On Saturday, New York City’s Mount Sinai Hospital decided to close the Samaritan’s Purse emergency hospital constructed to help coronavirus patients in New York’s historic Central Park. Sources said the decision came in part due to outrage at Samaritan’s Purse’s Christian beliefs about marriage and sexuality. The decision came one day after New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson demonized Samaritan’s Purse and its president, Franklin Graham, of “hate” against the LGBT community.
“Mount Sinai hospital confirms it is closing down its field hospital in Central Park run by the group Samaritan’s purse beginning on May 4. According to a source, Samaritan’s purse, will not be relocating to another local hospital despite some recent rumors,” Melissa Russo, government affairs reporter for News 4 New York, tweeted on Saturday. “Source tells me a decision was made to sever ties after controversy over the group’s religious views on the LGBTQ community caused concerns in NY. They treated 315 patients and were down to 8 by Friday.”
Samaritan’s Purse requires its volunteers to agree to a written affirmation “that marriage is exclusively the union of one genetic male and one genetic female.”
Hate has no place in our beautiful city. 6/6
— NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson (@NYCSpeakerCoJo) May 1, 2020
The Mount Sinai Health System acknowledged that the Samaritan’s Purse field hospital provided “high-quality medical care for 315 patients infected with the virus.” While the coronavirus crisis is far from over in New York City, hospitals are no longer as overwhelmed as they once were. “Now that the surge in COVID hospital admissions is reaching manageable levels, we will stop admitting patients to the Central Park field hospital as of May 4.”
Another coronavirus field hospital run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center closed on Friday after treating just over 1,000 patients. That facility will remain intact in case there is a second wave of the outbreak in the Big Apple, however. – READ MORE
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