anything from the federal government, because we weren’t getting anything from FEMA or HHS, the agencies that should have been helping. What’s right is right. He was attentive and he delivered. Jared was the person who eventually produced the PPE, ventilators, and military personnel for New Yorkers, and I am grateful on their behalf.

MARCH 25 | 5,145 NEW CASES | 4,079 HOSPITALIZED | 75 DEATHS

  “It is that closeness, that concept of family, of community. That’s what makes New York ‘New York.’ And that’s what makes us vulnerable here.”

THE PRESIDENT SEEMED TO BE even more firmly planted in denial. His problem was obvious: The number of cases kept rising, as well as the number of deaths. I believe he didn’t know what to do, but he really didn’t want to do anything anyway.

His credibility was also falling at a faster and faster rate. On March 24, the president had proclaimed that he wanted to have the country opened up and the economy “raring to go by Easter,” which was less than three weeks away. He also said, “We are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.” I was still amazed at his disconnection. How could he say these things, and how could his staff let him say them? I was watching the numbers and knew the facts better than anyone and was stunned by his statements. I asked myself, “Does he know something that I don’t know? Does he have inside scientific knowledge? Or can he really be that dangerous?” As time went on it became clear that indeed he did not know anything that I didn’t know.

It had been more than three weeks since our first case, and all the news was increasingly disturbing. There is only so much bad news you can take without a semblance of hope. For me the courage and generosity of people brought the light. Their positive energy sustained me. At one of the daily briefings, I had asked retired health-care workers in New York State to volunteer to assist, and I said that we would reinstate their licenses as nurses and doctors if they came back to help. I also asked health-care workers across the country who were not busy to come and help in New York. At the time, I had no realistic expectation that a significant number of people would be volunteering from across the country to come to New York in the midst of this crisis. But I was just plain wrong. Amazingly, within just weeks, nearly one hundred thousand people signed up to help. How incredible! One hundred thousand health-care professionals willing to step into dangerous, overcrowded, ill-equipped emergency rooms driven only by love.

I was so touched and humbled I spoke about it in the briefing. Their actions put my contribution into perspective. I was in a comfortable office with all the equipment I needed. I didn’t have to look in the eyes of a dying patient. These people, including more than thirty thousand from other states, had no obligation to show up, but they did. Imagine the size of the heart and the capacity for generosity it takes for a person from another state to willingly step into the fire of the COVID crisis in the global hot spot. It was truly humbling.

I should have learned to never underestimate the courage and love of Americans. After 9/11, people also came from across the country to help New Yorkers. They just got in the car and came to help in any way they could. And within the state, when downstate coastal areas were hit by Superstorm Sandy, people drove from upstate just to be there to help, console, and support. These are powerful reminders of the essential goodness that is in most people. Why can’t we appeal to the good in people more often? Why does government so often bring out the bad?

I had begun speaking to governors all across the country, regardless of political party, because many of us were facing the same challenges and were trying to work together. Of course, our closest relationship was with New Jersey and Connecticut, but we talked to everyone. Oregon sent us ventilators. Governor Mike DeWine from Ohio told us they had a company making washing machines that were proven to disinfect masks.

All states had a PPE shortage, testing shortages, equipment shortages, and we were all trying to find someone we knew in China. Many states do not have the government capacity of New York State, and even we were struggling. It was clear that a number of states would have serious issues. It was infuriatingly obvious that making fifty states compete against one another for scarce resources was a cruel form of the Hunger Games. Why would one nation deliberately cause its member states to compete with one another for the equipment necessary to save lives? Why force us to compete when our instinct is to cooperate with one another? We knew what was ahead, and it was clear there was a better way to address it.

The scientists were all predicting the same basic national phenomenon. The virus would move across the country much like a storm hitting certain areas hardest at certain times. The virus would peak in a rolling wave. The most problematic time was at the high point of the infection rate. A state government could manage a low infection rate, but when its hospital system was overwhelmed, it could no longer manage. That was the point when procuring equipment, ventilators, staff, and hospital beds was beyond the capacity of any state government.

That day I recommended that the federal government organize the states to participate in a “Rolling National Deployment Plan.” It would have been so easy and would have made a tremendous difference. The experts had predicted that there would be a period of time between peaks in different states. In other words, New York would peak and a few weeks later Illinois and a few weeks

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