6 newyork| march30–april12, 2020
[email protected].
Orgotonymag.comtorespondtoindividualstories.Comments1 For New York’s latestissue,themag-
azine turneditseyetohowthecoro-navirus suddenlyoccupiedthemindsof
millions aroundtheworld.Thecoverwas
divisive. Ad Age’s SimonDumencowrote
that it nails “lifeduringa pandemic,”and
the cover quicklybecamea visualtouch-
point for media coverage aroundthe
crisis. But on Instagramandelsewhere,
many commenters took issue with
the reference to “the scariest time
in America since 9/11.” @livschreiber,
for instance, wrote, “This is ridiculous.
To compare to 9/11?? This is whatfeeds
hysteria. I’m in NY and surrounded
by happy people running on West
Side Highway!” Others criticizedthede-
sign for being histrionic and unhelpful.
@emelierod wrote, “As a trustedsource
of journalism for many, this feelsreally
irresponsible.” The designer StevenHell-
er called it “the wrong cover at thewrong
time ... The best way to trigger panicis to
enable panic. I realize that thiscoveris
cleverly designed to illustratewhat our
city, state, country, and world are‘feeling’
at this moment. But I ‘feel’ it doesmore
harm as the meme of the momentthan
good. We need solutions, not morefear
and chaos.” The coverage of thepandem-
ic included an essay by MollyFischer
(“A City of Bodies,” March 16–29) that
documented the personal transition
from normal life in New York Citytoan
altered reality of social distancing.Van -
ity Fair’s Claire Landsbaum calledita
ary essay ... that lik
of Handmaid’s
“This was in ywritten. You articulated thingsabout
the city that I’ve felt but neverbeen
able to put into words before.”
2 Asthepoliticalresponsetothecoro-
navirusrampedup,DavidFreedland-
erofferedreadersa front-rowseat toNew
YorkgovernorAndrewCuomo’s muscular,
andmuch-lauded,response(“TheBully
GovernorMeetsHisMoment,”March
16–29). @hollsterbirt added,“Iwishhe
wasPresidentrightnow, heis leadingand
Trumpis not.” @besslevinwasreminded
ofhisleadershipduringprevioustimesof
crisis:“Rememberhimthreateningto
burycon-edetcina shallowgraveif they
didn’t gettheirshittogetherafterhurri-
canesandy?”Evencriticsofthegovernor
wereimpressedbyhisresponse.@seth-
pohotweeted,“Nottheworld’s biggest
Cuomofan,butI’llsay this—at least he’s
tryingtogetsolutions.”3 In“ThisWillGetWorse”(March
16–29),NewYork’s businesscolum-
nist Josh Barrowroteaboutthegrim
uncertainty around the coronavirus.
@rain_juarezwrote,“Thankyou for
beingcandidabouttheunknowns.It ’s a
re freshingtake.”@kyarilee01 agreed:
“Wow,that waskindofdepressingbut
thanksfornotsugarcoatingit.” Modena.
briancommented,“Fairandaccuratear-
ticle...Mortalitynumbersare likelyinac-
curateat thispoint,butnoonecandeny
what’shappenedinItaly. It’s apretty
clearandapparentdangerthatneedsat-
tackingheadonnowinsteadofdenial,
excuses, andthoughtsthathelpussleep
betteratnightandmightalignwithour
po rty.” Whatthereynardsays
w s sosoberingI pouredmy-
se lf waythrough.”4 Online, New York’s writers and edi-
tors have reported extensively on themountingcrisis. For Intelligencer, Jeff
Wisepainstakingly detailed what the
virus’journeythrough the human body
lookslike(“Howthe Coronavirus Could
TakeOverYourBody—Before You Ever
FeelIt,”March 18 ). More than 3million
peoplereadthereport, and many re-
spondedbyencouraging othersto stay
inside.BBC’s Emmanuel Igunza tweeted,
“Readthistounderstand the importance
ofsocialdistance. Not meant to scare but
illustrates things nicely.” Julie Banderas of
Fox News added, “Read this beginning to
end. Then stay the f *** home please.”
Others found the story unnecessarily
alarmist. Ronny Langley wrote, “The
public is looking for answers not to be
put in a state of panic.” And denisestites
said, “Why would this article be posted
except to create more fear. We have many
articles to read explaining the extent of
this virus and what to expect andthe best
ways to get through it without creating
more fear.” Commenter renotory respond-
ed to those critiques: “For those of you
complaining that the article is ‘negative,’
maybe you should consider the huge per-
centage of the population (mostly
younger people) who are not taking this
virus seriously. Observe the percentage of
them heading to the beaches for spring
break partying. There are a lot of people
who are still trying to go to Hawaii to
vacation, in spite of that state’s officials
asking them not to. So you are wrong that
this is a sensationalist article with no
practical use. If the people who are read-
ing it are motivated to change their behav-
ior to help stop this virus, it will have had
exactly the effect the author intended.”Onlythe BeginningThe pandemic arrives, andthe city shudders.
PhotographsbyDAVIDWILLIAMS
Thursday March 12 JFK airport Thursday March 12 L tain at Sixth AvenueMarch 16 (^29 2020) ®