Photo: pxhere.com
BRIGHT LIGHTS. NO PEOPLE: The streets of New York City, like other major tourist areas, are left deserted by a national lockdown.
n Bill van Auken
A Tale of Two Surges Wall Street soars as New York City’s coronavirus death toll soars
I
“
t was the best of times, it was
the worst of times” was Charles Dickens’ famous opening passage in his fictional treatment of the French Revolution, A Tale of Two Cities. These words found stark and fresh expression in New York City on Tuesday, March 24 as billionaires gorged themselves on Wall Street, while the rest of the population confronted a mounting toll in death, sickness and human suffering from the coronavirus pandemic. Of the two curves pointing upwards, that of the Dow Jones
Industrial Average and the rise in the number of coronavirus cases and deaths in New York, the latter was the steepest. The number of cases is now doubling every three days, rising on March 24 to 25,665 across New York state, with over 15,000 of them concentrated in New York City. The death toll is also rising steadily, with at least 192 fatalities in the city alone. America’s largest and most densely populated city has become the epicentre of a pandemic that threatens the lives of millions.
While authorities had predicted that the pandemic’s “tsunami” would begin breaking over New York in two to three weeks’ time, it appears to have already arrived. The city is woefully ill-prepared, with its hospitals expected to buckle under the impact of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands seeking care. None of this, however, stopped the financial feeding frenzy on Wall Street, which saw its steepest one-day rise since 1933, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average soaring 11 percent. The ColdType | April 2020 | www.coldtype.net
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