'Lot of fear': Coronavirus pandemic compounds dire situation for poor Americans
By 8 a.m. on Wednesday, the line outside St. Paul and St. Andrew United Methodist Church in New York City stretched around the block.
But this wasn't any ordinary morning.
Fixed-income residents like 66-year-old Patricia Sylvester faced an agonizing choice -- weighing the risk of catching the coronavirus or going hungry in the pandemic that has seized America's largest city.
Sylvester, a mother of two and a grandmother of three, conceded to being nervous waiting on line for the church's food pantry and made a valiant attempt at social distancing.
"I’m a senior citizen and I’ve been coming here since before the crisis. I knew a lot of things were closed down, but once I got the call Monday from the church, I was like, 'Wow, let me go.' I hate to take the chance of getting sick, but I need some food in the house," Sylvester told ABC News.
As the number of confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths continue to surge in New York City and across the nation, experts say members of poor communities in hard-hit urban areas are among the most vulnerable due to poverty, unemployment, homelessness, lack of medical insurance and underlying physical conditions that disproportionately affect them.
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