Item

Emily Seto and Anavi Gadari Oral History, 2021/12/08

Media

Title (Dublin Core)

Emily Seto and Anavi Gadari Oral History, 2021/12/08

Description (Dublin Core)

Remembering past pandemics and comparing and contrasting them to covid-19

Recording Date (Dublin Core)

Creator (Dublin Core)

Type (Dublin Core)

podcast

Controlled Vocabulary (Dublin Core)

Curator's Tags (Omeka Classic)

Collection (Dublin Core)

Date Submitted (Dublin Core)

12/08/2021

Date Modified (Dublin Core)

10/19/2023

Date Created (Dublin Core)

12/08/2021

Interviewer (Bibliographic Ontology)

Emily Seto

Interviewee (Bibliographic Ontology)

Anavi Gadari

Location (Omeka Classic)

United States of America

Format (Dublin Core)

audio

Language (Dublin Core)

English

Duration (Omeka Classic)

00:08:08

abstract (Bibliographic Ontology)

Emily and Anavi, both took turns as the interviewer and interviewee and asked a series of questions in a podcast-style format. Their questions were geared toward comparing and contrasting the Covid-19 pandemic and pandemics past. Anavi referenced common sicknesses or influenza, while Emily made comparisons to Cholera. They also asked each other questions about the COVID-19 pandemic response and experience in their respective locations. They both spoke about college students not taking it seriously at first and how quarantine was necessary. They also both mentioned the necessity to receive a vaccine. Emily spoke about how isolation affected some people around her and also commented on the importance of contact tracing. The interview ended with a commentary on smallpox and how isolation for that illness occurred in the past.

Transcription (Omeka Classic)

Emily Seto 00:00
Hello, everyone, my name is Emily Seto

Anavi Gadari 00:02
And my name is Anavi Gadari

Emily Seto 00:04
for a second interview for the COVID-19 archive project, I'll be interviewing [inaudible] Anavi. Anavi...If you can you state the date and time of this interview?

Anavi Gadari 00:11
It is December 8 at 10:49 am.

Emily Seto 00:14
And before we begin, I'd have to ask do you consent to the recording and upload of this interview to the COVID-19 archive project?

Anavi Gadari 00:20
I do.

Emily Seto 00:22
Thank you. So let's get started with the first question. So after learning about past pandemics, their causes and effects, how is your understanding of an attitude towards the COVID-19 pandemic changed?

Anavi Gadari 00:31
Um. I think like past pandemics, I think many people have like dealt with the same like... Just the same everything we've been dealing with, with like shortage of hospital beds, and just like losing family members, relative friends, Um... and in general, everything like that. And I think like, in this day, I feel like we should have improved. Looking back at past pandemics, I think we should have like, at least tried to improve what happened last time, because like looking at what it was a lot of the same things are happening now just like politics [inaudible] needs people blaming others for the same reasons.

Emily Seto 01:07
Thank you. And so how to past pandemics compared to this one. Is there a specific pandemic that you think compares are differs to the current pandemic? In terms of like responses? Or like the biology of the disease?

Anavi Gadari 01:16
Yeah. So I think a lot of the same look at past pandemics would kind of similar in a way, obviously, because you know, like people are getting it, dying, spreading really easily. But I think one of the ones that are similar as influenza since the way like that was transmitted was is through air droplets, usually from [inaudible] from your mouth. And like same with Covid, kind of like the air droplets and umn... airborne I guess.

Emily Seto 01:41
Mmmhmmm... And following up with that question, like, compared to the responses of the people during like, the influenza pandemic, do you think we as a society are reacting in similar different ways? And have you seen these like, differences in responses on campus?

Anavi Gadari 01:56
Yeah, so like, past pandemics like those, we obviously like people were like, really sad that like, they could make them losing people. And there's obviously didn't know what was going on. And I feel like in the beginning of COVID, we didn't really know what was going on either, and like how it would affect our bodies. And umn... on campus, I feel like a lot of people just kind you know with COVID As It Is, they're kind of treating just like a regular, like, sickness as we shared. But obviously, like some people they don't know, like, oh, it's not just a sickness, it's like, it's very contagious. And it's actually can like, affect people really badly.

Emily Seto 02:30
And so do you see differences in how, I guess, campuses on the Northeast treat it versus campuses in the south?

Anavi Gadari 02:37
Yeah, I think because, like, northeast, in general, like, we're more like, umn we get tested every single week, and really just have like that, like, okay, like, every, like, we will get tested when we get put into quarantine houses. If you do test positive for COVID. And they they have it done in like within a day. And like obviously, like, other testing centers don't have that. And I think COVID in the northeastern has like a very good like, COVID system.

Emily Seto 03:03
And for last question, as you attempt to return to normalcy, will history repeat itself? Or do you think we've learned from our mistakes? How do you think colleges will adapt to prevent the new variant from spreading?

Anavi Gadari 03:12
Yeah, I think, I mean, at one point, I feel like a lot of people thought we were going back to normal, like everyone's going back to campus and everything. And now all of a sudden, we come up with new barriers, and no one knows what's gonna happen. Because like, obviously, people are just like, at home. And like, this is just really like, the written don't know if the vaccine is gonna, like, umn help, like, not spread this and everything. So I think it's just, I mean, we were, we were kind of fiddling with kind of getting more normal then all of a sudden this happened. So I'm not sure like, if we would get back to normal anytime soon, but I think the best thing is to get vaccinated so yeah. So hi, everyone, my name is Anavi.

Emily Seto 03:50
And my name is Emily.

Anavi Gadari 03:52
And for a second interview for the COVID-19 archive project, I'll be interviewing Emily. Emily, can you say the date and time of this interview?

Emily Seto 03:59
Today is December 8, and it is 10:53.

Anavi Gadari 04:03
Before we begin, I have to ask you, do you consent to the recording and upload of this interview?

Emily Seto 04:09
I do.

Anavi Gadari 04:10
Alright, let's begin. So the first question is, after learning about past pandemics, umn [inaudible] how has your understanding of the attitude towards COVID pandemic changed?

Emily Seto 04:21
So after learning what the past pandemics like I began to see, like a lot of the patterns and how and why these pandemics like come into existence, like they really, really flourish in areas where cities and governmental structures have failed. So like, with cholera, with urbanization, people were like living closer together. There was like the formation of slums and there's a lot of overcrowding, and that allowed cholera to spread more easily because were in like direct contact with like bodily fluids. And I guess like learning about pandemics really humanized the past because like the information we learn in like middle school, they're like in textbooks and they're pretty like objective but looking at primary sources. Definitely humanize these pandemics and the people in it like it was really a time of like, extreme suffering. And I'm gonna be aware of that. Yeah.

Anavi Gadari 05:08
So in what ways do you think past pandemics affected people in their relationships with their friends and family and was it a similar different umn experience when it comes to people's relationship with COVID-19?

Emily Seto 05:19
So I think the influenza pandemic really is similar to this in terms like the different responses, like umn the isolation, and lockdown and COVID really made people realize like, they're either like, they're either getting closer together, or reaching their breaking points, and that, like people were living with each other, like all the time, and I think that really changed how people view private and public space. Same thing with influenza like people were realizing like umn that they couldn't be close to certain family members, or that they had to deal with it somehow.

Anavi Gadari 05:54
Yeah, I agree. Um... So do you think more precautions were taken more seriously in past pandemics, or during the Covid 19 pandemic?

Emily Seto 06:03
Um... I feel like they're taking more seriously now during COVID. Because we will have information, like, accessible to them. And they understand like the severity of this issue. Also, I think a lot more people understand the science behind it compared to like, um, the plague or something where people didn't know how it was spreading and what the bacteria was, they just thought it was like, the wrath of a god.

Anavi Gadari 06:03
Yeah.

Emily Seto 06:03
And also, I think, like, um different reasons and why people are following these precautions are much like different because like, nowadays, people understand it's like a health issue while back then back then people just like, saw it in like a religious perspective.

Anavi Gadari 06:40
Yeah.

Emily Seto 06:41
But like, just in any other pandemic. There are also people who don't believe in the efficacy of these like measures and still won't take them seriously. Like no matter what you say to them.

Anavi Gadari 06:49
I agree, yeah. And last but not least, do you think things we learned from past pandemics and were implemented differently in this pandemic?

Emily Seto 06:57
Umn... I think a specific examples like from the cholera pandemic, where Jon Snow was traced, like doing his contact tracing in the London streets. He was it was pretty, it was pretty local thing. Like he was just looking at a water pump on a specific Street and specific neighborhood. But now I think we really learned from that and contract tracing has become much more global with like digital technology like, umn like, heat signatures, like

Anavi Gadari 07:22
Yeah

Emily Seto 07:22
scanning people's temperatures and recording that and having like a more international database, and that allows for like, the world's like, have a better, more effective way of tracing people and where they go.

Anavi Gadari 07:32
Mmhmm

Emily Seto 07:33
And so it's not local anymore. It's much more international. And I think, I don't know, it's hard to say with all the scapegoating, but I feel like people kind of understand that it's important not to jump to conclusions.

Anavi Gadari 07:43
Yeah

Emily Seto 07:44
like, that was a big thing in like smallpox, people would just kind of assume you had it and like isolate

Anavi Gadari 07:49
Mmhmm

Emily Seto 07:49
you or throw you on a ship. And...

Anavi Gadari 07:51
Yeah

Emily Seto 07:51
it was like a lot like a witch hunt. But I think now people, it's a lot more controlled.

Anavi Gadari 07:56
Mmhmm

Emily Seto 07:56
So I think that's one better aspect of this pandemic.

Anavi Gadari 08:01
I agree. And that is the end of our COVID-19 archive podcast. Thank you for listening. Thank you.

Item sets

This item was submitted on December 8, 2021 by [anonymous user] using the form “Share Your Story” on the site “A Journal of the Plague Year”: https://covid-19archive.org/s/archive

Click here to view the collected data.

New Tags

I recognize that my tagging suggestions may be rejected by site curators. I agree with terms of use and I accept to free my contribution under the licence CC BY-SA