Precis

The Big Apple is in bad shape. 

It's the epicentre of the US fight against the corona virus outbreak. Its people are in lockdown while frontline services wage war against the pandemic.

With around 10,000 deaths estimated to have been caused by the virus, New York City accounts for over a third of all corona-related casualties in the US.

Every day, there are hundreds of new infections and deaths. The city's hospitals are overflowing, health workers lack medical and protective equipment and morgues have run out of space.

Foreign Correspondent's reporter Karishma Vyas, a New York resident, goes behind the lines of the city's battle to slow infections, save lives, protect its vulnerable and bury the dead.

We follow paramedics as they respond to emergency house calls, helping desperate families. We discover many who die of COVID -19 don't make the official death toll.

We film with the police union as they hand out desperately needed personal safety equipment to their officers.

"I thought I'd seen it all on September 11th but I've never seen anything like this. We're anticipating this getting even worse. So that's why we're trying to get this equipment out to our guys," says a Union officer.

We speak with an ICU nurse who's travelled from out of state to lend a hand in a Bronx hospital. He tells us about working double shifts, often with no break, and the pressure of looking after multiple critically ill patients at the same time. A good day is when none of his patients die.

One overworked doctor describes his frustration with the US health system. 

"I've had people come in barely breathing and their first question isn't 'Am I going to survive?' It's 'How is this going to impact my family financially?'"

"This illness exposes all the fault-lines throughout American society," says the doctor.

We meet a restaurant owner in Chinatown who's transformed his floundering business into a lunch delivery service for frontline health workers.

And we catch up with characters who embody the city's spirit of defiance and survival.

"I want to be remembered as someone who never left the frontlines and who was essential," says the Naked Cowboy, a performer whose stage is Times Square - rain, hail or coronavirus.

This is an intimate and powerful portrait of a city in crisis.

Drone shots. New York city

Music

00:00

ANDREW CUOMO, Governor of New York: The President said this is a war. I agree with that. This is a war. Then let’s act that way. And let’s act that way now.

00:06

Archival. 9/11 attack World Trade Center

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter:  As New York rose from the ashes of 9/11, first responders became America’s heroes.

00:17

Episode teaser

Now they’re under attack again, this time from a hidden enemy.

00:27

HOSPITAL WORKER "Close the truck! Close the truck."

00:30

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter:  New York is a key battleground in the global war on COVID-19.

00:34

MEGAN PFEIFFER, Paramedic: There’s been a lot of deceased people. A lot of people just waiting to die.

00:38

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter: Over two weeks, we’ll take you to the frontlines.

00:44

ARLENE MEERTENS, Health Worker:  It’s going be a bleed-out, a massive bleed-out.

00:47

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter:  Emergency workers fighting for survival as the pandemic peaks.

00:50

Paramedic: "Cover the mouth. Cover the mouth."

00:55

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter:  It’s a crisis that is laying bare the fault-lines at the heart of America and its iconic city.

00:57

Arlene: "Enough is enough. Give us what we need to fight this coronavirus pandemic!"

01:05

Title: Behind Enemy Lines

Music

01:13

Ambulances. Super:
Queens, New York

01:18

Vyas on street near ambulance

Radio News: "Updating you on the current numbers this morning,

01:25

Super:  Karishma Vyas

the worldwide death toll of COVID-19 has now surpassed more 100,000…"

01:27

Paramedics into apartment to elderly woman

Music

01:33

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter: Paramedics respond to a 911 call in Queens. An elderly woman is struggling to breathe – a symptom consistent with COVID-19.

01:40

It’s Good Friday, marking the death of Christ 2000 years ago. But today, America is marking its own grim milestone.

01:55

Paramedic: "We're going to have to take her to the closest hospital, OK?"

02:05

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter: The country now leads the world in COVID-19 deaths.  Around one-third of those are in New York – the city I call home.

02:09

Paramedic: "Sit down, sit down, so you don't fall."

02:32

Paramedics with woman on stretcher

Paramedic 2: "I've got to confirm that there's only one patient in the building."

02:36

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter:  Daily ambulance callouts have more than doubled since the start of March.

02:42

Woman into ambulance

Paramedics like Megan Pfeiffer are pulling double shifts, trying to give each patient the care they deserve. But they’re also afraid for themselves.

MEGAN PFEIFFER, Paramedic: We take as many precautions as we can,

02:47

Megan interview on street

but you know there’s been several studies with viral load and the more you’re exposed to it, potentially the worse it can be, and we don’t know a lot about it yet. It’s difficult.

03:04

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter: Megan and her partner have let us accompany them on their shift today. 

03:14

Karishma in car with John Rugen following ambulance

We’re not allowed to ride in the actual ambulance for safety reasons, but we’re following behind as they do their shift, and John, who’s also a paramedic, is taking us.

03:21

John Rugen has been a paramedic for over 20 years, but nothing he’s seen compares to this.

JOHN RUGEN, Paramedic: Anybody that we’re treating,

03:33

John interview in car

whether you have a fractured ankle, to the person who’s actually complaining of fever and cough, we’re treating them as, you know, you’re a possible COVID patient or a carrier of the virus, because we have to protect ourselves.

03:42

Paramedics attend elderly couple

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter: On the west side of Queens, Megan and her partner attend an elderly couple with COVID symptoms.  They’ve been sick for a week, but their condition has suddenly nose-dived. Their daughter, who’s also ill, suspects she was the one who infected them.

03:57

Interview with daughter beside ambulance

DAUGHTER: I’ve been outside all the time when I was still working. You know, and I go to supermarket, you know, for their food, grocery shopping. So, I guess it’s me. I brought it home.

04:17

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter: That must be really difficult, to think that it was possibly you that…

DAUGHTER: It is difficult, because sometimes when I think about it, I kind of blame myself.

04:30

Ambulance departs. Rugen and Karishma follow in car

[Siren]

04:43

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter: Are you guys scared?

JOHN RUGEN, Paramedic: We’re very scared. We’re scared for ourselves, you know, because even though we’re healthcare professionals, we have members that have underlying medical conditions themselves, whether it’s high blood pressure, heart problems, asthma.

04:56

They’re putting their lives in jeopardy. They’re also putting their families in jeopardy. You know, I haven’t really spent time around my parents, because they have medical conditions, but you know, I check on them daily through the phone, make sure they’re ok, make sure they’re staying inside. I have a son. He’s 8 years old. I haven’t seen him since this started.

05:12

Megan and paramedics attending call

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter: John’s not alone. Over the last few weeks, many paramedics have chosen to shelter their families from the dangers and the horrors of their work.

05:37

MEGAN PFEIFFER, Paramedic: We were dealing with a lot -- last week at least -- a lot of cardiac arrests and people who were already deceased in their homes. Prior to that there were a lot of really critical patients, with oxygen levels really, really low; numbers we’ve never seen before. There was one crew who pronounced a patient and then shortly after that they had another patient who had hanged themselves, so we’re kind of expecting with everything going on, unfortunately, more self-inflicted injuries as well in addition to everything else, which is really tough to deal with. My co-workers have become like my family, they’re really the only ones that I can be around and it’s not a concern, because at this point we’re all exposed.

05:50

Drone shots. NY City

Music

06:34

ANDREW CUOMO, Governor of New York:  As Governor of New York, I am asking healthcare professionals across the country – if you don’t have a healthcare crisis in your community, please come help us in New York now.

06:38

Drone shots over empty NY street

Music

06:54

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter:  The scale of the crisis in New York and the rate at which infections have soared is staggering. We heard about the first case on March 1.  Just three weeks later, the city accounted for five percent of global infections.  On March 22nd, a city-wide shutdown came into effect.  But as the streets and stations emptied, the hospitals and the morgues continued to fill.

06:57

Karishma into empty subway

Some have described New York City under COVID as a warzone.  I've covered wars in my career. They’re not like this. In war, the destruction is out in the open. Here, it’s behind closed doors. This emptiness is menacing, because you know what it’s hiding.

07:33

Music

08:05

Times Square subway station/ Karishma walks to Times Square

08:09

DR DREW: People are being pushed into bankruptcy, travel is down, the supply chain is being interrupted because of panic, not because of the virus. 

08:13

Cowboy playing guitar and singing

COWBOY [singing]: "Got to live my own life. No room for compromise. People say I’m crazy but I don’t believe the hype…"

08:27

Karishma to camera

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter:  Only in New York will you see a man strumming a Trump guitar in his underpants in the middle of a pandemic.

COWBOY [singing]: "If you really wanna live,

08:36

Cowboy singing

feel the way I feel, you gotta whip out your balls of steel…"

CYCLIST: I’ve seen him out here for 20 years,

08:44

Cyclist

the guy’s been out here.

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter:  And what do you think of him?

CYCLIST: He’s an iconic fixture in Times Square area. He’s out here rain or shine. Cold or sunny. Look at him!

08:53

Cowboy singing

COWBOY [singing]: "If you really wanna live, feel the way I feel, you gotta whip out" --  I’m showing off. I’m sorry.

09:06

MAN ON STREET: "Naked cowboy!"

09:15

COWBOY: You know, the few people that are still remaining, New Yorkers – a lot of them I already know,

09:17

Cowboy interview

so they’re like “I can’t believe you’re here!” Which is great. It’s very enriching and also for them and for me.

09:23

Man with bike talking to Cowboy

MAN WITH BIKE: "Being out here it’s so great to see you man!"

COWBOY: "Thank you, buddy."

COWBOY: And then there are all the essential workers, the police officers, the firemen, you know what I’m saying, everybody driving by, the city’s coming back we’re gonna rock’n’roll, kill it,

09:28

Cowboy with Karishma

not a big deal. And I wanna be seen as somebody who never left the frontlines and was considered essential.

09:42

MAN: "Even though it’s deserted, we still here, right Cowboy?"

09:50

Cowboy performs on street/Woman takes photo

COWBOY [singing]: Trump’s gonna build a wall, that wall’s gonna protect us all, sounds like a good idea to me. He got the economy moving again with lower taxes for you my friend, sounds like a good idea to me."

09:54

Cowboy and man elbow 'bump'

COWBOY: I’m not making any money and I don’t care. I wanna make history.

10:10

Cowboy and man sing

SINGALONG: "Trump’s gonna build a wall, that wall's going to protect us all, sound like a good idea to me…"

10:16

COWBOY: I don’t care if you’re in a hospital bed with a ventilator, say ‘Coronavirus is my bitch! I’m gonna use this to make me better.’ I mean, that’s just what everyone has to do.

10:24

Nurses pose with Cowboy

COWBOY: Some people know how to give an elbow.

MELINDA, Health worker: I won’t swallow.

COWBOY: What?!

MELINDA, Health worker: We’re essential medical staff, we’re from

10:37

Melinda interview on street

Washington, Indianapolis, Kentucky, San Diego, Houston. We’re here to staff the COVID hospitals. Here with about 300 other nurse practitioners.

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter:  You’re here to reinforce the state’s medical staff?

MELINDA, Health worker: Yes.

10:48

Sarah interview on street

SARAH, Health worker: We’re all from other states, and New York has really been hit the worst, and all we know is what we’ve seen on TV. And you never know if it’s being overplayed or underplayed, and you see what, you know, your governor says, what President Trump says, you just see all kinds of stuff and so…

MELINDA, Health worker: It’s not real.

SARAH, Health worker: You really just don’t know what we’re walking into and so we’re kind of just going in blind.

11:03

Central Park

Music

11:22

Karishma meets up with health workers in park

11:32

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter: I meet up later with the visiting health workers in Central Park. 

11:39

Some of them, like Zach Kannapel – an ICU nurse from Kentucky – have come from states where the COVID burden is low and hospital staff have been sent home.

11:46

Zach interview

ZACH KANNAPEL, ICU Nurse: I kept seeing the numbers going up, they were struggling here and needed help. Got the details, called. And in the meantime, I was trying to figure out things with work and they basically told me I had to resign to come here, if I wanted to come. And I said bye.

11:57

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter: So you don’t have a job to go back to right now?

ZACH KANNAPEL, ICU Nurse: No.

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter: Wow, why did you do it Zach?

ZACH KANNAPEL, ICU Nurse: Just because…

SARAH, Health worker: You’re a nurse.

ZACH KANNAPEL, ICU Nurse: Yeah, I’m a nurse. Like I would rather be here helping make a difference than sit at home.

12:15

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter:  The nurses are waiting to start their assignments.  None of them has worked during an outbreak before.

12:27

Arlene interview

ARLENE MEERTENS, Health Worker: Nursing is a lot as it is before any pandemic came into play, so now we have this situation going on and you already know ‘OK, I have this person’s life on my hands’, but now it’s like ten times more critical. You don’t want to make a mistake and unfortunately under these types of circumstances mistakes are bound to happen.

12:35

Kelly interview

KELLY, Nurse: I’m expecting it to be pretty crazy. I’m expecting it to kind of look like a trauma zone. So…

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter: You’re bracing yourself?

KELLY, Nurse: Bracing myself, yes.

12:52

Zach interview

ZACH KANNAPEL, ICU Nurse:  Hopefully, we can just take it a day at a time and go in there with the best attitude, and hit the ground running.

13:04

Karishma on street with Zach

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter: Back near their hotel in Times Square, I arrange to call Zach in a few days, after he’s started his assignment. 

13:12

Thank you to healthcare workers sign

Getting healthcare workers to talk for this story has been tough. The city’s hospitals have gone into media lockdown – blocking access and gagging staff. 

13:21

Hospital exteriors

Reports and leaked videos describe chaos; critical shortages of Personal Protective Equipment or PPE, testing sites overwhelmed,

13:34

Refrigerated morgue trucks

and bodies piled up in refrigerated trucks -- something we’ve been able to film ourselves, despite the best efforts of hospitals to prevent it.

13:48

HOSPITAL WORKER:  I’m here working 12 hours a day and you’re recording us moving bodies. That's not cool. Close the truck! Close the truck.

14:00

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter: It all adds up to a system that isn’t coping.  And it’s not only health workers who are vulnerable.

14:10

Mullins with police officers loading masks

ED MULLINS, President, New York Sergeant's Benevolent Association:  "We’re going try to get more, this stuff is not easy to get though. I had ordered 200,000 masks, held up at Kennedy airport. Apparently, customs is taking everything and sending it to the hospitals, which I get. But we also get you to the hospital, so, you know."

14:23

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter:  President of New York’s Sergeant’s Benevolent Association, Ed Mullins, has been a vocal critic of the lack of PPE made available for police. 

14:39

Almost 20 percent of the NYPD is off sick. More than two and a half thousand have tested positive for COVID-19. Mullins and the union he heads have taken matters into their own hands, raising funds for a massive handout of PPE, hand sanitiser and bleach to NYPD precincts.

14:52

ED MULLINS, President, New York Sergeant's Benevolent Association:   We’ve seen this city go from the early '80s, where we had 3000 murders, crime all over the place.

15:18

Mullins interview on street

Then the World Trade Center, which is a block from here, attacked twice – I actually worked both attacks. And you know, you think you’ve seen it all and then this is what we’re dealing with now. Our members are sick, hospitalised, you know, we lost a detective a couple of days ago. So we’re trying to do what we can to keep people safe.

15:25

Mullins with police officers

"Make sure you keep the mask on and the gloves and all that stuff. Don’t think it can’t happen to you. You know the guys don’t think we're going get it, so you get it. You know? Nobody thinks it’s going to be you. You know. How's it going?...District 3, transit. District 3! How many people you got sick?

15:47

Mullins with transit policeman

Transit Policeman: "Ah, we have about 40."

Mullins: "Forty?"

Transit Policeman: "Yes, sir."

Mullins: "Wow! That’s not good. That’s not good at all."

16:10

Mullins and transit policeman load car

ED MULLINS, President, New York Sergeant's Benevolent Association:  I’ve never seen anything like this. I thought I’d seen it all. You go uptown, 10 blocks from here it could take you 20 minutes. Right now you could be there in about a minute and a half, there’s no traffic, there’s nobody on the streets.

16:19

This is almost like a zombie apocalypse. You know, I would equate this to a science fiction movie.

16:32

Policewoman loading van

16:40

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter:  Can you tell us, what are the challenges you're facing on the job right now.

16:43

Policewoman interview on street

POLICEWOMAN: You’re just trying to stay healthy. You don’t want to get sick, and you don’t know who has the coronavirus. And then you’re afraid you’re going to bring it home, so we're just trying to play it safe, cleaning everything, my hands are, I can’t even tell you. It’s not easy. Mentally it’s draining.

16:47

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter: Are you worried about the next couple of weeks?

POLICEWOMAN:  If you’re not, you’re crazy.

17:09

NY GVs

Music

17:15

Karishma sits on stairs on laptop video calling Zach

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter:  I hear from ICU nurse Zach that he’s been working in a hospital in the Bronx.  We’ve been messaging each other over the last few nights. Now, he’s ready to talk.

" Oh, there you are. Hi Zach, how are you doing?"

17:56

ZACH KANNAPEL, ICU Nurse: Right now I'm okay. I'm exhausted. My feet hurt. And it's only day three. I had four patients. The floor I was on before that today had six. And all my patients were on like three different drips, you know, sedation, and then pressure support medicine to keep their blood pressure up, as well as on the ventilator. And it was just me, myself and I with those four patients.

18:13

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter: How does this compare to what you’re used to?

ZACH KANNAPEL, ICU Nurse: This is different, because they progress so fast.

18:43

They'll come in short of breath and then we'll put them on oxygen and then that won't help them.  And the next thing you know, they're intubated. It happens within an hour or less. It's progressed that quick. A lot of them will come in saying they've had a cough for five or 10 days, or symptoms for that long. Then I guess their immune system just gets overtaken and can't fight it off anymore and it finally catches up to them and they can't breathe, so then they end up coming in to us.

18:52

Like, normally I would have two patients in the ICU, and usually I would have one that's not as sick and on all those medicines, and then I'd have one that was. But now I have four that are that sick at the same time. So I don't sit down, don't do lunch because I'm so focused on trying to keep them afloat.

19:30

There were about six patients that passed on that one floor I was on today.

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter:  Just today? Six patients died just today?

ZACH KANNAPEL, ICU Nurse: Yeah. On that one floor. And it's all ages.

19:54

The young are in there too. There's people my age that's died at this hospital.

20:09

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter:   What is the mental state of the staff you're working who’ve been doing this for weeks now?

20:19

ZACH KANNAPEL, ICU Nurse: They feel like it's a warzone. Like they're in a living hell. Like your worst nightmare as a nurse. They're tired, but they keep fighting, because that's what they're there for.

20:24

GV. NY building over freeway

Music

20:49

Radio Announcer: "New York needs more beds, more ventilators, more PPE, more health professionals, and that includes more ambulances and crews…"

21:00

Karishma driving

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter:  Zach’s experience appears to confirm what hospitals have tried to hide. Healthcare workers are chronically over-worked and under-resourced.  In the time we’ve been filming this story, the voices of dissent have grown bolder.

21:10

Arlene with health care workers protesting outside medical centre

Arlene: "Enough is enough! Give us what we need to continue to fight this coronavirus pandemic. If you do not give it to us, more of our co-workers will die. And we are coming here, even if we’re tired, even if we are afraid, we are coming because we know that lives matter. It has to stop. You’re welcome.

21:29

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter: Outside a medical centre in Brooklyn, staff have come together in protest. Patient care technician and mother of seven Arlene Meertens says she’s terrified.

21:59

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter:  Do you know colleagues, friends who have been infected, who are sick?

22:11

ARLEEN MEERTENS, Health worker: I have three co-workers that have died, that I know of!

22:16

MALE HEALTH WORKER: It could be contact, it could be droplets. Could be airborne. They don’t know.

22:21

FEMALE HEALTH WORKER:  Before this COVID even started we already had problem with staffing. One RN has to sometimes take care of 60 patients.

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter: Six?

FEMALE HEALTH WORKER:  60. Six-zero. Last time I was one nurse for 57 patients.

22:26

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter: Are you buying your own protective gear to help you treat this?

FEMALE HEALTH WORKER: You have to buy it as extra, because if you’re going get like one or two for the day, you have to see 60 room, you have to see 60 patient, you know it’s only fair that you cover yourself and cover them.

22:42

Dr Mike Pappas at protest

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter:  Resident doctor Mike Pappas and other protestors here are risking their jobs by speaking out.

22:57

Pappas interview

MIKE PAPPAS, Hospital resident doctor: The hospitals are actually threatening employees, and the way that hospitals actually couch that, too, is they’ll say, ‘Your job could be on the line and you don’t want to risk your job, because you care about patients don’t you? So if you came out here and we had to fire you because you were violating our policies, then you’d be putting patients at risk.’

23:06

Healthcare workers holding placards

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter: Mike is protesting more than work conditions. He sees America’s user-pay health system as the true sickness, leaving the uninsured and the poor most vulnerable.

23:29

MIKE PAPPAS, Hospital resident doctor: I see coronavirus as something that is magnifying all of the systemic issues that have always put people at risk. It’s magnifying the racism, the systemic

23:43

Pappas interview

racism that is central to our society. That’s why predominantly black and brown people are being diagnosed with and dying from coronavirus in the US. It’s magnifying how the economic system puts profit over all else. We see that in companies trying to raise the prices of ventilators during a pandemic.

23:56

Ambulance attends cardiac arrest

[Siren]/Music

24:15

Karishma travels with John Rugen

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter:  I’m back with the ambulance service in Queens, on a callout to a woman who has stopped breathing. 

24:36

Paramedics in apartment administer CPR

Inside, first responders start CPR.

Paramedic: "4-9-Victor, cardiac arrest, first call, in the house."

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter:  We’ve heard reports of a spike in cardiac arrests in people’s homes.

Paramedic: "Who's next?"

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter:  Paramedics believe most are COVID-related.

Paramedic: "Just give me one second…

24:47

Just cover the mouth. Cover her mouth with the…yeah."

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter:  We’ve also been hearing that due to the sheer number of 911 calls, when the outlook isn’t good…

24:04

Paramedic: "How’s the cap?"

Paramedic 2:  "Ah, 29."

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter:  …Paramedics have been cutting short the length of time that they administer CPR.

Paramedic: "Telemetry, 4-9-Victor, second call, cardiac arrest."

25:14

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter:  In this case, emergency responders refuse to give up, but after more than 40 minutes, there’s still no response. 

25:26

The woman is pronounced dead on scene.

25:37

Paramedic: "All right, doc. Thank you."

MEGAN PFEIFFER, Paramedic: We’ve had more cardiac arrests, I don’t even know the exact numbers, but I think

25:42

Paramedics return to ambulance

more in the last week than last year combined. There were some ambulances who did about five cardiac arrests in one shift.

25:49

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter: The true death toll of COVID-19 may never be known.  At the FDNY ambulance depot in Queens, I catch up with Paramedic Megan Pfeiffer. It’s been a gruelling week.

25:58

Megan interview at ambulance depot

MEGAN PFEIFFER, Paramedic: It’s been kind of hard to deal with, because usually we get some good calls in between where we’re able to help people a little more, and we see that we're helping them and improve them. But it’s just been, like I said, one person after the next after the next after the next. A lot of people dying that we’re seeing, and it’s really hard to deal with.

26:13

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter:  How are you dealing with this mentally? Have you noticed changes in yourself?

26:30

MEGAN PFEIFFER, Paramedic: Absolutely. There’s a lot of ups and downs. There’s some days I go home and I’m just so depressed and upset, I’m hysterical crying. I’ve had anxiety attacks. We try to talk to each other and really lean on each other.

26:34

The FDNY being a family has really been more so than ever, because that's kind of the only support we have. It's a lot easier to talk to a co-worker. They are offering counselling. I haven’t really gotten around to it quite yet, because we’re still in the thick of it. So I think it hasn’t fully hit. I’m sure once things settle down it’s going to hit a lot harder and I probably will need to talk to somebody.

26:47

Drone shots. NY city. Night

Music

27:10

Radio announcer: "Michigan is also struggling. Thousands of healthcare workers there are sick either with the coronavirus or symptoms of it. Hospital workers across the country, setting up for war. And saving coronavirus patients while putting their own lives on the line."

27:22

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter:  Hi Zach. How was today? How you holding up?

27:44

Zach video call

ZACH KANNAPEL, ICU Nurse: Today was a rough day. I will say that.

27:47

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter:  What was especially rough about today?

27:52

ZACH KANNAPEL, ICU Nurse:  Just how sick they were, how busy it was, how many patients expired. And then the bodies are just sitting in the room waiting to be picked up. Because there's so many in the hospital to be picked up.

27:55

And overhead they kept paging, hey, if you have stretchers please put them by the service elevators, because that's what they're transporting the bodies with. I guess they were running short of stretchers.

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter:  Because there was so many bodies?

ZACH KANNAPEL, ICU Nurse: Yeah.

28:12

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter: That's hard. Are you getting to know any of the patients, learn about their life?

ZACH KANNAPEL, ICU Nurse: They're too sick. And they're are on the ventilators, so they're all sedated.

28:29

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter: So you don't get to talk to them, or find out about their life?

ZACH KANNAPEL, ICU Nurse:  No. Nothing.

28:44

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter: You’re just too busy keeping them alive?

28:53

ZACH KANNAPEL, ICU Nurse: Right. And then the saddest part of it all is there's no family there with them. And so there's no one there whenever they do die.

28:57

KARISHMA VYAS, Reporter: Did anything good happen today? Anything that you can hold onto or get hope from?

29:09

ZACH KANNAPEL, ICU Nurse: None of my patients passed.

29:27

Drone shot. Empty NY street.

Music/ Sirens

29:33

Credits [see below]

29:55

Outpoint

30:33