This column, from the weekly opinion piece MATTER OF FACT, first appeared on BrooklynReporter.com, the Home Reporter and Spectator dated May 29, 2020
This year’s Memorial Day was like no other anyone can remember. There were no large family gatherings, celebrating the unofficial start of summer — or at least there should not have been.
The 153rd annual Brooklyn Memorial Day Parade — the oldest, continuously-running such event in the country — did not wend its way along Third Avenue. In its place, the local chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America organized a motorcade, taking the opportunity to end near the VA hospital to show support for Veterans affected by COVID-19, as well as the hospital workers caring for the sick.
New York City beaches, which would normally have been jam-packed on the holiday weekend, were officially closed. Everyone wishes we could start summer 2020 as we traditionally do, but the coronavirus pandemic has necessitated we continue to take precautions to continue the progress we have made flattening the curve.
As the shortened workweek following the holiday began, additional New York regions prepared to begin their phase 1 reopenings, leaving New York City as the only area that will be left under NY PAUSE. Living under the full shutdown restrictions has been challenging, but it has been effective in slowing the spread of the virus and the five boroughs will soon meet the metrics required to safely begin their phased reopening.
Unfortunately, the locations in America showing the greatest rates of increased cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are in states that either never introduced stay-at-home orders or have recently removed them. The majority of these hotspots across the country are in rural areas.
In our interconnected world, we are not isolated from what happens somewhere else. The United States was not the closest country to where this outbreak started, nor were we one of the first countries it spread to. In fact, we were actually one of the farthest away and we had many weeks where we watched as other countries struggled to contain it.
“New York and every other state will need to navigate the next seven months through this crisis just as we have since it began: on our own.”
If states in the deep south or midwest continue to go back to normal life as their COVID-19 metrics move in the wrong direction, it jeopardizes every state. The progress New York has made that will enable us to begin our phased reopenings could be upended by outbreaks across the country that will eventually spread to our area.
As Memorial Day ended, the official U.S. coronavirus death count had exceeded 99,800. The most technologically advanced nation in the world with the strongest economy should never have had the worst results in this crisis.
Of the myriad failures from our federal government in dealing with this pandemic, not taking it seriously enough and not having a consistent direction for the entire country have likely been the most costly.
On the long weekend where we inched right up to the 100,000 mark for COVID-19 deaths, the current president who criticized his predecessor for golfing and said, “I’m not going to have time to go golfing” if elected, spent three consecutive days out on the links.
In addition, President Trump threatened to withhold congressionally-approved aid to states he felt were not reopening fast enough or that he disagreed with over intentions to make voting by mail available to more voters so they could avoid crowded polling sites. Then, on the day North Carolina recorded the most COVID-19 cases they have seen yet, he threatened to pull this summer’s Republican National Convention from the state because they won’t guarantee maximum attendance inside the arena if the pandemic has not abated.
The president who was impeached over a quid pro quo related to a threat to withhold aid to a foreign nation is now doing the same to American states during a pandemic that has claimed over 100,000 citizens.
The same president who says reopening is up to each individual state, is telling them when and how to reopen and even said he would overrule states that do not allow places of worship to hold full services, something he has no constitutional authority to do.
New York and every other state will need to navigate the next seven months through this crisis just as we have since it began: on our own.
