Inside an overwhelmed emergency room

A Rhode Island emergency department provides a window into how front-line health-care workers are coping with the latest covid surge. And a conversation about how André Leon Talley embodied the heart of the fashion world.

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Laura Forman, Kent Hospital’s emergency department director, says that her days dealing with a deluge of covid patients involves a lot of “best bad options.” Reporters Joyce Koh and Lenny Bernstein reported from Rhode Island, where overwhelmed emergency staff have been forced to see patients in their cars. Forman says her staff are burning out – and the conditions are the worst she’s seen in her 26-year career. 

Fashion icon André Leon Talley died this week at the age of 73. Talley was the former creative director of American Vogue, the first and only black person to hold that position. Senior critic-at-large Robin Givhan interviewed Talley many times over the years – and they were also friends. 

“He had an incredible capacity for generosity. And it came through in a way that was just as grand as his personality,” Givhan says.