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A Fitting Memorial
Now that COVID-19's worst seems to be over, a conversation has broken out in New York City about how to memorialize this terrifying episode.
Mayor de Blasio has suggested a parade. Others have proposed statues to honor victims and healthcare workers. The mayor's idea has been derided for running contrary to social distancing. Both approaches would cost money and trigger awkward debates over whom to honor, and how.
That doesn't mean they're not worth doing. There is, however, a better way to honor healthcare workers and victims: by creating local resources to make sure New York City never faces the abyss it confronted in early April.
 In coming months and years, there will be more than one review of why COVID-19 was so deadly here, and those exercises will itemize the things New York City needs to do differently next time. We already know, however, what New York City needs to have—like, now: A stockpile millions and millions deep of personal protective equipment, along with hundreds of ventilators, a well-organized medical reserve, capacity within the city's growing biotech industry for the rapid development and production of tests for emerging diseases and more hospital beds than we currently have, so the healthcare system has more flexibility.
Modern healthcare and our just-in-time-delivery economy argue against excess capacity and emergency stores. The mindset is, if we ever need it, we can buy it or build it. We saw how comforting that approach was on the days when our hospitalization numbers climbed and climbed.
It's important to remember times when crisis brought our city closer together, and to acknowledge the human costs. Statues and parades do well to lift spirits and immortalize heroes. But the next time infectious disease stalks New York City, the stuff locked in storerooms could be the most powerful memorial to the scale of our loss to COVID-19 and the courage of the workers who battled against it.
Stay healthy,
Jarrett Murphy, executive editor
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