Journalist Alisyn Camerota is the anchor of New Day: CNN’s morning news show. She has lived in Westport for seven and a half years with her husband, three children (ages 13, 15 and 15), and Savi, their beloved longtime nanny/house manager, who helps control the chaos.
While the family is following stay at home orders, as a journalist, Alisyn is considered an essential employee and gets a special dispensation from the city to go into Manhattan to do her job.
“COVID-19 has certainly impacted my work. Our New York City office looks like a ghost town as we all are forced to keep our distance from each other. My producers, writers, bookers, camera crews, and makeup artists are no longer in the building. My co-anchor and I are normally share an anchor desk, but now we’re both alone in individual studios. It’s strange. I continue to work and report on the situation, hoping that my reporting is helpful and my daily morning presence is comforting to viewers.
When reporting on this story, it would be impossible for me to pretend that it isn’t hitting close to home. I don’t feel the need to try to insert artificial distance. My town has been hard hit. I’m talking to neighbors everyday who are anxious and confused. I think the proximity to the story gives me more understanding and makes me a better reporter. It reminds me of reporting from Ground Zero after 9/11. There was no way not to feel close to the story and I accepted that it was ok to feel personally frightened and devastated but still able to get facts and information out.
Westporters seem to be heeding the warnings to “socially distance” from each other. Even walking our new dog, neighbors stop to say, ‘Hello,’ but stay six feet apart. Shopping and dining out have ended. The library is closed. I think that once Westport realized it was a hotspot, residents became vigilant about trying to flatten the curve here.
[At home] we’re doing our part to contain the virus. And we’re thinking of anyone who is sick and battling COVID-19. We can’t wait to see everyone out in the world again.
My hope is that once these challenging days are behind us, we can preserve a bit of the family time we’ve experienced.
My hope is that once these challenging days are behind us, we can preserve a bit of the family time we’ve experienced. I’ve enjoyed the Monopoly marathons and Scrabble nights. I hope this moment helps us scale down our hyper-scheduled lives and appreciate some good old-fashioned reading and Yahtzee-playing.”
We decided this would be a good time to finally say, ‘Yes,’ to the kids’ desire to get a dog. Knowing the kids would be home from school indefinitely, it seems like they’d have a lot of time on their hands to walk her, train her, and get to know her. She’s been a godsend. It’s fun sharing this stressful time with a super enthusiastic little being.