Items
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United Kingdom
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2022-07-04
When is long-COVID a disability?
This is a news story from Stephenson Harwood, a law firm with its headquarters in London. This is on the classification of long-COVID as a disability. Using the Equality Act from 2010, it classifies a disability as physical or mental impairment which would prevent someone's ability to carry out daily activities. Using a case of Burke v Turning Point Scotland, it describes Mr. Burke developing long-COVID symptoms, which prevented him from doing work. He describes immense fatigue, where tasks like showering would become exhausting. Due to this, he remained off work, with his sick pay ending around June 2021. In August 2021, he was dismissed on grounds of ill health. The ruling with the Scottish Employment Tribunal declared that between November 25, 2020 and August 13, 2021 that Mr. Burke was disabled. For his specific case, he can now file disability discrimination against the company, but it does not mean the employer discriminated. The law firm suggests that employers develop methods to better serve employees that could end up having long-COVID. Some of these suggestions include: change in policies around disability services, changes in communication to handle an employee suffering from long-COVID, and a supportive environment where employees will feel comfortable giving updates on their symptoms. -
2020-05-17
Bells, Breezes, and Sirens
The warmest April on record, yet we were all stuck inside. The streets usually congested with the honks of angry black cabbies, the loud hum of overused mufflers on double decker buses and the low rumble of the tube running underfoot were silent. The metropolis of over nine million people had come to a standstill. Windows usually closed to protect against the sleet or smog, were opened to quiet clean breezes. London felt serene, almost idyllic, until the piercing siren of an ambulance run would cut through that fairytale. Before COVID I never paid attention to the St. John’s Ambulance First Aid Training facility on my street, only occasionally seeing the paramedics pop in the Arabic supermarket next door during lunch. As the news was counting the number of days we were in lockdown, I started counting the number of ambulances lining my street; popping my head out the open windows, looking up and down the road. However, sitting in my favorite chair in my flat, back to the window, I could avoid the grim sight, a constant reminder of the reality of the pandemic. I would take my tea in that purple chair, alternating between endless Netflix shows and books, the church bells across the street the only thing to remind me of time. The warm sun and smog less breeze would join the bells drifting through the open windows. Through the books and shows, I not only escaped COVID but my small London flat. The silence of the city amplifying my imagination, only to be shattered by that first initial scream of the sirens, jolting me back to reality. Willing to sacrifice the warm breeze at my back, I closed my windows to protect my ears and the fantasies I had created. However, the double paned windows, sturdy enough to block out the honks of angry black cabbies, were no match for the sirens. Unable to even slightly defend against the shock of the sirens when surrounded by the new silence of the city, I learned to live with it. I reopened my windows to let in bells, breezes, and sirens, instead tuning my ear to notice the ambulance’s first turn of the engine to brace for the piercing scream that would soon follow. As the days continued, my ears started to acclimate to this new normal, with each ambulance run making me jump a little less off my chair. Though my body and mind would never accept the sound enough to not to jolt me even from the deepest sleep, as if to remind me that this was anything but normal. -
2022-04-07
Brainwashing
This is an Instagram post by we_stand_together_uk. The post shows a comic of a man and his brain full of different narratives, with the man looking fearful. Quite a few of the narratives depicted are COVID related, such as: "masks work", "trust the science", and "get boosted now." The poster themselves in the tags says #saynotothevaccine and #wewillnotcomply, making me believe that they think that everyone that has taken the vaccine has been brainwashed in some way to accept it, when they believe it is dangerous. -
2022-04-07
COVID Heroes
This is an Instagram post by snappycroc_1973. This user posted a picture of one of the COVID Hero Stamps designed by school children. These stamps are meant to support the NHS (National Health Service), which is based in the United Kingdom. -
2022-04-07
Mask Pollution
This is an Instagram post by discarded_face_masks_uk. This is an account that shows people that have left their face masks on the ground, thus making it worse for the environment. Hashtags like #coveryourface do imply that they still want you to wear a mask, but are against people accidentally leaving them on the ground. This helps speak of a larger issue where with mask mandates in places in some areas, it leaves more opportunity for people to litter with their face masks, as people will take them off at times when doing certain tasks or if they think they don't need one in some specific area. -
2022-04-03
The can-do vaccine spirit must be applied to refugees
This is a news story written by The Sunday Times (cannot find author). The Sunday Times is a British paper and this is detailing the contrast between the generosity of the British citizens towards Ukrainian refugees, but the lack of care from the British federal government. It says that over 200,000 people and organizations have registered to sponsor refugees in the Homes for Ukraine scheme. The overall story is not about the vaccines themselves, but the author is wishing for the can-do attitude of distributing vaccines in the UK to be applied to the refugees. Of the visas applied by refugees, for families, 32,300 applied for a scholarship, but only 4,700 were issued. I think that during the pandemic, the author that wrote this got more used to the government being lenient in helping, but now when faced with a refugee crisis, lacks that same helpful spirit. -
2020-06-19
Is Working Remote A Blessing Or Burden? Weighing The Pros And Cons
This article discusses the pros and cons of changes to productivity caused by the shift to teleworking during the pandemic in countries around the globe. Major themes are mental health and work-life balance. -
2021-02-13
Six Key Advantages and Disadvantages of Working from Home in Europe during COVID-19
This article discusses an European study investigating individuals’ experience of working from home during the pandemic and the disadvantages and advantages of this work model. The advantages were a better work-life balance, improved work efficiency, and greater work control. The disadvantages were home office constraints, work uncertainties, and inadequate tools. -
2021-06-20
The Best-Laid Plans Go Awry but Mojitos Soften the Blow
The pandemic torpedoed a very important trip for me – a trip paid for by my place of business to attend a conference in London and give a presentation on an archival project and connect with fellow librarians. I intended to bracket my trip with a visit to Ireland, the home of my ancestors, and conduct some genealogical research. To say I was disappointed is an understatement. I probably won’t be working at my current workplace when the next conference is held (once every three years), so I don’t expect to have the opportunity to get a free trip to a lovely part of the world from them in the future. And I need to have boots on the ground to conduct more research: following up on facts and documents my family has shared with me and which I wanted to confirm or debunk during my research in Ireland. So my genealogy work has stalled as well. There hopefully will be opportunities in the future to visit the UK, to conduct research in Ireland, and to attend conferences, but the perfect combination of all of these that had been arranged for summer 2020 is lost forever. Since I live in a very hot locale during the summer months, and count on getting out of town to maintain my sanity, I wasn’t able to create a staycation to counteract the lost of this trip and vacation—unless you count being huddled in the coolest room in my home with my feet in a kiddie pool sipping mojitos and reading travel and Irish history books to be an acceptable alternative. Although, come to think of it, those mojitos were pretty good. -
2021-02-22
UK Theaters Set to Be at Full Capacity by June
This article discuses how theaters in the UK are already partially open and are expected to be at full capacity by June 2021. This is in contrast to Broadway, which is closed in any capacity until May. I feel like this shows how detrimental the United States' response to COVID-19 in 2020 was and how it set us behind the rest of the world in returning to normalcy. -
2020
Glass Microbiology, Luke Jerram
This glass sculpture was created by an artist from the United Kingdom, commissioned by a “university in America to reflect their current and future research, learning in health, and its focus on solving global challenges.” This item shows how art has been part of the pandemic experience as a teaching tool. The experience of visual art can convey thoughts, emotions, trigger feelings and conversations, and is an important part of exploring and understanding how people are navigating the pandemic. This piece is part of a larger collection of virus sculptures, which have been featured in medical journals, and displayed in museum collections around the world. -
2021-01-21
Iran’s Khamenei bans the import of U.S. and U.K. coronavirus vaccines
I wonder how local regions around Iran will react to this proclamation. Iran a country paranoid of America for legitimate reasons. How many other countries treat America with such a paranoid predisposition. The tragic answer to that question would be; we deserve it. -
2020-12-08
90-Year-Old Woman Becomes First Person to be Vaccinated
The 90-year-old woman, Maggie, became the first person to received the fully tested and approved COVID-19 vaccine as the United Kingdom became the first country to approve the vaccine. This was remarkable due to how fast the vaccine was developed. This could be considered the beginning of the end of the pandemic. -
2020-12-03
United Kingdom Rushes to Approve Vaccine
The United Kingdom became the world's first country to approve a COVID-19 vaccine, and will begin distributing the vaccine to its citizens. The apparent rush to approval drew criticism from Dr. Fauci. He later apologized saying "I have a great deal of confidence in what the UK does both scientifically and from a regulator standpoint." He further clarified his point by saying that the United States's approval process will take longer, but will reach a decision soon. -
2020-09-20
Wedding? Forget about it.
Getting engaged in November 2019 was one of the greatest moments of my life. Planning the wedding for 2020 was confusing, exciting, and often involved me agreeing with her. Me being in the US and her the UK this was no problem. That is, until March 2020. The concept of having a two week quarantine for all visiting members to the UK, makes wedding planning impossible. Instead of guest coming for a weekend or maybe a week, you have to plan at least 15 days. 14 in quarantine and 1 for the wedding. Knowing how work schedules and American vacation time works, this is clearly impossible. So here we are wondering in this world of Covid, will we ever be able to have a wedding? or should we just ditch the ceremony and just get married!