Americans are commemorating the 19th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks on Friday, the commemorative occasions that allow lifeguards and survivors to gather and cry have been reduced due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In addition to the pain that accompanies the anniversary, tens of thousands of lifeguards and survivors are at risk of a more severe case of COVID-19 due to cancers and respiratory diseases due to their time at the sites of the attack. .
Last month, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy suggested funeral-goers wear a mask and practice social estating.
Meanwhile, the New York City Fire Department encouraged its members to consider skipping memorial services, given their specific threat to contracting the virus. -19, Tunnel to Towers Foundation announced that it would be reading. A multitude of mourners attended the memorial rite at the World Trade Center dressed in masks and practicing social est estating. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and Vice President Pence attended the rite.
The September 11 monument and museum also first canceled this year’s Triyete to Light, where two rays of light in the sky mark the location of the Twin Towers, but reversed its resolve after a protest by the families of the victims and the public.
The inability to relate to others on commemorative occasions can be complicated for lifeguards and survivors, many of whom already suffer from intellectual fitness problems because of their experiences on 9/11.
“As a matter of pandemic, because occasions are canceled, many of them feel that the walls are final and have to worry about their intellectual health,” 9/11 first responder John Feal told CBS News in an interview.
Feal also expressed fear that the plight of 9/11 lifeguards affected by the virus and its own pre-existing fitness problems will be through the public, as the 19th anniversary is not a milestone that attracts so many people. Warning.
“If it’s the twentieth anniversary, you’ll be given more attention,” Feal said.
Earlier this year, when the coronavirus seemed more like a risk of transitoryness than a major public fitness crisis affecting millions of Americans, Feal still felt it was vital to take the pandemic seriously.
He was demolition manager at Ground Zero in New York after the September 11 attacks and developed gangrene after a metal beam fell on his foot, which then required partial amputation.
Feal has been a tireless advocate for other survivors on September 11 and is the founder of the FealGood Foundation, which aims to help wounded lifeguards in the line of duty. He recorded a video this year urging 9/11 lifeguards to take the pandemic seriously.
“In the first week of March, I dressed up in a mask before I was sexy,” Feal told CBS News in an interview. Despite the precautions he took, Feal contracted the virus. What started as a virus in the abdomen turned to pneumonia. temporarily tested positive for COVID-19.
“Not only did they damage my joints, but they also damaged my skin. And they only damaged my skin, but my frame damaged my hair,” Feal said. “Everything hurts me. My eyelashes hurt. “
Feal said doctors had given him the option to stay in the hospital for a remedy or return home; made the decision to go home because he didn’t need to die in the hospital. lost his sense of taste and smell, which came this far. weeks later. He had trouble speaking and rarely felt irrational.
“The scariest thing about all this is not being able to breathe, as if someone had my head underwater,” Feal said.
Feal has recovered, but like his ground zero injury 19 years ago, he feels his life has changed.
“I don’t feel the same way. Mentally and physically, my life has changed,” he said. “After having this disease, I don’t feel 100 percent where I was. “
Feal spoke of the concern that all lifeguards and survivors would feel about having some type of cancer similar to that of 9/11, and how that concern was aggravated through the pandemic.
“In the 9/11 community, everyone is involved 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, about when they’re going to have 9/11 cancers,” Feal said. “Everyone, myself included, we all look over our shoulders and say, “When do we have cancer?Now they look over their shoulders and say, ‘My Lord, when am I going to have cancer or when am I going to have a COVID or when am I going to have both?'”
This is the first time the 9/11 network has addressed an unsatisfactory federal reaction to its problems. The first responders and survivors have had to go to Congress for years to compensate them for their injuries, many of them died because of their 9/11 ailments in the middle of their defense.
The September 11 Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) created through the Bush administration operated between 2001 and 2004, but only helped patients whose injuries occurred within 96 hours of the attacks, excluding the first to respond as Feal, who was injured on September 17. 2001. Feal has become one of the top prominent defenders of the 9/11 community. In 2011, President Obama signed the 9/11 James Zadroga Health and Compensation Act, which reactivated the VCF.
The law was reauthorized in 2015, allowing Americans to file their claims with the VCF; however, it became transparent in 2019 that the VCF did not have the budget to control all programmes presented. to renew the fund.
In July 2019, President Trump signed the VCF Permanent Authorization Act extending the VCF filing deadline from December 18, 2020 to October 1, 2090 and allocating enough budget to respond to all claims. As of July 31, more than 55,000 people had filed claims. VCF.
The VCF not only helps lifeguards, but also those who helped clean the suites, as well as those who have lived, worked or attended school in the area.
Michael Barasch’s law firm represents 20,000 9/11 lifeguards and survivors who have become 9/11 cases. Barasch told CBS News that only his law firm has lost more than a hundred clients to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. .
“It’s actually an incredible storm,” Barasch said, explaining how many of his clients have undergone chemotherapy for cancer or suffer from an underlying respiratory disease. “And if they do, it is a death sentence. “
Barasch said many of his clients felt betrayed by the government. After September 11, he said, the first to respond were reported through the then Director of the Environmental Protection Agency that the air was breathable at Ground Zero (director Christine Todd Whitman). , then admitted that he was and apologized for his comments. )
The federal government downplayed the severity of the coronavirus pandemic in the early days of the pandemic, which Barasch says exacerbated the crisis.
“Why haven’t we been prepared?
Dr. Benjamin Luft, director of the Long Island-based Stony Brook WTC Health and Wellness Program, who treats and monitors some 10,000 first-time lifeguards on September 11, said there was a lot of anxiety and worry among lifeguards before spring.
“They think it’s almost a repetition of what happened on September 11,” Luft told CBS News in an interview, especially given the initial lack of non-public protective devices in hospitals. “I think they’re more likely not to have the right coverage because they burned once with all this, so they’re very cautious. “
Luft said his program monitors the rate of infection and severity of the disease in lifeguards who get the virus. He claimed that the first responders were more likely to be infected, but that retired lifeguards discovered a lower infection rate because they are aware of their pre-existing situations and the care they want to take to get the virus.
Although the infection rate has declined in New York, home to most 9/11 lifeguards, Luft said they continue to practice social estating and the use of hat shop.
“I think they stay tuned. I think they want to remain wise and continue to practice masked dresses and social esttachment, and they want to take care of themselves in terms of maintaining a healthy lifestyle,” Luft said.
Daniel Monte, a design employee at the Pentagon when he introduced the American Airlines Flight 77 accident to the design on September 11, 2001, worked on phoenix’s assignment to rebuild the design later and was diagnosed with bladder diseases related to September 11. post-traumatic tension disorder as a result.
Monte, who is now in Panama City Beach, Florida, told CBS News that he had been “hibernating” for months due to the risk of contracting the virus.
“I wash my hands all the time, wear a mask and don’t touch my face. I keep my social distance,” Monte said, his recent bladder cancer operations were also covered through the VCF, which Monte hailed as a resource for Survivors on September 11.
He is frustrated by the combined messages from government officials on how to deal with the virus and on protecting the reopening of businesses and schools.
“No one knows how to deal with this, so I stay home, ” he said. “I need someone to publish some kind of critical information that covers what we deserve to do and what we deserve not to do. “
Prolonged isolation affects your intellectual health.
“It’s hard,” Monte said, “I suffer from PTSD and isolation doesn’t help. “
“It’s been a long time since I had freedom. But whatever it is to keep others safe, that’s what I’m going to do,” Monte added. “Let’s get ahead through this. “
For more information on the Victim Compensation Fund, vcf. gov.
The VCF would possibly compensate others with 9/11 who die when the death certificate identifies COVID-19 as a cause of death, if the pre-existing condition is known as an underlying cause of death or significant situations contributing to death. review individual claims on a case-by-case basis.