The Senate Finance Committee held a confirmation hearing for Dr. Oz on Friday.
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.