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. Continue reading
Author Archives: Irfan Khawaja
Coronavirus Diary (14): “The Eyes of a Masked Stranger”
A message from my sister-in-law Jessica Franklin, MD, after her first full day treating COVID-19 patients at Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, a region (meaning New York City and its immediate suburbs) that’s been described as “the epicenter of the global pandemic.” Her message begins in the block quote below the fold.
As a one-time hospital “environmental services worker” (aka “janitor”), I particularly appreciate Jess’s inclusion of that profession in what she says below. If physicians and nurses will have to go without personal protective equipment, what do you think will happen to janitors? I can tell you what happened to us when I was working as a hospital janitor at Overlook Hospital in my 20s. We were told to clean up hazardous waste without any personal protective equipment at all. Because if we didn’t do it, who would? At that wage, what choice would anyone have? Say “no”? Continue reading
Neologisms of the Day
Apply these as you see fit:
Bureauontology: the tendency to treat bureaucratic edicts as deontological norms.
Deontocracy: a form of governance under which the preponderance of the laws make no contribution to the common good.
Coronavirus Diary (13): Four Suggestions
Life is not a TV dinner.
–Motorhead
I’m generally in favor of the so-called “lockdown” policies that have been adopted in New York and New Jersey, but I also think that the policies have been slightly misconceptualized in the abstract, and are now starting to go somewhat off the rails in practice. Here are a couple of simple suggestions. Continue reading
Coronavirus Diary (12): Lockdown and the Calm Before the Storm
I drove through the “epicenter of the global pandemic today.” What was it like? Nothing in particular.
Colleagues in the Department of Art at my university answered my earlier plea for medical supplies by offering up their hidden stash of nitrile gloves. So I drove from my home in Readington, New Jersey to the university in Lodi (Bergen County), and called security to let me in. The security guard, who’s seen me hundreds of times before over more than a decade, professed for the nth time not to know who I was. After some pro forma wrangling, interrogation, and perusing of my ID from-a-distance, he let me in. Continue reading
Coronavirus Diary (11): Avuncularity in the Time of Coronavirus
I just had an hour-long conversation with my brother Suleman, a doctor on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19 at Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, New Jersey. Ridgewood is located in Bergen County, the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Jersey. Bergen County is also where my university happens to be located. Continue reading
Coronavirus Diary (10): COVID-19 Narrative Project
I’m starting up a project here at Policy of Truth that I call “The COVID-19 Narrative Project.” I suppose it involves a bit of wishful thinking: it’s a long-term project for when COVID-19 is brought fully under control. But I’d like to start now. Relevant information in the link just above. Please pass along to interested people in your networks (with the proviso that it’s a relatively low-priority issue at the moment).
Coronavirus Diary (9): Urgent Request for Medical Supplies
Via my sister-in-law, Jessica Franklin, MD:
URGENT PSA FROM VALLEY HOSPITAL, RIDGEWOOD, NJ
Supplies
We are in the same situation as all hospitals and running extremely low on supplies. Our priority is to protect our staff and we are exploring all options to get much needed supplies.
Request for Supplies Issued to the Community
Via email, Valley has issued a request for surgical masks, N95 masks, non-latex gloves, and fluid-resistant isolation gowns to more than 300,000 members of our community.
If you know someone who may have supplies either at home or at a place of business, please ask them to drop the supplies off between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday – Friday at the hospital’s main entrance. A Valley staff member will be there beginning Monday to receive the supplies so those donating do not need to get out of their car.
Address: 223 N. Van Dien Ave., Ridgewood, New Jersey 07450
Coronavirus Diary (8): Blood Donations Needed
This is from Marissa Cangin, an acquaintance of mine through my old friend, William Dale. Both work at City of Hope National Medical Center in California. William is Arthur M. Coppola Family Chair in Supportive Care Medicine there, and Marissa is an Assistant Clinical Professor–a clinical psychologist–in the Department of Supportive Care. (Marissa’s specialty is roughly what Felician’s PsyD program trains for.) My heartfelt gratitude to both of them, and to everyone at City of Hope (and elsewhere), for doing what they do. My preferred blood-donation organization happens to be the Red Cross, and I’m going to make my way over there–in my case, Flemington, NJ–at first opportunity. Please take Marissa’s suggestion to heart. Continue reading
Coronavirus Diary (7): You Heard It Here First
Suleman Khawaja, MD, Valley Hospital, Ridgewood, New Jersey:
I need to decompress a bit. Work today marked the transition to a war zone. And the difference between the combatants and the politicians who sent us to battle while watching from a safe distance has become stark.
Mariel Padilla, Express Desk, New York Times:
‘It Feels Like a War Zone’: Doctors and Nurses Plead for Masks on Social Media
As supplies have dwindled, doctors and nurses have improvised ways to make their stock last. Now they’re urging leaders to help.
Policy of Truth 