CENTENNIAL SUNDAYS
Journal staffers risk COVID to inform the public
Published
COVID-19 arrived in New Mexico in March 2020. We tried for months afterward to get access to a hospital where doctors were trying to treat an influx of patients infected with the newfound virus. We couldn鈥檛 even get close to any of the state鈥檚 largest hospitals.
Finally, in December 2020, a young reporter was writing a story about the dire situation facing rural hospitals during the pandemic, and I was given permission to photograph inside the Guadalupe County Hospital.
I pulled into the parking lot in Santa Rosa on a Friday morning. The very smart and capable director met me in the lobby, and within seconds, I was in the emergency room.
All of the nurses, doctors, technicians 鈥� everyone except the director and me 鈥� were dressed in space-suit looking protective gear from head to toe. I was wearing an N-90 mask that I鈥檇 been wearing for a couple of weeks.
Pandemic aside, the year 2020 had not been a good year. In September, my young son developed Type 1 diabetes. My wife, son and I had spent the past couple of months learning how to handle this new way of life, realizing he鈥檚 at greater risk if he gets sick.
So, before I arrived at the hospital, I was already worried but became even more so when I saw those space suits and patients who were clearly seriously ill.
One was being treated in a room with the door open. The director reassured me that the room had negative pressure and that I was safe, but I was probably the most concerned for my own safety I鈥檝e ever been while on an assignment. The thought of bringing the virus home to my family was the worst. I took my clothes off in the garage that night.
Journal photographer Eddie Moore has been with the Journal 28 years. He focuses on northern New Mexico, but his assignments take him all over the state.
