On Friday, Mayor Eric Adams, alongside ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio, paid tribute to those who died during the pandemic and honored healthcare heroes.
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Good morning everyone. Buenos dias and welcome to Elmers. You see Dr. Katz has it on point,
00:06he says buenos dias, so I want to hear it again. Buenos dias everyone.
00:13Welcome to Elmers Hospital, to our special guests, our elected officials, our commissioners,
00:18Mount Sinai CEO Brendan Carr, our borough president, health and hospital corporate
00:23officers, and of course Mayor Adams. And I get two mayors now.
00:30Once again, my name is Helen Arteaga. I am the very proud and humble CEO of New York City Health
00:35and Hospital Elmers. On March 2020, the world changed. Our community suffered and the lives
00:42of 6,000 Elmers employees changed forever. Our hospital was the epicenter of the epicenter.
00:49Our communities suffered something they could never imagine. But I stand here very proud and
00:55humble by the brave health care workers that worked in this hospital who took care of the
01:01Queen's community. We can't forget those that we have lost here at Elmers, in the community
01:15and beyond. Therefore today we take a pause, we remember, and we heal. I want to acknowledge all
01:22the 6,000 employees that work here at Elmers, my colleagues, my other fellow H&H CEOs, my health
01:30system corporate officers, and the staff of all of New York City Health and Hospital facilities.
01:35We did this together. We survived COVID as a family. A million thank you is not enough. But
01:42during these hard moments and most interesting and challenging times, as we were remissing in
01:49the green room, I cannot believe we're here standing together without a mask. And all that
01:55happened because one man held our hands strong and made sure we always saw the light every day.
02:01And that person is our amazing, amazing leader, our Health and Hospital President, Dr. Mitchell Katz.
02:11Please help me in welcoming him as one of our heroes.
02:20Thank you, Helen, and welcome everybody for being here at this very important day for us to commemorate
02:28the lives of those we lost and to celebrate all of the people who did such amazing work through
02:35COVID. I have the honor of introducing our interfaith invocation with Rabbi Daniel
02:43Graber and Bishop H. Curtis Douglas.
03:02Ribbono shel olam, Master of the Universe. We turn to you, hearts heavy with remembrance,
03:09yet lifted by gratitude and hope. As we mark five years since the pandemic swept through our city,
03:16we pause to honor those lost, to give thanks to those who sacrificed for others,
03:22and to reaffirm our commitment to one another. God of compassion,
03:30shelter in your eternal embrace the souls of all who perished in the shadow of COVID-19,
03:35fathers and mothers, siblings and children, friends and neighbors, each one a world entire, each one
03:41cherished beyond measure. May their memory be a blessing, and may we honor them by living lives
03:46of meaning, kindness, and justice. We give thanks, O Lord, for the angels in our midst, the healers and
03:53caregivers, the first responders and essential workers, those who at great risk to themselves
03:59chose love over fear, duty over comfort. In moments of trial, those heroes found strength
04:07beyond themselves to uphold the spirit of this great city with their selflessness and devotion.
04:12May their courage and compassion always be an example for us all.
04:19Source of blessings, you teach us that in the face of darkness we must be bearers of light.
04:27Let us be worthy of the sacrifices made. Let us build a society rooted in loving kindness and
04:32justice, chesed and tzedek. May we lift up those still in need of healing. May we comfort the
04:39bereaved and may we never lose sight of our sacred responsibility to one another. O God, bless this
04:45gathering, bless this city, bless this country, and bless all who seek to repair this fractured world.
04:52As the prophet Isaiah declared, be comforted, be comforted, my people.
04:59May we find comfort in one another and strength in our shared humanity and let us say amen.
05:06Amen.
05:13Shall we bow our heads? Heavenly Father, you who are our God, who was with us in times of trouble,
05:21you have promised that you would be with us even in our most difficult times.
05:26And through these last five years as we have come out of the COVID epidemic, we want to thank you
05:36for your presence with us. Thank you for good leadership as we went through those difficult
05:43times. Thank you for the men and women who sacrificed, the men and women who risked their
05:50risk their lives to care for others, the men and women who without which we would not have made it,
05:56every essential worker, everyone who stood up in the midst of the difficult times
06:04to be there for their brother and their sister. Thank you for the leadership of our political
06:09leaders and thank you, O God, that through it all you have brought us out and you brought us over.
06:17We pray now, O God, that you will bless this time together as we have gathered to remember.
06:24Remember those that died. Remember those that lived. Remember those that suffered. And we give
06:31you all the glory and the praise for the victory we have had and the victories yet to come.
06:37This we pray in your matchless name. Amen.
06:40Thank you both so much. It's so meaningful to speak of faith at a time like this when we've
06:53gone through so much. I'd like now to introduce Jamie Lynn Kush, who's a student at Newtown High
07:00School, to U.S.
07:15Good morning. Today I will be citing New Day's lyric by Amanda Gorman. It's about overcoming
07:23the pandemic and looking towards a brighter future. Thank you. May this be the day we
07:29come together. Mourning, we come to mend. Withered, we come to weather. Torn, we come to tend.
07:36Battered, we come to better. Tethered by this year of yearning, we are learning that though
07:41we weren't ready for this, we have been readied by it. We steadily vow that no matter how we are
07:46weighed down, we must always pave a way forward. This hope is our door, our portal, even if we
07:53never get back to normal. Someday we can venture beyond it to leave the known and take the first
07:58steps. So let us not return to what was normal, but reach toward what is next. What was cursed,
08:04we will cure. What was plagued, we will prove pure. What we tend to argue, we will try to agree.
08:10Those fortunes we forswore, now the future we foresee. Where we weren't aware, we're now awake.
08:15Those moments we missed are now these moments we make. The moments we meet, and our hearts once
08:20altogether beaten, now altogether beat. Come, look up with kindness yet, for even solace can be sourced
08:27from sorrow. We remember not just for the sake of yesterday, but to take on tomorrow. We heed this
08:33old spirit in a new day's lyric, in our hearts we hear it. For old Lang Syne, my dear, for old Lang
08:39Syne, be bold saying time this year, be bold saying time. For when you honor yesterday, tomorrow ye
08:45will find. Know what we fought, need not be forgot, nor for none. It defines us and binds us as one.
08:51Come over, join, this day just begun. For wherever we come together, we will forever overcome.
09:05That was really well done, Erica. We really appreciate it, and it's so nice to have words
09:10of hope at a time like this. I have the next pleasure of introducing our Mayor, and I just
09:18want to say to him how much your healing touch has mattered to us. When you took office,
09:28it was a very difficult time for us. We had just gone through COVID. We had lost many of our
09:36co-workers. We had lost many patients. We were very brave, and the people in this room were very brave.
09:43We had taken care of people as best we could. It was very difficult, sir. The city, you remember,
09:50was mostly still closed. The schools were closed, and I think what we needed more than anything was
09:56healing, and I think you've had an incredibly healing effect when you took office. Your positive
10:03views, your own incredibly inspiring life story of recovery has meant so much to us and to New York
10:11City. With that, I introduce to you Mayor Adams. Thank you. Thank you so much.
10:19Thank you, Dr. Katz, and really thank you, Hers Hospital. You became the symbol of our resiliency,
10:27and you know I'm sure the Mayor will talk about it when he speaks. You don't do it alone when
10:33you go through these unforeseen circumstances that you have to navigate through, and you know,
10:41as we sit here today, I looked over and saw my Deputy Mayors, who this is their last day,
10:49DM Mira Joshi, DM Maria Torres-Springer, DN Ann Williams-Isom. They helped us navigate through,
10:58and I see my first First Deputy Mayor that's here as well, Lorraine Grillo, going through these
11:08difficult times, and you know, there were moments in my life where you just have to draw deep,
11:15and your faith plays such a role as the Rabbi and the Pastor stated, and I reflect on September 11th
11:21when our center of trade was attacked, and I went down to Ground Zero that evening and saw
11:27the ground smoldering, and officers had soot all over them, and I remember that those buildings,
11:34because as a rookie cop, I patrolled that area, and I'm not going to lie, I felt as though,
11:42you know, what was going to happen tomorrow, you know, were we going to make it,
11:46and what does the future hold, and we were near election time. Mayor Giuliani was leaving,
11:54and Mayor Bloomberg was coming in, and there were those who were stating actually to pause our
11:58election because we didn't think we could have the continuation of operation based on an incoming
12:07new mayor, and we said no. We're resilient, and although we recognize September 11th each year,
12:16of those that we lost, of what I always remember is September 12th. We got up.
12:25Teachers taught, builders built, hospital employees handled the large number of people that we lost,
12:34and the lives. We opened up makeshift camps to make sure that we could identify the body parts
12:40to bring clothes to families, and COVID was not terrorism, but it brought terror,
12:47and we're still feeling that terror if we're honest with ourselves. Some of the byproduct of
12:51some of the mental health issues we're facing is attached to September to COVID-19,
12:58and I still think about the trauma that I'm still personally feeling. I lost my mentor,
13:06Dr. Roy Hastick, and I lost my rookie officer, Deborah Gilliam, in such a short period of time.
13:14I lost family members and loved ones, and I think about them often, and we may believe
13:20that we survived the virus, but trust me, we need to go inward and find some of the
13:27mental health care that we probably just pushed to the side when you're going through an emergency.
13:34We have to take care of ourselves. Many of our doctors, when I went inside the hospitals
13:39and saw with our doctors and our nurses and our first responders, and sometimes we forget when
13:45those professionals like yourselves are taken care of, we forget that they too have family
13:50members at home. They had to stay in hotels. They had to do double shifts. I remember seeing them
13:56with some wearing garbage bags and reusing PPEs, but never giving up, never surrendering. Just like
14:04those officers during 9-11, although they lost their loved ones, FDNY members, employees in the
14:12Trade Center, people did not give up, and what was interesting then, we were the epicenter of
14:21terrorism. Terrorism was defined by New York. Little did we know COVID-19, we would have be
14:28the epicenter, and this space here, Elmhurst Hospital, was the place where America looked and
14:35said, if they can get through it, we all can get through it. Your resiliency, your compassion,
14:40your caring, your concern resonated and cascaded throughout the entire globe, and people looked
14:47towards Elmhurst. Little did you know, when we saw that first case and that first death,
14:53that all of a sudden this hospital was going to reach the international magnitude that you reach.
15:00But we are better because of what you've done. And all of this conversation that we're having
15:07nowadays, as this administration handled 223,000 migrants and asylum seekers that came here, and I
15:14continuously state that one day people are going to wake up and remember what we did as a city,
15:19as international leaders recognized it. But when I walked through those hospitals,
15:24Elmhurst, Downstate, Queens Hospitals, during the time of COVID, you know what I saw?
15:31I saw first and second generation immigrants who went into the medical profession,
15:37who housed our hospitals. When I was in the street delivering PPEs, I saw first and second
15:43generation immigrants stocking our shelves, delivering foods. While others were able to
15:47social distance and stay at home, you had first and second generation immigrants in our streets
15:53making sure that the city was able to provide and able to thrive and move forward. Our success
16:00is based on our ability to allow everyone to be in this great city we call New York. And I'm proud
16:06to be the mayor of this city. I'm proud to have wore a bulletproof vest for 22 years and stood
16:11on street corners protecting the children and families of this city and bringing that with me
16:16as the mayor of the city of New York. And we knew we were short on ventilators, we were short on
16:21PPEs, we were short on everything, but we were not short on courage and compassion and commitment,
16:26and we showed what we can do. And I can't say enough about Mayor de Blasio.
16:33That was one of the most challenging times of our city. He had to build an operation while there was
16:41just so much uncertainty. We didn't know how long this was going to last. We didn't know how many
16:46lives we were going to lose. And I remember him doing the phone calls with our teams, and I learned
16:52from him to deal with the crises that we faced over and over again because of his steady hand.
16:59Saving hundreds of thousands of jobs, hundreds of thousands of jobs by opening up
17:04the outdoor dining because we knew the economy had to continue. Making tough decisions of keeping
17:12the schools open, keeping the schools closed. We knew the safest space for a child was inside our
17:17school, and he made those calls. Shutting down a city. Do you know the challenge in telling New
17:24Yorkers how to do something? Telling New Yorkers they had to stay home? Can you imagine the challenge
17:33of that? And how dare you tell someone they got to wear a mask? And then he had to state you got to
17:42vaccinate yourself. Over 90% of New Yorkers followed that.
17:48That was what was amazing. If it was in a small town or village somewhere, we know it's possible.
17:54But when you got 8.3 million New Yorkers with 35 million opinions on how they want to do something,
18:00you got a real challenge. And he did it. History is going to be kind to what he did for us and the
18:08number of lives that he saved. And I cannot thank him enough. This was the deadliest pandemic in a
18:15century. And he and his team, some of the names we don't even mention, some of the D-O-H-M-H of our
18:24men and women who's in our shelter system, when an outbreak took place in one location,
18:31he had to open up hotels and move around. Countless number of hotels. And people said,
18:36why are you spending all those money? Well, that sounds familiar.
18:45Building an operation to manage and save the lives of people. When you think about it, we tested more
18:52than 14.5 million people, 300 million pieces of PPEs and other supplies, spreading out the
19:02community, setting up the operation, making sure it was done in a smooth manner, and ensuring that
19:08people were able to continue to see the city operate and thrive. Because no matter what
19:15happened, you still had those around-the-clock employees that could not social distance,
19:20could not do their jobs remotely. They had to be on the ground. We lost correction officers,
19:27T.A. employees, transit employees, medical professionals. All across the spectrum,
19:33we lost someone, and we will never forget them. And so as we go through this COVID-19
19:40Remembrance Day, we remember more than 46,000 New Yorkers. We lost 46,000 New Yorkers. Their
19:52families will be forever impacted, and we will be forever impacted. And five years later,
20:00we can see exactly how strong we are. Five years later, we recovered all the jobs. We broke records
20:1010 times in a row on the number of jobs. We have 4.86 million jobs in this city. That's a real
20:18symbol of our resiliency. And so I'm proud to be here. I'm proud to be a New Yorker.
20:25When I go across the entire country and globe, people argue and debate about what city is number
20:33two and three. No one debates about number one. New York City is the greatest city on the globe,
20:40because we're made of the greatest people on the globe, and they are personified by being
20:46members of the Elmhurst Hospital System, the greatest group of medical professionals on the
20:52globe. So I want to give this proclamation on this five-year commemoration and acknowledgement of
21:08Dr. Laura Ayuva-Coley, if you could come up, and Erica Harris.
21:22I'm just going to read the last paragraph. Whereas in the face of an unprecedented global
21:27pandemic, New Yorkers demonstrated extraordinary compassion, resilience, and solidarity,
21:34working together to advance the recovery process, proving once again that our city's strength lies
21:41in its unity and determination. I look forward to the many ways Elmhurst Hospital personnel
21:49and essential workers across our city will continue to uplift diverse New Yorkers as we
21:56take bold steps to forge a brighter, healthier, and more honorary future for all. Erica Adams,
22:05Mayor of the City of New York. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.
22:20Mr. Mayor, distinguished guests, colleagues, and all those who stand here today in remembrance
22:28and resilience, on behalf of the health care heroes at Elmhurst Hospital, of New York City
22:34Health and Hospitals, and of every frontline worker across the city, I humbly accept this
22:40proclamation. But more than an acknowledgement, this is a testament, a testament to the lives lost,
22:48to the courage shown, and to the unwavering commitment
22:54that defined our response to the greatest public health crisis of our time.
23:01Five years ago, Elmhurst Hospital became the epicenter of the epicenter. In those harrowing
23:08days of March 2020, we have witnessed suffering on a scale none of us had ever imagined.
23:17The hallways of our hospital filled beyond capacity. We fought for every ventilator,
23:23every oxygen tank, every bed, knowing that behind each one was a person,
23:29someone's mother, father, child. And through it all, our team stood resolute. We did not run.
23:38We did not yield.
23:45This proclamation honors the nurses, physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners,
23:51respiratory therapists, and essential staff who showed up shift after shift, exhausted but
23:57undeterred. It honors those we lost, our patients and our colleagues, who we will forever be part
24:02of the story of this city. But let this also be a call to remembrance. The pandemic was not a
24:08crisis. It was a revelation. It revealed the depths of our resilience but also the cracks in
24:13our system, the vulnerabilities that must never be ignored again. Let this moment serve as a
24:19recommitment to the strengthening of public health, to ensuring that no community is left behind
24:24when crises strike again. We do not accept this proclamation for recognition. We accept it in
24:31remembrance. We accept it in honor of those who fought, those who lost, and those who carry this
24:36legacy forward. Because Elmhurst was not the first hospital to be overwhelmed. It was the first
24:43hospital to show the world what true courage looks like. Honoring the legacy of Elmhurst, COVID-19
24:51response. Thank you.
25:45You can hear in all the comments people are making these two sides, the tragedy
25:52and the resilience. I want to commend Mayor de Blasio because long before I arrived
26:00back to my home world, he saved health and hospitals by bailing out the system at a time
26:08that many people would have favored closing multiple hospitals. And I always feel, sir,
26:13that COVID proved you right. Because the health and hospital really rose to the occasion. We
26:20tripled our ICUs in a matter of six weeks. We would be putting in the wiring at 2 a.m.
26:30for the IT system so that we could take care of more people on ventilators. We ran, Ted here ran
26:38the test and trace system so that we saved lives by walking people's dogs, bringing them their
26:46medications so that they would not go out, bringing them their PPE, doing their testing and then
26:52ultimately vaccinating. So I hope, sir, that you feel that your investment was very well spent.
27:00I want to offer just one other story because it's one of the ways that I think about what happened.
27:05So many of the heroes were nurses who got their patients through because as much as we tried as
27:12physicians, remember, there were no effective treatments at the time we were taking care of
27:17people. So much was holding hands. There was a nurse at Harlem Hospital. She was taking care
27:24of an ICU patient day after day who was in a coma. And then miraculously, after about 10 days,
27:32he woke up. And when she saw his eyes open, she said, oh, let me introduce myself to you.
27:40And he said, I know who you are. You're my nurse. And I always felt that that encapsulated
27:47the sense of the very best of health and hospitals and what we did. Now, we didn't do it alone.
27:54We had tremendous political support. And here to represent one of the people who was really
28:03always supporting us is our council member and Helen's Ecuadorian
28:12council member, Francisco Moya.
28:15Good morning, everyone. Thank you to Mayor Adams and Mayor de Blasio for the great work that they've
28:28done for this city. It's hard to believe that five years have passed since the world shut down
28:35due to the pandemic. Little did we know that within weeks, our neighborhood and this very
28:40hospital, the hospital that I was born in, the hospital that I worked in, and the hospital that
28:45I represent would be the epicenter of the global pandemic. And as I watched our community suffer
28:52and mourn, our hospital, with its doors open to all that had needs, struggled. I watched the
29:00workers push beyond their breaking point, still pour their hearts into the institutions, into the
29:05institution, the doctors, the nurses, the janitors, and every single employee here at Elmhurst Hospital.
29:11I watched our neighborhood divided physically due to the quarantine, finding strength and unity
29:17emotionally. Our corner of the world was watched under the floodlights of international news
29:23stations that were parked right out here in the corner. The numbers ticked up on a daily
29:27reporting graphics and a temporary morgue flashed on the screens to show the reality of what was
29:33happening here at Elmhurst Hospital. But to us, to people like me that have lived here in Corona
29:40their entire lives, this was our reality. We have always been a scrappy community made up of many
29:47immigrants willing to find a way and together we did find a way through this universal tragedy
29:52and trauma and I was proud to be part of that. I worked to bring donated PPEs to the hospital
29:58and I worked with Mayor de Blasio to expand the funeral support funding for people facing
30:03the astronomical cost of burying their loved ones with dignity. So today, five years on, we mourn
30:09those that we lost but those lives will never be forgotten. But we find comfort in the strength that
30:15we find in ourselves and in each other and for that I have to thank all of you. Every single person
30:21here at Elmhurst Hospital that did the work, that came to work every single day without fear of what
30:27was going to happen to you or your families, you showed up to work. You showed the world that
30:32Elmhurst Hospital knows how to take care of their patients and for that we will forever be grateful.
31:39We appreciate all that that you did. I also want to remind people that Elmhurst is a collaboration
31:45with Mount Sinai and Dr. Carr, the CEO of Mount Sinai is here and we appreciate how during the
31:51darkest days we work together with Mount Sinai to make Elmhurst the great hospital it is.
32:04I have the honor now of introducing our Borough President who was a great help to us during the
32:11pandemic and since the pandemic he likes to joke that whenever he leaves his wallet is a little
32:17lighter because he's helped us to make Elmhurst the amazing facility it is.
32:24We so appreciate you Borough President.
32:30Morning Elmhurst. It's an honor to be here this morning and of course want to acknowledge both
32:37mayors. Mayor de Blasio, tough times, real tough times but I want to really thank you because
32:49one of the things that I remember during those dark days was your commitment to underserved
32:55communities and while we were fighting to get test and tracing in every corner of this borough
33:03to get PPE in, thank you. You saved a lot of lives. You saved a lot of lives.
33:13Mayor Adams, thank you for your commitment because you had to come in after Mayor de Blasio
33:21and your commitment has been steadfast really in HNH in supporting the foundation of this borough
33:28and that is our health care system and you put your money where your mouth is and I want to thank
33:32you for not turning your back on our borough as well. It is an honor to be amongst true heroes
33:42this morning because that's what every single one of you health care professionals are amongst us.
33:50It's hard to believe it's been five years already since this very hospital was the epicenter of the
33:55epicenter of the pandemic. Back when none of us had a clue what this virus was, when we would go
34:03back to normal or if we would ever go back to normal at all. But despite all the chaos and fear
34:11you were there to offer a steady hand. You are a rock. You were the one thing we could look towards
34:18to feel a sense of comfort. In a time of crisis they say look for the helpers and we found plenty
34:25of helpers here at Elmhurst Hospital. Today I'm thinking of my friend Priscilla Carroll who worked
34:33here, caught COVID-19 and unfortunately passed away in March 2020. I think of her selflessness.
34:42I think of how she put her life on the line every time she walked through these doors because she
34:46knew she had a job to do and that was to take care of strangers she had never met and likely would
34:53never see again. It's a special kind of heroism that most of us can't truly understand. It takes a
35:01special human being to risk their life for somebody they don't know. It takes a strong soul to comfort
35:08someone as they die while that person's family watches over FaceTime. The debt society owes each
35:15and every one of you can never possibly be paid. But I want you to know that we're trying our
35:22hardest to pay it off, that debt. Because banging pots and pans at 7 p.m. each night was great.
35:29Remember that? We also remember Mayor de Blasio eating burgers at 10 a.m. at his morning press
35:37conferences but that's another story for another day. The worst part was him eating ribs at
35:42Queensborough Hall at one of those press conferences at 10 a.m. but all right we got him plenty of napkins.
35:52But to me the best way we can thank all of you is to make sure we're supporting our doctors and
35:56nurses in their fight for fair wages. It's time to make sure we're making historic investments in
36:02this hospital to help you continue to save lives and that's why I couldn't be prouder
36:07to have invested more than 11 million dollars into this hospital since becoming borough president.
36:12Helen, I'm watching my wallet today.
36:20But from building new ORs to expanding mother and baby services and proving this already great
36:25hospital is very personal to me. It's personal because you are all heroes of mine. You're all
36:31heroes, Tarboro. Five years ago Queens was at its darkest and lowest point but you were our light
36:39and you put us on the road to recovery. I love you. Queens loves you. God bless you all. Thank you.
36:53So I have the pleasure of bringing on Mayor de Blasio. I remember just those
37:00briefings he would give me and say, you know, be careful what you ask for, you know.
37:07And yesterday, we were at a housing opening in Woodhall Hospital with Dr. Katz
37:17and just to show you the continuous byproduct of COVID. One of the young men, Elvis, who
37:28was receiving one of the apartments and he gave his story of how he became homeless.
37:33He lost his family members during COVID and then there was just a negative spiraling effect
37:42that he eventually ended up on the streets. But using the space at H&H, Woodhall Hospital, we built
37:48housing and he said we found him off the street and gave him another chance in life. And so although
37:57COVID has this long-term impact, what we are doing is going back and retrieving those who
38:06slipped through the cracks. And no one did that better than Mayor de Blasio. Just those hidden
38:12conversations, private conversations, helping us navigate over those beginning days from the days
38:19of Lorraine when we first went into City Hall that first day, just trying to figure this out.
38:26Mayor was there. He was an intellectual giant on how to govern this city during crisis.
38:37And I cannot thank him enough. New Yorkers will learn more and more about what he has accomplished.
38:45And I reached out yesterday, Mayor, so you know to DCAS because we got to get your portrait up in
38:51City Hall. We got to get that done. So please give it up for Mayor Bill de Blasio.
39:09I want to talk about the heroes who are here today in this amazing place, but I first want to
39:16express my appreciation to Mayor Adams because I can tell you when someone's elected to lead
39:25this city, it's an immense privilege. It's an immense responsibility. But no one has ever
39:33been elected to lead this city while it was still in the midst of a pandemic.
39:39And this man came in into that immense challenge, but he did it fearlessly.
39:47And he believed in New York City. He believed in New Yorkers. And you could feel it.
39:53And, Mayor, I want to thank you because people need to know that there's faith in them. They
39:58need to know that someone sees just how good they are, just how strong they are. And you
40:04embodied that. We needed confidence to know we could recover. Because I'll tell you one thing,
40:11there are almost 9 million New Yorkers, but there are so many more naysayers
40:18in this country, in this world, who say that they respect New York City but somehow
40:24always look for our shortcomings. So people were wondering, would we ever make it back? Would we
40:32ever be as fully great again? And that responsibility fell to Eric Adams to chart
40:38that course. I'm so proud of what my colleagues and my team did and everyone I'm going to talk
40:44about in a moment at Elmhurst and throughout H&H. Everyone did so much to get us to that point
40:52at the end of 2021. But things were far from certain. And there were a lot of people who did
40:58not believe New York City could ever make it truly back to where we were. Now, you heard what
41:03the mayor said. We have more jobs in this city today than any time in our history.
41:12You go through this city, the life, the energy is back. You can feel it almost as if it's 2019
41:19or before. There is so much that affirms our strength once again.
41:28And our city is getting safer. For all the naysayers out there,
41:33I'll affirm it. Our city continues to get city-firmer. And we have Mayor Adams to thank.
41:38Let's give him the round of applause he deserves.
41:48This is a heroic place. Elmhurst is a heroic place. Now, I want to note that we are very
41:55quick as a society to commemorate where battles happened, where people were killed.
42:03Even in noble cause, people were killed. We love to talk about the battles when they're military.
42:11But what about the battle that happened here? What about the battle to not take life, but to
42:16save life? What about the heroism of every single health care worker in this building who came into
42:26day after day danger, the unknown, the impossible, every single day? You know, you go into a battle,
42:36it could be a day, it could be a week, it could be a month. Everyone here at Elmhurst came here
42:42for not just weeks, months, for years, day after day, into battle, into noble battle, into the
42:50battle of salvation, of compassion, of life-saving. I wish people all over this world could see
43:02the heroism, the bravery, the nobility of the people in this room and everyone else
43:09who's ever worked in this building. I think of this as sacred ground
43:16because people reached the highest heights of humanity right here at Elmhurst Hospital. You
43:22showed the world something they had never seen before because we had never faced
43:26a pandemic like this. This was the, let's make no mistake, this was the greatest, most profound
43:33crisis in the history of New York City. And there was an epicenter within the epicenter,
43:39and we're standing in it right now. But you all never, ever bent, you never buckled.
43:47From that moment five years ago to today, this place has stood strong. You have stood strong.
43:55Everyone, look around you at the heroes in your midst. Let's all give each other a round of applause.
44:11I'll be kind of brief.
44:17Check your watches, everyone. No, look, I got to say, I want to just say a few words about
44:23what this all means and where we are today, but I have to first talk about colleagues because
44:31they should never be forgotten. To our elected official colleagues, to the councilman,
44:35to the borough president, thank you. It was never easy, and everyone you represented came to you
44:39every day looking for answers, looking for help, and you never gave up. You always tried to find
44:43something even in the toughest moments. Thank you. Donovan Francisco, thank you.
44:48If you watched the morning press conferences when I was not eating a hamburger,
44:53that was occasional, you know that the man who spearheaded our test and trace core and created
45:01it from scratch and with a boundless energy and enthusiasm and creativity, I don't know what he
45:07eats for breakfast, but we should all eat it. Ted Long, Dr. Ted Long, God bless you. Thank you.
45:18Ted, if what you eat for breakfast is legal, I wish you would market it to the rest of us.
45:33Yeah, that's right. And I'm sure I'm not seeing all of my colleagues in the room,
45:39but I do want to single out someone who played a crucial role in our recovery and really proved
45:45it could be done. Lorraine Grillo, thank you for all you've done for this city.
45:54And then I want to tell you, as Mayor Adams will attest, there are days when you're in leadership
45:58where you do something and you think it's the right thing to do, but you have no idea the
46:01ramification later that could happen, the impact it can later make. And one day, I reached out to
46:09Dr. Mitch Katz to try and convince him to come back to his native land from Los Angeles.
46:14And we had an amazing conversation. And I thought, well, this man certainly, a true New Yorker,
46:22proud son of Brooklyn, someone who really gets us and loves this place, he'll be a great leader
46:27for health and hospitals. That's all I thought he would be, a great leader for health and hospitals.
46:30I had no idea he would be a global leader in the fight against COVID. I had no idea he would be
46:36one of the voices that help New Yorkers understand how to find our way through. I had no idea
46:43he would be the great general of this army that never, ever gave anyone anything but inspiration.
46:52I remember I watched. There was not a day when Mitch Katz said, we can't do that.
46:58Not a day. And history is going to say that the prodigal son returned,
47:05and he came just in time to save us. Dr. Mitch Katz, thank you.
47:13All right. I'm going to be very quick now. Maybe. I want you to just go back for a moment.
47:25I'll tell you what I saw just a second ago. I was coming over here,
47:29walking over from the subway to the hospital, and I saw a truck making a delivery to a grocery
47:35store. It happened to be a refrigerated truck. And I had that chill go through me about remembering
47:43those trucks around the hospitals. And then I had a moment of positive recognition that it was
47:50just another day in 2025, and it was just a truck delivering to a grocery store in a neighborhood
47:57because we were back, because life had come full circle. And you all made that happen.
48:03But if you put yourself back in those times, we didn't know. And we have to be honest about it.
48:10We didn't know. And this moment, this exact moment, this exact day, five years ago,
48:16we didn't know if this was the beginning of something much, much worse than we could even
48:22imagine. We didn't know if it would be days or weeks or months or years because no one knew.
48:27If you feel, and I spent a lot of time this week feeling those moments, if you feel what it was
48:32like as we entered the great unknown, and how the medical community, the scientific community,
48:39in all their nobility, did not have answers. It wasn't their fault. They just didn't have them.
48:44The only thing we had was each other. The only thing we had was the spirit and the strength of
48:51New Yorkers and the compassion. I want to remind you how many people, even if they were exhausted,
48:56even if they were down, everyone in this room knows it, still reached out, that helping hand,
49:02still went that extra mile because that's who we are. Now, it is astounding how far we have come.
49:13So you would think after that battle, after those years of pain and loss,
49:17after that battle, after those years of pain and loss, maybe we would have fallen back. Maybe we
49:21would have been thrown off in our exhaustion, in our pain. We wouldn't know how to take that
49:26next step to recovery. And yet, people found strength again, energy again, leadership again,
49:33to bring us to this point today. And the world marvels at us.
49:40Now, I want to just say something to wrap it all together.
49:44And this may be a little edgy, Mayor. Forgive me.
49:51When things got tough around here, some people went to the Hamptons, and other people went to
49:57the front line to fight. Some people fled, and other people went to help their fellow New Yorker.
50:07And I remember some of those conversations in those days, people talking to me,
50:12talking to me about their plan to go someplace safe. And I remembered thinking,
50:18what about the other 8 million people who don't have that opportunity?
50:23And those 8 million people didn't cower in their homes and say, I can't go out. They went out,
50:30and they fought. And they helped others. And they put, every one of you, put yourself in harm's way.
50:38So, some fled, and others served. And the only reason we're back is because
50:45those people who served gave their all. You know, you go back to the 1960s and 70s,
50:52New York City was in a lot of trouble. And you could see everywhere predictions that
50:57its best days were behind it. And then you go to the end of the 80s, beginning of the 90s,
51:04the mayor remembers this well, crime out of control in a way we couldn't even recognize today.
51:102,200 murders a year. And people said, that's it for New York City.
51:16And then came 9-11. The whole world watched. Destruction. As the mayor said, a lot of people
51:21were like, there's no way to come back from that. The Great Recession laid us low for a long,
51:27long time. People said, that's it. Superstorm Sandy, that's it. COVID, unquestionably. I've
51:35heard one more person tell me, with assurance, that's it. New York City's done. And I never
51:43believed them. But I remember that strange sensation about six or seven months into the
51:50pandemic, when rents started going up. I'm not happy about rents going up. The mayor's not happy
51:58about rents going up. But when rents go up, it means people actually want to live there.
52:03So I was like, huh, we're still in a pandemic. And yet people want to be here. They don't want
52:09to give up. I think there's got to be a point in our lives when no one will ever say again,
52:18it's over for New York City. There's got to be that moment where history matters.
52:24And it's finally recognized that if you take the strongest people, the most resilient people,
52:32the most amazing people from around the world, and they come here from all over this country,
52:36from all over the world, and their children are here, and their grandchildren are here,
52:39and their great-grandchildren are here, and we build a community of people forged in fire,
52:45that maybe that group of people is special. Maybe we can do things that a lot of other people can't
52:51do, won't do. Maybe we are the chosen ones here in New York City to be that greatest city in the
52:58world and to show the world what it means. Because New York City is an idea, a powerful idea. It's a
53:08place for everyone. It's a place where everyone matters and is respected. No matter what's
53:14happened around us in this country, in this world, our values don't change. And those very same
53:19values brought us through our worst crisis. So if you ever, ever hear someone say,
53:26it's over for New York City, I just want you to put a pleasant smile on your face.
53:31Tell them you were there in those years during COVID. You saw the best of humanity.
53:37And we overcame. And we are alive. Thank you.
53:46Our program is now concluded. Thank you for joining us.
53:56And with that, we're going to conclude the program. But I'm going to ask you all,
54:00if you think about today's program, to go hug your family, go hug a friend, right? Remind them
54:07of how important life is. It's very fragile and needs to be greatly appreciated. Thank you,
54:14everybody, for coming.