America Together: Uplifting images of Americans pulling together during coronavirus pandemic
Every day and in every community, the coronavirus pandemic is bringing out the best in Americans. Take a look at some inspiring images of Americans pulling together in a time of crisis.
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At the end of last month, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called Elmhurst Hospital in Queens the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic.
He tweeted: “Elmhurst hospital is at the center of responding to this crisis. It’s the number one priority of our public hospital system right now. The staff on the frontlines are going above and beyond. We’re doing everything we can to get them what they need.”
Now in creative fashion, 96 of the city’s professional photographers are doing a print-sale fundraiser for the hospital. The project is called Pictures For Elmhurst. From April 10–20 only, their prints are selling for $150 each; the donations will go to buying the hospital personal protective equipment (PPE) including ventilators, N95 and surgical masks, face shields, goggles, nurse caps, shoe covers, isolation gowns, hand sanitizer, TYVEK suits, and disposable scrubs.
CORONAVIRUS: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Samantha Casolari, an Italian photographer and video artist based in Brooklyn, initiated this fundraiser.
“It was inspired by a similar project that took place in Italy where 100 photographers donated a print for the Pope John XXIII Hospital in Bergamo, Italy, also at the epicenter of the pandemic,” she told Fox News.
Her project started small and grew quickly: “We first started with our circle of friends and colleagues who are working as photographers. The response was so warm and enthusiastic that we quickly expanded our outreach to photographers whose work we admire. The project grew almost organically.”
The team of artists went to work but had to do so realistically.
She said: “All of us wanted to help our community, but this can be dangerous, for us and others, during a pandemic. We had to find a way to do so in isolation. Since we are all working in the creative industry, and collectively could reach an extensive network of other creatives also looking for ways to help, we thought creating Pictures for Elmhurst would be the most effective – and safest – way for us to help.”
The help can’t come soon enough.
New York City is in danger of running out of swabs for COVID-19 tests and is urging medical providers to continue only testing patients who are gravely ill, the city health department said in a memo to health care providers.
“As the swab supply continues to decline, there is a real possibility hospitals will completely run out,” the April 11 health alert said. “At this time, providers are reminded to only test hospitalized patients in order to preserve resources that are needed to diagnose and appropriately manage patients with more severe illness.”
The warning came amid repeated pleas from New York City and state officials for the federal government to provide widespread testing to move to a containment phase in the coronavirus outbreak.
Pedestrians pass Elmhurst Hospital Center Saturday, April 4, 2020, in the Queens borough of New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
The city has been the epicenter of the pandemic in America.
New York’s death toll from coronavirus topped 10,000, with hospitals still seeing 2,000 new patients a day, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday.
The state tallied 671 new deaths on Sunday. It was the first time in a week daily toll dipped below 700. Still, the governor noted people are still dying at a “horrific level of pain and grief and sorrow.”
“This virus is very good at what it does. It is a killer,” Cuomo said during a state Capitol news briefing.
Cuomo said almost 2,000 people were newly hospitalized with the virus Sunday, though once discharges and deaths are accounted for, the number of people hospitalized has flattened to just under 19,000.
Lack of testing capability, partly due to rationing of personal protective equipment for the people who would have to administer them, has also stopped officials from doing widespread testing of hospital and nursing home staff who might be passing infections to each other and to patients.
Elmhurst Hospital has struggled to keep up with demand of PPE and is grateful for any and all help.
The hospital thanked the artists for their ingenuity: “Elmhurst Hospital Center is grateful to the Pictures For Elmhurst fundraising initiative. … The Pictures For Elmhurst project adds desperately-needed supplies for those on the front lines fighting this virus. It is inspiring to know that such talented photographers and artists ‘have our back’ and are keeping our staff and community in mind during this terribly difficult time.”
Its statement added: “Longtime Elmhurst clinicians state they have never seen anything like it—comparing today’s situation to ‘being at war’. As of early April, patients and difficult outcomes have skyrocketed. This has taken a devastating toll on front-line staff. In addition to the sheer exhaustion of caring for so many critically ill patients, our doctors and nurses fear for their own safety and that of their families. Many are also experiencing moral distress in the face of so many lost—in many instances, with family members never having a chance to say goodbye.”
CORONAVIRUS: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Pictures for Elmhurst is hoping their project starts a movement.
Casolari told Fox News: “We hope that it can inspire similar initiatives and make people feel less alone. Being part of a community, especially such a thriving and incredible one like NYC’s, means one should feel protected and cared for by that same community. NYC is a tough place but also gives you so much. We wanted to give back to NYC, particularly to the most vulnerable.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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