The Covid Entries
The Covid Entries offer daily reports of the pandemic’s harsh surge in New York City in early spring 2020. The 56 entries provide real time observations of the early weeks when disease and fear transformed the city. The City fell silent.
All Entries
* Invitation *
InvitationPhoto: March 29, 2020 Sixth Avenue
Date: Wednesday, April 1, 2020 at 4:00 AM
Subject: Boorstein has a blog??!!
Sent 4/1/20
3/6 First Entry | deaths with no funerals
Photo: March 6, 2020 Sixth Avenue Staples
Sent 4/4/20
3/15/20 Second Entry | a true crisis
Third Entry | trash in empty streets
Fourth Entry | fire drill for the apocalypse
wise friend, headed for the hills
Photo: March 19, 2020 100 Sullivan Street
Sent 4/11/20
Fifth Entry 🔊 | new territory
3/21 Audio Grocery lines, spring blossoms, and barbershops. 5 min.
Photo: March 21, 2020 Sixth Avenue
Sent 4/12/20
SPECIAL Entry - Easter (Gallery) | boarding up essential work
global news, virus is spreading
Photo: April 12, 2020 Prince Street
Sent 4/14/20
Sixth Entry | calls from around the country
Seventh Entry | communicated with a glance
Eighth Entry | stock market up two thousand points
self-grooming, hope people are looking out their windows, mitzvah trucks
Photo: March 25, West 21st Street
Sent 4/20/20
Ninth Entry | a biker's paradise
Tenth Entry 🔊 | uniquely ill-equipped
aid package, public schools, a tiger with covid
3/27 Audio Spring Street, Oculus, Hurricane Sandy. 6 min.
Photo: March 27, Prince Street
Sent 4/24/20
Eleventh Entry | flimflamery
Covid test, Calatrava’s oculus, a dire situation
Photo: March 28, Sixth Avenue
Sent 4/26/20
Twelfth Entry | a level of unknown has crept into everyone's life
World Trade Center Transportation Hub, first world horrific
Photo: March 29, Oculus
Sent 4/28/20
Thirteenth Entry 🔊 | the audible spectrum
3/30 Audio The haves and the have nots. 5 min.
Photo: March 30, Sullivan Street
Sent 4/30/20
Fourteenth Entry 🔊 | gatherings are evaporating
begging for health care workers, projected deaths
3/31 Audio Springtime, flowering trees, six feet apart. 3 min.
Photo: March 31, Sixth Avenue
Sent 5/2/20
Fifteenth Entry | what does it take to change a place?
toilet paper demand, “informed projections”
Photo: April 1, Prince Street
Sent 5/4/20
Sixteenth Entry | one cannot live forever
ethical guidelines, canned goods, throwing stuff away
Photo: April 2, Thompson Street
Sent 5/6/20
Seventeenth Entry 🔊 | some things change more quickly than others
masks, confirmed cases
4/3 Audio 1
Eye contact, clang – clunk, a train car to yourself. 6 min.
4/3 Audio 2
Tulips, kindly garbage trucks, mood shift.
2 min.
Photo: April 3, West 21st Street
Sent 5/8/20
Eighteenth Entry | plans and endings
Nineteenth Entry | singular sound
some absences more notable than others, eye contact
Photo: April 5, Sixth Avenue
Sent 5/12/20
Twentieth Entry | it is the same place and a different place
Twenty-first Entry | "chance operation"
Twenty-second Entry | normal now needs to be defined
Twenty-third Entry 🔊 | new term - "social distancing"
government relief, New York and Venice, prisons
4/9 Audio April showers, seeing the wind, horn honk. 2 min.
Photo: April 9, MacDougal Street
Sent 5/20/20
Twenty-fourth Entry 🔊 | urban isolation chamber
feeling lost, Yemen and aide programs, Notre Dame
4/10 Audio Goldberg variations, prelude 1, interlude in a quiet city. 3 min.
Photo: April 10, Rent Bill
Sent 5/22/20
Twenty-fifth Entry | cigarette butts
SPECIAL Entry - Mid
Twenty-sixth Entry | a darkly cloaked gift
an opportunity, a disruption, what makes each of us tick
Photo: April 12, Mercer Street
Sent 5/31/20
SPECIAL Entry - Post-Break
Twenty-seventh Entry | covid dreams
lugging stolen toilet paper in a bed sheet, analogies to war
Photo: April 13, Madison Street
Sent 6/19/20
Twenty-eighth Entry 🔊 | gasoline under $2.00 per gallon
eye contact, false negative tests, prisoners
4/14 Audio Tax day, Jefferson Market Library, six bells. 1 min.
Photo: April 14, Broome Street
Sent 6/23/20
Twenty-ninth Entry | eating a bush
Thirtieth Entry | losing a simple human gesture
the quiet of the morning remains delicious, job loss, masks
Photo: April 16, Grand Street
Sent 7/1/20
Thirty-first Entry | a familiar strangeness
stillness, refridgerated trailers, riding the wrong way
Photo: April 17, Bleecker Street
Sent 7/5/20
Thirty-second Entry | illegal jogging
testing, vaccines for common diseases
Photo: April 18, Spring Street
Sent 7/9/20
Thirty-third Entry | one person's heartbreak is another's delight
Photo: April 19, Greene Street
Sent 7/13/20
Thirty-fourth Entry | you cannot make this stuff up
Thirty-fifth Entry | savoring an absence
boarded up clothing stores, eye contact, 9-11 memorial
Photo: April 21, West Street
Sent 7/21/20
Thirty-sixth Entry | morgue trucks keep humming
restaurants, airlines, military readiness
Photo: April 22, Sixth Avenue
Sent on 7/25/20
Thirty-seventh Entry | throwing things away
the media, student-teacher relations
Photo: April 23, Canal Street
Sent on 7/29/20
Thirty-eighth Entry | the non-reversing mirror
Photo: April 24, West 21st Street
Sent on 8/2/20
Thirty-ninth Entry | freedom over saftey
Fortieth Entry | injecting disinfectants
Hubble space telescope, gas prices, covid testing
Photo: April 26, Broadway
Sent 8/10/20
Forty-first Entry | food insecure
May chill, unemployment, all we need is lip service
Photo: April 27, Seventh Avenue
Sent 8/14/20
Forty-second Entry 🔊 | the defense production act and pork
4/28 Audio Flowering trees, NYC as a village, Soho’s next chapter. 3 min.
Photo: April 28, Prince Street
Sent 9/20/20
Forty-third Entry 🔊 | the crystal ball is cloudy
4/29 Audio Late night, out of balance, Mister Mister can I have a dollar. 2 min.
Photo: April 29, Avenue C
Sent 9/24/20
Forty-fourth Entry | cloud of safety over the blanket of fear
Forty-fifth Entry 🔊 | some things do not change
5/1 Audio Popular restaurants, Washington Sq Park skating sink, Flags at half mast. 2 min.
Photo: May 1, Mott Street
Sent 10/2/20
Forty-sixth Entry | this place may need noise
Forty-seventh Entry | a delightful unnecessary transaction
Kentucky Derby, Spring Street, hand written Covid signs
Photo: May 2, Prince Street
Sent 10/10/20
Forty-eighth Entry | the lower east river
Photo: May 3, West 21st Street
Sent 10/14/20
Forty-ninth Entry | another lesson of what is essential
Fiftieth Entry | information is a kind of noise
Fifty-first Entry | the soundscape continues to expand
Photo: May 6, Sixth Avenue
Sent 10/26/20
