“It’s such a crazy, scary feeling.” Dr. Nathalie Dougé describes a period during the first wave of COVID-19 in which nearly all of her patients were infected with the virus. During that time, doctors were dealing with what Dougé calls “the worst thing in medicine”—something new.
Directed by Matthew Heineman, The First Wave is a firsthand account of how the Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New York City responded to the rapid influx of COVID-19 patients after the virus initially hit the United States. Spanning from March to June of 2020, this documentary takes a hard look at the grueling trials of medical professionals as well as the overwhelming challenges COVID patients faced to regain their health.
At Long Island Medical Center, doctors and nurses take a moment of silence after losing a patient to the coronavirus. It’s March, the virus is new, and it is filling their wards with infectious cases. Understaffed and overworked, these hospital workers are followed as they treat people like Ahmed Ellis and Brussels Jabon, first responders who are surviving on ventilators. They comfort suffering patients; they inform families of deaths. Each person involved in the care of one of these cases must draw a line between themselves and every patient to keep the personal from the professional.
But sometimes, that line is inevitably erased: A patient’s circumstances are too similar to one of their own loved ones; families scream and sob into their ears when informed, “We did everything we could.” When these circumstances present themselves to crumble doctors’ and nurses’ resolve, viewers will feel every second of their suffering. An apocalyptic-dystopian fiction could not have conveyed the magnitude as do the scenes in which nurses hold up plastic-wrapped iPads to patients’ faces, largely obscured by breathing apparatuses–all to show them just glimpses of their families. Every moment of this health and wellness documentary resource serves to drive home the devastating nature of COVID-19.
It’s a strange experience to take a retrograde look at a virus that is still deeply affecting society today, but Heineman’s retrospective exploration of the pandemic immortalizes its realities. It attempts to do the same by tying into the story the racial unrest of 2020–another reality that persists in the United States’ culture.
Most of Douge’s patients are Black, Hispanic, or immigrants, and The First Wave does well to show the disparity in the cases and deaths for ethnic minorities. With shots of the George Floyd protests, the film briefly touches on the intersection of systemic racism and the pandemic as public health crises. The theme felt more of an afterthought, however, needing to be more fully integrated into the educational documentary’s overarching scope.
As a piece of unimaginable history, this intense and intimate picture of COVID-19 will likely be one to show the grandchildren. The First Wave is a hard-hitting documentary that tugs on each and every heartstring. Although it explores details that most already know about the pandemic, it does so with emotive and harrowing coverage, which makes it a great watch to show those who are still denying the effects of the coronavirus. Highly recommended for documentary library shelves on social and medical issues.