Every Minute Is a Day

An urgent, on-the-ground account of chaos and compassion from the frontlines of ground zero for Covid-19, from a New York Times journalist and a senior doctor at New York City's busiest emergency room When Dan Koeppel texted his cousin Robert Meyer, a senior doctor in the emergency room at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, at the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis in the United States, he expected to hear that things were hectic. On a scale of 1-10, ten being overwhelmed, where do you think you are? Koeppel asked. Meyer's grave reply--100--was merely the cusp of the crisis that has since touched every part of the globe. In need of an outlet to process the trauma of his working life over the coming months, Meyer continued to update Koeppel with what he'd seen and who he'd treated, their messages acting as part diary, part family therapy, and eventually a document of historic chaos and grief. Combining the frontline perspective of an ER doctor and a journalist's discerning research and reporting, Every Minute Is a Day takes us into a hospital ravaged by Covid-19, filled with the stories of promises made that may be impossible to keep; of choices that mean one patient is going to die so that somebody else won't; and of selflessness on the part of medical professionals who are putting themselves at incalculable risk. As fast-paced and high-tempo as the ER in which it takes place, Every Minute Is a Day is at its core an incomparable primary source and an account of unrelenting compassion. This fascinating, heartbreaking book will clarify this epoch-making moment for those who live through it and be consulted for generations to come.

About the Author :
Dan Koeppel is a senior staff writer at The New York Times's Wirecutter. He has written for national publications including Wired, Outside, National Geographic, and The Atlantic and won a James Beard Award for his food writing. He is the author of Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World. His writing has been anthologized three times in the Best American series. Robert Meyer, M.D. has been an emergency room doctor for over twenty-five years, spending most of his career at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, which sees more urgent cases than any other medical facility in the eastern United States. He is an associate professor of emergency medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He lives in Hartsdale, New York, with his wife, Janet.