‘We must not forget them’
Emotional East Flatbush COVID memorial serves as call for change
COURIER LIFE, JULY 30-AUG. 5, 2021 21
BY BEN BRACHFELD
East Flatbush residents and
elected offi cials gathered Saturday
for a memorial to those
lost to COVID-19, which also
served as a call for community
members to get vaccinated
and for the city to implement
changes to prevent Black and
brown neighborhoods from
suffering disproportionate
deaths again in the next pandemic.
Close to 200 people came out
for the memorial, organized by
Community Board 17 and held
in front of the Lenox Road Baptist
Church — among them, US
Sen. Chuck Schumer, Public
Advocate Jumaane Williams
and other area pols. The event
featured speeches by electeds
and faith leaders, as well as
musical performances.
Speakers noted that communities
like East Flatbush
had suffered a disproportionate
toll from the pandemic, owing
to a rash of factors like the
number of community members
who are essential workers,
poor health outcomes often
arising from environmental
racism, and inadequate health
infrastructure especially as
compared to richer, whiter
communities.
“So many of those who got
COVID in our community
were risking their health for
us,” said Schumer, who also
referred to CB17 as “one of the
very, very best” community
boards in the city. “The frontline
workers, whether they
were health care workers, or
bus drivers, or workers who got
food to our homes. These brave
people knew they were putting
themselves in danger, but they
continued to work for us. Now
we must not forget them.”
Williams said that the fact
that so many East Flatbush
residents had kept working to
keep the city afl oat in its time
of need meant that the city
should give back to them, and
ensure that the city not allow
inequality to fester as it had before
and during the pandemic.
“Whenever there’s an emergency,
it’s our communities
that come out to make sure this
city keeps running,” Williams
said to the crowd. “We need to
make sure they get what they
deserve. The one thing I want
to make sure we understand
moving forward, the one silver
lining we can get out of this, is
if we do not return to normal.
That’s the one thing we might
be able to do to honor so many
of the people we’ve lost — it’s
not to return to normal, because
normal didn’t work for
the vast majority of people in
these communities.”
Though it wasn’t the hardest
hit neighborhood in the
borough (data from the city
and the New York Times shows
the hardest-hit neighborhoods
in terms of COVID deaths to
be Starrett City, Coney Island,
and Brighton Beach), East Flatbush
nonetheless bore a disproportionate
brunt from the pandemic.
In ZIP code 11226, where
the memorial was held, 381
people have died from COVID
according to city data, higher
than the borough and citywide
average rate. And vaccination
rates in the area are also lower
than the city average.
Vaccination was on everyone’s
minds at the memorial,
with nearly all speakers urging
residents to get the shot.
State Sen. Roxanne Persaud
said that even if residents
choose not to get vaccinated,
they should refrain from discouraging
inoculation and/or
spreading conspiracy theories
about the vaccine which are
playing a major role in vaccine
hesitancy in Brooklyn and
around the country.
“We’re asking everyone to
do their part to ensure that
we remain with the low numbers
that we’ve had,” Persaud
said. “We’re asking everyone,
whether you like it or not, not
to discourage anyone from
having a vaccine. Don’t do
that. You’re not helping our
communities, our communities
that were affected most
by the pandemic. When you
spread myths and incorrect information
about vaccines that
are helping our communities,
you are doing a disservice to
our community.”
For the event, the event’s organizers
brought in a city vaccine
bus, where community
members could get a jab, as
well as a testing van.
The memorial also comes as
case rates start to spike again
in the city, after having fallen
for months, due to the proliferation
of the Delta variant. The
latest city data shows 1,074 confi
rmed and probable COVID
cases being registered on July
22, a 526 percent increase over
the 204 cases recorded on June
22, though still far below numbers
seen at the pandemic’s
peak.
The city is now beginning
to implement vaccination mandates
as case rates rise and inoculations
lag: Mayor Bill de
Blasio announced Monday
that the city will require all
municipal workers to get vaccinated
or face weekly testing
by mid-September, after announcing
a mandate for public
health workers last week and
encouraging private employers
to mandate the jab.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams (left) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (bottom)
speak to the crowd (top) at Community Board 17’s COVID-19 memorial
ceremony on July 24. Photos by Ben Brachfeld