New York City's Covid Kids Are Not Getting the Support They Need
And some recaps of the State of the City
#30
At least 8,700 kids in New York City have lost a parent or caregiver due to COVID.
It’s a number that is hard for me to grasp, the same way the number of the dead here within the five boroughs still is (it’s more than 44,000 as of Friday.)
At THE CITY, we have a great team of people working on Missing Them, a project devoted to memorializing those who died and covering the pandemic. This week they – along with many other reporting partners – published a heartbreaking story about some of those 8,700 kids, who are still struggling to get guidance and support at their schools.
The lede of this story knocked me out. A teacher tries what she can to provide some levity with a dance party for her second graders over Zoom. A student is unable to get on because it’s her dad who’s good at computers, and he’s sick in bed.
Diego Vintimilla came to New York City from Ecuador and was the one who helped his daughter Yarely with her classwork. He managed to fix her computer connection from his bed but died two weeks later of the virus, at 32.
For kids like Yarely, there hasn’t been much professional help as they maneuver through the complexities of grief. Her teacher searched online and cobbled together handouts, but the city has not been able to provide all of the support that’s needed.
“The schools did not give any emotional support to the children who lost family members,” one parent said. “They didn’t send emails or anything. There was no communication.”
You can read more here.
One note about the photo — back in December 2020 I visited Elmhurst Hospital as their nurses received the vaccine for the first time. I showed up early and stumbled on a memorial dedicated to the staffers who died of the virus. The day was celebratory, but this memorial was a stark reminder of everything that brought us there. I had an opportunity to report on the hospital for The Journal as the show’s first guest host and spoke to the people who spent months inside that hospital just trying to stay alive.
I also thankfully got to write a bit about the specific memorial. The leaf I included was the one that did it for me, and I thought of it again when thinking about these kids continue to go through.
Other interesting stories this week
This week I wrote about a former deputy actuary who is suing the city for allegedly passing him over for the chief actuarial job because he’s gay, young, and Asian. [THE CITY]
I got a little preview of a new biotech hub coming to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which was mentioned at the mayor’s State of the City [THE CITY]
And finally, here’s a recap of yesterday’s State of the City held at the Queens Theatre. It is the Working People’s Agenda! [THE CITY]
Mayor Adams is launching his own newsletter. City & State have a very funny look at some potential headlines from his Substack. [CITY & STATE]
WATCH
Here is one of the Oscar-nominated animated shorts, a coming-of-age story of losing your virginity based off of writer Pamela Ribon’s memoir. I have followed Ribon since she was recapping TV shows on Television Without Pity, which was an early internet obsession for me. Thankfully the Wayback Machine exists and I can still read Pamie’s Gilmore Girls recaps whenever I want. I have never met her but I’m so happy she received this nomination!
Thanks for reading!