Refrigerated trailers are seen parked at the site of a makeshift morgue being built in New York, Wednesday, March 25, 2020. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
New York City could start burying its dead in city parks if the mortality rate from coronavirus doesn’t decline soon, according to City Council Health Committee Chair Mark Levine.
“Soon we'll start ‘temporary interment’. This likely will be done by using a NYC park for burials (yes you read that right). Trenches will be dug for 10 caskets in a line,” Levine tweeted on Monday, adding that “it will be tough for NYers to take.”
Just as the number of COVID-19 infections has overwhelmed New York City hospitals, the number of deaths has begun to overwhelm the death care infrastructure, including the city’s system of morgues and now, it would seem, cemeteries. To supplement existing city- and hospital-owned morgues, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) purchased 45 refrigerated trucks to act as temporary morgues on top of 85 supplied by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). According to Levine, most of those temporary morgues are now full and families with loved ones who have passed away due to COVID-19 are struggling to find funeral homes and cemeteries that will handle their deceased.
“Grieving families report calling as many as half a dozen funeral homes and finding none that can handle their deceased loved ones. Cemeteries are not able to handle the number of burial requests and are turning most down,” he wrote.
The councilmember’s comments attracted quite a bit of attention on Monday, earning more than 1,500 retweets and 1,800 likes, prompting Levine to clarify his earlier claims. In a later tweet, he called interment in city parks a “contingency” that wouldn’t be necessary if the death rate drops enough.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told the New York Times that although the city has the ability to temporarily bury the dead if needed, the city was “not at the point that we’re going to go into that.” Cuomo pleaded ignorance of the plan altogether, saying that he’d heard “a lot of wild rumors,” but never anything about burials in city parks, according to the Times.
Aja Worthy-Davis, an OCME spokesperson, said the city is only conducting city burials at Hart Island in the Bronx for now.
Reports out of overwhelmed countries like Italy and Ecuador detail coffins awaiting burial in churches and on streets, and horror stories of families living with deceased loved ones, sometimes for days, because of an overwhelmed death care system.
“The goal is to avoid scenes like those in Italy, where the military was forced to collect bodies from churches and even off the streets,” Levine wrote on Monday.
Hinge users who have children can opt-in to a $100 stipend up to $25,000 for childcare. Logan Ury, the director of relationship science for the online dating platform, noted the issue as an obstacle for single parents who want to go out on dates. "We have heard that singles with children have a hard time going on dates for one of the reasons being that it's just hard to find childcare and it's hard to be able to afford it," she said. Ury also said that the hot topic among Hinge's users is mental health and the prioritizing of mental health.
Dolly Parton, Eminem, Lionel Richie, and Carly Simon are just a few of the nominees announced for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2022 induction. Results of the voting will be released in May, however, the ceremony date has yet to be announced.
On this episode of Cheddar Innovates: CEO of HereAfter AI discusses how artificial intelligence can be used to preserve family history and stories, and allow you to 'talk' to loved ones that have passed; Creator of the board game 'Travel Explore Discover' explains how she came up with the idea for this informative and educational board game, and how she's using the proceeds to give back to her community; Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'The Humboldt Current.'
According to the Federal Reserve, the investment gap between Black and white Americans has remained substantial, with only 34 percent of Black households joining in on the historic rise in the markets. Stacey Tisdale, the first Black woman to have reported from the NYSE and the CEO and president of Mind Money Media Inc., said that the data might not be as disheartening as it seems. "I think that number is very deceiving. That Federal Reserve study is actually from 2019, and it's very important that we all look beneath that number and look beneath the surface because there is nothing short of an investing revolution going on in the Black community," Tisdale said.
James Vlahos, Co-Founder and CEO of HereAfter AI, joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss how artificial intelligence can be used to preserve family history and stories, and allow you to 'talk' to loved ones that have passed.
Ava Rathenberg, Creator of the board game 'Travel Explore Discover,' joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss how she came up with the idea for this informative and educational board game, and how she's using the proceeds to give back to her community.
An award-winning performance by the LSU Tiger Girls dance team is going viral on TikTok, but like many other viral tiktoks, this one had a larger story to tell. The story goes back to 2021 when for the first time in 22 years, the LSU dance team was informed it could not compete at Universal Dance Association Nationals. The team made their anticipated return to UDA Nationals this year with a performance that delivered a strong and clear message to their university. The LSU Tiger Girls walked away from the competition with their first national championship title in 12 years, redemption against the university that held them back, and of course- millions of new fans and friends on TikTok.
Solid-state battery maker Factorial Energy recently raised $200 million in a Series D round led by Mercedes-Benz and Stellantis. Factorial says the funding will be used to accelerate commercial production and deployment of its solid-state battery technology, which the company says is safer, and offers up to 50% more driving range than current lithium-ion technology. Factorial also has joint development agreements (announced in late 2021) with Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, and Hyundai, three of the top 10 global automotive manufacturers, to commercialize its batteries. Factorial CEO Siyu Huang joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Former Dolphins coach Brian Flores filed a lawsuit against the NFL over racial discrimination, exposing a long-running problem the NFL has had with diversity in its top coaching and management positions. Eric Mitchell, the president and CEO of public relations and communications company LifeFlip Media, joined Cheddar News to delve into the scandal rocking the pro football world just before the Super Bowl. "There is a problem. If you look at who owns teams in the NFL, it's right, it's a good old boys club, it's a bunch of old white guys," he said. "So, it's exposing something that's been around for ages and now that we're sitting in 2022 has come up."
This April, Madison Square Garden will be hosting the first-ever women's boxing match to headline at the arena in its 140 years of history in boxing. Undisputed lightweight champion, Katie Taylor, and seven-division champion, Amanda Serrano, will go head-to-head for a career-high guaranteed seven-figure purse for both of them. The pair joined Cheddar News to talk about the upcoming "fight of their lives." "I mean, this is the first step I believe," said Serrano. "Unheard of, two women headlining the Garden, we get in the biggest paydays of our career, I hope it continues to break down barriers."
