Items

• 
  2020-01-04

  A pot, some water, eucalyptus oil, and a towel....breathe

  My brother and I went to visit our parents in Florida for Christmas in 2019. We flew out of Clarksburg, WV on December 23rd and arrived in Florida a few hours later. Christmas in Florida with our parents was great, but eventually we learned it came at a cost. We returned to the Orlando airport to leave December 30th and our flight was delayed for three hours with no real explanation as to why. We roamed the Airport and kept ourselves occupied before we were finally able to board the plane. We landed safely back in WV a few hours later. However, a day or two after returning I started to feel sick which got progressively worse. I had trouble breathing and my body ached so much that I could barely sleep. I didn’t have the strength to really do anything, and I hardly ate because I couldn’t taste or smell. I called my mom at some point and told her how sick I was, and she told me that my brother was extremely sick too. She pleaded with me to go to the doctor, but I told her it was probably just the flu and I’d be ok. My mother knew I wasn’t going to go to the doctor any time soon, so she told me to use some Eucalyptus oil to help with my congestion and respiratory issues. I grabbed a large pot and boiled some water. After the water had boiled, I added drops of eucalyptus essential oil. With a towel over my head, I began to take in the vapors, and slowly I started to feel like I could breathe once again. This became my ritual for the next week or so. I was probably doing this 3-4 times a day when I had the strength to leave my bed. I believe I was sick for nearly two weeks. The day before I finally started to feel better, I almost went to the hospital because I legitimately thought I was dying. Anyways, after news of the pandemic started ramping up, I later found out that Florida had their first Covid-19 cases in December 2019. I’m guessing that airport delay ultimately sealed our fates and that’s where my brother and I ended up getting Covid (our parents didn’t get sick). For my post I’ve included an audio file recreating my Covid ritual of boiling water and breathing in eucalyptus vapors. You can hear the water boiling, the glass bottle of eucalyptus oil being opened and then placed on the counter. You can hear a slight rustling from the towel and me taking in the vapors.
• 
  2020-03-24

  Symptoms on the Youth

  When the pandemic first broke out out, many people didn't know what to think. In millennial and gen z fashion, many young adults turned to the internet to crack jokes and voice their opinion about the upcoming crisis. This meme pokes fun at the uncertainty of the viruses' signs and symptoms many medical and governmental officials had at the beginning of the pandemic. The mem also pokes fun at the idea of teenage angst and anxiety a rapid number of young adults are starting experience more and more during this recent decade. The pandemic may cause your nose and mouth to not feel anything but the real question is if young adults are really "feeling" the impact of what is going on? A Forbes report in April of this year has indicated that young people between the ages of 18-24 are starting suffer from more mental health problems than any age group since the pandemic started. Think what you will but this study definitely proves that more young adults will suffer long lasting effects of pandemic during and after the global crisis comes to a end. I liked this meme because it a representations of some of my numbs feelings I have had during this pandemic.
• 
  2020-03-24

  Feeling Again

  When the pandemic first broke out out, many people didn't know what to think. In millennial and gen z fashion, many young adults turned to the internet to crack jokes and voice their opinion about the upcoming crisis. This meme pokes fun at the uncertainty of the viruses' signs and symptoms many medical and governmental officials had at the beginning of the pandemic. The mem also pokes fun at the idea of teenage angst and anxiety a rapid number of young adults are starting experience more and more during this recent decade. The pandemic may cause your nose and mouth to not feel anything but the real question is if young adults are really "feeling" the impact of what is going on? A Forbes report in April of this year has indicated that young people between the ages of 18-24 are starting suffer from more mental health problems than any age group since the pandemic started. Think what you will but this study definitely proves that more young adults will suffer long lasting effects of pandemic during and after the global crisis comes to a end.
• 
  2020-04-07

  Bronx Zoo Tiger Is Sick With the Coronavirus

  A tiger at the Bronx Zoo has been infected with the coronavirus, in what is believed to be a case of what one official called “human-to-cat transmission.” “There is no evidence that other animals in other areas of the zoo are showing symptoms,” the Agriculture Department said. A pet cat in Belgium recently tested positive for the coronavirus, but the American Veterinary Medical Association said that not enough was known to change the current view that neither cats nor dogs appear to be able to pass the virus to people. The World Organisation for Animal Health says that there is no evidence that cats or dogs spread the disease to humans, but that anyone who is sick should take precautions in contact with their animals as they would with people.
• 
  2019-05-26

  The Virus

  When covid hit it was really hard to travel anywhere, and my family wanted to go to florida.
• 
  2021-03-16

  Vaccines and Long Haulers

  When it comes to COVID-19, it seems there are more questions than answers. For some COVID-19 survivors, their COVID experience didn’t end after their infection ended. These people, referred to as “long haulers” have dealt with fatigue, brain fog, muscle aches, breathing difficulties, and insomnia. However, a surprising and potentially positive development has come out of the vaccine - long haulers symptoms are disappearing! Many patients struggling with long term COVID effects are reporting these effects disappearing after receiving their vaccination. Research, of course, needs to be conducted to pinpoint why, but this seems to be another light at the end of the tunnel for so many people who have struggling with long term COVID symptoms.
• 
  2021-03-22

  BIDMC and Long-term Covid Patients

  This article is about the new team at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston whose purpose will be to study and support Covid-19 patients with long-term symptoms. These "long-haulers" have an array of physical and mental problems after their recovery from Covid-19. Unfortunately, since research on this virus and it's effects are quite new, experts are still finding out more everyday. This team at BIDMC is one of a few multi-disciplinary teams in the country that is specifically established to provide comprehensive care to these "long-haulers." With so many people contracting Covid-19, teams like this will be critical in how we move forward. As a matter of public health, we need to better understand if there are physiological changes to things like our lung and airway structures, brains, and other organs from having Covid, and if they are permanently damaged or not. This team will not only help these patients, but also help discover important answers for the public as a whole.
• 0021-01-22

  Corona Symptoms

  At the start of this virus, I thought it was mostly respiratory problems. But after my dad tested positive, I knew what the symptoms were. At first, my dad was super fatigued and couldn't move like he used to. After that, he started to get very hot and feel like he had a fever. He didn't have respiratory problems. I think it is because Covid affects people differently. My dad had a slight cough when he had it, but that wasn't bad. But the main symptom that most people get from Covid is the loss of taste and smell. My dad lost both of those and it really annoyed him. I also read a story about an NBA player who lost his taste and smell, and I read about a lot of people who had the same thing. Luckily, my dad fought it off and is doing well. There are many symptoms for covid, but they all can be different for everybody.
• 2021-01-21

  Covid Systems

  When Covid started I didn't know much about it. All I knew was it was like another flu and it was another virus. After a few months of Covid, I started to have friends and family who got it. Some of the symptoms my aunt and her sister had was a loss of smell and taste and they had fevers and were kind of fatigued. My old basketball coach got it and he had the same symptoms. Many many people have got it all over the world and I'm glad that I only know a few people who have it, and are fortunate that most of my friends and family are healthy.
• 2021

  symptoms

  On January 6th, I was planned to go back to school for the first time in forever. I was really excited because I haven't actually been in school since March. However, this was delayed, because both of my parents tested positive for COVID-19. Even though it wasn't dangerous to them, my parents experienced a lot of side effects. My dad was always coughing, sneezing, and had trouble sleeping, and was very fatigued. My mom had the same thing, but worst of all, she lost all of her smell and taste. Even though she doesn't have it anymore, she still cannot taste or smell, and she learned it can last up to three months after you have it! Luckily, not me nor my brother ever got it, but we are still being careful.
• 
  2020

  Know the Difference: Self-Monitoring, Self-isolation, and Isolation for COVID-19

  Table created by the Public Health Agency of Canada, for determining the difference between self-monitoring, self-isolation, isolation
• 
  2020-09-11

  How cautious is too cautious?

  In my household at least, temperature checks have become part of our regular routine, especially since two of us have been 'permitted workers' throughout the year and therefore still come into regular contact with the public. At this point Victoria was in it's second wave of the pandemic, we'd just been through winter and were into hay fever season: all of this made it very hard to tell when to get a test. In this case I had taken my temperature a couple of hours before work and had to decide if this borderline temperature was enough make me call in sick on such short notice. The government had announced a payment system for people who feared missing work to get tested due to the financial impact, but for me the problem has been managing managers expectations and creating difficulties for my workplace. I did get a test from a pop-up site at a local pool and I got a text message with the negative results in less than 24 hours.
• 
  2020-10-05

  Why Prisoners Aren’t Reporting Feeling Sick

  Prisons and jails were not planned or constructed with thoughts of weathering a pandemic, not was the system of incarceration. For these reasons, and our cultures current view of incarcerated people as less than human, many are suffering in silence. This article explains why incarcerated people are choosing not to tell anyone if they experience symptoms that might be from COVID-19.
• 
  2020-04-25

  Did Cruise Companies Act too Late?

  All it took was one passenger who disembarked a week before others began to fall ill, to quarantine all passengers and crew on the Diamond Princess by February 4th. Given the dire nature of these outbreaks, many have asked – did the cruise companies act too late? This Washington Post article outlines the experiences of the Celebrity Eclipse and Coral Princess, where before passengers could disembark, the two ships reported 150 Covid-19 cases and six deaths in April. At the time the article was written, the cruise industry reported outbreaks on 55 ships in waters across the globe and 65 deaths among passengers and crew. The article alleges that the industry failed to recognize the signs and symptoms of Covid-19, which later were confirmed as positive cases. Further concerning allegations from the article claim that cruise ships brought Covid-19 to ports and cities around the globe that were otherwise virus-free, where many places lacked the infrastructure to handle large-scale outbreaks.
• 
  2020-05-26

  Inmates claim their symptoms are ignored

  In prison social distancing is impossible. Once covid enters a prison many become infected quickly. Inmates are saying their efforts to obtain medical care are being ignored and families are not being notified when their inmates become ill. Instead they are only being notified once their inmate has died from the virus.