Bodies of Hundreds of New York COVID Victims Still in Trucks on Brooklyn Pier and non-vaccine side effects--hundreds of thousands of Indian Deaths and An outstanding 20-minute clip of ISRAEL PHILHARMONIC WITH JEWISH GERMAN MUSICIANS FROM 1930 TO MODERN TIMES and What's My Line? - Lee Meriwether; Alfred Hitchcock (Sep 12, 1954) and Killing Comedy with censorship
Yehuda Lave is an author, journalist, psychologist, rabbi, spiritual teacher, and coach, with degrees in business, psychology and Jewish Law. He works with people from all walks of life and helps them in their search for greater happiness, meaning, business advice on saving money, and spiritual engagement.
Seth Dillon is the CEO of The Babylon Bee, where they write satire for a living. You'd think that would be easy in today's absurd world, but in reality, it's just the opposite. Seth explains why this endangers the very concept of free speech and the open exchange of ideas.
Outstanding 20 minute clip of ISRAEL PHILHARMONIC WITH JEWISH GERMAN MUSICIANS FROM 1930 TO MODERN TIMES.
Every lover of Israel needs to see this ... and pass it on.
What's My Line? - Lee Meriwether; Alfred Hitchcock (Sep 12, 1954)
MYSTERY GUESTS: Lee Meriwether; Alfred Hitchcock PANEL: Dorothy Kilgallen, Robert Q. Lewis, Arlene Francis, Bennett Cerf
Bodies of Hundreds of New York COVID Victims Still in Trucks on Brooklyn Pier
A fleet of refrigerated trucks along the Brooklyn waterfront in Sunset Park stores the bodies of people who died of COVID-19. | Hiram Alejandro Durán/THE CITY
This story was produced as part of "MISSING THEM," THE CITY's ongoing collaborative project to remember every New Yorker killed by COVID-19. If you know someone who died or may have died due to the coronavirus, share their story here, leave us a voicemail at 646-494-1095 or text "remember" to 73224.
The city still has the bodies of about 750 New Yorkers who died during the pandemic in refrigerated trucks at Brooklyn's 39th Street Pier, with no timetable for when their remains will be moved to Hart Island or elsewhere, officials disclosed this week.
The city will try to reduce the number of bodies being held on the Sunset Park pier "in the near future" and let families know about the transfers, Dina Maniotis, a deputy commissioner with the Office of Chief Medical Examiner, told a City Council committee Wednesday.
Hundreds of bodies have been stored in trucks since April 2020, fluctuating between 500 and nearly 800, according to various medical examiner estimates compiled over the past 13 months by Columbia's Stabile Center for Investigative Reporting and THE CITY as part of the MISSING THEM project.
Harts Island is home to the city's potters field.
Most of the families of those in cold storage have told the city they would prefer to have their loved ones moved to Hart Island, the city's potter's field — or they have stopped "engaging" with officials entirely, Maniotis said, making it likely the bodies will end up on Hart Island.
"We will continue to work with families," Maniotis told the Council's health committee. "As soon as the family tells us they would like their loved one transferred to Hart Island, we do that very quickly."
In a follow-up statement to THE CITY on Thursday, the medical examiner's office said it would have "further discussion with the families on their final decision and the timeline."
'Why are We Delaying?'
Hart Island is the final resting place of more than one million New Yorkers, many of whom lacked the funds for a private burial. The island's history as a public burial ground dates to the Civil War.
The medical examiner's office said 2,666 burials were conducted on Hart Island in 2020 and 504 so far in 2021 — far above the typical annual total of 1,100 to 1,200 in recent years. Those numbers echo the burial figures analyzed by Columbia and THE CITY, which were referenced by Council members during the hearing and show that 1 in 10 New Yorkers who died of COVID-19 in 2020 were interred on the island.
Several Council members criticized the slow burial process for those in storage, while others questioned whether state and FEMA funeral assistance programs would meet the growing demand from families.
"Why do we have these temporary storage facilities?" asked City Councilmember Mark Gjonaj, a Democrat whose largely Bronx district includes Hart Island. "If there is capacity and those families have already expressed the willingness to have their loved ones buried in a public burial at Hart Island, why are we delaying that any longer than we have to?"
The city's Human Resources Administration is evaluating bids to operate Hart Island through the Department of Parks and Recreation, after years of stewardship by the Department of Correction.
HRA said it couldn't disclose any additional details about the bids, which closed March 5. Trips to Hart Island, which will be open to the public, are set to resume May 15. There are plans for about 20 trips a month, each capped at 10 people, according to the city.
THE CITY is an independent, nonprofit news outlet dedicated to hard-hitting reporting that serves the people of New York.
Since Covid has become almost a nonissue in Israel, people have forgotten what a miracle has happened to us because of the vaccine, and pay attention to the few stories that come out about the small number of people that have had negative reactions to the vaccine. It is important to remember the reactions to the non-vaccine, the hundreds of thousands of deaths still going on in India and say our prayers every day
Good morning. We're covering estimates that show the true devastating scale of India's Covid crisis
Just how big is India's Covid death toll?
Last week, India recorded the largest daily coronavirus death toll for any country during the pandemic — a figure that most likely is still an undercount. The Times consulted more than a dozen experts to arrive at several possible estimates for the true scale of devastation from Covid-19 in the country.
The caseload: As of Tuesday, India had reported nearly 27 million Covid cases and 307,231 deaths.
What the data shows: Our best-case scenario assumes a true infection count 15 times the official number of recorded cases, and a death toll roughly double the official count, at 600,000 deaths. Our worst-case scenario, taking into account the shortage in oxygen and hospital beds, puts the estimated infections at 700 million, and deaths at 4.2 million.
The view from inside:Fear, grief and boredom pervade the lives of those caught in India's outbreak. We asked our readers in India to describe their lives: "We're all terrified and burnt out," one wrote.
