Transcript: Mayor Adams, City Leaders Honor Lives Lost to COVID-19; Reflect on New York City's Efforts to Treat, Test, Vaccinate, and Heal New Yorkers During the Pandemic

March 14, 2025

Helen Arteaga-Landaverde, CEO, NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst: Good morning, good morning everyone, buenos dias, and welcome to Elmhurst. You see, Dr. Katz has it on point, he says buenos dias, so I want to hear it again. Buenos dias, everyone. Welcome to Elmhurst Hospital, to our special guests, our elected officials, our commissioners, Mount Sinai CEO Brendan Carr, our borough president, health and hospital corporate officers, and of course, Mayor Adams, and I get two mayors now. 

Once again, my name is Helen Arteaga, I am the very proud and humble CEO of New York City Health and Hospital Elmhurst. On March 2020, the world changed. Our community suffered, and the lives of 6,000 Elmhurst employees changed forever. Our hospital was the epicenter of the epicenter. Our communities suffered something they could never imagine. But I stand here very proud and humble by the brave healthcare workers that worked in this hospital, who took care of the Queen's community. 

We can't forget those that we have lost here at Elmhurst, in the community and beyond. Therefore, today, we take a pause, we remember, and we heal. I want to acknowledge all the 6,000 employees that work here at Elmhurst, my colleagues, my other fellow H&H CEOs, my health system corporate officers, and the staff of all of New York City Health and Hospital facilities. We did this together. We survived COVID as a family. A million thank you is not enough. 

But during these hard moments and most interesting and challenging times, as we were [reminiscing] in the green room, I cannot believe we're here standing together without a mask. And all that happened because one man held our hands strong and made sure we always saw the light every day. And that person is our amazing, amazing leader, our Health and Hospital President, Dr. Mitchell Katz. Please help me in welcoming him as one of our heroes.

Dr. Mitchell Katz, President and CEO, NYC Health + Hospitals:  Thank you, Helen, and welcome, everybody, for being here at this very important day for us to commemorate the lives of those we lost and to celebrate all of the people who did such amazing work through COVID. I have the honor of introducing our interfaith invocation with Rabbi Daniel Graber and Bishop H. Curtis Douglas. 

Rabbi Daniel Graber: Ribbono Shel Olom, Master of the Universe. We turn to you, hearts heavy with remembrance, yet lifted by gratitude and hope. As we mark five years since the pandemic swept through our city, we pause to honor those lost, to give thanks to those who sacrificed for others, and to reaffirm our commitment to one another. El Rachum, God of compassion, shelter in your eternal embrace the souls of all who perished in the shadow of COVID-19, fathers and mothers, siblings and children, friends and neighbors, each one a world entire, each one cherished beyond measure. 

May their memory be a blessing, and may we honor them by living lives of meaning, kindness and justice. We give thanks, O Lord, for the angels in our midst, the healers and caregivers, the first responders and essential workers, those who at great risk to themselves chose love over fear, duty over comfort. In moments of trial, those heroes found strength beyond themselves to uphold the spirit of this great city with their selflessness and devotion. May their courage and compassion always be an example for us all. Barukh atah Adonai, source of blessings, you teach us that in the face of darkness, we must be bearers of light. Let us be worthy of the sacrifices made. Let us build a society rooted in loving kindness and justice, chesed and berakhot.

May we lift up those still in need of healing. May we comfort the bereaved, and may we never lose sight of our sacred responsibility to one another. O God, bless this gathering, bless this city, bless this country, and bless all who seek to repair this fractured world. As the prophet Isaiah declared, be comforted, be comforted, my people. May we find comfort in one another and strength in our shared humanity, and let us say amen. 

Bishop H. Curtis Douglas: Heavenly Father, you who are our God, who was with us in times of trouble, you have promised that you would be with us even in our most difficult times. Last five years as we have come out of the COVID epidemic, we want to thank you for your presence with us. Thank you for good leadership as we went through those difficult times. 

Thank you for the men and women who sacrificed, the men and women who risked their lives to care for others, the men and women who without which we would not have made it, every essential worker, everyone who stood up in the midst of the difficult times to be there for their brother and their sister. Thank you for the leadership of our political leaders, and thank you, O God, that through it all you have brought us out and you brought us over. 

We pray now, O God, that you will bless this time together as we have gathered to remember. Remember those that died, remember those that lived, remember those that suffered, and we give you all the glory and the praise for the victory we have had and the victories yet to come. This we pray in your matchless name. Amen.

Dr. Katz: Thank you both so much. It's so meaningful to speak of faith at a time like this when we've gone through so much. I'd like now to introduce Jamie Lynn Cush, who's a student at Newtown High School, to us.

Jamie Lynn Cush, Student, Newtown High School: Good morning. Today I will be citing New Day's lyric by Amanda Gorman. It's about overcoming the pandemic and looking towards a brighter future. Thank you. 

May this be the day we come together. Mourning, we come to mend. Withered, we come to weather. Torn, we come to tend. Battered, we come to better. Tethered by this year of yearning, we are learning that though we weren't ready for this, we have been readied by it. 

We steadily vow that no matter how we are weighed down, we must always pave a way forward. This hope is our door, our portal, even if we never get back to normal. Someday we can venture beyond it, to leave the known and take the first steps. So let us not return to what was normal, but reach toward what is next. What was cursed, we will cure. What was plagued, we will prove pure. 

What we tend to argue, we will try to agree. Those fortunes we forswore, now the future we foresee. Where we weren't aware, we're now awake. Those moments we missed are now these moments we make. The moments we meet. And our hearts, once altogether beaten, now altogether beat. Come, look up with kindness yet, for even solace can be sourced from sorrow. We remember not just for the sake of yesterday, but to take on tomorrow. 

We heed this old spirit in a new day's lyric. In our hearts, we hear it. For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne. Be bold, saying time this year. Be bold, saying time. For when you honor yesterday, tomorrow ye will find. Know what we fought, need not be forgot, nor for none. It defines us and binds us as one. Come over, join, this day just begun. For wherever we come together, we will forever overcome. Thank you. 

Dr. Katz: That was really well done, [Jamie]. We really appreciate it. And it's so nice to have words of hope at a time like this. I have the next pleasure of introducing our mayor. And I just want to say to him how much your healing touch has mattered to us. When you took office, the mayor of New York City, it was a very difficult time for us. We had just gone through COVID. We had lost many of our co-workers. We had lost many patients. We were very brave, and the people in this room were very brave. We had taken care of people as best we could. It was very difficult, sir. The city, you remember, was mostly still closed. The schools were closed. 

And I think what we needed more than anything was healing. And I think you've had an incredibly healing effect when you took office. Your positive views, your own incredibly inspiring life story of recovery has meant so much to us and to New York City. With that, I introduce to you Mayor Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you, Dr. Katz. And really, thank you, Elmhurst Hospital. You became the symbol of our resiliency. And, you know, I'm sure the mayor will talk about it when he speaks. You don't do it alone when you go through these unforeseen circumstances that you have to navigate through. 

And, you know, as we sit here today, I looked over and saw my deputy mayors, who this is their last day, D.M. Meera Joshi, D.M. Maria Torres-Springer, D.M. Ann Williams-Isom. They helped us navigate through. And I see my first first deputy mayor that's here as well, Lorraine Grillo, going through these difficult times. And, you know, there were moments in my life where you just have to draw deep. And your faith plays such a role, as the rabbi and the pastor stated. 

And I reflect on September 11th, when our center of trade was attacked. And I went down to Ground Zero that evening and saw the ground smoldering. And officers had soot all over them. And I remember those buildings, because as a rookie cop, I patrolled that area. And I'm not going to lie, I felt as though, you know, what was going to happen tomorrow? You know, were we going to make it? And what does the future hold? And we were near election time. Mayor Giuliani was leaving, and Mayor Bloomberg was coming in. And there were those who were stating actually to pause our election, because we didn't think we could have the continuation of operation based on an incoming new mayor.

And we said, no, we're resilient. And although we recognize September 11th each year of those that we lost, of what I always remember is September 12th. We got up. Teachers taught, builders built, hospital employees handled the large number of people that we lost. And the lives, we opened up makeshift camps to make sure that we could identify the body parts to bring clothes to families. And COVID was not terrorism, but it brought terror. And we're still feeling that terror, if we're honest with ourselves. 

Some of the byproduct of some of the mental health issues we're facing is attached to [COVID]. And I still think about the trauma that I'm still personally feeling. I lost my mentor, Dr. Roy Hastick, and I lost my rookie officer, [Deborah Gillen,] in such a short period of time. 

I lost family members and loved ones, and I think about them often. And we may believe that we survived the virus, but trust me, we need to go inward and find some of the mental health care that we probably just pushed to the side when you're going through an emergency. Have to take care of ourselves. Many of our doctors, when I went inside the hospitals and saw with our doctors and our nurses and our first responders. And sometimes we forget when those professionals like yourselves are taken care of, we forget that they too have family members at home. They had to stay in hotels. They had to do double shifts. I remember seeing them with some wearing garbage bags and reusing PPEs, but never giving up, never surrendering. 

Just like those officers during 9/11, although they lost their loved ones, FDNY members, employees in the Trade Center, people did not give up. And what was interesting then, we were the epicenter of terrorism. Terrorism was defined by New York. Little did we know COVID-19, we would be the epicenter. And this space here, Elmhurst Hospital, was the place where America looked and said, if they can get through it, we all can get through it. 

Your resiliency, your compassion, your caring, your concern resonated and cascaded throughout the entire globe. And people looked towards Elmhurst. Little did you know, when we saw that first case and that first death, that all of a sudden this hospital was going to reach the international magnitude that you reached. But we are better because of what you've done.

And all of this conversation that we're having nowadays, as this administration handled 223,000 migrants and asylum seekers that came here, and I continuously state that one day people are going to wake up and remember what we did as a city, as international leaders recognize it. But when I walked through those hospitals, Elmhurst, Downstate, Queens Hospitals, during the time of COVID, you know what I saw? I saw first and second generation immigrants who went into the medical profession, who housed our hospitals. 

When I was in the street delivering PPEs, I saw first and second generation immigrants stocking our shelves, delivering foods, while others were able to social distance and stay at home. You had first and second generation immigrants in our streets, making sure that the city was able to provide and able to thrive and move forward. 

Our success is based on our ability to allow everyone to be in this great city we call New York. And I'm proud to be the mayor of this city. I'm proud to have wore a bulletproof vest for 22 years and stood on street corners, protecting the children and families of this city, and bringing that with me as the mayor of the City of New York. And we knew we were short on ventilators, we were short on PPEs, we were short on everything, but we were not short on courage and compassion and commitment. And we showed what we can do. 

And I can't say enough about Mayor de Blasio. That was one of the most challenging times of our city. He had to build an operation while there was just so much uncertainty. We didn't know how long this was going to last. We didn't know how many lives we were going to lose. And I remember him doing the phone calls with our teams, and I learned from him to deal with the crises that we faced over and over again. Because of his steady hand, saving hundreds of thousands of jobs, hundreds of thousands of jobs by opening up the outdoor dining. Because we knew the economy had to continue.

Making tough decisions of keeping the schools open, keeping the schools closed. We knew the safest space for a child was inside our school, and he made those calls. Shutting down a city. Do you know the challenge in telling New Yorkers how to do something? Telling New Yorkers they had to stay home? Can you imagine the challenge of that? And how dare you tell someone they got to wear a mask? And then he had to state, you got to vaccinate yourself. 

Over 90 percent of New Yorkers followed that. That was what was amazing. If it was in a small town or village somewhere, we know it's possible. But when you got 8.3 million New Yorkers with 35 million opinions on how they want to do something, you got a real challenge. And he did it. 

History is going to be kind to what he did for us and the number of lives that he saved. And I cannot thank him enough. This was the deadliest pandemic in a century. And he and his team, some of the names we don't even mention, some of the DOHMH of our men and women who was in our shelter system, when an outbreak took place in one location, he had to open up hotels and move around. Countless number of hotels. And people said, why are you spending all those money? Well, that sounds familiar. 

Building an operation to manage and save the lives of people. When you think about it, we tested more than 14.5 million people, 300 million pieces of PPEs and other supplies, spreading out the community, setting up the operation, making sure it was done in a smooth manner, and ensuring that people were able to continue to see the city operate and thrive. Because no matter what happened, you still had those around-the-clock employees that could not social distance, could not do their jobs remotely. They had to be on the ground. We lost correction officers, ta employees, transit employees, medical professionals. All across the spectrum, we lost someone. And we will never forget them. 

And so as we go through this COVID-19 Remembrance Day, we remember more than 46,000 New Yorkers we lost. 46,000 New Yorkers. Their families will be forever impacted and we will be forever impacted. 

And five years later, we can see exactly how strong we are. Five years later, we recovered all the jobs. We broke records 10 times in a row on the number of jobs. We have 4.86 million jobs in this city. That's a real symbol of our resiliency. And so I'm proud to be here.

I'm proud to be a New Yorker. When I go across the entire country and globe, people argue and debate about what city is number two and three. No one debates about number one. New York City is the greatest city on the globe because we're made of the greatest people on the globe. And they are personified by being members of the Elmhurst Hospital System, the greatest group of medical professionals on the globe. 

So, I want to give this proclamation on this five-year commemoration and acknowledgement of Dr. Laura Iavicoli, if you could come up, and Erica Harris. I'm just going to read the last paragraph. Whereas in the face of an unprecedented global pandemic, New Yorkers demonstrated extraordinary compassion, resilience, and solidarity, working together to advance the recovery process, proving once again that our city's resilience is the number one priority, that our city's strength lies in its unity and determination.

I look forward to the many ways Elmhurst Hospital personnel and essential workers across our city will continue to uplift diverse New Yorkers as we take bold steps to forge a brighter, healthier, and more honorary future for all. Eric Adams, mayor of the City of New York. Thank you, thank you.

Erica Harris: Mr. Mayor, distinguished guests, colleagues, and all those who stand here today in remembrance and resilience. On behalf of the healthcare heroes at Elmhurst Hospital, of New York City Health and Hospitals, and of every frontline worker across the city, I humbly accept this proclamation. 

But more than an acknowledgement, this is a testament. A testament to the lives lost, to the courage shown, and to the unwavering commitment that defined our response to the greatest public health crisis of our time.

Five years ago, Elmhurst Hospital became the epicenter of the epicenter. In those harrowing days of March 2020, we have witnessed suffering on a scale none of us had ever imagined. The hallways of our hospital filled beyond capacity. We fought for every ventilator, every oxygen tank, every bed, knowing that behind each one was a person. Someone's mother, father, child. And through it all, our team stood resolute. We did not run. We did not yield.

Dr Laura Iavicoli: This proclamation honors the nurses, physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, respiratory therapists, and essential staff who showed up shift after shift, exhausted but undeterred. It honors those we lost, our patients and our colleagues, who we will forever be part of the story of this city. But let this also be a call to remembrance. The pandemic was not a crisis. It was a revelation. 

It revealed the depths of our resilience, but also the cracks in our system, the vulnerabilities that must never be ignored again. Let this moment serve as a recommitment to the strengthening of public health, to ensuring that no community is left behind when crises strike again. We do not accept this proclamation for recognition. We accept it in remembrance. We accept it in honor of those who fought, those who lost, and those who carry this legacy forward. Because Elmhurst was not the first hospital to be overwhelmed. It was the first hospital to show the world what true courage looks like. Honoring the legacy of Elmhurst, COVID-19 response, thank you.

Dr. Katz: You can hear in all the comments people are making these two sides, the tragedy and the resilience. I want to commend Mayor de Blasio because long before I arrived back to my home world, he saved health and hospitals by bailing out the system at a time that many people would have favored closing multiple hospitals. And I always feel, sir, that COVID proved you right. Because the health and hospital really rose to the occasion. 

We tripled our ICUs in a matter of six weeks. We would be putting in the wiring at 2 a.m. for the IT system so that we could take care of more people on ventilators. We ran, Ted here ran the test and trace system so that we saved lives by walking people's dogs, bringing them their medications so that they would not go out, PPE doing their testing and then ultimately vaccinating. So I hope, sir, that you feel that your investment was very well spent. 

I want to offer just one other story because it's one of the ways that I think about what happened. So many of the heroes were nurses who got their patients through because as much as we tried, as physicians remember, there were no effective treatments at the time we were taking care of people. So much was holding hands. There was a nurse at Harlem Hospital. She was taking care of an ICU patient day after day who was in a coma. And then miraculously, after about 10 days, he woke up. And when she saw his eyes open, she said, oh, let me introduce myself to you. And he said, I know who you are. You're my nurse. And I always felt that that encapsulated the sense of the very best of health and hospitals and what we did. Now, we didn't do it alone. 

We had tremendous political support. And here to represent one of the people who was really always supporting us is our council member and Helen's Ecuadorian hermano council member Francisco Moya.

City Councilmember Francisco Moya: Good morning, everyone. Thank you to Mayor Adams and Mayor de Blasio for the great work that they've done for this city. It's hard to believe that five years have passed since the world shut down due to the pandemic. Little did we know that within weeks, our neighborhood and this very hospital, the hospital that I was born in, the hospital that I worked in, and the hospital that I represent would be the epicenter of the global pandemic. 

And as I watched our community suffer and mourn, our hospital, with its doors open to all that had needs, struggled. I watched the workers push beyond their breaking point, pour their hearts into the institutions, the doctors, the nurses, the janitors, and every single employee here at Elmhurst Hospital.

I watched our neighborhood divided physically due to the quarantine, finding strength and unity emotionally. Our corner of the world was watched under the floodlights of international news stations that were parked right out here in the corner. The numbers ticked up on a daily reporting graphics and a temporary morgue flashed on the screens to show the reality of what was happening here at Elmhurst Hospital. But to us, to people like me that have lived here in Corona their entire lives, this was our reality. 

We have always been a scrappy community made up of many immigrants willing to find a way. And together, we did find a way through this universal tragedy and trauma. And I was proud to be part of that. I worked to bring donated PPEs to the hospital. And I worked with Mayor de Blasio to expand the funeral support funding for people facing the astronomical cost of burying their loved ones with dignity. 

So today, five years on, we mourn those that we lost. But those lives will never be forgotten. But we find comfort in the strength that we find in ourselves and in each other. And for that, I have to thank all of you. 

Every single person here at Elmhurst Hospital that did the work, that came to work every single day without fear of what was going to happen to you or your families, you showed up to work. You showed the world that Elmhurst Hospital knows how to take care of their patients. And for that, we will forever be grateful. 

Unas palabras en español. Soy el concejal Francisco Moya. Quiero dar la gracias al alcalde Adams, al alcalde de Blasio, por el trabajo que ellos hicieron durante la pandemia. Estamos aquí conmemorando cinco años de la pandemia de COVID en el hospital Elmhurst. Estamos aquí para agradecer a todos los trabajadores del [hospital] Elmhurst, porque cuando el mundo estaba viendo lo que estaba pasando aquí, en el epicentro de la pandemia, todos vieron que en el [hospital] Elmhurst fue la manera que se podía salvar las vidas de todas las personas que estaban aquí. Y por eso estamos muy agradecidos a todos ustedes por ese trabajo que han hecho. Gracias. Thank you.

Translation: A few words in Spanish. I'm Councilmember Francisco Moya. I'm here. I want to thank Mayor Adams and Mayor de Blasio for the work they did during the pandemic. We're here commemorating five years of the COVID pandemic at Elmhurst Hospital. We're here to thank all the workers at Elmhurst Hospital, because when the world was watching what was happening here, at the epicenter of the pandemic, everyone saw that Elmhurst Hospital was the way to save the lives of all the people here. And that's why we're very grateful to all of you for the work you've done. Thank you.

Dr. Katz: Councilmember tu eres un amigo de corazón, thank you. 

Translation: Councilmember, you are a friend from the heart, thank you.

We appreciate all that you did. I also want to remind people that Elmhurst is a collaboration with Mount Sinai. And Dr. Carr, the CEO of Mount Sinai, is here. And we appreciate how, during the darkest days, we work together with Mount Sinai to make Elmhurst the great hospital it is. 

I have the honor now of introducing our borough president, who was a great help to us during the pandemic. And since the pandemic, he likes to joke that whenever he leaves, his wallet is a little lighter, because he's helped us to make Elmhurst the amazing facility it is. We so appreciate you, borough president.

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards: Good morning, Elmhurst. It's an honor to be here this morning. And of course, I want to acknowledge both mayors. Mayor de Blasio, tough times, real tough times. But I want to really thank you because one of the things that I remember during those dark days was your commitment to underserved communities. And while we were fighting to get test and tracing in every corner of this borough to get PPE in, thank you. You saved a lot of lives. You saved a lot of lives.

Mayor Adams, thank you for your commitment, because you had to come in after Mayor de Blasio. And your commitment has been steadfast, really in H&H and supporting the foundation of this borough. And that is our health care system. And you've put your money where your mouth is. And I want to thank you for not turning your back on our borough as well. 

It is an honor to be amongst true heroes this morning, because that's what every single one of you health care professionals are amongst us. It's hard to believe it's been five years already since this very hospital was the epicenter of the epidemic. Back when none of us had a clue what this virus was, when we would go back to normal, or if we would ever go back to normal at all. But despite all the chaos and fear, you were there to offer a steady hand. You are a rock. 

You were the one thing we could look towards to feel a sense of comfort. In a time of crisis, they say, look for the helpers. And we found plenty of helpers here at Elmhurst Hospital. Today, I'm thinking of my friend Priscilla Carroll, who worked here, caught COVID-19, and unfortunately passed away in March 2020. I think of her selflessness. I think of how she put her life on the line every time she walked through these doors because she knew she had a job to do. 

And that was to take care of strangers she had never met and likely would never see again. That's a special kind of heroism that most of us can't truly understand. It takes a special human being to risk their life for somebody they don't know. It takes a strong soul to comfort someone as they die while that person's family watches over FaceTime. 

The debt society owes each and every one of you can never possibly be paid. But I want you to know that we're trying our hardest to pay it off, that debt. Because banging pots and pans at 7 p.m. each night was great. Remember that? We also remember Mayor de Blasio eating burgers at 10 a.m. at his morning press conferences. But that's another story for another day. The worst part was him eating ribs at Queens Borough Hall at one of those press conferences at 10 a.m. But all right, we got him plenty of napkins. 

But to me, the best way we can thank all of you is to make sure we're supporting our doctors and nurses in their fight for fair wages. It's time to make sure we're making historic investments in this hospital to help you continue to save lives. And that's why I couldn't be prouder to have invested more than $11 million into this hospital since becoming borough president. Helen, I'm watching my wallet today. But from building new ORs to expanding mother and baby services and proving this already great hospital is very personal to me. It's personal because you are all heroes of mine. You're all heroes to our borough. 

Five years ago, Queens was at its darkest and lowest point. But you were our light and you put us on the road to recovery. I love you. Queens loves you. God bless you all. Thank you.

Mayor Adams: So I have the pleasure of bringing on Mayor de Blasio. I remember just those briefings he would give me and say, you know, be careful what you ask for, you know. And yesterday, we were at a housing opening in Woodhull hospitals with Dr. Katz. 

And just to show you the continuous byproduct of COVID, one of the young men, Elvis, who was receiving one of the apartments, and he gave his story of how he became homeless. He lost his family members during COVID. And then there was just a negative spiraling effect that he eventually ended up on the streets. But using the space at H&H, Woodhull Hospital, we build housing. And he said, we found him off the street. And gave him another chance in life. And so although COVID has this long-term impact, what we are doing is going back and retrieving those who slipped through the cracks. And no one did that better than Mayor de Blasio.

Just those hidden conversations, private conversations, helping us navigate over those beginning days from the days Lorraine, when we first went into City Hall that first day, just trying to figure this out. Mayor was there. He was an intellectual giant on how to govern the city during crisis. And I cannot thank him enough. 

New Yorkers will learn more and more about what he has accomplished. And I reached out yesterday, mayor, so you know to DCAS, because we got to get your portrait up in City Hall. We got to get that done. So please give it up for Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Former Mayor Bill de Blasio: Thank you. I want to talk about the heroes who are here today in this amazing place. But I first want to express my appreciation to Mayor Adams. Because I can tell you, when someone's elected to lead this city, it's an immense privilege. It's an immense responsibility. But no one has ever been elected to lead this city while it was still in the midst of a pandemic. And this man came in into that immense challenge, but he did it fearlessly. And he believed in New York City. He believed in New Yorkers. And you could feel it. 

And mayor, I want to thank you, because people need to know that there's faith in them. They need to know that someone sees just how good they are, just how strong they are. And you embodied that. We needed confidence to know we could recover. Because I'll tell you one thing, there are almost nine million New Yorkers, but there are so many more naysayers in this country, in this world, who say that they respect New York City, but somehow always look for our shortcomings. 

So people were wondering, would we ever make it back? Would we ever be as fully great again? And that responsibility fell to Eric Adams to chart that course. I'm so proud of what my colleagues and my team did and everyone I'm going to talk about in a moment at Elmhurst and throughout H&H. Everyone did so much to get us to that point at the end of 2021. But things were far from certain. 

And there were a lot of people did not believe New York City could ever make it truly back to where we were. Now you heard what the mayor said. We have more jobs in this city today than any time in our history. You go through this city, the life, the energy is back. You can feel it almost as if it's 2019 or before. There is so much that affirms our strength once again. And our city is getting safer.  For all the naysayers out there, I'll affirm it. Our city continues to get city-firmer. And we have Mayor Adams to thank. Let's give him the right to speak. Let's give him the round of applause he deserves. 

This is a heroic place. Elmhurst is a heroic place. Now I want to note that we are very quick as a society to commemorate where battles happened, where people were killed. Even in noble cause, people were killed. We love to talk about the battles. When they're military. But what about the battle that happened here? What about the battle to not take life, but to save life? What about the heroism of every single healthcare worker in this building who came into day after day, danger, the unknown, the impossible, every single day. You know, you go into a battle. It could be a day. It could be a week. It could be a month. 

Everyone here at Elmhurst came here for not just weeks, months, for years. Day after day into battle, into noble battle, into the battle of salvation, of compassion, of life-saving. I wish people all over this world could see the heroism, the bravery, the nobility of the people in this room. And everyone else who's ever worked in this building. I think of this as sacred ground. Because people reach the highest heights of humanity right here at Elmhurst Hospital. 

You showed the world something they had never seen before because we had never faced a pandemic like this. This was the, let's make no mistake, this was the greatest, most profound crisis in the history of New York City. And there was an epicenter within the epicenter. And we're standing in it right now. But you all never, ever bent. You never buckled from that moment five years ago to today. 

This place has stood strong. You have stood strong. Everyone, look around you at the heroes in your midst. Let's all give each other a round of applause. I'll be kind of brief. Check your watches, everyone. Now, look, I gotta say, I wanna just say a few words about what this all means and where we are today. But I have to first talk about colleagues because they're the ones that have been at the forefront of this conversation. They're the ones that have been at the forefront of this conversation. 

And I have to talk about colleagues because they should never be forgotten. To our elected official colleagues, to the councilman, to the borough president, thank you, it was never easy. And everyone you represented came to you every day looking for answers, looking for help, and you never gave up. You always tried to find something even in the toughest moments. Thank you. Donovan, Francisco, thank you. 

If you watched the morning press conferences when I was not eating a hamburger, that was occasional, you know that the man who spearheaded our Test and Trace Corps and created it from scratch and with a boundless energy and enthusiasm and creativity, I don't know what he eats for breakfast, but we should all eat it. Ted Long, Dr. Ted Long, God bless you. Thank you. 

Ted, if what you eat for breakfast is legal, I wish you would market it to the rest of us. And I'm sure I'm not seeing all of my colleagues in the room, but I do want to single out someone who played a crucial role in our recovery and really proved it could be done. And I want to thank all of you for being here. Thank you. It should be done. It should be approved. It could be done. Lorraine Grillo, thank you for all you've done for this city. 

And then I want to tell you, as Mayor Adams, we'll test our days when you're in leadership, where you do something and you think it's the right thing to do, but you have no idea of the ramification later that could happen, the impact it can later make. And one day I reached out to Dr. Mitch Katz to try and convince him to come back from his native land of Los Angeles. And we had an amazing conversation, and I thought, well, this man certainly, a true New Yorker, proud son of Brooklyn, someone who really gets us and loves this place, he'll be a great leader for Health and Hospitals. 

That's all I thought he would be, a great leader for health and hospitals. I had no idea he would be a global leader in the fight against COVID. I had no idea he would be one of the voices that help New Yorkers understand how to find a way through. I had no idea he would be the great general of this army that never, ever gave anyone anything but inspiration. I remember I watched. There was not a day when Mitch Katz said, we can't do that. Not a day. And history is going to say that the prodigal son returned, and he came just in time to save us. Dr. Mitch Katz, thank you. 

All right, I'm going to be very quick now, maybe. I want you to just go back for a moment. I'll tell you what I saw just a second ago as I'm coming over here, walking over from the subway to the hospital, and I saw a truck making a delivery to a grocery store. It happened to be a refrigerated truck. And I had that chill go through me about remembering those trucks around the hospitals. And then I had a moment of positive recognition that it was just another day in 2025, it was just a truck delivering to a grocery store in a neighborhood, because we were back. 

Because life had come full circle. And you all made that happen. But if you put yourself back in those times, we didn't know. And we have to be honest about it. We didn't know. And this moment, this exact moment, this exact day five years ago, we didn't know if this was the beginning of something much, much worse than we could even imagine. 

We didn't know if it would be days or weeks or months or years, because no one knew. If you feel, and I spent a lot of time this week feeling those moments. If you feel what it was like as we entered the great unknown, and how the medical community, the scientific community in all their nobility did not have answers. It wasn't their fault. They just didn't have them.

The only thing we had was each other. The only thing we had was the spirit and the strength of New Yorkers. And the compassion. I want to remind you how many people, even if they were exhausted, even if they were down, everyone in this room knows it, still reached out that helping hand, still went that extra mile, because that's who we are. 

Now it is astounding how far we have come. So you would think after that battle, after those years of pain and loss, maybe we would have fallen back. Maybe we would have been thrown off in our exhaustion, in our pain. We wouldn't know how to take that next step to recovery. And yet, people found strength again, energy again, leadership again, to bring us to this point today. And the world marvels at us. Now I want to just say something to wrap it all together. And this may be a little edgy, mayor. Forgive me. 

When things got tough around here, some people went to the Hamptons, and other people went to the front line to fight. Some people fled, and other people went to help their fellow New Yorker. And I remember some of those conversations in those days, people talking to me about their plan to go someplace safe. 

And I remembered thinking, what about the other eight million people who don't have that opportunity? And those eight million people didn't cower in their homes and say, I can't go out. They went out and they fought. And they helped others. And they put, every one of you, put yourself in harm's way. So some fled, and others served. And the only reason we're back is because those people who served gave their all. You know, you go back to the 1960s and 70s, New York City was in a lot of trouble. 

And you could see everywhere predictions that its best days were behind it. And then you go to the end of the 80s, beginning of the 90s, the mayor remembers this well. Crime out of control in a way we couldn't even recognize today. 2,200 murders a year. And people said, that's it for New York City. And then came 9/11. The whole world watched destruction. As the mayor said, a lot of people were like, there's no way to come back from that. The Great Recession laid us low for a long, long time. People said, that's it. Superstorm Sandy, that's it. COVID, unquestionably, have I heard one more person tell me with assurance, that's it? New York City's done. 

And I never believed them. But I remember that strange sensation about six or seven months into the pandemic when rents started going up. I'm not happy about rents going up. The mayor's not happy about rents going up. But when rents go up, it means people actually want to live there. So I was like, huh, we're still in a pandemic. And yet people want to be here. They don't want to give up.

I think there's got to be a point in our lives when no one will ever say again, it's over for New York City. There's got to be that moment where history matters. And it's finally recognized that if you take the strongest people, the most resilient people, the most amazing people from around the world, and they come here from all over this country, from all over the world, and their children are here, and their grandchildren are here, and their great-grandchildren are here, we build a community of people forged in fire, that maybe that group of people is special. 

Maybe we can do things that a lot of other people can't do, won't do. Maybe we are the chosen ones here in New York City to be that greatest city in the world and to show the world what it means. Because New York City is an idea, a powerful idea. It's a place for everyone. 

It's a place where everyone matters and is respected. No matter what's happened around us in this country, in this world, our values don't change. And those very same values brought us through our worst crisis. 

So if you ever, ever hear someone say, it's over for New York City, I just want you to put a pleasant smile on your face. Tell them you were there in those years during COVID. We saw the best of humanity, and we overcame, and we are alive. Thank you.

Dr. Katz: With that, we're going to conclude the program, but I'm going to ask you all, if you think about today's program, to go hug your family, go hug a friend, remind them of how important life is. It's very fragile and needs to be greatly appreciated. Thank you, everybody, for coming.