The Voices of New Yorkers Sheltering in Place

[projector whirring] [bell dinging]

[phone ringing]

Hello?

I have to admit that until maybe last week, I was wrong,

or I was not uninformed, but I didn't really,

I didn't really take it seriously, maybe?

You know, this time around, it's so broad.

Everybody's getting it basically.

Like after Tom Hanks got it, it was like,

oh that's it, that means anybody can get it.

I had just what felt like a bad cold.

Nasal congestion, runny nose, stuff like that.

None of the telltale signs or what we think

are the telltale signs of the virus

because it seems to present in a bunch of different ways.

You hear stories about healthy athletes dying from it,

or some older people manage to survive.

So it's like, just no way to tell how it's going to affect

a particular individual and I am a little bit older,

and do have some health issues.

Hello, right now I've opened up my window.

I'm exposed to the outside.

I don't know, the virus can be transmitted through the air

so I wear a face mask, I don't want to take that risk.

I got sick on the 11th, nobody can get a test.

It's like I [laughing] was thinking a week or so ago,

maybe I should go up to Canada.

It's much easier to get tested up there.

[coughing]

I'm not worried about my families

because in China, they're worried about me.

I mean, I had a really bad dream last night

which was really scary.

I dreamt that I had to fly home

and I didn't know where home was.

And I had all my things.

I had to pack them really, really quickly.

And I didn't have enough time to pack them.

And then I saw as I packed that there was still much more

and I had to make the decisions,

what am I gonna take with me,

am I ever gonna see that again?

It feels so much to be out of control, you know?

It's like a sense of purposelessness.

[clearing throat]

How we're not able to do anything productive.

And the other thing is I'm a trained doctor.

I'm a licensed physician back home in India,

but I don't have a license to practice here,

so I can't really do anything on that front either.

I was depressed over the weekend,

and I think that was in part

to just having too much time on my hands.

I'm just an anxious person anyway.

But during this time, I've certainly broken down,

and you know, had the girlfriend come home

from the grocery store and found me on the couch crying.

The open window on the third floor, there he is waving.

Where, oh over there.

I've had a friend who was actually at my birthday party

like three weeks ago who now has the virus.

And so, it's starting to get closer and closer

to our inner circle.

Eventually it's gonna be impossible to hide from this.

My roommate has asthma.

He's a lot more scared than I am.

And he said he hasn't been feeling well, so...

But I'm not gonna let him blame me for him getting sick

because yes, maybe he did get something from me,

but he could have gotten it anywhere.

And even if I did give it to him,

it's just part of living together and we're partnered.

Oh god, seeing all these people with their suitcases.

Where are they going?

There's somebody here again leaving.

I've been seeing this all week.

I've been seeing people leave, where are they going?

Do you know where they're going?

He mentioned to me that he left the city.

He said, We're on an island of like 6,000 people

just off the coast of such and such,

and we just didn't wanna be in New York anymore.

This coronavirus thing looks like it's gettin' real,

so we figured we'd get out while the gettin's good.

And I don't know, as soon as you see

the rich people fleeing,

[laughing] that was the first moment

where I was like, Ah, fuck!

It just astonishes me because in China,

people get tested very often.

And when you find someone that carries the virus,

that person can be quarantined so that the spread,

the spread of the virus from this particular person

can be stopped, otherwise you let these people carry

the virus just going around in the public

and you don't know where they are.

And if you don't know who carry the virus,

naturally, obviously the spread

of the virus will accelerate.

Just the leadership at the federal level

is just so frightening.

Even the best informed among us don't seem

to really know what the hell is going on.

Which is usually the case, but it's just more apparent now.

It will be interesting once this is over,

if anybody brings up a lawsuit against him,

once he's out of power of course,

that he was responsible for these many deaths.

Sort of a class action suit of survivors.

You know, healthcare professionals and everybody,

from the cleaners all the way up to the doctors

are being treated is just to me, horrific.

I was just talking to a friend yesterday.

He's a resident at a hospital in Brooklyn.

And he was telling me that there's someone dying every hour.

They have a refrigerated truck outside their hospital,

because their morgue doesn't have space to store bodies.

I mean, it's taking a real heavy emotional toll on them.

I think it's interesting also, to see who the real

essential workers in our society are, you know?

I feel bad for the people that are out there

delivering all these packages right now.

So, and I also feel a little guilty because I have

mail-ordered some stuff so I don't have to go out.

I don't think that's ever been more apparent

how much we need those people as now, and you know,

chefs cooking our meals so that we can still

get delivery even though we're quarantined in here

is something that we need to recognize

as really, really fuckin' important.

It seems like everybody on every level

is struggling at the moment.

So I don't know what's going to happen when this is over,

in terms of what kind of businesses will there be

and how will people be able

to make a living, and things like that.

You know, there's just so much uncertainty.

It's an odd time for all of us.

We don't know how far into the future we can look right now.

Yesterday I was looking, you know,

I wanted to file for unemployment.

And all of a sudden, I did the whole registering thing

or signing up thing, whatever,

and then all of a sudden I couldn't continue.

It said like, I forgot what it said.

But it was like you can't continue here

'cause maybe they're overloaded or something.

A lot of people do not have

a lot of money in their bank account.

And when they, when they lose their jobs,

when they do not have income,

how can they afford their rent and food?

This situation cannot last long.

Yeah, it's really hard to say, I mean,

I hope it's not as parallel to the early 20th century

with the Great Depression and everything.

But people are saying it may be, which is like oh my god.

Fundamentally we, society, civility, all of it

is just sort of, in real life I think it's not a facade,

but it's flimsy, it's the difference between us

being nice to one another and robbing one another

is just a matter of degrees.

And so, sometimes when an externality

like a virus comes along and shakes up the economy,

and the housing market, and the jobs market,

and everything, there's this chance

that all of that might just sort of shake apart.

And if that happens, then we're back to survival.

Yeah, I was thinking a lot about young people.

They maybe, they might

look in 50 years from now,

they might look back and say,

Can you believe what the previous generations,

what damage they did?

And how was that possible?

Because they lived so irresponsibly.

One thing to remember is

something like this happening is natural.

Humans have faced various epidemics and pandemics,

but we still made it through.

These things are kind of bound to happen, you know?

This is just the way biology works.

Survival's an innate drive,

so I don't think anybody ever really wants to die.

But

this is being like

brought front and center,

that we have to confront our mortality.

And it is scary, yeah.

I wanna travel so much more.

And I wanna start a family, I wanna have kids.

Yeah, so there's still like so much, you know?

[laughing]

I was so looking forward to the spring.

But it's a different spring now.

I don't think it makes sense to most people, really.

I think we're all feeling our way through

trying to make sense out of what's going on.

I think all we can keep doing is

putting one foot in front of the other and keep moving.

[cheering] [applauding]

[dramatic music] [banging]

[wolf calling] [intense music]