On 24 September 2025, I asked FDNY for “the number of calls to 311 or 911 made/received daily that were directed or redirected to telehealth services, occurring between 1 March 2020 and 31 December 2024.”
They acknowledged the request on 1 October 2025 but haven’t provided records or an update yet. I asked about the status today. We’ll see if they reply in a timely fashion (or at all).
Why I requested this data and what it might show
Not only New York City but pretty much every county and city in the United States I’ve looked at reported significant (40-60%) drops in visits to the Emergency Department in spring 2020. The media- and dissident-approved narrative about the reason involves people being afraid of catching the virus at hospitals. I used to hold this perspective myself.
While there is some evidence that people “stayed home” and stayed away from hospitals due to fear, that idea places the blame on the public and assumes an epidemiological event of some kind – be it “viral” or nocebo-induced – was occurring…which ultimately serves the perpetrators of Operation COVID-19. The assertion is also contradicted by 9-1-1 calls in various cities that remained steady or increased — and the plain truth that many people simply did what they were told do: Don’t go to the hospital with your cold or symptom simply because you think you might have “it.”
Laying aside the question of whether disease-spread emergencies exist, this is not unreasonable advice, be it during an ostensible “health crisis” or any time at all: Don’t go to the hospital unless you really need to.
Americans, at least, seem to have forgotten how much “entertainment” we were served in those initial weeks — and how many people in the Zoomer and Boomer classes in particular were fine staying home and were NOT panicking in the true medical sense. “Worried well” isn’t “panicking” or “having a panic attack”. As I wrote about in the latter part of this long article about trying to get ED visit data for “epicenter of the epicenter” Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, people were being urged to go get tested. It’s not unusual for city-dwellers to have a late winter/early spring sniffle or other set of symptoms. In Chicago, at least, my own Essential Worker husband was told in late March 2020 to get tested when someone he’d been in contact with at work “had COVID.” He went to an outpatient facility, as he was directed to do, but he wasn’t panicking.
From a data perspective, the biggest factor in the ED visit drop might be the advent of telehealth services, insurance approval therefore, and public officials urging to use telemedicine for ailments that could be addressed via that avenue, without having to go to the hospital (or doctors’ office, many of which were closed). See the summary via ChatGPT following this article.
I don’t know if data on calls to telemedicine (or redirection to telemedicine) were tracked by FDNY or any public agency. But if they were, and we can “add” the daily time-series to the daily ED visit data, we might get a very different sense of what was, and was not, happening during “15 days to slow the spread” and the 30 additional days that followed.
Analysts who live in other countries can determine the extent to which the advent of telemedicine in 2020 may have impacted call, ambulance dispatch, and hospital visit data, and make FOI requests or seek the data from research studies accordingly.
ADDITION: 23 January 2026
Appending an email I sent to the lead author of “Collateral Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The New York City Experience” that was returned undeliverable, likely because she no longer works for the New York City Health Department.
Text below, in the spirit of capturing the hypothesis:
Good day, Dr. Davies.
I have read with interest your study “Collateral Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The New York City Experience.” https://journals.lww.com/jphmp/fulltext/2023/07000/collateral_impacts_of_the_covid_19_pandemic__the.17.aspx
I’ve studied and written about the New York event for several years and am wondering if you or your team has considered, as I have recently, whether and how the drop in ED visits is, in part, a function of calls being directed to telemedicine.
I submitted a FOIL to FDNY for that data but they have yet to respond.
You may already know that calls to 911/311 show increases immediately following the federal “15 days to slow the spread” decree, and that some call redirection orders involving FDNY began in early March.
You’re probably aware that, at the federal level, various legislative measures in March 2020 resulted in funding, waivers, and reimbursements related to telehealth services.
Both ED visit and 911/311 call data should be evaluated in view of those changes and, if possible, data on the daily number of telemedicine visits procured. I believe this would impact interpretation of the ED visit data in particular appreciably.
I look forward to your response and thoughts.
Regards,
Jessica Hockett, PhD
ADDITION: 27 February 2026
Per a report from Mayor DeBlasio’s office, NYC H+H activated a “clinician-led COVID-19 hotline” in early March:
“In early March, NYC H+H stood up a clinician-led COVID-19 hotline that allowed New Yorkers to call with their COVID-19 health concerns and receive expert guidance. At its peak, the hotline received over 5,000 calls a day. In addition, NYC H+H aggressively scaled up telemedicine services, going from just 500 virtual visits in the month prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, to nearly 57,000 in the first three weeks of the pandemic— and a total of over 289,000 televisits by the end of June.” https://www.nyc.gov/assets/operations/downloads/pdf/mmr2020/covid-short.pdf
“First three weeks of the pandemic” would be mid-March through early April. Using 21 days and 57,000 calls means 2,700 virtual visits a day, on average. This includes only the public hospital system (11 out of 60 or so hospitals citywide). Private hospital systems also launched and heavily promoted virtual care. While there’s no way of knowing whether the same callers would have (or should have) visited emergency rooms, the ED visit data should be interpreted alongside the push for and volume of telemedicine consultations.
Via ChatGPT
The major U.S. federal approval and expansion of telehealth in 2020 occurred early in the COVID-19 pandemic as part of emergency responses to keep patients connected to care:
📅 Key Telehealth Approval Dates in 2020 (U.S. context)
- March 1, 2020: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) updated the list of covered telehealth services effective March 1, enabling broader use and reimbursement of telehealth under Medicare from this date. American Medical Association
- March 6, 2020: Federal legislation (the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act) included $500 million for Medicare telehealth, effectively authorizing the expansion of telehealth spending and services as part of emergency funding. Wikipedia
- March 17, 2020: CMS officially announced an expansion of telehealth waivers and coverage, allowing clinicians to bill for telehealth services across the country — including patients’ homes — for services dating back to March 6, 2020. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services+1
- March 27, 2020: The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act further expanded telehealth access, including additional services and reimbursement flexibilities under Medicare during the pandemic. ASHP
🗂 Summary
In practice, telehealth was effectively “approved” and significantly expanded in early March 2020 through a combination of legislative and regulatory actions tied to the COVID-19 public health emergency:
- Coverage expansions were put into effect for services starting March 1–6, 2020. American Medical Association+1
- CMS announcements on March 17, 2020 put the broader waivers into play. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
These changes temporarily removed geographic and originating site restrictions and broadened who could provide and be reimbursed for telehealth — dramatically increasing adoption during the pandemic. kff.org
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