual ways and can
vary in exactly how it behaves differently from patient to patient. The one absolute certainty is that it is deadly;
it can kill swiftly or it can have a patient linger on a ventilator for weeks
on end until such time that the intubated patient succumbs. It can strike with
vicious rapidity in patients with pre-existing conditions, the elderly, and
those with a compromised immunity. It has claimed lives in younger people in
good health, physically fit by most metrics.
There is far more unknown than known about this virus that all the
efforts of researchers and clinicians will not yield anything like a
therapeutic or a vaccine any time soon.
It is here to stay.
New
York City was the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States. It hit us
hard and fast and became a major medical emergency throughout our Five Boroughs
before large swathes of the Country had even become alert to it. Viral particles spread, prolifically
propagating as they jump from host to host.
Once it infects a person it hijacks that person’s cellular physiology,
makes its way into the cell nucleus, and thrives within. In this molecular
level hostile takeover, the virus utilizes the cell for its own malevolent purposes.
As the immune system responds there comes a series of inflammatory reactions
each alone clinically difficult to manage; collectively, they can be fatal. Viruses in this class are exceptionally
contagious, very tenacious and resilient in the air and on nonporous
surfaces. Social distancing quickly
became the mantra and wearing face masks covering our nose and mouth soon
thereafter became highly recommended. New Yorkers by the tens of thousands
became shut ins; “sheltering in place” as if a gun toting maniac was prowling
our streets. This novel Corona virus was
able to do in short order what no maniac or terrorist could; it rendered the
most densely populated City in America a veritable ghost town.
EYE OF THE STORM
As
more and more of Our City became shuttered, there was an eerie calm in the
concrete canyons. The FDNY-EMS and NYPD had little reason to respond to a call
with sirens and airhorns – there was no traffic, they had the streets to
themselves. The only locales of activity
were the hospitals many of which were seeing alarmingly escalating Coronavirus
cases. Supplies from PPE to respirators,
sanitizers to IV tubing, to the whole array of equipment necessary to care for
ICU patients became less available by the day.
The
nature of this disease didn’t allow for the most gravely ill to have visitors;
no family members to accompany their loved one when their time came to step
over to the other side. More doctors,
nurses, technicians, EMT’s and Cops were the last mask-covered faces they would
see during their final moments as sentient beings. And then the bodies began to pile up.
Funeral
homes were overwhelmed. Social
distancing precluded memorial services in churches, synagogues, mosques, and
other houses of worship. Next of kin
typically never laid eyes on their deceased again once they were admitted to a
hospital. Even graveside services were
curtailed.
By
early April bodies of victims that were “unclaimed” began being interred in
mass graves on Harts Island, the historical home of NYC’s “Potters Field”. FEMA began sending 53-foot-long refrigerated semi-trailers
to some of the hardest hit hospitals including NYU, Bellevue, and
Elmhurst. Bodies were found in U-Haul
rental trucks besides some funeral homes in Harlem and Brooklyn. These had become among the grisly agonies of
reality in Our virus ravaged City.
As
the number of cases continued to rise each and every City Agency could
count Members of Service among the ill and dying. From the FDNY to NYPD, the Department of
Corrections to Sanitation, Transportation and Education, Nurses and aids of the
Union 1199, and so many others were lost often leaving their surviving colleagues
depressed, disheartened, and worried.
The environs these people worked in posed a level of danger and stress
that had never before been so pronounced.
UP TO THE CHALLENGE
As
native New Yorkers we have a global reputation of toughness. As children born into the most complex urban
metropolis in America, we simply grow up as products of our environment. Personalities
and traits that outsiders see as rude are but our inherent genetic expressions.
We as a City, as a diverse, sometimes disparate population have always united
during the hardest of hard times. We’ve squared
off to confront every challenge, crisis, hardship or threat. We are doing so at this time just as we have
never failed to do.
Perhaps
some among us are praying more than usual.
Certainly, every other New Yorker who might be reading these words has
had to take a momentary pause when we learned of an extended family member,
neighbor, coworker, acquaintance or familiar face from our daily coming and
going having passed away. Many of us
have a profession that comes with higher than normal inherent risk; some of us
may reflect on our own mortality, the circumstances and happenstances that
shadow us every time we show up for work.
Our
City will soon slowly but surely begin to reopen. Day by day the traffic will increase, the flood
of pedestrians will flow, and all the familiar sights and sounds that define
life in Our City will again be present.
That will be a good thing for us all.
But maybe it will be wise to hold onto a few of the facts of life we
have learned since this plague invaded Our Town. Maybe not.
Bless
All, Good Luck, and Be Well
Copyright The
Brooding Cynyx 2020 © All Rights Reserved
Copyright
Brooding Cynyc 2020 © All Rights Reserved
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