South Queens, New York – This morning the New York Times released a video profile of our remarkable St. John’s Episcopal Hospital, and how they were handling the COVID-19 pandemic through the eyes of their medical professionals.

I am so grateful for their team of doctors, nurses, support staff and administrators for their valiance and bravery in fighting this illness, and my thoughts and prayers go to all of the families and patients who went through this horrible virus. However, let me be clear, to anyone who doubts how serious this illness is or is rushing to get everything back to the way it was, before a treatment is available; this is what was happening on the ground, and the toll is devastating.

Our hospital was overworked, overwhelmed, and overrun by this illness to the point where refrigerated trucks came to store the bodies of those who fell fatally ill. We cannot allow this to happen again on our watch, especially when we know what we must do to keep us safe, and we know how high the number of deaths and cases were. I am committed to addressing the disparities and inequities that this virus has exposed.

The 11691 zip code had the second highest death rate in all of New York City, the numbers are truly staggering – we have a responsibility to every person working at St. John’s to follow all the guidelines to make sure we don’t put them through this traumatic experience again.