Items
topic_interest is exactly
Pennsylvania
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2023-01-22
COVID Restrictions and Visiting Mom.
My mother has special needs and since 2014, lived in a townhome with three roommates, facilitated by Penn Foundation, a behavioral healthcare provider. I lived only 10 minutes away, and once a week I would visit her on my days off. I would bring fast food or pizza and we would watch movies together in her room. When the pandemic began, Penn Foundation - like most other healthcare facilities - imposed tight restrictions for the safety of those under their care. As a result, I was unable to visit my mother for half a year, and after restrictions were loosened, our visits were relegated to sitting on her front porch eating and talking. Due to a deterioration in her condition, she was moved to a nursing facility. We never got to have another movie day. The pandemic had changed the way I visit my mother forever. -
2022-04-12
NOT AGAIN! Philadelphia set to reimpose indoor mask mandate
This is an Instagram story by endtimeheadline. This is about Philadelphia bringing back the mask mandate, which will have masks be required again at restaurants, shops, offices, and other indoor public spaces. -
2022-01-21
School Apologizes After Viral Photo Of Teacher Taping Mask To Student's Face Outrages Parents
This is a news story from Your Tango by Nia Tipton. This is about a middle school in Pennsylvania, where a video of a teacher taping a mask to a student caused outrage. The photo was taken at Pennfield Middle School in Hatfield. The photo went viral and appeared on Sean Hannity's website. The middle school announced that they are going to conduct an investigation over this scandal. Parents also expressed their anger at school board meetings over this. The mother of the student getting his mask taped to his face says that she never intended for the story to go viral. She used the photo to gain support from a Facebook group prior to a school board meeting. She says that other individuals in the group took it upon themselves to spread this story further. -
2021-04-30
High school proms go on, but with COVID-19 restrictions
Prom has been cancelled across the United States. While this is the case for most places, select locations are finding ways to make prom possible. For a school district in Pennsylvania, this meant having prom on the football field. This allowed them to enforce social distancing while still allowing the students to play games and have fun. -
2020-11-08
270 Electoral College Votes and a Nation Divided
Pennsylvania became the state that helped Biden cross the winning threshold of 270 Electoral College votes to become the next President. His victory came after more than three days of uncertainty as election officials in the state sorted through a historical number of mail-in votes that delayed processing. During Biden's acceptance speech he struck a conciliatory tone, but on the ground it looked like the country was staggering forward as bitterly divided as ever. -
2020-04-02
Pennsylvania COVID-19 Cases Graph
Graph shows the percent of population in blue, percent of cases in yellow, and percent of hospitalizations in red for cases in Pennsylvania. All the bars from ages 0-24 are quite low in all three categories. However from ages 25-65+ increase in all categories. The percent of hospitalizations rises drastically for ages 50-65+. While their percent of population and percent of cases are low they are the age group more likely to need hospitalization. -
2020-07-26
A COVID Wedding
John Lokka's Wedding, July 26, 2020, at the Gettysburg Hotel, Gettysburg, PA. My wedding was the final wedding at the Gettysburg Hotel until at least mid-Summer 2021. Due to COVID and Pennsylvania's response, the wedding date moved three times. Originally for June 20, we changed the date to September 6 when the initial lockdown period exceeded expectations. About three weeks prior to July 26, the hotel coordinator called us to explain there were no more public events after August 2. Gettysburg College, owners of the hotel, needed additional dorm room space to meet COVID distancing restrictions. They were converting the hotel in additional dorms and distance learning. When we agreed to host our wedding, the coordinator offered many amenities originally beyond our means. They offered us the Grand Ball room, a converted bank. About a week before the wedding, PA's Government Wolf issued new COVID restrictions due to a general uptick in cases. He limited indoor gatherings (weddings) to 25 people including service personnel. To meet the requirements, Gettysburg Hotel eliminated one person, and we uninvited two. Thankfully, two people decided not show. It was great time. Every one who attended needed to be there. The joyous atmosphere gave all a chance to forget their own troubles for a few hours. -
2020-09-18
Golfing During COVID
I first became uneasy about the coronavirus when the US government started to make mandates about what businesses were to close, the limits of crowds, and when they made wearing a face mask in public mandatory. At first, I did not notice a significant difference in everyday life. The biggest change for me was moving out of my dorm room at Duquesne University and going home where I would complete the rest of the semester online. It was a very different experience in the sense I never would have thought that I would be completing my first full year of college education at home. With that being said, I got very used to attending class and completing work virtually. Moreover, as time went on, I realized at the time that the biggest change, the weirdest aspect of the pandemic was that almost every business was closed (except for the essential businesses) or at the very least open for only a few hours out of the day and there were many restrictions on the amount of people allowed in a given building at any time. For the first three or four weeks of quarantine, I struggled to find activities to do while I wasn’t in a Zoom session or doing homework. That was the worst part for me because I am someone who loves to be doing something all the time. It is hard for me to sit around inside all day not doing much. So, when May 1st came around, the government allowed golf courses to open in Pennsylvania. I have always enjoyed golfing in my free time even in the years prior to this pandemic. But when golf was allowed to open back up in PA, I began to golf more and more as it was one of the few activities that I could enjoy. Golf is not a sport where someone would come into contact with very many people in general so, I began golf quite frequently as it was a perfect way for me to ‘de-stress’ from being cooped up in my house attending zoom calls and doing homework problems for what seemed like one long day that didn’t really end. That brings me to my next point which was that pandemic life took a toll on my mental health. Waking up every day knowing that I was strongly encouraged to stay at home and if, in the case I did leave the house, I had to keep my distance from other people. To me, it felt like pandemic life was a very cyclical way of living which lacked variance. It was the same thing every day for weeks on end. Just that state-of-mind was probably the largest toll that pandemic had on my life. Fortunately, though, it seems as though we are through the worst parts of the coronavirus pandemic. I am seeing more and more businesses re-open which is encouraging. And hopefully we can continue being safe in order to get over the virus and back to normal life. -
2020-09-03
Telling Them
COVID-19 had been set back after set back since March when colleges and universities closed. I was slightly behind as I was extremely ill, with what my doctors now believe was the coronavirus, in January at the beginning of the semester. I had been dreading this day since August when my summer classes had ended. I had to tell my parents. I didn’t know how so I had waited until I had relocated into Pittsburgh again and my transfer was complete into the pre-pharmacy program instead of the professional program. This pandemic and my lack of motivation had ruined my chances of going to pharmacy school. I watched my dreams slip one year further away. I had to tell them. I was supposed to be matriculating into the professional phase this year but here I am in my third year of college being stuck taking another year of college at an expensive private school. I had to tell them. Between getting sick and losing 15 pounds in two weeks and being stuck home for months, the pandemic had taken a serious toll on me physically and mentally. I had to tell them. I called my mom after she got out of work on September 2nd, 2020 and she could immediately tell something was wrong. I had been preparing myself to do this for almost a month and it still wasn’t enough to hear the disappointment in my mothers voice. My parents had never been anything other than supportive even when I made mistakes but here I was terrified of what might come of this. My parents and I discussed what my options could be, maybe I could concentrate on a minor while I take the last few classes I needed to continue into pharmacy school, or maybe I could take a gap semester and gain some experience in a hospital pharmacy. I cried and cried to my mom hating the fact she was disappointed in me and thought her and my dad would hate me. The next morning, after my mom had calmed down, I received the text message saying everything would be okay and as a family we would work it out. My family and I decided I would stay at Duquesne for the full year and I would work towards a business minor. I had to tell them and once I did I started to see the silver lining within the pandemic… I had never been as close to my parents as I was currently. -
2020-04-20
New Dog
In late March in the height of quarantine my mom saw a breed of dog that she really liked, a mix of an English sheepdog and a poodle. So, 5 weeks later, we headed into the heart of Appalachia to retrieve our puppy, Annie. Now, while this is a generic story of a family getting a dog, the only reason we went ahead with this was because everyone in the family had significantly more free time on our hands, as a direct result of the pandemic. Her arrival caused a shift in everyones daily schedules, and shows an impact of the virus. This is important to me because it is my new dog. -
04/01/2020
Daniel Cogley Oral History, 2020/04/01
Daniel Cogley discusses his experience with the COVID-19 pandemic. Daniel is a salesman for a sanitization company that provides products and services to primarily restaurants and bars. Daniel was furloughed during the crisis and discusses his experiences with money, food, the response of government officials to the pandemic and his hopes that people will take the disease more seriously. -
2020-07-12
Pennsylvania's Halt on Extracurriculars
When the coronavirus first started, online learning seemed like it could be fun in the interim. Working from home, avoiding a commute, and dressing less informal all were wonderful treats the first two weeks; as the quarantine and education questions stretched on, these same treats are now driving educators insane. In Pennsylvania, these concerns over reopening have led to voluntary halts on some of the most important social aspects of high school: sports and extracurriculars. This item was added TAGS v6.1.9.1. I originally searched under the hashtag #schools. Within that search, I have chosen to add the following tweet because is reflective of a general mood of uncertainty that is present around almost all aspects related to schools reopening. Link to tagged article: (https://www.wnep.com/article/news/local/lackawanna-county/schools-suspend-sports-due-to-health-concerns/523-1dd67802-ac20-49a2-b0e3-f4a54f43b45d)