I just got off the phone with my daughter who has been holed up alone in her apartment in Brooklyn, NY since March 18. She is doing fine—she is telecommuting, and was prepared well ahead of the stay-at-home edict and has plenty of food. She is also very frightened by what she sees and hears outside her fourth-floor window and what she is reading and watching in the local news.
Almost all the focus has been on alleviating the situation in Manhattan, with the hospital ship Comfort berthed on Pier 90 midtown west (thank you Six Demon Bag) and field tents set up in Central Park and the Javits Center. On the other side of the East River, Queens and Brooklyn, with a combined population fifty percent greater than that of Manhattan and The Bronx together, seem largely forgotten. Wealthy Manhattanites have been able to flee Manhattan for their vacation homes further out on Long Island or out of state, easing some of the burden on Manhattan hospitals. The residents of Brooklyn and Queens don’t have those kind of resources. The ambulance sirens are nearly non-stop where my daughter lives, and Brooklyn and Queens hospitals are overwhelmed with covid patients, with obviously ill patients being turned away because there is no room for them.
For some reason, no field hospitals have been set up in Prospect Park, or the Brooklyn Civic Center, or at any number of other parks or community centers in the area. From what we have heard the Comfort has 30 some-odd non-covid patients with room for 970 more, and there are no reports of overflow conditions in the field hospitals in Central Park and the Javits Center. It’s good that remaining Manhattan residents have some place to go, but why is nothing being done for a larger population on the other side of the river?
My daughter is wondering how Brooklyn and Queens residents are supposed to get to where help is available. Are they supposed to go to Manhattan? She normally takes a one-hour subway ride from Brooklyn to her job in Chelsea in Manhattan. Not only are the subways operating at limited capacity, but unless someone is a first responder or health worker, everyone else is advised not to take public transportation. What are they supposed to do? Where do they go when local hospitals are turning them away?
I know that people are going above and beyond to help as many people as they can, and I know resources are limited. It’s just terrifying to realize that we are at a stage where people who are trying their best are reduced to just keeping their fingers in the dike.
Thanks for reading a fearful mother’s rant.