Thread by @TrueBoots

I don't wish COVID-19 or any illness on anyone. But like countless others, I'm enraged it took this long for the WH to put on masks. To treat this as the crisis it is. 210k dead. Mourning families. Unpayable medical debts. Lost jobs & businesses. This global tragedy is unending.

https://twitter.com/JonLemire/status/1312139081934012416

Seeing discussions of helicopter vs. ground travel from WH to Walter Reed - which is well and interesting - got me thinking of March-May in NYC when ambulances were constant, EMS & ER staff were overwhelmed & hospitals had morgue trailers filling with our neighbors & loved ones.

Wishing New Yorkers had options then - or that other Americans have options now. In early months, folks were told to stay home unless they couldn't breathe. Hospital hall space was taken up with critical patients, many of whom died from lack of staffing & equipment.

Meanwhile the @NYCVetsAlliance team was talking with veterans who were living on streets & in cars, and raising $$ to put them in hotels so they didn't go to infectious homeless shelters. Gov't had no short-term help for these folks. Systems were unprepared & stressed.

People were in their homes, scared & many were hungry & without food, masks, or supplies. Basic needs needed to be met. I'm grateful for @NYCVetsAlliance & community mutual aid groups that got food & necessities to people before govt services could get spun up to help.

But there were so many New Yorkers who had no helicopter to take them anywhere as a "precaution" or otherwise. Some died in their homes. Nursing homes lit on fire with the virus. Deceased people were literally taken away in rental vans. It was ghastly and overwhelming.

There is so much to say about what happened in NYC - even as many of our fellow Americans - even our elected leaders - lacked any respect or sympathy for the massive losses suffered here. It is stunning to remember. Absolutely stunning to think of.

It's stunning to watch as a guy who pays $750/yr or less in taxes gets VIP healthcare while scared, isolated, hardworking taxpayers died in homes & hospital hallways. No one deserves this virus. But the disparities in basic survival of it have been absolutely inhumane.