Covering Coronavirus: A Midnight Rescue

As COVID-19 ran rampant through the adult care facility, family members struggled to learn the truth of how the coronavirus outbreak was hitting their loved ones. Reporter Joaquin Sapien takes us inside the story of a daughter’s midnight rescue of her father from Queens Adult Care Center, which he says is in an area that became “the epicenter of the epicenter” of the outbreak in New York. Natasha Roland describes rushing her father from the facility to a hospital, where he tested positive for COVID-19 — though not long before she’d been told he was safe and that the center had no cases. The Queens Adult Care Center, for its part, disputes Roland’s account, and says it has taken “extensive precautions to ensure the well-being of each of its residents and employees.” Listen to the full story.

Queens Adult Care Center was the subject of a story and short film co-published by FRONTLINE and ProPublica in April 2020. Read and watch HERE.

 

Sapien first encountered the facility in reporting he did for FRONTLINE and ProPublica’s 2019 documentary, Right to Fail. Now streaming on the PBS Video App and online.