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Speaker 1: Welcome to NYC NOW, your source for local news in and around New York City, from WNYC. It's Wednesday, March 19th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill.

Michael Hill: It is the end of an era for New York City subways. The MTA says it'll stop selling MetroCards by the end of the year, as part of the agency's push to convert all subway and bus fare collection to the tap-to-pay OMNY system. Transit officials say riders still will be able to use the MetroCards until the end of next year, 2026. After that, the art of the subway swipe will be lost to history. MTA officials say the vast majority of riders already use OMNY to pay their fares. The Trump administration is threatening to withhold federal funding from the MTA unless the agency's leaders improve safety in New York City's mass transit system. Federal Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, is demanding plans by the end of this month. The MTA says the agency is happy to discuss its efforts, noting that crime is down in the system. Eviction filings in New York City declined by nearly 50% between 2017 and last year. That's according to a new report from the Community Service Society of New York. Oksana Mironova is a senior policy analyst there. She says the sharp decrease is largely due to a 2017 law that guaranteed low income New Yorkers the right to free counsel in city housing court.

Oksana Mironova: These type of numbers are essentially unheard of because of a policy intervention, so this is a pretty huge deal.

Michael Hill: Mironova says moderate income New Yorkers now represent a larger share of people at risk of eviction, in part because they don't have a right to free counsel. 53 and sunny right now, sunny and 61 for a high. Tomorrow, chances of morning drizzle and afternoon showers, a high of 56.

Speaker 1: Stay close. There's more after the break.

Sean Carlson: I'm Sean Carlson for WNYC. The Tri-State area is reflecting on five years since COVID brought the world to a complete halt. Do you remember where you were in March of 2020 when hospitals were overwhelmed with patients and struggled to have enough beds? Well, James Colon was one of those patients. He arrived at Mount Sinai, Queens in April 2020 and eventually beat an extreme case of COVID. Joining us now to talk more about this time and what we can learn from it is James and his pulmonary doctor, Mary O'Sullivan from Mount Sinai. Dr. O'Sullivan, what do you remember the most about working in city hospitals back in 2020?

Mary O'Sullivan: The team, the suffering, you see a patient, you'd be afraid for them. We were inundated, so we had to move around beds. We had to make different teams. We had to shift ICUs, put in other ICUs, just non-stop. Then the patients who are usually in the hospital, they were there too. All of a sudden, you were overwhelmed by this force. It took the spirit of really good care and good people. I can't emphasize that enough. Roll up your sleeves and let's get this done. Let's do the best we can. It was vital. Everybody is trying to take care of everybody else because you didn't know, are you going to catch it? How to take care of each other, how to take care of the patient, how to take care of the family. Oh my God. That part. That part was-- we don't want to go back there. We don't want to go back there ever.

Sean Carlson: Let's talk about your experience, James. As we said, you still see Dr. O'Sullivan.

James Colon: Yes.

Sean Carlson: Let's talk about what happened five years ago. You arrived at Mount Sinai Queens in April of 2020 after experiencing difficulty breathing. Tell us more about your experience with COVID.

James Colon: What happened was I started feeling very weak, I would say around the ending of January, February, and I passed out in my apartment. I went to the hospital and I had a fracture in my nose. They hadn't mentioned anything about COVID to me. Where I was working at the time was not requiring us to wear any masks. As time went by, I started actually getting weaker and weaker. I called my sister and I said, "Edith, I don't know what's going on with me. Maybe I'm getting old." One day, a friend of mine was in my apartment and I told her, "Sarah, I can't breathe anymore. I can't breathe," and I just passed out.

Prior to that, my niece, Veronica, who's my guardian angel, told me that I had been defecating on myself. Honestly, I don't remember most of it. I live in Astoria, Queens, near Mount Sinai, Astoria. That's where I ended up almost for seven months. I was in a coma. I guess a medically induced coma. I'm not sure. I was told all kind of things. My family was Zooming with doctors and all my organs were failing, and then they would come back. I was just there existing. I woke up three months later and I was a mess. I really was. I was extremely weak.

Sean Carlson: This question is for both of you. Doctor, you can start. How has your relationship evolved since you first met in 2020?

Mary O'Sullivan: Just amazed, always amazed that he sticks with it, positive, determined to get better, never complaining. How's that possible? I'm in admiration.

Sean Carlson: What about you? How has your relationship with the doctor evolved?

James Colon: Well, I mean, she's amazing, and she's so kind and nice and I can see, I can feel the warmth, especially when she saw me in the past and she came in and she says, "It's so good to see you. You're doing well. This makes my career worth it." The sincerity is unbelievable. Many of the doctors and nurses were like that. It's just beautiful to be around people that actually really care for the well-being of other people.

Sean Carlson: Doctor, how has your experience with COVID changed the way that you do your work today? Has your view of COVID changed since 2020?

Mary O'Sullivan: Well, I'm really old. I remember the HIV epidemic and all those deaths. I have cards from my dead patients. I keep a drawer full of cards from my dead patients. How terrible is that? We all died with them. This was different. That was a slow, long haul thing. This was like a tornado, but the biggest thing I learned was vaccines, vaccines, vaccines. This did not have to happen. Millions of people died, and thanks to the hard, hard work of the people who did the biology, who did the science, worked with the virus, we got vaccines that work.

Now I'm hearing my patients say, "I don't want my vaccine." They say, "My kids tell me no, they're dangerous." I want to say, "Don't you remember?" This didn't have to happen. For the people who got the vaccines, they were protected. That whole side of it, the nightmare, the pain, the death, the mourning, so much part of it, but the recovery and the prevention, those are the other side of it that we cannot forget. We cannot forget that.

James Colon: Unfortunately-

Mary O'Sullivan: He was early.

James Colon: -I just missed it, and as a consequence, this is what happened to me. Honestly, I feel that with the help of the doctors and nurses and all the other medical staff, physical therapists, occupational therapists, just amazing people, that I came out of this pretty good. I don't get brain fog. I think I'm sharper than I was prior to COVID. It's done its job on me physically, but slowly I'm getting back. I can walk, I'm independent, but my lungs are compromised and I doubt if they'll ever be the same.

Mary O'Sullivan: Every time I see you, they're better and better and better.

James Colon: I do discipline myself and I push myself and I try and stay positive. I think a great deal of my recovery, a lot of it was mental.

Sean Carlson: How has your life changed, the way that you approach your life changed since your experience with COVID?

James Colon: Well, I'm a father and my son lives with me. Our relationship is very good. I realize that that's a priority for me. We can dwell on the negative things that are going on, but I don't live in a fantasy, but I try and focus on the blessings that I have. I get up every morning and I open my window and I breathe and I say, "Wow, this is a luxury for me. It's a blessing."

Sean Carlson: Doctor, if we have another epidemic, what would you hope that officials and the public do differently this time?

Mary O'Sullivan: The development of the vaccine was a bloody miracle. How they did that so fast, that was incredible. I think that the communication that we had with the hospital, with the Department of Health, with the CDC, with the NIH, all those things were amazing. I think the problems of what should have been better, I think that more acceptance of the vaccines. We have to somehow get over the fear that's been promulgated about having vaccines. It's so vital. Prevention is everything. Wearing a mask is everything. Those simple things.

Sean Carlson: That was James Colon and his pulmonary doctor, Mary O'Sullivan, from Mount Sinai. Thanks so much to the both of you. I know it's not easy to talk about this.

James Colon: Thank you. Thank you for having us.

Mary O'Sullivan: It's a pleasure. Thank you.

Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. This is NYC NOW from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. See you this evening.

 

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