Bruce Ruck, managing director of the New Jersey Poison Control Center (NJPIES), is used to high call volumes. But the volume of calls that have been coming into the center’s COVID-19 hotline over the past year about the coronavirus – which has infected 800,000 New Jersey residents and killed more than 23,000 – have been more like a tsunami. “I was in the center with others seven days a week, 12-16 hours a day until Memorial Day weekend last year when it started to let up a little,” said Ruck, a licensed pharmacist. “We were getting five times as many calls as usual. The calls kept coming. People were desperate for answers.” To read the full story.