5 ms·

Thank you for the link, good data! To nitpick though, it does not quite answer the question of whether "the bodies were piling up" because totals exceeded pre-

by ptero 6y ago

Thank you for the link, good data! To nitpick though, it does not quite answer the question of whether "the bodies were piling up" because totals exceeded pre-COVID processing capacity or because the processing chain broke down. That is, was the level during Spring of 2020 (higher than average Spring, your link shows it) also higher than previous spikes that included other seasons.

mcguire 6y ago
To counter-nitpick... :-) Could your place of employment handle a 2-month long, 5x spike? Would the processing chain break down? Would it make a difference which it was?
- ptero 6y ago
  To c-c nitpick :). The issue is not being able to handle the 5x volume spike, but handling the spikes the system handled just fine before (but not necessarily at the same day of the week/month/year). For example, if my employer promises not to reduce cafeteria service and a month later says "no cafeteria for employees today due to a conference; we cannot feed that many people; go away" a hungry employee should check if we had such spikes before and if so how well we did. If indeed it was a unique surge, OK. But if every year we have similar spikes and they never turned employees away, "we did reduce service" is a better explanation than "we cannot serve such volumes" :).
  - mcguire 6y ago
    You know, this is not a link I'd ever thought I'd be looking for: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/new-york-city-expands-morgue-capacity-by-75-can-now-handle-3600-corpses-at-a-time-2020-03-30 https://www.marketwatch.com/story/new-york-city-expands-morg... "Without the makeshift morgues, the city can accommodate between 800 and 900 bodies, Aja Worthy-Davis, the executive director for the Office of Public Affairs for the Office of Chief Medical Examiner, told MarketWatch on Monday. "“Between the tent and the refrigerated trucks, we have space for between 3,500 and 3,600,” Worthy-Davis said." And then there's this, which is interesting.... https://www.cityandstateny.com/articles/policy/health-care/what-happens-when-you-die-new-york-city.html https://www.cityandstateny.com/articles/policy/health-care/w... "That unprecedented number of deaths over the course of a few months has led funeral homes to experience a backlog, which has, in turn, overwhelmed city and hospital morgues with bodies waiting to be picked up by funeral homes. "For some in this business, the crisis has served as a reminder of just how much families need to have their deceased loved ones cared for with respect. “We got swamped and weren't able to offer services at the time,” D’Arienzo, the funeral director, said of the backlog funeral homes were experiencing. “Families were so desperate, it just ignited a fire under me to make sure that we're always prepared.”" So the problem looks like funeral homes not picking up bodies. Which makes sense; I don't think they're in the processing capacity business. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/10/new-york-funeral-homes-crematoriums-cemeteries-coronavirus https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/10/new-york-fun... Has the interesting comment: "<p>New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, this week signed an executive order allowing out-of-state funeral directors to come into the state to help relieve pressure on funeral services. The move came after the <a href="https://www.nfda.org/news/in-the-news/nfda-news/id/4984/an-open-letter-to-governor-andrew-cuomo--urgent-request-for-license-reciprocity-for-funeral-directors https://www.nfda.org/news/in-the-news/nfda-news/id/4984/an-o..." data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">National Funeral Directors Association</a> wrote an open letter letter to the governor, saying hundreds of people were willing to help." (Yeah, the Guardian doesn't want me to see the article.)
    - ptero 6y ago
      First and foremost, thank you for digging up the information. I owe you a beer. As you said, the problem seemed to be with funeral homes not picking up bodies. I wonder if this was primarily due to increased deaths (which I do not doubt) or restrictions that made the funeral homes not able or not willing to handle the funerals.
      - nobody9999 6y ago
        IIRC, the funeral homes were overwhelmed as well[0]. [0] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/29/nyregion/bodies-brooklyn-funeral-home-coronavirus.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/29/nyregion/bodies-brooklyn-...

by ptero 6y ago

mcguire 6y ago

To counter-nitpick... :-) Could your place of employment handle a 2-month long, 5x spike? Would the processing chain break down? Would it make a difference which it was?

ptero 6y ago
To c-c nitpick :). The issue is not being able to handle the 5x volume spike, but handling the spikes the system handled just fine before (but not necessarily at the same day of the week/month/year). For example, if my employer promises not to reduce cafeteria service and a month later says "no cafeteria for employees today due to a conference; we cannot feed that many people; go away" a hungry employee should check if we had such spikes before and if so how well we did. If indeed it was a unique surge, OK. But if every year we have similar spikes and they never turned employees away, "we did reduce service" is a better explanation than "we cannot serve such volumes" :).
- mcguire 6y ago
  You know, this is not a link I'd ever thought I'd be looking for: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/new-york-city-expands-morgue-capacity-by-75-can-now-handle-3600-corpses-at-a-time-2020-03-30 https://www.marketwatch.com/story/new-york-city-expands-morg... "Without the makeshift morgues, the city can accommodate between 800 and 900 bodies, Aja Worthy-Davis, the executive director for the Office of Public Affairs for the Office of Chief Medical Examiner, told MarketWatch on Monday. "“Between the tent and the refrigerated trucks, we have space for between 3,500 and 3,600,” Worthy-Davis said." And then there's this, which is interesting.... https://www.cityandstateny.com/articles/policy/health-care/what-happens-when-you-die-new-york-city.html https://www.cityandstateny.com/articles/policy/health-care/w... "That unprecedented number of deaths over the course of a few months has led funeral homes to experience a backlog, which has, in turn, overwhelmed city and hospital morgues with bodies waiting to be picked up by funeral homes. "For some in this business, the crisis has served as a reminder of just how much families need to have their deceased loved ones cared for with respect. “We got swamped and weren't able to offer services at the time,” D’Arienzo, the funeral director, said of the backlog funeral homes were experiencing. “Families were so desperate, it just ignited a fire under me to make sure that we're always prepared.”" So the problem looks like funeral homes not picking up bodies. Which makes sense; I don't think they're in the processing capacity business. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/10/new-york-funeral-homes-crematoriums-cemeteries-coronavirus https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/10/new-york-fun... Has the interesting comment: "<p>New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, this week signed an executive order allowing out-of-state funeral directors to come into the state to help relieve pressure on funeral services. The move came after the <a href="https://www.nfda.org/news/in-the-news/nfda-news/id/4984/an-open-letter-to-governor-andrew-cuomo--urgent-request-for-license-reciprocity-for-funeral-directors https://www.nfda.org/news/in-the-news/nfda-news/id/4984/an-o..." data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">National Funeral Directors Association</a> wrote an open letter letter to the governor, saying hundreds of people were willing to help." (Yeah, the Guardian doesn't want me to see the article.)
  - ptero 6y ago
    First and foremost, thank you for digging up the information. I owe you a beer. As you said, the problem seemed to be with funeral homes not picking up bodies. I wonder if this was primarily due to increased deaths (which I do not doubt) or restrictions that made the funeral homes not able or not willing to handle the funerals.
    - nobody9999 6y ago
      IIRC, the funeral homes were overwhelmed as well[0]. [0] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/29/nyregion/bodies-brooklyn-funeral-home-coronavirus.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/29/nyregion/bodies-brooklyn-...