Nurses who traveled from across the country to work in New York City hospitals saw the horrors of the coronavirus up close. They rushed patients to overcrowded intensive care units, monitored oxygen levels and held the hands of the sickest ones as they slipped away.
But now that many of the nurses have returned home to states in the South and the West, they’re facing a new challenge: persuading friends and family to take the virus seriously.
“A few times I’ve lost my temper,” said Olumide Peter Kolade, a 31-year-old nurse from California who grew up in Texas and spent more than three months treating patients in New York. “When someone tells me that they don’t believe the virus is real, it’s an insult. I take it personally.”
On the way to his 12-hour shifts in Brooklyn, Mr. Kolade would scroll through Instagram and Snapchat and see photos taken the previous night of his friends partying in Texas. A few, adamant that the coronavirus was a hoax or that deaths in New York were overstated, texted him videos promoting the false internet conspiracy theory that links the spread of the virus to the ultrafast wireless technology known as 5G.
slugsliveinmymouth on July 7th, 2020 at 11:29 UTC »
I can’t think of anything more disrespectful then saying it’s just a hoax. You’re actively spreading that idea around and not showing any concern over others lives. And fuck all the mothers, fathers, sons and daughters who have died from this, huh? We just gonna pretend that’s all a hoax too? I get it though, it hasn’t affected your life yet and you can’t see it so it can’t be real. I can understand that because that’s how I feel about god. But saying that ruffles some feathers of ignorant hypocrites.
wulfpacker1 on July 7th, 2020 at 11:09 UTC »
How can it be a hoax yet China’s fault at the same time? Asking for a friend.....
PlayingtheDrums on July 7th, 2020 at 10:21 UTC »
Italians did that in the EU, was pretty helpful to have some film inside hospitals, makes it more real, despite the privacy-concerns it raises.