The Illustrated Book of Medicine: COVID Takes NYC

In just over three months, humanity's awareness of a novel coronavirus escalated from a small handful of respiratory illnesses linked to a local fish market, to a global pandemic that threatened to kill millions. Leaders and public figures across the globe swore by their emergency public health plans, and claimed that they were prepared to ward off the virus. COVID-19 had other plans — the disease went on to infect over 100 million people worldwide. Perhaps no city experienced the wrath of COVID-19 quite like the United States' own New York City. The Big Apple would go from one case to nearly 100,000 in just one short month. Hospitals became overwhelmed as deceased patients were being stored in freezers and cremated in mass quantities. Read all about NYC's journey from the epicenter of the deadliest pandemic of the last century, to a reopening and vaccine rollout plan.