Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Dozens Of Bodies Found In Unrefrigerated Rental Trucks Outside Overwhelmed NYC Funeral Home
The Associated Press: Police Called After NYC Funeral Home Puts Bodies In Trucks
Police were called to a Brooklyn neighborhood Wednesday after a funeral home overwhelmed by the coronavirus resorted to storing dozens of bodies on ice in rented trucks, and a passerby complained about the smell, officials said. Investigators who responded to a 911 call found that the home had rented four trucks to hold about 50 corpses, according to a law enforcement official. No criminal charges were brought and the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation, spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. (sisak and Hajela, 4/30)
Reuters: Bodies Found In Unrefrigerated Trucks In New York During COVID-19 Pandemic
New York City has been at the epicenter of the global coronavirus pandemic and the city’s funeral homes have been overwhelmed. As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 18,000 people have died of COVID-19 in America’s biggest city, according to a Reuters tally. Funeral homes say they are facing weeks-long backlogs to bury or cremate the dead. (Jackson, 4/29)
The New York Times: Dozens Of Decomposing Bodies Found In Trucks At Brooklyn Funeral Home
Still, the notion that dead New Yorkers could be left to decay in broad daylight in rental trucks on a crowded street in Brooklyn underscored the challenges facing the city as it tries to absorb a disaster that has already killed nearly five times as many as died in the Sept. 11 terror attacks. One official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the matter, said that the funeral home had been storing bodies in the trucks after its freezer stopped operating properly. Funeral directors are required to store bodies awaiting burial or cremation in appropriate conditions that prevent infection. (Feuer, Southall and Gold, 4/29)
The Washington Post: A New York City Funeral Home Stored Coronavirus Victims’ Bodies In U-Haul Trucks, Police Say
City officials proposed temporarily freezing the bodies of coronavirus victims and deployed “mobile morgues,” refrigerated trailers that can hold bodies, to support overwhelmed funeral homes, morgues and crematories. The move was intended to give families more time to claim the bodies of family members, after the number of unclaimed bodies buried at Hart Island increased by fivefold in early April. Hart Island is a public cemetery and mass grave in the Bronx where the city buries people whose bodies go unclaimed and those whose families cannot afford another option. (Sheperd, 4/30)
ProPublica: Grieving Families Need Help Paying For COVID-19 Burials, But Trump Hasn’t Released The Money
As the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus mounts, President Donald Trump has yet to free up a pool of disaster relief funding specifically intended to help families cover burial costs. Approximately 30 states and territories have requested the funding as the pandemic spreads across the country and struggling families ask for help burying their dead. The funding is part of the wide array of “individual assistance” programs handled by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help disaster victims. (Song and Torbati, 4/29)
