Evening Roundup: NYC’s Crime Stats, Civil Rights Investigations in Jeopardy at NYC Schools and Living with Long COVID

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Janae Pierre: New York City's crime stats, Civil rights investigations in jeopardy at New York City schools, and living with long COVID. From WNYC, this is NYC Now. I'm Janae Pierre.

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Janae Pierre: NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch is touting some new crime stats. She says New York City had the lowest number of shootings during the first quarter of 2025 than any other year in the modern era. She also says the city had the second-lowest number of murders in history for that time period as well. The news comes as Tisch has stepped up quality of life enforcement in the subway system, arresting people for fare evasion and taking up more than one seat.

Commissioner Jessica Tisch: The truth is this approach allows the NYPD to address the random acts of violence that we're seeing in the subways.

Janae Pierre: She said major crime fell by 11% in the first three months of the year, but there has been an increase in incidents of rape, which spiked 21% over the first quarter of 2024.

President Trump's order to close the federal Education Department is really being felt in New York City. WNYC's Jessica Gould reports on the fallout from the closure of an Education Department office investigating civil rights violations of students.

Jessica Gould: The Trump administration is consolidating many of the department's local civil rights branches, and it shuttered the one in Lower Manhattan. That office investigated allegations of discrimination in education on the basis of race, sex, and disability. High-profile cases included a challenge to the city's dysfunctional school bus system for students with disabilities and allegations of exclusionary admissions policies in charter schools. Trump administration officials say complaints will now be handled through a different office and more efficiently, but attorneys representing students say they don't even know who to contact about their pending cases.

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Janae Pierre: Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers are living with long COVID. Symptoms that have stuck around since they've been infected with the virus. More on that after the break.

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Janae Pierre: It's been five years since COVID-19 upended our lives, but hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers still struggle with symptoms long after they got infected with the virus. Medical experts say research on long COVID is advancing, but some patients worry the Trump administration's budget cuts targeting science and medical research could set the effort back. WNYC's Caroline Lewis spent a day with one long COVID patient to see what her life is like.

Caroline Lewis: I'm meeting 35-year-old Alicia at the apartment she shares with her husband near Prospect Park.

Alicia: When we moved into this apartment, we had a lot of excitement about being near the park and just the area. Unfortunately, with my health, I don't think I've been to the park yet at all. It's been hard.

Caroline Lewis: Alicia says she doesn't want to be sitting around her apartment all day, but after she got over a case of COVID in late 2020, she developed chronic fatigue, neuropathy, and other symptoms that wouldn't go away. Alicia asked me to withhold her last name to protect her privacy. She's currently on disability benefits and often struggles to leave the house. She says she's developed some hacks for saving energy so she can do some of the simple things she enjoyed before, like making a morning cup of coffee.

Alicia: I usually use this stool, which has been just like a lifesaver. It's actually really increased my quality of life.

Caroline Lewis: When Alicia does leave the house, it's often to go to the doctor. Hi, how are you?

Speaker: Good morning.

Alicia: Hello.

Caroline Lewis: Today we're Ubering to her doctor's office in Fort Greene. I sit in the back with her while she reminisces about life before COVID.

Alicia: These are just photos of my husband and I hiking. I think this was my birthday, actually, but it was in [crosstalk]

Caroline Lewis: Before the pandemic, Alicia said she was in the best shape of her life. Sometimes hitting two workout classes on her way home from work as a marketing manager for a cosmetics company.

Alicia: This is me hosting a dinner party. I love to host.

Caroline Lewis: It's unclear how many people are living with long COVID. That's when symptoms linger for at least three months after an initial COVID infection. One large CDC study estimated it's about 6% of all adults. That's half a million people in New York City. About 1 in 5 who have the condition say it significantly limits what they can do.

Alicia: Hello.

Caroline Lewis: Alicia is here to see her primary care physician, Dr. Rebecca Summers.

Dr. Rebecca Summers: Mixing up some NAD, which has been a helpful supplement for Alicia.

Caroline Lewis: NAD, short for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, is a coenzyme that occurs naturally in human cells. Researchers theorize that increasing levels of NAD could improve cellular function and give long COVID patients more energy. NAD has not been approved by the FDA. In fact, five years out, there are still no FDA-approved treatments for long COVID. Patients and doctors are left to experiment with supplements and off-label medications that have been approved for other conditions, hoping they'll provide some relief. Still, researchers say long COVID is much less of a mystery today than it was five years ago.

Dr. Leora Horwitz is a professor of medicine at NYU Langone. She's conducting a national study of long COVID patients by tracking their symptoms over time.

Dr. Leora Horwitz: We know an immense amount now about both the symptoms that people are getting, the duration that those symptoms last, what happens to people over time, what is going on in the actual body.

Caroline Lewis: Long COVID symptoms vary widely; they can include brain fog, dizziness, loss of smell or taste. One of the most common symptoms is post-exertional malaise/

Dr. Leora Horwitz: Which means that you do something kind of minor, then a day or two later you get exhausted, sometimes unable to even get out of bed.

Caroline Lewis: Horowitz said she's optimistic treatments are on the horizon now that some clinical trials are underway, but some patients worry progress will slow down under President Trump. Brooklynite Hannah Davis developed symptoms of long COVID in spring 2020 and helped launch the Patient Led Research Collaborative to investigate the phenomenon. She says she's concerned about the Trump administration's broad cuts to scientific research and the recent decision to close a federal office dedicated to long COVID.

Hannah Davis: This is an issue that requires an all-federal government response and has been challenging enough in the past four years where we've had some support. To decrease it, is unfathomable to understand.

Caroline Lewis: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who heads the Department of Health and Human Services, vowed to prioritize long COVID research at his confirmation hearing in January, but a spokesperson for the agency has since said that COVID, in general, is no longer a concern because the pandemic is over. Even without approved treatments, many patients do improve over time.

Alicia has learned to pace herself to conserve so she can do things like sit with her husband in a café. She's finding ways to accept what her life looks like now.

Dr. Rebecca Summers: Do you want to lie down?

Alicia: Yes. Do you mind?

Caroline Lewis: Dr. Summers offers Alicia an alternative therapy called Somatic Experiencing, a practice that aims to identify and alter how a person physically experiences trauma or stress.

Dr. Rebecca Summers: If you think back to last spring.

Alicia: Yes.

Dr. Rebecca Summers: What do you remember about that?

Alicia: That was, I think, a period of a lot of isolation.

Caroline Lewis: Alicia lies on an exam table under a blanket with her eyes closed. Dr. Summers sits next to her on a stool. She gently places one hand on her patient's shoulder and the other on her thigh. During their session, Summers tries to remind Alicia of all the progress she's made, even if it seems incremental.

Alicia: Before I used to get like so much tightness in my chest.

Caroline Lewis: Alicia says she's reminded of springtime as she thinks about letting go of her anger over long COVID. Dr. Summers asks her what that looks like.

Alicia: Oh, it's so corny. Like I'm literally seeing butterflies. If I googled spring gift or something, it makes me feel like good things are coming, I hope. I think. I know. This spring is going to look different than last spring.

Dr. Rebecca Summers: Well, yes. Maybe just even remember it already. Probably does.

Alicia: Yes.

Caroline Lewis: This spring, Alicia has set a new goal for herself; to walk at least once to the farmers' market outside Prospect Park, a couple of blocks from her house.

Janae Pierre: That's WNYC's Caroline Lewis.

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Janae Pierre: Thanks for listening to NYC Now, from WNYC. I'm Jane Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.

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