Apologies for deluging you all with posts; I’ll try to keep these to a maximum of two a day. But the situation here in the New York/New Jersey metro area is getting increasingly critical. As I said in my very first post in this series, our situation is closer to Italy’s right now than most people realize. That outcome isn’t inevitable, but it can only be averted if we act. There’s no need to be sitting at home “bored” with the lockdown. There’s more than enough to be done even within its constraints. (If Gazans can do it, so can you.) I can’t publicize every plea for assistance I see, no matter how legitimate; I can only ask concerned readers to be on the lookout for them, and please consider responding to some.

Here’s a GoFundMe for a COVID-19 victim named Zoey Komninos. I’m not sure of her age, but she’s in the pediatric ICU at Hackensack Meridian Hospital in Hackensack, NJ. Thanks to Maria Venardis for bringing this fundraiser to my attention.

The situation in north Jersey and New York City hospitals is worsening–not yet desperate, but getting there. This is a heartwrenching story about the situation of Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck, New Jersey; it mentions Valley in Ridgewood as well. Here’s a story from the same source about how you can help. The story concerns north Jersey hospitals, but obviously, New York hospitals will need help, too. I live in Jersey, and have personal connections to a lot of Jersey hospitals, so I’ve decided to send my donations there. But it doesn’t matter exactly where your donations go, as long as they get out there to the institutions that need them. Here’s a link to the donation page for Holy Name Hospital, the one mentioned in the news story.

I mentioned blood donations a few posts back. My Felician colleague Amy Dombach went out and donated blood yesterday. She gives this link for (I assume) New York donors. Another Felician colleague, Mike Sanford, found this blood drive in Ridgewood, taking place Thursday.

To repeat something I’ve said in another post:

From my friend Eileen Condon, with Domestic Workers United:

Mutual Aid NYC is growing exponentially behind the scenes and launch of its full menu of broad-coalition-based services by groups large and small, old and new, is coming very soon. It’s huge. Be encouraged.

More info on Domestic Workers United, in this article from The New York Times. Info on mutual aid in New York City. We owe these people an immeasurable debt.

I get the sense that more mutual aid activity is happening in New York City than in Jersey, but in any case check this out, as well as this, this, and this. This too.

From where I sit, I’ve been hearing the constant noise of ambulance sirens all morning. No way for me to know whether that’s related to the pandemic or not, but either way, it ought to remind us that in New Jersey anyway (I don’t know about New York), many EMTs operate on a volunteer basis, on a shoe-string budget. So consider donating to them, as well. Financial issues aside, these are unpaid volunteers putting their lives on the line for us.

Whatever you do, don’t use the “lockdown” as an excuse for inaction. We’re not as “locked down” as it may seem. In the clutch case, we simply have to risk prosecution for violating the lockdown to do what needs to be done. This is what an intifada looks like. Join it.