So, about those ‘Trump burial pits’

Recent footage from New York City’s Hart Island shows workers in protective suits burying dozens of wooden caskets in a long trench. The images, coupled with the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Empire State, have led to a slew of headlines claiming the outbreak has forced government officials to dump the bodies of people killed by the coronavirus into hastily constructed mass graves.

“Drone Footage Shows Apparent Coronavirus Mass Grave At New York City’s Hart Island,” reports HuffPost.

Vice reports, “Drone Footage Shows Mass Coronavirus Graves On Hart Island In New York.”

“Aerial video shows mass grave on New York City’s Hart Island amid coronavirus surge,” said the Guardian.

As usual, one needs to cut through some gristle to get to the meat of this story. So, let’s start with the toplines.

First, officials in New York City, where 5,150 have died already from the virus, say they plan to use Hart Island as a resting place for unclaimed and unidentified coronavirus victims.

“For decades, Hart Island has been used to lay to rest decedents who have not been claimed by family members,” mayoral spokeswoman Freddi Goldstein told the New York Post. “We will continue using the island in that fashion during this crisis and it is likely that people who have passed away from COVID who fit this description will be buried on the Island in the coming days.”

This brings us to the next point, which is that no one knows if any of the anonymous persons buried recently on Hart Island died from the virus. City officials said they were uncertain whether “suspected coronavirus patients were among the dead,” because “it is unknown if some of the deceased were tested,” the New York Post reports.

“The city’s count of COVID-19 deaths is believed to be inaccurate because ‘probable cases’ of those found dead in their homes are not tested,” the report adds.

That said, it is important to note that there has been a major uptick recently in the number of burials on Hart Island. Gravediggers have gone from a typical workload of about 25 bodies per week to about 25 bodies per day since March, according to New York City Department of Corrections spokesman Jason Kersten.

To reiterate: They have gone from burying 25 per week to burying 120 per week since March.

It is also important to note that New York City’s medical examiner confirmed this week that they have cut in half the number of days that they will hold onto an unclaimed body before moving it to Hart Island. Unidentified or unclaimed persons will be transferred now after 14 days instead of 30. City officials explain the policy change is meant to alleviate the strain on the morgues (via Reuters):

And though it is standard operating procedure on Hart Island to use trenches to bury the anonymous dead, workers have dug extra ditches recently in anticipation of an even bigger increase in their workload.

“They added two new trenches in case we need them,” Kersten told Reuters.

As to the question of who is doing the digging: New York City, where health and government officials were encouraging residents to go on about their lives as late as March 11, is no longer using its typical force of low-paid prisoners to bury the unclaimed and unidentified. The city is instead using private contractors because the use of inmates as gravediggers created too many health and safety concerns.

“For social distancing and safety reasons, city-sentenced people in custody are not assisting in burials for the duration of the pandemic,” said Kersten.

Lastly, it is contextually important to remember that Hart Island has been used for more than 150 years as a potter’s field for New York City’s unclaimed and unknown. The island is home to a graveyard called City Cemetery, where the job of laying anonymous persons to rest is usually performed by low-paid prison workers.

“Since 1869, prison labor has been used to bury unclaimed and unidentified New Yorkers in mass graves of 150 adults or 1000 infants,” according to the Hart Island Project, which is an advocacy group dedicated to improving access to the island and burial records. “Since 1980, 68,955 people have been buried in mass graves on Hart Island.”

These are the facts as we know them about what is happening in Hart Island. These facts, coupled with the recent footage of the workers on the island, are why people are talking about “Trump burial pits.”

The “burial pits” are the trenches, and President Trump is the man some social media users hold responsible for the seriousness of the pandemic in the United States.