Safely going to our first concert together. Lots of fun and memories.

In 2020, The week of my 22th birthday I tested positive for covid-19. I had no signs that I had even feel sick or had covid. I tested three times before that due to my family friend having covid but I was not really in direct contact but wanted to test anyway. Negative all three time that day. I don't know why they tested me three times but whatever. When I was at home resting and trying to "do my time" I felt totally normal. It was like any other day to me. However, when I got my shots I when I had all the side effects and was out for a good two days at school. I felt like I was gonna die. I had to wait the two days out and nothing felt good to me,I could not get comfortable, and I was sore all over. It even felt like that when I got my booster. Overall, covid sucks!

Jacob Wrasse was born in Durand, Wisconsin and is an alumni of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, where he was on the Forensics team and was elected Student Body President. He currently works in the Chancellor’s office at UWEC as the Legislative and Community Relations Liaison. In his interview, Jacob Wrasse talks about the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on his work, family, and the greater Eau Claire community. He gives insight into the effects of going through the pandemic in the winter where there were limited outdoor opportunities and working from home as a community relations liaison

Sai Rebbapragada is a first-generation college student who is currently living in Minnesota. He has many close family members currently living in India and is able to provide not just a view of the COVID pandemic from the Midwest but also a view from India. Furthermore, Sai currently works in a day care and provides useful information about the changes of daily life, as well as the struggles for many overcrowded Indians. He talks about his family’s reaction to the COVID pandemic and how lockdown is being viewed in India. Finally, Sai does also address his experience with COVID on a personal level as well as his views of the political reaction.

Allison Christenson, a current student at University of Wisonsin-Eau Claire, talks about how the COVID pandemic has affected her and her community members. As she works closely with the elderly in a nursing home, she has to take special protocols and has a lot of experience on the frontline. Allison talks about how she has managed school during the Pandemic along with socializing and relationships. She talks about the vaccine and government related controversy during the pandemic.

Janice Hughes, currently living in Madison, WI, is a medical abstractor for UW Health. Within the interview she talks about how the workplace has changed, along with day to day life during the COVID pandemic. She talks about her experiences with COVID and how her community around her has been dealing with it. She talks about how mental health has been affected with the pandemic along with physical health. Janice Hughes discusses what it was like to receive the vaccine and some of the lessons she has learned overall with the pandemic.

Holly Tremble lives in Hudson, Wisconsin a suburb of the Twin Cities and is currently unemployed but also is a care worker once a week at a nursing home in Northfield, Minnesota so that she can see her father during this pandemic. In this interview, Holly discusses how COVID-19 has affected her life, her employment status, and family and community life. She shares what it has been like to go through this pandemic as well as the different approaches to the pandemic that she experienced being on the border of Minnesota and Wisconsin and the difference in policies in the area.

HIndiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis student Shanda Nicole Gladden interviews Bryan Gilbert for the COVID 19 project in hopes of collecting stories about racial justice movements in the context of COVID 19. In this interview they discuss noticeable changes in his neighborhood and work place. The reputation of the Eastside of Indianapolis and personal concerns surrounding COVID. The interviewee spoke about his personal concerns surrounding COVID as well as politics, the importance of voting and rising racial tensions. They spoke about the Black Lives Matter movements, protests and demonstrations and art installations that have followed that. They also spoke about hopes for the future, predictions on how COVID will impact the future. How COVID might change relationships (family, friends, community and society as a whole). The interviewee also touched topics of the LGBT+ community, getting married during a pandemic and the hopes he has for the progression of the community in the future.

This interview was recorded as part of The Covid 19 Oral History Project, a project of the IUPUI Arts and Humanities Institute associated with The Journal of a Plague Year: A Covid 19 Archive. Tina is an essential worker, working as a paramedic for an ambulance service in Southern Wisconsin. She is also a full-time faculty at the technical college where she trains EMS students. Her husband is also an essential worker as a volunteer firefighter. In this interview she discusses changes to clinical hours for her students, transitioning to using human simulators. Issues with PPE shortages. Transitioning to online learning and how teaching was different. How her local Governor response affected her and her community. Changes to her day-to-day life with family and friends. Fear for her parents getting covid, staying isolated and missing family during a years’ worth of missed holidays and getting vaccinated. The effects on her community and the political aspect that crept into the COVID pandemic. Frustration with COVID deniers, mask refusal and social media blasting false information. Seeing the realities of COVID as an EMS driver and transporting COVID patients. Her feelings for those who lost loved ones during covid and their grieving process. Political, both state and federal, response to COVID. News outlets and how she chose to receive news. Comparing COVID to other world events like 9/11 and Desert Storm. Living in a rural area. Her hopes for the future and the lessons she hopes we have learned.

Oral History is an interview with and educator to discuss taking up initiatives to combat social justice and police injustice that has occurred during the pandemic.

In this interview conducted by Christina Lefebvre, Dr Caroline Birks Brown describes the drastic changes she saw while working in a hospital. She discusses patient care, the hospitals rapid response to converting floors to ICUs, and the way the hospital delt with staffing enough nurses to provide sufficient care to patients. She discusses how Spanish speaking doctors and nurses were asked to volunteer to work to avoid depersonalization and how other branches, like social workers, stepped up to provide the best care possible under the circumstances. Dr Caroline also touches on the possibility of young people getting covid and her thoughts on the patterns of the groups of people getting sick. She reenforces her appreciation of nurses and also discusses the politicization of the virus. The interview ends with her thoughts on what could have been done differently, politically and socially, to control the spread of the virus. As a mother, she talks about distanced learning and its effects on children and the importance of socialization. The last topic is about lessons she hopes we have learned.

Anonymous oral history of Dr who is treating patients and a Massachusetts hospital. He talks about working with residents and students and how work life has changed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. He discusses one such patient who is an employee at his hospital who contracted Covid-109 and was dealing with the implications of it. He mentions that the patient is of Salvadoran decent and had to learn how to take steps and even talk after being on a ventilator. The doctor interviewed is optimistic about what this is teaching medical students and residents about their job profession and finishes the interview with his opinions about how the government response was complicated and lacking. However, at a societal level the interviewee states, the nation is handling the pandemic, well.

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Alex Brice interviews Helen Brechlin, who is an administrative supervisor at the Boston Institutes Contemporary Art Museum. The interview begins with Helen discussing the onset of quarantine and the transition to working from home. She explains the intricacies of managing a team digitally. Additionally, Helen goes into how living with a partner who also works from home, you have to develop a new routine and learning to balance time and space. Helen then explains some things she did teleworking to keep her team strong, including having weekly communications and diving deeper into some of the artists displayed at the museum. Then Helen is asked about the George Floyd incident and how it impacted her and she expressed the importance of community, advocating change, and separately the importance of real communication over social media. Lastly, Helen talked about the differences after reopening the museum and making it safe and comfortable for visitors.

Braelyn Swedlund was born and raised in Eau Claire and currently works at the Kiddie Patch daycare learning center, as a lead infant teacher. In this interview, Braelyn discusses how COVID – 19 has affected her life, including her work, family life, and the community around her. She shares what is was like when she recently had COVID – 19, and how it affected the daycare she has been working at during the pandemic, and what happens to the daycare if a child there were to get COVID.

Bec Blaedow is a resident of Eau Claire county in Wisconsin that is a full-time student at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire. In this interview, Bec gives exceptional insights on how the COVID-19 pandemic can affect those with underlying health conditions and the problems that arise from it, along with additional inputs on the current state of events towards the end of the 2020 year.

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Andrew Butler conducts this interview Holly Settles, on April 22 at 10:04am. This is a part of the Covid 19 parject by Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis. This oral history interview discusses their experience through the covid 19 pandemic.

CeCelia Zorn, Carin Keyes, Wilma Clark, and Nancy Wendt are residents of the Chippewa Valley and were brought together by their love of music. The women talk about the “Deck Concert”, an event that CeCelia and Nancy organized. Carin and Wilma attended this concert with their families. All women talk about the details of the concert, down to the safety measures they put in place to make the concert safe for all. The women mention Wayne Zorn, CeCelia’s husband, who was able to sing in the concert, despite being diagnosed with Primary Progressive Aphasia (a degenerative brain disease that attacks language and other cognitive abilities). In addition, the women talk about the Stand in the Light Memory Choir, as well as other so-called “silver linings” that have shown them the good in such an uncertain time.

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I wrote because I felt compelled to, to chronicle what was happening to try and make sense of it and help me process it.

U.S. taking a knife to a gunfight

At the beginning it was different. April and May of 2020 was not the later, divisive and hate-filled environment that would allow the Covid virus to flourish, not the largely “every-man-for-himself” climate whose popularity grew to mirror the surge of the pandemic itself. Back then, everyone was hunkering down, the streets were empty, and Santa Monica was more like the city I had seen in pictures from the 1940's. The light even seemed different. Despite the specter of certain death, or at least alongside it, was an almost relaxed feeling: we were all in this together, against a common (if mysteriously deadly) enemy, and there is nothing we could do. Well, except stay indoors, and avoid contact with other humans at all costs. I know that during WWII, Santa Monica hummed with activity, with defense plants working three shifts, and Clover Field roaring with warbird take offs and landings almost continuously, and in the Spring of 2020, Santa Monica was still largely of the “we did it once, we'll do it again” mindset—everyone had a job to do, and it was actually an easy one: all you had to do was to keep to yourself. Loose lips may not sink ships anymore, but uncovered ones (especially in public) could spew a deadly toxin—the origins and makeup of it almost completely unknown—and leave devastation in its wake. This feeling couldn't, and wouldn't, last long; humans being what they are. With a national figurehead in a leadership position that was unable to understand complexities, and that largely and specifically promoted failure, the home front grew distrustful of the concept of a “common good”. Citizens quickly grew weary of making sacrifices, of doing without the niceties to which they had become accustomed. Under the guise of individual freedoms, all suffered. “It will all just go away very soon”, we were told, and eventually it did. Not the disease. Our American way of life.

Playing basketball at Virginia Park was one of my favorite things to do before the pandemic hit; I have been playing there weekly for years, until Covid broke out. While I totally understand the reasoning behind locking up the rims (and I'm still not playing even though they are now open because I don't feel comfortable doing so), it still makes me sad to see a court and not be able to use it.

This shows how facilities in buildings that we took for granted were taken away because of the risk of covid

Dems and Republicans, down the rabbit hole

A comic strip about Covid-19

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A comic strip about Covid-19

A comic strip about Covid-19

A comic strip about Covid-19

Covid and Yossarian Episode 1, A comic strip about Covid-19

Every day at 7:00 pm, people in my neighborhood would cheer for the healthcare workers from their windows. Shortly after, people blasted the famous song "New York, New York" in the streets while everyone sang along. This strengthened the optimism and togetherness in my neighborhood during a very difficult time.

We’re two months short of the two year anniversary of the Covid outbreak here in the US. My family of four followed the rules, masked up, quarantined and my husband and I were vaccinated as soon as we were able. This holiday season we found ourselves living life as we had before Covid, we got too comfortable. Our children are small and we were still unsure if we wanted to get our six year old vaccinated. We went into public spaces unvaccinated, participated in all the family Christmas festivities and then we got sick. I thought it was a cold at first and then one day it dawned on me that my sense of smell and taste were gone. Then the guilt and shame set in. We got too comfortable, we lost sight of the fact that Covid is not gone. People are still dying. My husband and I are fine, it’s like a cold with the added adventure of not being able to taste anything. I worry for my kids though. I feel guilty that we didn’t get my oldest vaccinated. I hate to watch her fight this with only over the counter medication to help her. I feel for my three year old. I hope they don’t get worse. This was a rude awakening for us all, Covid is not gone.

Personal narrative towards understandings about Covid-19 to further the understanding of the impacts of the pandemic over time.

An oral history between three students from Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis concerning the Covid 19 pandemic

Dr. Lewis Fraise details his service as a geriatric doctor during the Korean War and Vietnam War. He mentions his service in both Washington D.C. and Korea and continues to break down how the Coronavirus actually infects one's body and the response of the government as the pandemic ensued. Dr. Fraise criticizes the actions of Donald Trump and states that the spread of more medically-accurate information would have led to a better outcome in terms of the early stages of the pandemic.

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Associate Neurologist-in-Chief at Boston Children’s Hospital, Dr. Basil Darras, talks about the many changes that have come along with the COVID-19 pandemic and how it has affected healthcare workers. Dr. Darras talks about the difficulties surrounding telehealth visits and not being able to properly diagnose his patients experiencing neurological issues due to social distancing.