City advocates are urging the federal government to create a victims compensation fund for first responders on the frontlines of the coronavirus crisis, to protect their families should they die from the disease.
“There has to be a 9/11-type fund set up now for them so that if they die from the virus, their families can be compensated,” said Manhattan attorney Bob Sullivan, who wrote a letter to New York’s federal lawmakers on Thursday. “They have to do it now rather than later."
Advocates are also calling on the city to amend its rules so the families of first responders dying or suffering a coronavirus-related health issue would be eligible for disability benefits.
On Sept. 11, first responders ran into Ground Zero not knowing that the toxic soup swirling above the mangled remains of the World Trade Center would leave them with life-long health problems and fatal cancers.