Journalist covering Covid-19 contracts Covid-19
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This wednesday and will run through the here in minnesota and across the nation, we reporters have been deemed essential.
Our job is to cover the covi?19 story, but that has risks.
Case in point, a reporter friend of george's contracted the novel coronavirus.
And katie, sarah maslin nir isn't just a reporte?
She's an award winning new york times writer and columnist.
She's one of our profession's true standouts.
She may, though, also be a cautionary tale for all of us.
Because it is widely believed that we here in the upper midwest are likely a few weeks behind new york city in terms of when this thing is going to peak.
As a reporter for the new york times, i cover the metro region around new york city.
And so when the first case happened in a city outside of new yor?
New rochelle, the second case in new york state, i went right there.
That was march 3rd... and sarah maslin nir concedes her coronavirus education was still evolving.
Metro new york was fast becoming ground zero for the insidious viru??
But our knowledge of it was still catching up.
I was washing my hands furiously but i was opening doors with my hand.
I was putting my notebook down on surfaces and picking it back up, by march 7th when the executive order to create a containment zone around that city came out, my behavior changed dramatically.
I was six feet away.
I was opening doors with my elbow, but by then i'd already gotten it.
Confirmation of that fact came after the pulitizer prize finalist lost her sense of smell and taste.
Red flags both.
Sarah made an appointment and got tested at one of the drive thru testing sites set up in the empire state.
It took roughly four days to get the results bac?
But sarah maslin nir had contracted the virus she'd been assigned to cover.
What followed were weeks in the company of her cat fighting off what she describes as a mild but nonetheless debilitating case.
I didn't have a fever at all.
I didn't have any respiratory symptoms. i just could not get up.
Even, i'm talking to my mom on the phone, pretty exhausting anyway, just holding the phone to my as she's recovered from her bout with covi?19... sarah has been making a lot of television appearances from her new york apartment.
After our interview this weekend, she tweeted out that she might not ever have to get dressed were it not for television interviews.
Thank you.
We're going to hear more from sarah about her coverage of the pandemic and overcoming covi?19 tonight