Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. Editor’s Note xiii
4. Introduction 1
5. 1 Early Days, Winter 2020
6. Fear, Hygiene, and Teaching 15
7. The Angel of Death over Italy 16
8. Looming Threats to Transit Workers 18
9. The Start of a Pandemic 20
10. A Weird State 22
11. Early Days, Winter 2020 23
12. Worrying for the City 24
13. The Sirens 26
14. Lamb’s Blood 28
15. 2 Working for the Public’s Health, Spring 2020
16. “Dead on Arrival”: A New York Fire Chief’s COVID-19 Journal 32
17. Into the Storm 41
18. Challenging Times 49
19. On the Frontlines of COVID-19, Echoes of AIDS 55
20. At the Gates of Hell 61
21. It Was Not Business as Usual 66
22. Hard Choices 74
23. Coping with Gallows Humor 82
24. 3 Work Turned Upside Down, Spring to Fall 2020
25. Forgotten Frontline Workers 88
26. We Have to Help Each Other 92
27. More than a Cashier 98
28. At Home in the Bronx, At Work in Midtown Manhattan 101
29. Frontline Workers in a Restaurant 106
30. Working for the Apps 111
31. Lessons, Survival, and a Public School Teacher 119
32. In the Cloud: New York, December 2020 129
33. Inside and Outside 131
34. A Horror Story with a Happy Ending 135
35. 4 Losses, Spring 2020 140
36. Losses, Spring 2020 143
37. Afraid to go out 144
38. Quarantined and Unemployed in the Bronx 145
39. Saying Farewell 148
40. Living in a Shelter in the First Year of the Pandemic 151
41. Grief Works from Home at All Hours 154
42. The Second Father: A Tribute 156
43. He Was the Block’s Papa 159
44. 5 Coping, Spring 2020
45. No opera now 170
46. Embracing Solitude 171
47. A Prayer for My Mother 174
48. Sharing Stories 178
49. A Subway Story in the Time of COVID-19 180
50. Making Masks, Whatever It Takes 182
51. Working and Surviving 184
52. Sustaining Community 187
53. Building Bonds 192
54. Organizing 194
55. Clap Because You Care 198
56. 6 Opening Up, Summer and Fall 2020
57. New York to across Africa 205
58. From Lockdown to Curfew 206
59. Protests, Riots, and Retirement 212
60. Broken Systems 214
61. Opening Up 217
62. “I’d Like to Think I’m an Optimist” 222
63. Discrepancies 227
64. After the Surge 229
65. Drawn-Out Deaths 231
66. Anticipating Vaccines 236
67. Have Faith and Fight 240
68. The Best Place to Be 245
69. 7 Vaccines and After, 2021
70. Registration Nightmares and Vaccine Skepticism 254
71. The Second Shot: New York, February 2021 259
72. A Question of Trade-offs 260
73. Slogging Along 262
74. Changes and Challenges 269
75. Lexicon of the Pandemic 275
76. Eating Bitterness 283
77. The Island of Pandemica 286
78. 8 Reflections, 2023
79. Learning How to Talk to People 289
80. Strength in the Long Run 290
81. “We Were Here” 291
82. Remembering Sacrifices and Losses 292
83. The Momentum and Tumult of Discovery 293
84. “Look Out for Each Other” 295
85. Conclusion 296
86. Acknowledgments 303
87. Notes 307
88. Contributors 323
89. Index 327