Shooting Up: Ep. 11

Remember the dead, but treat the living.

It’s tricky to speak of 9/11 as a day of national remembrance. The word “remembrance” implies the recollection of something that is firmly past. For those who lost loved ones, I imagine those losses still feel fiercely present. Moreover, the material and cultural consequences of how 9/11 was leveraged in the 00s to fuel Islamophobic racism and justify the American (re)invasion of the Middle East feel inextricable from our current moment.

For many individuals near the World Trade Center during or after the attacks — including survivors, first responders, clean-up crews, and local residents — however, past and present are profoundly blurred because their bodies are still keeping the score.

The CDC reports that over 69, 800 people have been diagnosed with illnesses related to exposure to toxic dust, debris, and trauma on 9/11. People affected have dispersed across the country and, 24 years later, they’re still getting sick. Diagnoses of 9/11-related cancers rose by 143% over the past five years alone — a phenomenon that doctors ascribe to the responders’ advancing age.

(A crowd of lawmakers and first responders gather in Washington D.C. to support the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Reauthorization Act in 2015. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.)

So, amid calls to “never forget,” where does this leave survivors? Before today’s video, I leave you with three stats:

• The Trump administration has introduced drastic cuts to the World Trade Center Health Program (WTCHP) that many rely on as a lifeline. (Attorney Michael Barasch called the cuts “bureaucratic cruelty.”)

• Without intervention, the Program faces a funding shortfall that will bar new enrollees by 2028 and cut services for everyone already enrolled by 2029.

• In NYC, the Office of Labor Relations hasn’t paid surviving family members from its healthcare fund in almost a year.