New York is a city of workers

Debates on who is a ‘real New Yorker’ tend to erase New York’s working-class, immigrant residents.

When I was booking a vaccine appointment online for my father – an essential worker and a senior with preexisting medical conditions – I did not expect that the process would be as arduous as it was. As elders who are not tech-savvy and whose English is imperfect, my immigrant parents have often struggled to navigate the multilayered machinery of the city’s healthcare, education, labour, and political bureaucracies without assistance. As I booked my father’s appointment, it dawned on me that there are probably thousands of others like him who may not have someone to do this for them. It might be hard to believe that the city widely held to be the economic and cultural capital of the country – perhaps the world – would fare so poorly in administering the COVID-19 vaccine, especially given how quickly it became the epicentre of the virus when the first wave reached the United States.