Gordie Croce Oral History, 2020/12/07

Gordie and I sat down almost three months ago to discuss the onset of Covid-19 and our introduction to college with the pandemic. Now, we look at we have learned throughout our courses about previous pandemics and relate it back to the one we are still dealing with today.

12/08/2020

Lydia Rascher

Gordie Croce

Lydia Rascher

Northeastern University

Audio Interview

English Education--Universities

English Government Federal

English Health & Wellness

English Politics

Northeastern University

Boston

Massachusettes

college

student

exposed

quarantine

politics

interview

prediction

fall semester

covid

northeastern

neu

12/08/2020

07/23/2021

05/26/2022

12/07/2020

Lydia Rascher

Gordie Croce

audio

English

00:09:55

Gordie and I sat down almost three months ago to discuss the onset of Covid-19 and our introduction to college with the pandemic. Now, we look at we have learned throughout our courses about previous pandemics and relate it back to the one we are still dealing with today.

Lydia Rascher 00:04
Hello, my name is Lydia Rascher and I'm here with

Gordie Croce 00:08
Gordie Croce

Lydia Rascher 00:04
okay, and today is Monday, December 7 at 2:06. And Gordie, I'm going to be asking you a little bit about your experience with COVID-19. As of today, do you consent to being interviewed for this?

Gordie Croce 00:26
Yes, I do.

Lydia Rascher 00:28
Okay, awesome. So, my first question is actually, you're in quarantine right now. What happened? Are you okay?

Gordie Croce 00:37
Yeah, so I'm doing remarkably well. I was in close contact with someone last, like Tuesday into Wednesday. So, I got put into quarantine because of that. It was pretty insane. To be honest, like, like I was with the person when they like got the call, that they were like, positive. And it was just insane because your whole world comes crashing down in like five seconds. And like, I was in the middle of pledging, and I was like, really close to the end. And it was like, you know, I just was thinking about, like, the things I had to do for that. And like, like, homework I had that day, and then all of a sudden, it's like, oh, just kidding, go pack. And then, like, it was kind of awkward, because basically, I hadn't seen my roommate. So he was like, lucky that he like, wasn't in close contact with me. But I needed to, like, keep it that way. So I just couldn't go back to my room. And the person whose room I was in, like, went into quarantine, so there's like, a gap of time, I just was waiting for them to call me to like, tell me where to like, move. Um, so I just literally walked outside for like five hours. Because I like, didn't have anything to do. It was like, I can't go inside anywhere. So we're just gonna ride this out. But yeah, I ultimately ended up calming down, which is kind of funny. But yeah, they just showed, like, here's your, here's your dorm assignment. Pack, like, make sure you have everything you need, like you can't leave obviously. Um, so now we're like, five or six days into it, something like that. And it's pretty insane. I'm still testing negative, which I'm really, really thankful for. I need that train to keep rolling. But like, the flip side of that is like, this is terrible. Like I'm losing my mind is honestly like, way more difficult. Just like sit there then like, I think the corona would be at least so far. So that's just kind of that's kind of insane. It's kind of an insane, like, place to be just like wake up in the morning. Just be like, oh, like, I'm still here.

Lydia Rascher 02:38
Yeah

Gordie Croce 02:39
So yeah, like mentally definitely exhausting. Because, like, it's, it's totally different. Like, it's not like I'm just quarantining in my house, which like, I think would make it better. Because then it's like, okay, like, still home, like, I was just like, blank dorm room. Like, I don't have any of my stuff. Like, you know, it's the opposite of home, like as far as you could really be from home. So it's just insane. Like, I was so so busy going into this like, actually had zero free time ever. So it's just like, just hit the brakes on life. It's really, really weird. not appealing, particularly Yeah, like to be busy. So not really sad.

Lydia Rascher 03:17
That's really frustrating. And so actually talking about isolation, there's a lot of similarities and commonalities between COVID-19 as we see it today. And as we've seen it, in past pandemics, and one of these is draconian measures and quarantine and everything. Do you really see any other similarities or anything that we may have improved upon, or maybe even become worse that since some other pandemics like the bubonic plague.

Gordie Croce 03:53
So I definitely think we're less aggressive. Like we talked about, like the military enforcing quarantines, like, the military is definitely not enforcing this. But um, I think, like saying that makes me like, comfortable with this. Is that like, I know that science makes sense the science that if I was out, like, I was allowed to leave, like, I wouldn't be okay with like, going to like, my friend's house and stuff. Like, you know, that would be right. Um, so there's like, an element of comfort to that, that, like, it is what it is, like, I'm doing the right thing. Um, so that definitely helps. I think that like, not knowing we talked a lot about how like, especially in early pandemics, and there's pretty much no scientific knowledge. So not really knowing like, what the point of your quarantine is, like, digging into help, I think would be a lot harder. I can kind of be comfortable in that like, Okay, this is what it is like government mandated type thing. Like, I'll be fun. But, um, ya know, definitely, definitely not something I'd like to go through again.

Lydia Rascher 04:56
Yes, no, I totally understand that. And So get back to a bit of a different subject actually, the about a month ago or so Biden became president whether or not everybody agrees with that. He pretty much became president. Do you think based on past pandemics, a leadership change, like going from President Trump to President Biden will actually affect America in any way.

Gordie Croce 05:29
So it's a little hard to go up past pandemics just cuz I like a super crisp example of like leadership changing. But what I do think, is that a lot of the damage has been done. And like, the fact that, like, COVID is everywhere, like there's no hotspots anymore. Like, I remember, in the spring, when it's like, oh, LA and New York are really bad. Like, we're okay. It's like nobody's okay. So, I think that, like, really especially like the time, which this is happening in the sense of like, the presidential transition, is like, also peak COVID, I think is a problem. Like, Biden if we could like, why can't we put him in like, November like fifth, or whatever?

Lydia Rascher 06:17
Yeah.

Gordie Croce 06:18
So that's definitely something I think a lot about, I think, I think that his leadership will do better in the sense of hope, support, like our government institutions, like the World Health Organization better. But in terms of like, personal behavior, that's really what it comes down to. Right. Like it comes down to the people or I think the rhetoric has been sown such that it's not really possible to like walk, walks and lace things back in the way that Trump had it in the beginning and made it so divisive and made sort of not buying into the science, like a credible option. I don't think you can undo that.

Lydia Rascher 06:54
Yeah, definitely. I 100% agree with the fact that Trump shaped, or at least instilled a lot of social norms across America that are going to be really hard to change, when Biden actually comes into office. See, I definitely agree with you there. And then our last question is, so about a week ago, or so we did an activity where we pretended like we were in 2121. And we're looking back on the pandemic. And while each group said their opinions, obviously, not every single person said, their opinions in the class. So based on that activity, do you see any predictable end to COVID? Do you think, you know, we can cure it in any way.

Gordie Croce 07:45
Um, kind of. So I actually don't like fully buy into the like, this is another pandemic, it's gonna fall the course of pandemics. Because I think that the COVID challenges are kind of unique, in the sense that we're not scientifically unprepared, the only thing we're really unprepared for is like a vaccine. But that's happening in like record time. So I think we are sort of socially unprepared to sit inside. And that's not an issue I think we only like had to tackle before, like, they definitely has been resistance, but not, not quite like this. So like a year from now. I think I think COVID is going to disappear for top down. And what I mean by that is like Western nations will eradicate it well before subordination nations. So that my guess is that the US will have a pretty good handle on it, in like six months. But I do not think that can be said for the whole world. And I do not think that COVID is over by any means. I think that there's going to be continuing sort of like flare ups, various places. And I think hearing in the news, oh, there's so many more cases, like in this country is not going away.

Lydia Rascher 09:03
Yeah.

Gordie Croce 09:05
And again, like, you know, we've seen how, like, with the way the vaccine has been handling this, it's been a competitive thing. Like it's been, like US companies make it like the government buys a gazillion before they've even made it. So it's like, it's weird, like sort of, like a resource war over vaccines. So it's like, if you're a country, like with a really low GDP, and pretty much everybody's in poverty, like there's, you're not going to be able to compete on that level. So there has to be some mechanism. And sort of the understanding that until nobody has COVID like everybody is susceptible to it.

Lydia Rascher 09:39
Yeah, I think that's a great way of looking at it. And so we are all out of time now. But thank you so much for taking this time to talk to me. And I hope you keep testing negative.

Gordie Croce 09:53
Yeah, me too.