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Collected Item: “The Daily Numbers, No More Beds”

Give your story a title.

The Daily Numbers, No More Beds

What sort of object is this: text story, photograph, video, audio interview, screenshot, drawing, meme, etc.?

Screenshot OC Health

Tell us a story; share your experience. Describe what the object or story you've uploaded says about the pandemic, and/or why what you've submitted is important to you.

Since October, I religiously check the daily case rate everyday at 12:30 when my distance learning class breaks for lunch. Originally, I checked in outrage, as I watched the local numbers climb, while simultaneously hearing our school administrators claim our school of 2500 was “safe to open.” After Halloween, I spent a tense November planning to take a leave because there was no way I was risking my family to continue to teach in person but still over Zoom, unable to walk around, with kids unable to work in a capacity beyond their chrome books. Me, exposing myself unnecessarily to the virus inside my classroom with students, but teaching exactly as I would for distance learning, for the political facade that things are “normal.” 20 people dying a day in this county is not normal. These daily numbers climbing confirmed to me my gut instinct was right. Our school ended up having our re-opening cancelled by the state when our area moved into the most restrictive tier at the end of November. I had mixed feelings of relief, horror, and deep sadness. The day we hit 700 cases a day, I was in shock. When we crossed 1000, I was horrified. Last week, when we hit 2000 cases a day, I was in terror. Today and yesterday, we have reached over 3000 new cases a day, and there are now 0% ICU beds available in our county. I feel nothing but numb. Numb and exasperated that people here are still refusing to wear masks and still think going out is more important than the safety of our community. Oh, but don’t worry. My school still thinks it’s safe to open.

Use one-word hashtags (separated by commas) to describe your story. For example: Where did it originate? How does this object make you feel? How does this object relate to the pandemic?

ICU, case rates, hospitals, schools, shutdown,
Orange County

Who originally created this object? (If you created this object, such as photo, then put "self" here.)

Kathryn Jue

Give this story a date.

2020-12-14
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