Early COVID Memories

Summary

Podcast Summary: All Of It – "Early COVID Memories"

Episode Details:

• Title: Early COVID Memories
• Host: Alison Stewart
• Release Date: March 10, 2025
• Duration: Approximately 20 minutes
• Broadcast: Weekdays, 12:00 - 2:00 PM on WNYC

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Introduction

In the poignant episode titled "Early COVID Memories," hosted by Alison Stewart, All Of It commemorates the five-year anniversary of the World Health Organization's declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic on March 11, 2020. This episode delves into the profound and varied impacts of the pandemic on New York City’s residents, exploring personal relationships, work culture, and the invaluable lessons learned over five tumultuous years.

Historical Context: The Onset of the Pandemic

The episode opens with a recount of the initial days following the WHO’s pandemic declaration. Alison Stewart sets the stage by highlighting the swift actions taken by city officials amidst escalating fears:

• Andrew Cuomo’s Announcement (00:39):

  “This is going to get much worse.”

• Arun Venugopal’s Commentary (01:07):

  “Before it gets better. That was always the fact.”

• Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Decision (01:11):

  “This is a decision that I have taken with no joy whatsoever, with a lot of pain, honestly...” (01:17)

These statements underline the gravity and uncertainty that gripped New York City as it began to shut down, starting with banning large gatherings and eventually closing schools and non-essential businesses.

Personal Stories: Voices from the Community

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to personal anecdotes from listeners, providing a diverse tapestry of experiences during the early pandemic phase.

Listener Call: George from Sunnyside, Queens (07:04)

George shares his harrowing journey navigating cancer treatment amidst the pandemic shutdowns:

“Governor Cuomo put March 23rd as the last date for elective surgeries in New York State. And my surgeon did a marathon session of prostate cancer surgery starting at something like 8:00 in the morning and working through the day...” (07:04)

Listener Call: Rose from Wayne, New Jersey (14:31)

Rose recounts the tragic loss of her family members in assisted living facilities and the upheaval caused by COVID-19:

“They all passed away. My husband's parents passed away, both from COVID and unfortunately my mom passed away because she was not getting the care she needed...” (17:51)

Listener Call: Bridget from Easton, Connecticut (16:57)

Bridget reflects on the abrupt halt to normal activities, such as attending a much-anticipated Broadway show:

“We saw it on March 8 of that infamous week, not knowing, as you look around this damn theater, thousands of people, thousands of entertainers, everyone. The next week it was gone.” (17:51)

Reporter Insights: Arun Venugopal’s Coverage

Arun Venugopal, a WNYC and Gothamist reporter, provides an insightful narrative of his experiences covering the pandemic's impact:

• Initial Reporting Shift (02:55):

  “You know, I was doing the sort of the same kind of work then as I had been for several years and since, which was reporting on race and immigration issues... All this felt like this sort of slow moving train that was kind of slowly approaching.”

• Challenges of Remote Reporting (04:37):

  “There's some things that really stand out, certainly, like the eeriness of that time... we were really told... a lot of it was remote.”

• Personal Reflections on Community and Trauma (13:00 - 14:24):

  Arun shares memorable interactions, including conversations with Eric, a morgue worker, and Sharmila, a neighbor who suffered severe isolation:

  “Are we any better when it comes to sort of taking care of our neighbors, looking out for them? You know, five years later? I think that's something we should be really working on a little more.” (13:03)

Key Themes and Discussions

1. Healthcare Under Strain:

   • The pandemic exposed significant gaps in the social safety net, as highlighted by Arun’s discussions with Eric, who worked in COVID morgue trailers.
   • Personal stories like George’s illustrate the difficult decisions faced by individuals needing medical care during the pandemic.

2. Isolation and Mental Health:

   • The eerie quietness of New York City during lockdowns, constant sirens, and the emotional toll of isolation are recurrent themes.
   • Listeners describe the psychological impact, such as feeling disconnected and the challenges of maintaining personal relationships.

3. Community and Resilience:

   • Despite the hardships, stories of community support, heroic efforts by frontline workers, and the importance of checking in on neighbors emerge as sources of hope and resilience.
   • Arun emphasizes the enduring need to support and remember marginalized individuals who were most affected.

4. Economic and Cultural Shifts:

   • The abrupt closure of businesses, the cancellation of cultural events like Broadway shows, and the subsequent economic fallout are discussed.
   • Bridget’s experience with the cancellation of “Hamilton” underscores the widespread disruption to the arts and entertainment industry.

Notable Quotes

• Andrew Cuomo on Crisis (01:17):

  “We are dealing with a challenge and a crisis that we have never seen in our lifetimes. And it has only just begun.”

• Eric on Trauma and Community (11:13):

  “I feel profoundly that it was a privilege to see what the pandemic really meant on the human scale... both incredibly hopeful, empowering and compassionate, but also truly and viscerally expressed the danger of what the virus meant.” (11:13)

• Alison Stewart’s Advice (19:41):

  “That's good advice. Check in on, folks.” (19:43)

Conclusions and Lessons Learned

As the episode draws to a close, the discussion revolves around the lasting changes in perceptions and behaviors five years after the pandemic's onset:

• Community Vigilance: Arun stresses the importance of maintaining connections and regularly checking in on others to prevent isolation and neglect.

• Appreciation for Frontline Workers: There is a renewed recognition of the essential roles played by healthcare workers and other frontline employees, who ensured the city continued to function amidst chaos.

• Reflection on Human Resilience: The collective experiences shared by listeners and the host highlight the strength and adaptability of individuals and communities in the face of unprecedented adversity.

Final Thoughts

"Early COVID Memories" serves as a heartfelt reflection on the initial chaos and enduring impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City. Through personal narratives and insightful reportage, Alison Stewart and her guest, Arun Venugopal, weave a comprehensive narrative that not only commemorates lost lives and shattered routines but also celebrates the resilience and solidarity that emerged from one of history’s most challenging periods.

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Connect with All Of It: Join the conversation and share your own memories or thoughts by calling or texting 212-339-9221 ext. 2433. Be a part of the All Of It community as it continues to explore and curate the rich cultural fabric of New York City.

Transcript

[Progressive Insurance]

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[WNYC Studios]

Listener Supported WNYC Studios.

[Alison Stewart]

This is all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. This week marks the five year anniversary of the week the World health organization declared COVID 19 a pandemic. It was March 11, 2020, soon after New York began shutting down. Then New York governor and yes, current mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo spoke about it on March 12, 2020, announcing a ban on large gatherings.

[Andrew Cuomo]

This is going to get much worse.

[Arun Venugopal]

Before it gets better. That was always the fact.

[Alison Stewart]

Just a few days after that warning, the city's mayor De Bill de Blasio announced he was closing schools.

[Andrew Cuomo]

This is a decision that I have taken with no joy whatsoever, with a lot of pain, honestly, because something I could not in a million years imagine having to do. But we are dealing with a challenge and a crisis that we have never seen in our lifetimes. And it has only just begun.

[Alison Stewart]

That was just the start of the pandemic closures. Bars and restaurants soon followed and then all non essential workers were ordered to stay home. At the time, I don't think any of us knew how long the shutdown would go on for. We didn't even know when or if the vaccine would be developed. And we certainly didn't know that the virus and its impacts would be a myriad and difficult to Qu even five years later. And we didn't know that more than 40,000 New York City residents would die from it. 80,000 New Yorkers in total. This is a tough week for a lot of us, so we ask you to be kind to yourselves and others. All this week on all of it, we're going to be talking about how Covid has changed us from personal relationships to our work culture to the lessons learned. Today we're going to start at the beginning. Where were you when the city shut down? What was your experience like? What was the last thing you remember doing before everything closed? Call or text us at 2124-3396-9221-2433. WNYC we want to hear what you were doing five years ago this week. What are your memories of that time while you're screening your calls? I wanted to bring in my colleague WNYC and Gothamist reporter Arun Venakopal. He was covering the impact of the pandemic, and he joins us now to talk about it and to take your calls. Nice to see you, Arun.

[Arun Venugopal]

Same. Hi, Alison.

[Alison Stewart]

So what was your reporting beat in 2020 and how did it shift to the pandemic?

[Arun Venugopal]

You know, I was doing the sort of the same kind of work then as I had been for several years and since, which was reporting on race and immigration issues, occasionally sitting in, guest hosting some of the shows here at wnyc. And so for that reason, I was occasionally talking to people who were reporting out of China, going back to December of 2019. And so for me, all this felt like this sort of slow moving train that was kind of like slowly approaching. Still couldn't conceive how much would change, but it was not something that just perished into my life in March of 2020.

[Unknown Host]

How did you. Gosh, how did you decide how to cover the pandemic? It's something none of us had ever done before.

[Alison Stewart]

How do you decide who to talk to?

[Unknown Host]

Where would you go? What would you talk to them about?

[Arun Venugopal]

God, so much of it is a complete blur, Alison. I mean, I can't even really kind of recover, like, the day to day of that moment or remember the details of it. There's some things that really stand out, certainly, like the eeriness of that time. I remember staying here, being one of the last people who worked physically in the newsroom because they were saying, like, we need people to train just in case somebody gets sick, so they can be the backup for. For that person in case a host gets sick or whatever. And the eeriness of being, like, handed a laptop and equipment that would allow us to work remotely, thinking, oh, will this be seven days? Will it be 10 days? How long is this gonna happen before all of us went into this complete kind of new darkness.

[Unknown Host]

What did people wanna talk to you about when you first went out and started reporting?

[Arun Venugopal]

We weren't really going out that much. We were really told, you know, our leadership, I guess, was very sensitive to the risks that we're taking on. So a lot of it was remote. It was by phone. I think we felt like we were just kind of feeling our way through this new thing, not quite sure what we were living in. You know, I remember only after many weeks or even months encountering somebody out on the street corner who I had arranged, you know, you know, being that I live in a part of Queens where I have. I know so many people in the neighborhood, some of whom were, like, on the front lines of what was happening. You know, actually meeting with somebody, wondering how close is too close. You know, you're, like, backing off of them, trying to stay. All these weird things about encountering people, you know, in person, and also just at the same time trying to understand who are the people who are falling through the cracks that we need to be hearing from. And those are the moments that actually now I still do really remember is realizing, you know, that the social safety net is, you know, that there are huge gaps in it. People are falling through.

[Unknown Host]

You live in Queens. Tell me about living in Queens and what was like to work remotely from Queens.

[Arun Venugopal]

You know, I can see Elmhurst Hospital out my window. It was very, I guess, unsettling for weeks on end where you just heard the sound of sirens constantly, you know, and you had the sense. I felt like my memory is like all. All my memories are of, like, of dark nights, empty streets. Even when I try to think of the daytime, it's hard to recover. Like, daylight. It's almost like everything was just really eerie. And those sirens were really unsettling. You just tried to stay in. I had a dog, though. You got to take the dog out. You want to also, like, just kind of, like, recover your. Some semblance of normal. You might walk several feet away from a friend who decided to, like, meet with you. Like, you're walking parallel paths, you know, and hoping that you don't do something bad. Maybe you met in the. In the garden of your building, sitting far apart, hoping that you don't do something bad there, you know, and just thankful that you live in a community with people who are, you know, you have relationships with that you can kind of, like, be going through this thing together, but also not sure, you know, like, if you're dropping off food for somebody who gets sick, if by, you know, going to the foyer of their building, am I going to get, like, infected by something or whatever it is. And so I think it was just scary for all of us.

[Unknown Host]

Let's talk to George, who's calling in from Sunnyside, Queens. Hi, George. Thank you so much for calling, all of it. You're on the air.

[George]

Sure. Thank you. Good day to both of you. In December of 2019, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. And by the time I had my complete workup and was ready for treatment, I had the option of radiation or surgery. And this was at the very beginning of the pandemic. And it was unclear to me what the risks were of. Right. Because if I'd gone for radiation, it would have meant five days, a Week, twice a day on the trains in and out of Manhattan. And I was fearful of COVID So my option was to have surgery. And the surgery was scheduled for the end of March. But Governor Cuomo put March 23rd as the last date for elective surgeries in New York State. And my surgeon did a marathon session of prostate cancer surgery starting at something like 8:00 in the morning and working through the day on all of his patients that were at high risk per metastasis until like 3 o'clock in the morning. So that's my story.

[Alison Stewart]

Wow. Thank you for sharing it. Another person wrote in, I broke my ankle as soon as Covid happened. I told my husband to bring me to the hospital, and he said he couldn't because I could die. I found an orthopedist that had emergency hours and scheduled an emergency surgery right then.

[Arun Venugopal]

Wow.

[Alison Stewart]

It's amazing. I was thinking about all of the women who had to give birth by themselves.

[Arun Venugopal]

I know, I know. I mean, I shattered my wrist a couple months into it. And, like, the weirdness of going and coming out alone and waiting, hoping that somebody who's supposed to pick you up would pick you up. It was. It was. Everything felt different. But there are people still showing up and going to those hospitals and working and just like, how heroic they were.

[Alison Stewart]

My guest is Arun Venugapal, WNYC and Gothamist reporter. We are talking about the fifth anniversary of the COVID pandemic in April. You spoke to a man named Eric. At this point, 10,000 New Yorkers had died from COVID in just that month alone. Probably more, if we really think about the months earlier. Tell us a little bit about Eric, what he was doing, what job he had.

[Arun Venugopal]

Eric was somebody who I think had friended me on Facebook in the months prior and reached out to me. I'd had, I don't think, any contact with him, but he wrote me very eloquently about this experience into which he'd entered someone who had been like a custom framist, who did, like, fancy art frames and who had no longer had that work because the pandemic and had become an emergency. I guess he was handling Covid corpses in these emergency trailers and thought that we needed to know about it. At the time, I guess the city was not aware of how brutal this was and what was happening behind the scenes. And so over the course of a few weeks, he and I talked a number of times, again, remotely from each other. He'd FaceTimed me into these Covid morgue trailers and whatnot and really macabre, really scary. But I'm very thankful to him because it brought a story. And I think, you know, that story was perhaps, you know, for me, my most visceral and powerful glimpse into what was happening around us.

[Alison Stewart]

Yeah. Let's listen to a short clip from your future, which is about seven minutes long.

[Unknown Host]

It's definitely worth checking out.

[Alison Stewart]

Here's Eric describing how he came to take the job.

[Eric]

I lurched. I said yes, without knowing why I was doing it, without knowing if I was at risk, without knowing what the cost would be.

[Unknown Host]

And we have Eric on the phone.

[Alison Stewart]

With us right now. Hi, Eric. How are you doing today?

[Eric]

Hi, I'm fine, thank you. Alison. Hello, Arun. Thank you for these moments. Looking back at this collective tragedy, when.

[Unknown Host]

You think about it, how did that.

[Alison Stewart]

Experience working in the morgue, how did that change you?

[Eric]

That's a really powerful question. I think I'm still answering that question. A wise psychologist who fell into my circle after, after I worked in the trailers told me that trauma is a shape shifter and. And doesn't have a schedule when it will appear or what form it will take. And to be mindful that it travels with you. And I don't think I was traumatized by this experience. And I'd like to say that with that cautionary. That cautionary bit of advice, I'm still very, very grateful that I did it. And more than that, feel profoundly that it was a privilege to see what the pandemic really meant on the human scale in a neighborhood of neighbors, a neighborhood of aunts and uncles and cousins and people at the bodega. I thought it connected me to the environment that makes New York City a fabric in a way that was both incredibly hopeful, empowering and compassionate, but also truly and viscerally expressed the danger of what the virus meant and what the threat to society as a whole would emerge to mean.

[Unknown Host]

Eric, thank you so much for your time and for making the effort to call.

[Alison Stewart]

Did you want to respond? Arun?

[Arun Venugopal]

Well, you know, I'm still, to this day so grateful for people like Eric who can sort of so elegantly express these sort of unfathomable experiences and who are also willing to sort of step forward, to almost betray the rules of social isolation, to go towards the fire. You know, I remember so much about the experience of talking to him and what it meant. There's someone else whose experience at the time meant a lot to me, who was a neighbor who I only got to know because of this work, you know, and who was isolated severely. Sharmila you know, she went hungry for days and days, like 10 or 12 days on end. She was told me, like on the third or fourth conversation we had that she'd been eating paper to stay alive. Because, you know, unlike, you know, it's a different kind of social isolation when we were more familiar with and you know, these are these different sides in New York, people like Eric who are willing to, you know, go towards danger and help out, and people like Sharmila who, you know, fell through the cracks and, you know, who almost died because of, you know, isolation. And I think, like, I suppose the thing I think about a lot is like, are we any better when it comes to sort of taking care of our neighbors, looking out for them? You know, five years later? I think that's something we, we should be really working on a little more.

[Unknown Host]

Let's talk to Rose from Wayne, New Jersey. Hi Rose, thank you so much for calling, all of it.

[WNYC Studios]

Hi, thank you for taking the call. So, yeah, it's, you know, sort of heartbreaking to think back to those days. I know so many people with loss, but our particular situation was we had just been visiting family in the Midwest and my mother, who was living in assisted living, and my husband's mother and father were living in also assisted living situation. And we started driving back on the 12th right after visiting with them and not realizing that would be the last time we'd ever see them. They all passed away. My husband's parents passed away, both from COVID and unfortunately my mom passed away because she was not getting the care she needed in the assisted living facility. They had so little staff, they had cut down to the bare minimum. And then on the way home, we had gotten a call from our daughter and son in law who were living in Brooklyn, who were just becoming so scared of what was happening around them that they asked if they could come back and stay with us, not knowing for how long. They wound up being with us for six months. Yeah, until they were able to find a place. They had just put down their security deposits on their apartment and really lost out on all that because they had to leave. And my other daughter who works in the city was. Someone died on her floor. And so she had to insist to management that they go on a work from home situation, which the company was resisting. So it just. There were so many stories, so many.

[Unknown Host]

Thank you so much for sharing that, Rose. It was interesting to see how companies and corporations and small businesses, how they shifted so quickly in the city. I found that to be, I mean, somewhat fascinating, actually.

[Arun Venugopal]

Yeah, yeah, that's when you realize, like, these people who you don't necessarily appreciate what they did. Yeah, most definitely what they're doing to make your life, your work possible, keep you employed, all those things.

[Unknown Host]

Let's talk to Bridget from Easton, Connecticut. Hey, Bridget, thanks for calling, all of it.

[Bridget]

Hey. I feel. It feels kind of petty after those terrible stories, but we were had saved and waited for months and months to see Hamilton. We saw it on March 8 of that infamous week, not knowing, as you look around this damn theater, thousands of people, thousands, you know, entertainers, everyone. The next week it was gone. Everything was gone. You know, and it's not the fact of seeing Hamilton. It's just the world shifted and we came off very pretty. Well, my sister worked at Mass General, and we didn't see her for two years because she said people were dying left and right. And she refused to come down because she said people came in 20 years old, healthy as horses, and they were dead the next day. So it was. It was terrible. We were very blessed.

[Unknown Host]

Yeah, Bridget, thank you for calling in. That sort of was how it evolved. Like, oh, I can't see this show. I can't see this thing. I can't see this person. This person is ill. This person. It was like that. Just like a ball just rolling downhill.

[WNYC Studios]

I remember.

[Arun Venugopal]

I feel I really appreciate Bridget's call just because, like, when you think about something like as, you know, mundane and typical as going and seeing a show, that's when you can almost understand the swirl of all this mega, kind of unfathomable forces around a little better. Like, I think it's almost like you have to, like, kind of like rescue those little moments from this fog.

[Alison Stewart]

And all those people who were in that show were then unemployed.

[Arun Venugopal]

Right.

[Alison Stewart]

Which then led to a huge issue within our community. Before we wrap, has your view on the city changed at all in the past five years? Has one thing changed?

[Arun Venugopal]

I do think the one thing I try to do or put into practice is to the point I was making earlier. It's so easy to forget about people who need to be remembered, who need to be checked in on. If there's any one practice I've tried to get better at, it's partly because I was I kind of just emulating the example I saw from, you know, good friends, colleagues and all who were good about checking in. And I still feel like it's like one of those sort of like things you are always practicing. But that's something I think I realized. Like, oh, people are so easily. They just kind of recede into the shadows. And if you don't really make an effort, then there's a lot more of those people. And so I suppose that's the one thing I think, like, you know, I'm just trying to get better at is like checking in on people and thinking like, oh, you know, what's going on with this person? Because it's just so many distractions. And if you don't do that, then, you know, things can go south.

[Alison Stewart]

That's good advice. Check in on, folks.

[Arun Venugopal]

Yeah.

[Alison Stewart]

WNYC reporter and Gothamist reporter Arun Venigapel. Thanks for sitting with us, Arun.

[Arun Venugopal]

Thanks. Sure thing. Thank you, Alison.

[Multicare]

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