Items

• 2020-04-10

  The Whir and the Waft

  When schools shut down, there was a transition period where teachers waited to find out what they would need to do next. When that was decided, our work week was drastically changed. To achieve equity, we gave 30 minute lessons over Google Meets to anyone who wanted to show up twice a week. This meant a lot of free time--which meant reading! I went to the local bookstore and there was a line: only 5 people allowed in the massive 1-block building at a time. When I was permitted entrance to the silent space, I had to accept hand sanitizer from an automatic dispenser. This was not my first encounter with the substance, but it was the most memorable. The machine whirred and spit an enormous amount into my hands, completely filling my palms with watery, reeking sanitizer. I looked around for a towel or space to shake it off...there was so much! It began sliding through my fingers and dripping down my arms, a cold, slow trickle that spread the hospital scent with it. I frantically began rubbing my hands, but even so, huge glops of it splattered on the linoleum floor as I quickly walked to spread the leaking substance more thinly over the floor and avoid creating a puddle. The sterile and unpleasant smell stuck to my skin and followed me throughout the store, into my car, and to the end of my day. This will be hard to forget, and it made me buy my own, thicker hand sanitizer that I could control, and that smelled like pineapples and mango, and raspberry lemonade (it took some time to order, though, because so many companies were out of product). I didn't realize then, in April 2020, that machines like this would be everywhere, or that upon return to my classroom the next April, I would have my own gallon jug of it to offer students. The smell and the feel of that bookstore experience still make me cringe, yet this scent and substance have been normalized and their presence is expected and sought out. The whir and the waft of alcohol will not leave my senses, and, though they tell an important sensory history of this pandemic, I wish they would.
• 
  2021-06-19

  Pet Adoption Comic NPR

  This comic is fun, engaging, and informative. It talks about the increase in pet adoption during the pandemic and how pets helped a lot of people deal with emotional trauma. It cautions would-be pet owners not to jump blindly into adopting and to think about what will happen when life returns to normal. Separation anxiety can be difficult for pets to deal with, and owners need to have a plan for that.
• 
  2020-12-03

  Interview with COVID-19 Respite Shelter EMT

  Interviewee: Aidan McNaughton Interviewer: Kelly Lindemann Date of Interview: 12/03/2020 List of acronyms: AM = Aidan McNaughton, IN = interviewer Background: Washington county in Oregon has established several COVID-19 quarantine centers in an attempt to limit the spread of the virus among the community. A number of local motels have been converted to such facilities. Aidan is an EMT at one such motel, and agreed to be interviewed about his experience. IN: For how long have you worked at the shelter? AM: I have worked at the shelter since about July, so for about 6 months. IN: What is your position there? AM: I am an EMT that is here on staff. There are two of us at all times, and I am medical personnel on site for supervision, intervention, and monitoring. We’re here to do medical intervention if necessary, and also to keep tabs on vitals and making sure that everyone is doing okay, as well as deciding when we need to call medical transport to a hospital or not. IN: That makes sense. So as far as your actual job, what does a normal day at the quarantine shelter look like? Does it vary, or is it fairly constant? AM: It varies, and there’s busier days and quieter days. My shift starts at 5 AM, and I relieve the prior EMT when my partner and I get there. There’s about an hour of overlap between our shifts to make sure that, in case someone is late, we don’t have to adjust the scheduling. We have to make sure that there are always two EMTs here. An then we don up in PPE. We have a very well-stocked PPE room with lots of gowns and gloves, masks, glasses and face shields, also boot and hair covers. Then, we’ll get caught up with the other EMTs on whether or not there’s anyone [patients] new, what medical problems anyone who’s here is having, what social problems they’re having, etc. The non-medical shelter staff who actually run the shelter bring breakfast [to patients] at around 7 AM, and around that time we go to do our first morning checks. We knock on the doors, in full PPE, of all the patients, ask them a few basic questions, you know, take their temperatures, ask if they have any symptoms, pain, trouble sleeping or things like that, and if we have suspicion that there’s something serious going on we can take a more complete vital set and work from there. IN: As far as your patients go, does their condition usually vary? Have you seen a spectrum of people’s symptoms? AM: There’s a huge spectrum. We have people anywhere form completely healthy with no symptoms, pain or anything and feel completely normal, and we have people who are [O2] satting in the high 80’s, high fevers, too weak to get out of bed, and we will often end up sending those people to the hospital depending… and there’s everything in between as well, people with coughs, sore throats,loss of taste and smell of course, difficulty breathing etc., but there’s a vary steep gradient. IN: And I imagine that your patient’s conditions change, so it’s important to be continually monitoring. AM: Yes, so if we see someone who’s more sick then we’ll probably increase monitoring. So rather than just checking twice a day, which is what’s normally done with breakfast and dinner, if someone actually seems quite sick then we check on them as often as we feel is needed. IN: So overall it seems like a pretty effective system for providing care to people who don’t necessarily need to be in the hospital, but wouldn’t be safe at home with the potential for transmission or their need for medical care. Do you think that as a facility, you are effective at helping to stop the spread of the virus? What things work well, and what could be improved? AM: As a concept, and even the way our facility runs, it is quite helpful. It seems like a very reasonable way to do it. You have a designated quarantine site for people - not even all of them are homeless- even, like, roommates or people who don’t have somewhere else to quarantine without infecting people, they can come here. A lot of them are homeless, but not all of them. It seems obvious - you need somewhere for people who have a contagious disease to go that isn’t public. They get hot meals and medical supervision, but rather than, say, a hospital bed and all the costs that are associated with that, here it just costs a few EMTs and shelter staff. IN: And as far as the cost to patients, I know you mentioned that you have houseless people staying in the facility, is it free to them or is there a cost involved? AM: I am almost certain that there is no cost for anyone here, I’m not actually positive on that -I could ask- but I’m pretty sure that we don’t charge anything. I think- I know we’re funded by the county. IN: That makes sense, its sort of a self-serving altruism that the county can provide this service to prevent the spread of COVID to the community. AM: We’re designated as a public respite shelter, we essentially keep people with COVID off the streets. IN: I’d like to go back to the topic of housing insecurity and your experience with houseless people during the pandemic. I don’t know how much direct contact you have with your patients as far as getting to know them on a personal level, but in what ways have you noticed the houseless community coping with the pandemic? Where do they go once they’re discharged? AM: Yeah, we are encouraged to limit contact, so I don’t have that much contact with them, but I do chat with them when we’re taking them out on breaks for fresh air, or if I’ll chat with them in the morning or evening or when I’m discharging them. I don’t know, it’s extremely rough to be homeless, and sometimes because we are a COVID respite shelter, we’ve had patients that we’ve had to kick out, basically, because turns out they only have pneumonia, not COVID. I’ve been yelled at by a homeless person -justifiably so, I feel - for kicking him out because he has pneumonia- is that not good enough? I think that should probably be good enough, we should probably be able to take care of everybody who is ill, but the state has certain priorities. I think it should take a much broader view of people’s medical needs. We have a whole wing [of the facility] that opened up during the fires when other shelters had to be evacuated. I know that as of COVID in general there’s been both more homeless people and reduced shelter capacity due to social distancing requirements, so there’s been a need for more shelter space. We devoted half of our shelter building, which is separated off, but there’s no transmission, it even has separate staff and we don’t go over there, and it’s now a non-COVID homeless shelter -I think specifically for women and children and families- and I think that’s great because for a long time we had this hundred room motel and we were only filling about 25%, but now we can fill half of it with houseless people. Some of the shelter staff here did a good job of noticing that, and we talked for awhile about what we should do with all the empty rooms, and they coordinated with a different shelter in the area that didn’t have enough space and accepted a bunch of people. We also even now have some RVs that we allow in the parking lot - not with me, but with the other shelter building, I’m not entirely sure how it works- but people can live in the parking lot under supervision. IN: So the shelter is providing a safe space for people to either isolate or just live without the potential to be harassed by law enforcement or forced to constantly relocate. Overall it sounds like the county is doing a decent job responding to COVID, but as is true across most of the country there’s a huge shortcoming in providing medical care to houseless people, but that’s a whole other issue entirely. As far as your personal experience working so closely with a virus that’s caused so much turmoil in the world, is the risk of transmission something that causes you stress on the job, or is it something that you’ve become used to? AM: I’m definitely become more used to it than I was when I started, but still, like, if I’m trying to take a blood pressure reading - we use manual blood pressure cuffs- of someone who is confirmed positive with COVID, and is coughing and coughing, I get a little nervous. Actually, some of the shelter staff did get COVID and we had a bit of a problem where the shelter staff were severely understaffed for awhile. They handled it and made sure they had enough staff, but one of the people I work with ended up working two 80 hour weeks in a row because everyone else was quarantining. It is serious, and it definitely does happen here, but I feel like we’re probably all gonna get it eventually anyway and I have all this PPE on - I’m feel like I’m as safe as I’ll ever be, so … c’est la vie. I would rather not get it, but all I can do is take precautions against it. IN: I also hope you don’t get it! Thank you so much for your time and willingness to share your experience and contribute to this ongoing archival process. Stay safe out there!
• 
  2020-10-23

  Voluntary Isolation Motel EMT

  Several counties across Oregon have coordinated with local motels to establish voluntary isolation shelters in an attempt to curb the spread of COVID-19. Each location is staffed with city personnel to manage admittance and discharge, while EMTs on staff conduct routine medical monitoring to patients. My boyfriend works in one of these shelters, and sent me this picture of him in his full PPE getup before making morning rounds. The shelter's capacity varies a lot week by week, and anywhere from 1-20 COVID positive patients may be staying there at any given point. This particular motel intakes prisoners who need to do a 2 week quarantine before being released, but also serves non-incarcerated people who have tested positive.
• 
  2020-11-05

  EXPLAINER: Have election-related protests materialized?

  These images and the article they came from show the continuing effect of the virus and the pandemic. Even in the protests during the elections, some people are wearing masks. This election is happening months after the pandemic began.
• 
  2020-11-06

  Adopt a Senior 2020

  In my hometown of Corvallis Oregon, after March 13th the class of 2020 never entered the doors of our high schools again. Anything we left in our lockers and classrooms was put in garbage bags and handed to us from 6 feet away. Our graduation ceremony was a parade of cars through the backroads of my hometown. A mother at my high school decided this wasn’t fair, we needed to have another type of celebration. Mealoha McFadden created a facebook group to “adopt” 2020 seniors in our county and shower them with gifts and praise. Many people got their favorite candies, snacks and others got starter kits for college. In my adoption care package, I got a tool set for my dorm, lots of candy, my favorite soda and a note praising my accomplishment. Although times were especially hard in my hometown, there was a glimmer of happiness when a senior got their gifts.
• 
  2020-08-11

  Holy Saturday

  This is a story about the quarantine separating me, and most importantly others in my community, from participating not only in the sacrifice of the mass but also catechumens from receiving the sacraments of initiation during Holy Week. It's the most sacred time of the year for Catholics. It marks not only the anniversary of a deeply changing experience for me, but it's the time when I can see candidates enter the body of the church fully, and for that body to either be baptized or renew their baptismal vows.
• 
  2020-07-04

  COVID-19 Family Quarantine

  It shows the impact of this virus on my family's lives as well as my own. I feel my experience is one story to the many that can provide context on the interesting times we live in.
• 
  2020-06-15

  Gov. Brown asks for release of some prison inmates to slow virus spread

  One of the hardest hit populations with regards to covid-19 are corrections facilities. In an effort to slow the spread in the nations overcrowded facilities government officials have released some inmates early. The public has had mixed reactions to this policy. While the government officials are not releasing inmates that pose a danger to the public people are still worried. This article covers the story in Oregon and the comments add to the conversation.
• 
  2020-05-26

  Social Distancing Half Marathon

  I was supposed to attend the Bend Half Marathon last April in Oregon, until the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the event. The Bend Half Marathon decided to host a virtual half marathon. It sent me a Social Distance Edition Half Marathon run bib. After I submitted my run results, the marathon mailed me a wooden medal.