‘We are alive’: COVID pandemic remembered at Elmhurst Hospital
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Mayor Eric Adams, former Mayor Bill de Blasio, Borough President Donovan Richards, Councilmember Francisco Moya and other officials recognized Elmhurst Hospital for its contributions and work during the COVID pandemic on Friday. Photo by Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
By Ryan Schwach
It has been half a decade since the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread in New York City, and on Friday two mayors and a number of health officials recognized the life-saving work of doctors and nurses at the “epicenter of the epicenter”
In 2020, Elmhurst Hospital in Western Queens garnered national attention as it became inundated with some of the first patients infected with COVID-19. The public hospital in the heart of the borough became a national symbol for the havoc and death wrought by the virus in the pandemic’s earliest days.
At the hospital on Friday, nearly five years later, officials held a remembrance ceremony to honor the work of the front-line doctors at Elmhurst and to celebrate the response to the crisis in the city, which lost 46,000 people.
“You're all heroes to our borough,” said Queens Borough President Donovan Richards. “Five years ago, Queens was at its darkest and lowest point, but you are our light, and you put us on the road to recovery. I love you, Queens loves you.”
During those dark days, Elmhurst doctors and nurses fought for patients’ lives, and fought for the necessary equipment to treat people infected with COVID.
“Five years ago, Elmhurst Hospital became the epicenter of the epicenter in those harrowing days of March 2020,” said Erica Harris, a nurse at Elmhurst. “We witnessed suffering on a scale none of us had ever imagined. The hallways of our hospital filled beyond capacity.”
Harris spoke of the courage of her colleagues, many of whom contracted the virus themselves and risked spreading it to their families.
“We fought for every ventilator, every oxygen tank, every bed, knowing that behind each one was a person, someone's mother, father, child, and through it all, our team stood resolute,” she said. “We did not run, we did not yield.”
Local Councilmember Francisco Moya gave credit to the strength of the Elmhurst community.
New York City remembers the beginning of the COVID pandemic five years later. AP file photo by John Minchillo
“Our corner of the world was watched under the flood lights of international news stations that were parked right out here in the corner,” he said. “The numbers ticked up on a daily reporting graphics and a temporary morgue flashed on the screens to show the reality of what was happening here at Elmhurst Hospital. But to us, to people like me that have lived here in Corona their entire lives, this was our reality. We have always been a scrappy community made up of many immigrants willing to find a way, and together, we did find a way through this universal tragedy and trauma.”
Both Mayor Eric Adams and former Mayor Bill de Blasio acknowledged the heroism of Elmhurst’s staff on Friday.
“I wish people all over this world could see the heroism, bravery, the nobility of the people in this room and everyone else who's ever worked in this building,” de Blasio said. “I think of this as sacred ground, because people reached the highest heights of humanity.”
Adams – who sometimes slept in his office in Brooklyn Borough Hall during the pandemic – also recognized the efforts at Elmhurst and the impact of the pandemic on New York City.
“We're still feeling that terror, if we're honest with ourselves, some of the byproduct of some of the mental health issues we're facing, is attached to COVID-19,” he said. “I still think about the trauma that I'm still personally feeling.”
“We may believe that we survived the virus, but trust me, we need to go inward and find some of the mental health care that we probably just pushed to the side when you go into an emergency,” he added. “We have to take care of ourselves.”
Both mayors padded the other on the back for their response to COVID impacts.
While Adams has criticized de Blasio’s mayorality, he applauded him for his response to the pandemic. In return, the former mayor gave Adams some credit for bringing the city back.
“You go through this city, the life, the energy is back,” de Blasio said. “You can feel it almost as if it's 2019, or before. There is so much that affirms our strength once again, and our city is getting safer.”
De Blasio, who seldom speaks in public these days and is more often making headlines for his dating life than politics, remembered when many spoke of COVID-19 as the end of the city.
“I think there has got to be a point in our lives when no one will ever say again it's over from New York City,” he said, calling back to other crises like Sept. 11 and Hurricane Sandy. “There's got to be that moment where history matters.”
“[When] it's finally recognized that if you take the strongest people, the most resilient people, the most amazing people from around the world…we build a community of people forged in fire, that maybe that group of people is special,” he added. “New York City is an idea, a powerful idea. It's a place for everyone. It's a place where everyone matters and is respected no matter what's happening around us in this country, in this world, our values don't change, and those very same values brought us through our worst crisis. So, if you ever hear someone say it's over for New York City, I just want you to put a pleasant smile on your face. Tell them you were there in those years during COVID, you saw the best of humanity, and we overcame and we are alive.”
