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-2020-09-29
My feelings on the Coronavirus Pandemic
I have come to this platform as the stay-at-home mom of 2 adorable little girls, Emily 8 and Sara 11, who are simply the loves of my life, during the gut-wrenching time, last year, of the Coronavirus Pandemic! I also teach Part-time at Concordia University in the Department of Women's Studies and Journalism! :) I could never have done this without the genuine love and kind-support of my loving husband Dennis, throughout our 43 years together! :) -
03/28/2020
David Lee Oral History, 2020/03/28
David Dale Lee spoke with his daughter Harper Lee on March 28, 2020, regarding the impact of the outbreak of COVID-19 on his professional and personal life. David is a semi-retired professor of history at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky. David primarily discusses the impact of the pandemic on his teaching and research projects, but he also touches on changes to personal life, particularly shopping and connecting with friends via Zoom. David also reflects on other crises that have shaped his life. -
2020-01-28
Predicting the Future
I remember very specifically sitting in my Econ class my senior year of high school; we had to watch a CNN 10 video every week and explain how the things in the video could affect the economy. I remember looking my Econ teacher in her eyes and telling her that I thought the Coronavirus was going to be very serious and deadly. She told me that a few dead in China and a few cases in other countries doesn't mean that it will be a big problem. My whole class laughed at me because I was worried that the Coronavirus was going to come to the U.S. and kill a lot of people. That was January 28th, 2020. Cut to March 13th, 2020 Corona was in the U.S. and was spreading very rapidly. March 13th, 2020 was the last day of my senior year without me knowing it. We were told that we were getting an extended spring break and would be out of school for 2 weeks then we would be back. That did not happen. I never stepped foot into my high school again. We started Zoom classes on March 31st, 2020, and I never saw my high school teachers in person again. I didn't get a senior prom, proper graduation, or a school picture to show my future kids. Covid-19 ruined my senior year and would go on to ruin my first year of college, forcing me to drop out for the safety of my family and friends. -
03/30/2020
Jeanie and Edward Lehew Oral History, 2020/03/30
This is interview from Edward and Jeannie Lehew focuses on the COVID-19 pandemic experience in the United States. The Lehews, both born in the 1930s, provide an enriching interview connecting the current pandemic to past historical and personal events ranging from the Great Depression to the loss of an infant grandchild. The Lehews detail many personal life experiences and offer their opinions on the current political and healthcare issues in the United States by explaining how the current presidential administration is at fault for the lack of medical supplies in America. -
09/30/2020
Joseph Spataro Oral History, 2020/09/30
This interview consists of a perspective of a white male from Vermont living in Florida for the school year, whom has experienced COVID from the rural suburbs of Vermont, to the maskless warzone that is Florida. His perspective is one from a gamer, only knowing the interviewer though playing videogames together. -
2021-10-08
My Pandemic Life
My name is Ella Bowman and I’m 12 years old, I currently reside in Nampa, Idaho. I like to ride horses, be adventurous, read, and I like cooking and baking with my grandma. I currently go to Lone Star middle school, my elementary school I went to when Covid hit was Willow Creek Elementary. And I’ve lived through history. I like to think that my experience with Covid was a lot better than most people but like everyone, I had challenges. When Covid hit, I was in the fifth grade. I was sick before my school went to online completely. However, I just had the cold, not coronavirus. I believe it was a Friday, everyone was given the option to return to school. I went to school and half the school wasn’t there. To this day, I remember that day. The day before that Friday I never saw my childhood best friend, Shelby, again. She moved schools and wasn’t there on Friday. I had class at the kitchen table, on the floor of my room, on my bed, at my desk, or outside. I didn’t begin middle school like a normal year. My first day was online, and I didn’t get to do any of the fun things my brother would talk about. Last year, we had 5 first days of school: back and forth: online, in-person, half days, and 4 days a week. We had to wear masks all day, and they were strict about it. We had one-way hallways, which made sure we got our steps in. Everyone living through this pandemic always knows that whenever someone is gone for two weeks, they either have Covid or something related like that. Something that we also know very clearly is that we all must keep 6 feet distance. The beginning of this school year is a lot better, Covid wise. Masks are optional, we get lockers, and we’re less strict with rules like last year. We don’t have one-way hallways, and we get 10 to a table. Last year it was only 3 to a table. This year is truly like my first year of middle school but altered. I would agree that from 4th grade to 7th grade, things have changed. When I was in fourth grade, I had no caring concern in the world. I had so many fun memories in elementary school and when the pandemic struck, I was worried all that would go away. I had a “Fortnite” phase in the 5th grade, so during the mandatory two-week quarantine, I played video games. Then again, I’m sure every kid played Fortnite at one point. I remember when my family was stocking up for food, I kid you not, the shelves were empty. Some would totally believe me and others it would be harder for people to wrap their heads around. A lot of perishables were stripped off the shelves. My parents like to playthings safe. They wouldn’t let me touch anything in the stores, and I couldn’t hang out with my friends, unless if we wear masks. My friends came over with masks and we hung out outside. In the rain. Yes, it was raining that day, but we wanted to hang out outside. We had a campfire, we put an umbrella over it but stopped because the umbrella was getting hot. So, my friends and I went to great lengths to have fun during the pandemic. Also, I was pen pals with one of my friends, and our group of friends held Zoom meetings so we could chat. My grandpa also took this situation very seriously. For a whole year, I couldn’t get more within 6 feet of them and couldn’t go into their house. When they finally got the vaccine, I was able to see them. However, just because I didn’t have a super hard time doesn’t mean other people didn’t. The suicide rates came up, more people were dying than being born, and people legitimately became animals. I had a friend who wanted to commit suicide, myself. The world has changed: some in good, some in bad. Something that truly did help me process a lot of this was just simply writing it down. Journaling helps a lot, and I tried to document a lot of the experience. My dad likes to make sure that his family has a good experience and life, so he took us on drives and fishing. Things that you can do without being in a crowd. I had it a lot better than most people, but I still had an experience with the pandemic. All in all, I’m glad I had this experience. I’m glad I lived through history and I’m glad that I have a story to tell. -
2020-08-04
Experiences of Home Health Care Workers during COVID-19 in New York City
Interview with Madeline R. Sterling, MD, author of Experiences of Home Health Care Workers in New York City During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic: A Qualitative Analysis, and Theresa A. Allison, MD, PhD, author of Extreme Vulnerability of Home Care Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Call to Action -
2021-10-06
Reflecting on life. Life has been hard.
It was August 25th, 2019. I had finally reached my parents’ house, all of our belongings* (all that could fit in one car*) in tow, back in my home state of New York. I didn’t want to be here – I grew up in NY, and until two years ago, never intended on coming back. I like to call it the “tectonic plates of life” moving, that moment when you feel something big on the horizon and suddenly, oh hey, here’s a big life decision you didn’t plan on having to make, have fun! Circumstances change, yeah. Life is a pretty unpredictable time warp, and global warming is such a serious issue; it was already sorta tough to not focus on the negatives before 2020. Relationship issues, financial issues, family issues – so many volumes of problems. I already felt like I had lost everything, pride included. Nothing could have prepared me for the pure stress that inevitably comes from a worldwide pandemic. Moving back into my parents’ house as a single parent in her 30’s was just about the biggest pill I could swallow that autumn. Since I had decided to work at Starbucks again, I finally made up my mind to go to college for the first time. In February, I enrolled in summer classes to start at ASU. I was hearing something about a coronavirus, but I wasn’t paying much attention to the news with taking placement tests for college in between working. In March, my daughter’s school closed, and so did Starbucks. It’s hard. It’s hard to not focus on the bad, and it’s so odd to think fondly of the not-so-bad before it. Life just feels a little bit harder. A lot bit, with the increasing violence, hatred and misinformation being spread on a daily basis. Everyone’s experiencing repercussions in one way or another; but something I cannot deny – the something I’m most grateful for: how much I’ve grown, emotionally and mentally. Maybe I can’t credit the stress from the pandemic completely, but it has certainly put all of my other stress in a different perspective. It turned my attention to world issues – I stopped being so wrapped up with myself and my own country, started learning about other cultures after starting college – falling so deeply for that education that I decided to major in Anthropology, with a Minor in Religious Studies. I watched a Ted Talk once that described the good effects of stress.. I feel as if I’m a better human, or at least, a more knowledgeable one. A lot has changed in the past two years. I started college, moved into my own place, moved back into parents’ (hi, tectonic plates!), went from being faithfully Christian to super agnostic/atheist (that was mentally difficult and I’m still processing it) and although I am quite bitter with life in general, I’m also much happier with it, and with myself. I'm a better mom for it. Life has felt like a constant challenge for years now, but I appreciate how easy it is to appreciate the simple things. I may find it annoying that everyone is more on edge, but honestly, who can blame them? Good on everyone for putting up with life! All we can do is learn and grow. And treat the planet well, guys. Let’s do that, too. -
2020-09-16
Vanderbilt Covid Testing
This photo is a screenshot of an email that I received during the Fall 2020 semester at Vanderbilt University. Throughout the semester, I received many emails that looked exactly like that one. The email is proof of a negative Covid test result, which every Vanderbilt student had to receive each week during the fall semester in order to remain living in their dorm. If a student tested positive, they would be taken from their dorm into quarantine housing. For some context, in March of 2020, all Vanderbilt students were sent home early due to the coronavirus. From March onward through the summer, Vanderbilt students worried about their fate as students. Would we be allowed to return to Nashville in the fall? Would we be subjected to more online “college”, trapped in our childhood bedrooms? This anxiety physically ate away at me, keeping me in a constant state of unease. When we finally heard that we would be coming back to campus, it felt as though an immense, invisible weight had been released from my shoulders. We were told, however, that there would be restrictions to college life. At that moment, I did not care an ounce. I would happily take any variation of college, as long as I would be able to live on campus. One of my major stressors entering that year was that we would be kicked off campus a second time. Callous students loudly proclaimed that this was inevitable, there would be no way that we would last this upcoming year. Comments like this brought the anxiety right back to the pit of my stomach. As a student who was going to be living on campus, what would I do if I was kicked off? Where would I go? I did not even want to think about that as a possibility. But that was the energy that charged the air at Vanderbilt that year: there was a fear and a deep distrust that Vanderbilt would stay open. One of the key differences between this year and other years at Vanderbilt was the weekly Covid testing (In the spring semester, the Covid testing was twice weekly). Students were required to enroll in times in their schedule when they would trek over to the Rec, or the large gym on campus, to spit in a tube. At the beginning of the year, I would go with my friends during our allotted time. We soon learned, however, that it did not really matter when you went, as long as went sometime during the week. While this was in some ways comical, to walk into the Rec center, with pop music blaring, and spit alongside your college peers, there was something stressful about it as well. It was like constantly turning yourself in; if you did have the misfortune of having Covid, you had willingly given yourself over for the school to come and take you away. Especially at the beginning, fear of Covid was rampant. Even if you felt fine, a scratchy throat may seem like your doom. At the beginning of the semester especially, waiting for the emailed results felt like eternity. And we all knew what would happen to people who tested positive, or those unfortunate enough to be contact traced: they were shipped off in a golf cart for everyone to see, and were banished from the rest of campus. But this was worth it, all of it was worth it for us. The stress of getting tested and the fear of being quarantined was a miniscule price to pay for being able to be on campus, with our friends. It was an escape from our summers of restriction. Or at least, it was for me. And for that, I give Vanderbilt tremendous credit for opening and following through successfully with the covid-testing of all the students each week. -
2020-03-11
The Vanderbilt University COVID Shutdown
This is a photo of an ABC news segment that was aired on March 11th, 2020, at the very beginning of the pandemic in the United States. The photo shows an interview of a Vanderbilt student (me!). The caption reads “Undergrad Students Must Move out by Sunday”. The interview was taken on a Wednesday, which had been the day that the students were notified that they would need to vacate the campus. The Monday of that week, March 9th, had been our first day after spring break. That same day, we received the first email about the Coronavirus. It stated that classes would be cancelled for the next two weeks. At that time, some students and parents began to panic. Some students decided to leave campus for those two weeks, and believed that they would simply return after those two weeks. These students only took the belongings that they would need for those two weeks, and many of them left the majority of their things in their rooms. Two days later, on the Wednesday of that week, the students received a second email that we would all need to leave campus, and that we had until that Sunday to move all of things out entirely. Naturally, mass chaos ensued as students struggled to figure out how to move all of their things. Most students did not have any help from parents or family, as many people were afraid to travel. This time was a blur of stress, fear, and sadness as students mourned the year that was left unfinished. It was a charged frenzy of packing and moving, but despite this, all around the Vanderbilt’s campus, friends could be seen hugging and crying, particularly the graduating seniors. It was truly surreal in the worst way possible. For me, this picture represents that entire, horrific, move-out experience. On the day that I found out that we would need to leave for the remainder of the year, I was in a practice room in my dorm with one of my friends. He had just been telling me how he had been fighting with his father over whether or not to leave during the two weeks without class. He, of course, wanted to stay on campus, but his father was convinced that he needed to come home. I had already conceded to my parents on that battle, and had plane tickets to come home for the Friday of that week. I, like everyone else, thought that I would only be going home for two weeks like the email had explained. I also was willing to be home for the two weeks to see my family, as I had been in the UK over spring break, which had caused major tensions with my parents. Wednesday’s email confirmed our worst fears: we would all be forced to leave for the rest of the year. I remember feeling completely numb. I walked out of the room to call my parents, while my friend called his. As I spoke to my mom, I realized that I would need to pack up all of my things extremely quickly. She advised me to go to the UPS store to get boxes; as soon as my friend and I were both off the phone, we went straight there, buying up many boxes each to begin packing. While we tried to smile and be upbeat, both of us were still in utter shock. With every ounce of my being, I did not want to leave. It was my sophomore year, and college finally seemed to be mine; I had a phenomenal group of friends who I loved deeply, I was involved on campus, and I loved my classes and professors. The tragedy of it all reverberated through me in waves. As devastated as I was, I had a more imminent task to focus on: moving out. Once we had bought our boxes, we realized that we could not carry them back to campus, and ordered an Uber. As I struggled to carry my boxes from the Uber, I noticed a news crew stationed outside of my dorm. “Could we ask you a few questions?” they called to the pair of us as we labored with our boxes. My insides swirled with anger and frustration about the whole situation, about the unfairness of it all. “Yeah, for sure!” I responded. Maybe someone would actually listen to us, and understand the insanity that we were experiencing. While I don’t remember the exact questions asked, I remember telling them that we had just picked up boxes as we were required to leave campus later that week. I attempted to communicate how upsetting this was to the entire student body. While I have never actually seen this news clip, a friend of mine sent me this picture of me being interviewed. For me, this picture captures how surreal the move out was. I was on the news, and I forgot all about it. It honestly meant nothing to me in that moment, as my world was pulled out from beneath me. -
2021-01-25
Why camels are worrying coronavirus hunters
In northern Kenya, researchers are working to prevent a dangerous coronavirus – Mers – from jumping from camels to humans again. But climate change is making their job more difficult. I It’s thought that Covid-19 originated in animals before jumping to humans. Now experts are warning that the chances are the next pandemic will, too. Seventy-five percent of the newly emerging diseases currently affecting people originate in animals, according to Predict, a US government-funded collaboration by infectious disease experts across the globe. Already, Predict scientists have identified 1,200 new zoonotic, or animal-borne, diseases. But scientists estimate there are some 700,000 more zoonotic diseases we don’t even know about yet. ... “That infection” is Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers), a novel coronavirus that so far has proven to be at least 10 times more deadly than Covid-19. It was discovered in Saudi Arabia in 2012. By 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) had identified “1,761 laboratory-confirmed cases of infection with Mers-CoV, including at least 629 related deaths”. Later that year, an outbreak at a hospital raised the alarm that it’s not just camel herders who are susceptible to the disease, but anyone at all. But while camels can be carriers, the Mers threat to humans is mostly man-made. As human-induced climate change makes droughts more frequent, prolonged, and severe, herders have had to abandon cows and other livestock for camels because only they can survive weeks without water. The result is a growing number of camels in close contact with humans – the perfect conditions for the spread of a deadly disease. Mers causes the same sorts of respiratory system complications as Covid-19, including pneumonia. Symptoms often start with nasal congestion, a cough, chest pains, or difficulty breathing. In the worst cases, it may cause fibrosis – irreversible scarring – in the lungs. This can be deadly. More than one-third of all humans known to have contracted Mers have died from it, according to the WHO. Once it jumps from animals to humans, a Mers outbreak could grow rapidly. Saudi Arabia alone saw 15 people infected in December 2019 and January 2020 – three of whom were hospital workers infected by their patients. “The fact that RNA viruses such as coronaviruses mutate means you never know what could happen with that particular virus,” says Zimmerman. -
2020-03-09
the offer of hope
I took this photo at LAX on March 9, 2020. My father died suddenly the evening before. The Coronavirus was beginning to change our daily lives. Little did I know that this trip would be the last for many months. Each day offers us a chance for a new beginning. I hope we remember the lives lost. I hope we remember the quiet beauty of an empty city. I hope we remember the gratitude we felt for all the doctors, nurses, service workers, delivery drivers, teachers and frontline workers. I hope we remember the creative outlets we found. For all the missed birthdays, graduations, anniversaries, barbeques and gatherings, I hope we now embrace one another in the joy of each new day. -
2020-04-07
Our New COVID-19 Vocabulary—What Does It All Mean?
Before the pandemic, most people didn't know many of the terms associated with epidemic diseases and SARS-type viruses. In order to understand what was happening, people had to quickly acquire a whole new vocabulary. This article from Yale Medicine helps define some of the most critical and widely used terms. -
2021-07-21
Coronavirus, Climate Change, and the Environment
In this article, Dr. Aaron Bernstein, Director of Harvard Chan C-CHANGE, answers questions about how climate change and COVID-19 are related. He discusses the problems that animal agriculture causes for both the environment and human health. Hopefully, more people will hear the words of a world-renowned scientist and make the change to veganism like I did 4 years ago. -
2020-04-04
Diary of Azazel by Jessica Diaz
I will be submitting a fiction diary that consists of a collection of poetry. These poems are chosen with azazel in mind. He worships misfortune and only loves one woman. Who later passes away due to the coronavirus. The corona virus he once praised because it killed off his enemies. The poetry found in his diary are from famous poets all around and the writing expresses his feelings of hate and despair. -
2020-03-06T14:57
A Sign of Things to Come
Early March 2020. We were out of toilet paper and stopped at the grocery store to get some. We sort of knew things were about to get crazy but this scene really cemented it for us. About a week later, LAUSD shut down for “two weeks.” -
2020-03-11
Minnesota Department of Health Travel, and Covid-19 Information in ASL
This video covers the basic information of the 2020 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. For more information on COVID-19 visit: https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseas... ASL talent - James Paul Beldon III, Keystone Interpreting Solutions Video Transcript - Hello. This is a message from the Minnesota Department of Health. Lately we’re hearing a lot about an outbreak associated with novel coronavirus. This outbreak started in China, and now has spread to other countries including the United States. The novel coronavirus causes respiratory illness in people and can spread from person to person. Symptoms of infection include fever, cough, and shortness of breath. While most people recover, it has led to serious illnesses and death in some cases. Minnesota’s public health community is working hard to protect you, and we’re asking for your help by following the same precautions we all use to prevent colds and flu: ▪ Wash your hands often and well with soap and water. ▪ Cover your cough every time. ▪ Stay home when you are sick. Also, if you’ve recently traveled where novel coronavirus is spreading and have symptoms, be sure to call your doctor or health care provider to let them know of your symptoms and your travel history. They will work with you to assess your condition and take appropriate steps to get any needed treatment while limiting the risk of passing along an infection to others. We are learning more about this outbreak and will share key information as it continues. You can stay up to date by visiting the Minnesota Department of Health’s website at health.state.mn.us. -
2021-03-02
As virus-era attacks on Asians rise, past victims look back
From the article: Nearly a year after they were almost stabbed to death inside a Midland, Texas, Sam's Club, Bawi Cung and his two sons all have visible scars. It's the unseen ones though that are harder to get over. Cung can’t walk through any store without constantly looking in all directions. His 6-year-old son, who now can't move one eyebrow, is afraid to sleep alone. On a Saturday evening in March, when COVID-19 panic shopping gripped the nation, Cung was in search of rice at a cheaper price. The family was in the Sam's Club meat section when Cung suddenly felt a punch to the back of his head. A man he didn't know then slashed his face with a knife. The assailant left but soon returned to stab the boys. He wounded the 3-year-old in the back and slashed the 6-year-old from his right eye to a couple of inches past his right ear. -
2021-03-02
Quarantine Silver-Lining Moments.
It is quite obvious that the Class of 2020 all share a collective disappointment with graduating via zoom but I personally had no problem with it. I honestly believed that it was a blessing in disguise, I didn’t have to sit in the hot sun and wait for my name to be called, wait there awkwardly as the teachers give an mediocre speech about me, and lie to all my classmates face when I claim that’ll I miss them and promise to keep in touch. In the beginning of Virtual Learning, I was the happiest I’ve ever been, which was due to the majority of my teachers teachers that were having a difficult time adjusting to online learning and were only able to assign one work sheet per week. During the first week of the pandemic, I was able to actually find my true self, my dislikes and likes, my ambitions, and my fashion sense. Although it got tiring staying home for the majority of my time, I still preferred to stay home and keep my safe from this deadly virus compared to actually having a social life, I learned that I appreciate my company and being alone more than I thought. As some may find quarantine completely damaging to their mental health and are unable to spend their days inside, it did the opposite for me, It improved my mental health drastically and gave me time to begin my journey of self-love and because of this I honestly would not mind if New York implemented yet another lockdown. I believe it would be beneficial to everyone because it would not only flatten the curve but it could potentially allow us to have less restrictions during the summer. -
2021-02-14
Essential vs. Expendable Workers
When the pandemic broke out, I was caught in the whirlwind of being an essential worker. I was a manager at my local McDonalds, so I've seen just how cruel people can be, and how corporations have continued to neglected their workers. Many people are minimum wage workers, and its frightening to know that such a large population is suffering so much, only to receive little appreciation and change. Through my personal story, I hope to have readers step in the shoes of a minimum wage worker than a pandemic, so when they step out, they'll raise awareness on the issue of lack of support and care for minimum wage workers. -
2020-02-24
My Coronavirus Experience
In the beginning of the pandemic, I immediately realized how a large portion of the public was not focused on the virus itself, but the racial controversy of the virus' origin. This was unnerving to the core, because it is a fact that COVID-19 came from China. While it was unacceptable to accept this as fact, MERS literally stands for Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome. It is clear that there was a pro-CCP agenda being pushed in the background when propagating the "COVID Safety" spiel. As time went on, more and more inconsistencies began popping up. Beauty and barber shops closed, but Nancy Pelosi is more than welcome to get her hair done. Masks become required to enter any building or participate in society at all, but when the new President was sworn in, the spectators were sitting shoulder-to-shoulder and masks were few and far between. What my story says about the pandemic is that while we may have had a real potential global crisis, I believe things were skewed, twisted, and flipped so that it is most convenient for those who hold the power, and not done in the best interest of the American people. An example of this in real life was how the Los Angeles Lakers, Ritz Carlton, and Bank of America (per store) were able to get PPP loans, drain the pool of PPP money, and leave small business owners fighting for crumbs. I have linked a Washington Post article below that expands on the PPP loan problem and how our government failed small business. The pandemic I fear will have long-lasting, Orwellian effects on our society in the sense that those in power will continue to use fear mongering to control the public through COVID. Even though a vast majority of the population has already had it and are building antibodies, Western European-style, 1940s era vaccination cards are beginning to circulate. I fear these cards will be the new "gold star" or "Scarlet Letter'', except those without it would be barred from society, rather than those with it. In my opinion, COVID today is what AIDS was in the eighties. Lots of unanswered questions, lots of fear, and government intervention so that free thinking is minimized. These three, and you have a perfect recipe for controlling the masses. Both diseases were politicized to death, and public opinion of the disease swung back and forth with politicization. If AIDS was blown up to the proportion that COVID was, I couldn't imagine the backlash the political and science communities would get from a certain demographic of people who are very vocal and have a statistically higher likelihood of contracting HIV. I hypothesize that pandemic would turn into pandemonium. With that, my experience during quarantine was as expected. Mental health suffered due to lack of human interaction and ability to go outside, and physical health suffered due to inability to go outside and lack of motivation which was connected to mental health. The main positive thing from the pandemic I can identify is the performance of my stock portfolio. Even though I lost my job due to COVID, I was still able to afford rent, food, and supplies to stay hunkered down in my new $900/month prison for my three month sentence. Another big positive from the quarantine was my savings. The pandemic helped me realize how much unnecessary or emotional spending I do. It helped me point out lots of bad habits I have so I can work on fixing them. Things like spending money when I'm sad, and identifying vices that hold me back in my day-to-day. While the pandemic brought a lot of negatives to me and the world around me, I believe there are some positive things to take away from it. Opening your mind to more than what the government feeds you, appreciating every moment you have, embracing new hobbies, and learning how to maneuver through change. These are all things the pandemic has taught me, but if I had the option, I wouldn't do it again. In terms of being a part of history, simply by living you are a part of history. I was at Sloan-Kettering in NYC with my family getting a life-extending cancer treatment for my father when 9/11 happened. He was one of three patients that day because while in surgery, the first plane hit the towers. The rest of the patients to be seen that day were canceled. I suppose the point I am trying to make is that history is subjective. 9/11 wasn’t 9/11 to me. 9/11 was the day I was blessed with enough time to make some foundational memories of my father before he passed. It can be argued that since I have been invested in GameStop since November, I was a part of history there too. I went to the Game 7 Cardinals vs. Red Sox World Series Game in Fenway Park. The game that broke the Bambino Curse. Again, it could be argued that I was a part of history there too, except my three year old self was asleep for the last two innings. History is subjective, and every day, everyday people like you and I make history. Historians and memoirists will use these events in the future to write articles, make movies and tv shows, write books, and extrapolate many other kinds of art from it. However, most often historical stories are told through a lens of subjectivity, and because of that, eventually all history becomes skewed to the point where it is indistinguishable from fable. -
2021-02-22
How Coronavirus Affected Me
**story in file -
2020-03-22T12:49:00
Overwhelmed
When I wrote this journal entry the world was just starting to go into a panic. Mass hysteria caused every town to be placed on lockdown. Everyone was being forced to quarantine and had a curfew at 9 pm everyday. There was no explanation of what the Coronavirus was other than it was fast spreading and killing thousands of people. In March, there was still a lot of uncertainties. As a college student everything was very abrupt. Our classes and school were shut down fast following students traveling and coming back and testing positive. With being locked into a dorm where roommates left, the dorm life got very tough. Feelings of anxiety, depression, and loneliness were common to feel during this time. You go from having an active social life to being terrified to be near someone. It takes a toll on your mental health. Additionally, in this journal entry I talk about a relationship with a guy that wasn't going to work, another active conversation about how the want to see someone amidst the pandemic was not attractive and easy. There was a want to go home, but my family lived in Miami and their cases were higher than the one's on the West Coast of Florida. This entry was important to me because I thought it was a perfect description of the chaos and emotional uncertainty of the beginning of the pandemic. -
2021-01-11
COVID-19 ORIGIN
At first, when COVID started, I thought it came from mosquitos, but later I found out it was from bats. I thought this was interesting. My opinion has not changed from the beginning until now. Once I discovered the origin, I was amazed. -
2020-12-10
My Thanksgiving Corona virus Story
This year's Thanksgiving was different than most years. My family and I usually spend Thanksgiving in Lake Arrowhead and luckily we were still able to go its year. We also still got to spend thanksgiving with my cousins, aunt, uncle and nana like we usually which was fun. One of the things we love to in Lake Arrowhead is shop in the village but this year some of the stores in the village were going out of business because of the coronavirus. In the other shops that were still open we had to wear masks and there were lines outside of some of them. Another thing that was different was that a lot of our favorite restaurants were closed for seating and instead we had to pick up the food. Our family still had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner and we ate turkey and all the normal foods we would usually eat. However, when we went to the local grocery store they were sold out of all of food and the grocery was packed even more than it usually is because people were getting worried about not having another food while were in lockdown. -
2020-03-03
How To Get Your Workplace Ready For Covid-19
The World Health Organization released a document on March 3rd, 2020 and it gives advice on how a company should deal with the coronavirus. Within the document it highlights four main topics, simple ways to prevent the spread of covid-19, how to manage covid-19 when organizing meetings and events, things to consider when you employees travel and finally getting the workplace ready for covid-19 in case it arrives in your community. The WHO recommends that companies make sure that the workplace is clean and hygienic by wiping down surfaces that are frequently touched and used. Also promote that everyone is washing their hands. WHO recommends also to have a plan of attack of what to do if someone becomes ill with covid-19 in the workplace. -
2020-11-05
Voting and Coronavirus
This picture depicts voters in Las Vegas voting with their masks on, which is what I had to do as well when I went to vote in person. This is an achievable idea for healthy Americans who can leave their houses because they aren’t afraid of getting the Coronavirus, but for a lot of older and immuno-compromised people, it is not likely. This resulted in many people using mail-in ballots to vote, like my grandparents had to, but we find out that some of the mail-in ballots are being “lost” or are being rejected. This is not how America should be run, we are amidst a pandemic with many people who can’t take the risk of getting sick right now to go vote and be in a closed space with many other people. It is our right, and it is our duty as Americans to cast our vote to decide who runs our country, it is unfair that people who voted in a perfectly legal way are being refused to be heard just because they don’t want to/can’t be around other people during a global pandemic. -
2020-11-05
Doctor Shares Photo Of Himself Ready To Work On The Covid Floor
A doctor shares a photo as he prepares for a shift of taking care of coronavirus patients. He is in full PPE. -
2020-04-27
Doctor cannot come to terms with the things she saw, takes her own life
An emergency room doctor in New York committed suicide while staying with family in Virginia. Her family say she had become detached, and spoke of the horrors she saw while working with coronavirus victims. Her family would like her to be remembered as a hero. The doctor's family has set up a foundation that gives mental health support to health care providers. -
2020-03-10
Nurse collapses at desk with mask still on
A nurse working in a hospital near Milan collapses at her desk for a 5 minute break. The photo was taken by a coworker while they had been working round the clock. This hospital was in the middle of the crisis in Italy, and the healthcare system was overwhelmed. -
2020-11-03
Life for a toddler during a pandemic
A mother shares how coronavirus has impacted the life of her toddler. Her daughter's routine has drastically changed, and there is a lot of confusion when trying to explain what is actually going on in the world right now. -
2020-11-04
A Little Tired
This meme is everything that COVID/riots/election America is right now. Nobody’s talking about it, but suicides are way up. Divorce is way up. Casual alcoholism is widespread. People are doing so many drugs it’s insane. People are visibly deteriorating, not taking care of themselves and it’s showing. Men I know who used to be clean-cut and disciplined aren’t getting haircuts, aren’t shaving, and barely exercise anymore. Depression is the real “new normal.” Everyone is affected. Oppressive government regulations, blatant abuse and murder of American citizens by the police, arbitrary emergency orders, and openly fraudulent election processes have broken the spirits of almost everyone. No one even thinks change is possible anymore. People want this nation to collapse and are now openly saying it. All hope has been lost in the hearts of the average American. It’s funny because it’s TOO relatable for EVERYONE. -
2020-10-30
Why My Friend Can't Get a Date
My friend gave me permission to share a hilarious online dating experience he just had. Quotations are paraphrased. My friend Luke hops on Xbox and begins to tell me a story. He says, “I’m talking to this girl on Tinder for four hours. She then tells me, ‘I’m bored and I’m going to go read a book’ at 1:30 in the morning! I just laugh it off and ask if she wants to get together at some point the next day. She then tells me, ‘sorry, but my parents won’t let me go out because of COVID.’ She’s 24! She is 24 years old and she’s acting like her mom just grounded her.” I respond by telling him, “bro, she totally just curved you. She also told you she’d rather read a book than text you!” He then replies, “I know that, but if you’re 24 and can’t come up with a better excuse than ‘I’m grounded,’ you don’t belong on Tinder!” This funny story makes one ponder how many other things people use COVID-19 as an excuse to dodge and avoid. -
2020-10-05
Xbox Live Shenanigans
This is a trap remix of Darkthrone’s “Transilvanian Hunger” that I made on my phone in GarageBand. My friends and I usually congregate on Xbox Live every night after we get home from work for the night. With rising costs, dwindling savings, and less work available than ever before, we don’t really plan things anymore. When we do, the plans usually include cooking dirty burgers, drinking beer, and playing board games at someone’s house. That and playing Xbox together are the cheapest options for hanging out that we even have. Lately, our favorite pastime has been making beats on our iPhones in GarageBand. Someone jokingly told me that Norweigan black metal is the only un-sampleable musical genre. I set out to prove him wrong. Laughter and hilarity ensued. -
2020-07-17
Travel Nurses Share Their Story
This article shows what things are like on the front lines during a pandemic. In the article a nurse states that they literally had to choose who was going to live, and who was going to die. They had to wear the same PPE for days at a time; even when there were feces and blood on them. There is a lot of information about what life has been like for nurses on the frontline and I think that needs to be heard. -
2020-09-06
The Faces of ICU Nurses Under Pressure
An ICU nurse started photographing her coworkers during her breaks. Her photographs show the pressure and stress that health care professionals are under during this pandemic. -
2020-09-17
Life in the Time of Coronavirus
From March through August, I walked through the environs of downtown Tucson to make images capturing the effect of the pandemic. -
2020-10-18
Cabronavirus Shirt
This is a shirt that I saw being sold at a thrift shop that I thought was pretty awesome. It's the Tapatio logo that someone put a mask on and changed the text. "Tapate La Pinche Boca" translates to "Cover your f***ing mouth." And my favorite part at the bottom saying "Cabronavirus" which of course is a play on Coronavirus. Which could also mean "dumba** virus". It's interesting to see things like this because people are finding fun ways to speak their mind and take matters into their own hands. -
2020-10-19
A Government Against It's People
Finding any type of media that will accurately show what little the government has done and the lack of support the people of America have is unbelievably easy. In fact, I had a hard time choosing between which cartoon illustration was better. I knew our government wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t until Donald Trump being elected and the coronavirus pandemic hitting our homes did I realize how terrible things really are. These cartoons depicted so well how our government has harmed us more than helped us. The dangerous lies told by our own president and how the government won't take responsibility. When corona made its way to the U.S it was deemed unserious. On March 11th, 2020, President Trump said, “The vast majority of Americans, the risk is very, very low.” At that time there were 1,105 cases and 33 deaths documented in the U.S. The next day my highschool as well as every other school within the country closed down as an “extra week of spring break” due to the virus. This “break” soon became eight months and in the U.S alone there are now 8,128,524 ( plus 47,035 new) cases with 218,986 ( plus 475 new) deaths . The scare became real, people started stocking up leaving nothing for anyone else. We have almost 15 people in our home, it took my mom multiple trips to different stores in order to get the necessities for our family. You would think when a pandemic is spreading throughout people in the country you were placed in position to protect you’d address the problem seriously and work hard to find a solution. All Trump and our government has done was ignore the citizens deaths and provide false hope. What we did get was our president being sarcastic and telling us to inject lysol into our lungs. The citizen’s of America have seen other countries rise in numbers of coronavirus with us and then watch their governments actually handle the situation causing their numbers to decline while our numbers are still shooting through the roof. The panic of this virus does not even cross the mind of those who are rich, the group that our current president only cares about. They didn’t have to worry about medical bills in a country where the president doesn’t believe free healthcare is a human right because they know they are important in his eyes. At the end of this virus, it will be the stories from the one percent belittling the destruction of this virus rather than those who have actually suffered. America is running on ignorance right now. Our own president and government is not concerned with the health of the country. It is the government's job to protect and provide for its people, whether it be an outside threat or a threat within the country. When I look at those cartoons of Donald Trump and the coronavirus, it makes me remember how badly I want our country to actually function the way it is intended to. -
2020-10-17
My New Co-Worker
As a virtual school teacher, I have been working from home for almost seven years now. I was used to being the only other person in my home office, besides my dog Toto. But since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the United States in March, my husband has been working at home as well. We began working together side by side in my/our home office: however, once my husband stepped into a new role within his office, he began to have Zoom meetings and phone calls almost daily. That change coupled with my Zoom meetings and phone calls with students, our shared space was no longer feasible. He has moved to the kitchen table, where he and I can make calls without being in each other's background. During the day our house is filled with both of us talking on the phone, me to students and him to his clients. The space where I used to be free to make breakfast, listen to music, or make whatever noise I wanted, I now have a co-worker to think about (other than my pup). We both have to warn each other when our cameras are on for zoom meetings so we don't appear on camera or make some inappropriate noise in the background. Our home is now a real office, with Zoom meetings, talking, typing, lunch breaks, etc. I think I'll forever remember the sound of my husband's phone voice, as well as the "doorbell" sound chime when people enter a Zoom meeting. "Home office" has a new meaning to me now. -
2020-03-01
COVID and RETAIL
It shows a fresh perspective of someone working in retail during a pandemic. -
2020-10-07
Trump tiene COVID-19
Un dibujo de Andrés Edery mostrando la cara de Trump, y un Coronavirus intentando escaparse. El Coronavirus parece que quiere salirse, lo entiendo con un sentido de humor, como ni siquiera un virus horrible quiere permanecer en su cuerpo. -
2020-04
Medical Intensivists (COVID-19)
The portraits overlay a story mostly untold of the feverish “backroom” effort that distinguishes order from chaos inside hospitals suddenly at risk of being overrun. The photographs also explore the new people-and-place aesthetics of casual videoconferencing as first experienced in recent months by millions of people worldwide. -
2020-03-06
The Peruvian Experience
So I am down in Peru with three fellow students from Wesleyan University. We are just beginning our spring break, and had recently united in Lima before flying together to Cusco the next morning. Our plan was ambitious, chaotic, and irresponsible in hindsight; we had decided to hike the Salkantay Trek from Soraypampa to Aguas Calientes. The evening of our arrival, we were out to dinner when at 9 pm, my friend receives an alarming text from his mother stating that the Salkantay Trek was closed because of a historic mudslide that had decimated the entire trail below the highest pass. This slide sent at least 12 to their death (many remain missing today) while simultaneously displacing 430 families living in the valley. At the time, we were unaware of these disturbing statistics and decided to find a tourist agency that would perhaps guide us part of the way. At 10 pm that evening, we located a random tourist shop that was lightly populated by two employees in the backroom of a jumbled building of interior storefronts. They assured us that not only is the trek impassible at multiple points, but that the Peruvian government was preventing travelers from setting out on the trail. We offered to pay a guide to take us even part of the way, but they turned our proposal down. They did, however, secure us seats on a bus leaving at 5 am the next morning to Soraypampa where tourists engrossed themselves in a heavily assisted day-hike to Lake Humantay. We waiting in the darkness of the Plaza de Armas while bus after bus went to various other locations around Cusco. We dizzily wavered around due to the 11,000 feet of altitude gain that we had assumed less than 24 hours ago until a bus finally came to pick us up. From there, we dangerously (or so we thought at the time) drove through one-lane mountain roads in a loaded bus for nearly five hours. At last, we unloaded and grabbed our packs. We were the only backpackers in sight, and we planned on doing this trek without guidance both geographically and physically. As the rest of the hikers walked packless with sticks to the lake, we lagged behind, destroyed by the sudden difficulty of what was supposed to be an easy first day of trekking. Even with mouths full of coca leaves, two of us required sips of the small oxygen canister we picked up the day before. Our bodies pulsed with symptoms of altitude sickness, but we pressed on. No other view could have made me smile as widely as that of glacial Lake Humantay as we crested the final ascent. At 14,500 feet of altitude, we laughed at the fantastic beauty before us. We had arrived in the early afternoon, and found ourselves almost totally alone beside this pool in the Andes Mountains. Our descent was horrible. Pulsing again were headaches, fatigue, shortness of breath, and swelled joints. In our divergence from the path most traveled, we entered a trail of horse, cow, and llama (domesticated guanaco as we kept on) crap; an uncomfortable rain began to fall, and we found ourselves walking through a mountain feed mist. Within all of our heads was the terrible thought of setting up camp in the rain. Our level of exhaustion was overly evident to any onlooker (there was no one), but as the rain let up and our camp became established, moods lifted and excitement spiked. We were observing the most beautiful sunset display any of us had ever seen. The sun, setting at around 4:00 pm because of the extreme prominence of the surrounding mountains, swirled its orange and pink on the snow-covered top of Mount Salkantay almost as a kind of sorbet is presented at an ice-cream shop. Our wide smiles disappeared as a frigid wind whipped through the valley that we were so exposedly staying in. Dinner in the dark was followed by an unmatched view of eye-contracting stars as we retreated to the chilled interior of our tents. Altitude sickness plagued any chance of a good night's sleep, and we awoke frozen and in a misty cloud. It was this day that we would trek through the Salkantay Pass at 15,220 feet of altitude. Endless switchbacks defined the first half of the day. We toiled over each step, our packs dragging each attempt to press on. After a few hours of extreme exertion and chill, we passed through the highest point of the trek. Once the clouds parted, an incredible view of the mudslide's decimation shocked us into the reality of our unguided trek. The slide refigured the landscape with a melting expanse of boulders climbing both sides of the valley and completely filling in the previous location of the Salkantay Lake. Armed with a compass and an enthusiastic "we can't turn back now" mindset, our trek took us through a few miles of trailless movement into the valley ahead. The rest of this day wasn't by any means forgiving. Passing through a newly abandoned town, over a sea of boudlers and deep, wet sand, and into the jungle valley brought set after set of challenges. Towards hour 11 of the day's hiking, a thunderstorm burdened the final steps we had to take. The valley was steep, and beneath us crept a barren section of forest where the river washed away all vegetation in existence (it rose over 130 feet in some sections). Once we had almost made it to the supposed location of the next town, we hopped another small waterfall and rounded another unpromising corner to see only a gap. For about the length of a track, a secondary mudslide caused by the huge forest laceration made by the river's rise opened up to an impassible section of an unstable dirt cliff-face. We spent the next hour cautiously pressing up and around the empty gap in the forest in the ongoing rain. From there, we very quickly arrived in the next town, populated but in a state of emergency. Their supply of food had been entirely cut off, and reserves were running dangerously low. The following day, we were shown to a couple of provisional bridges that the locals had erected just two days before with some fallen logs and sticks. More treacherous than anything any of us had done, we inched along the sloped, wet logs that stretched over the intersection of two overflowing rivers. Later that day, a mile long mudslide had taken out another part of the trail, but this one was dry and had experienced some local foot traffic (there were no roads for the first four days of trekking). We got ahead that evening, and camped on a man's land high in the valley steeps who informed us that we had been the only group to travel the Salkantay Trek route for the entirety of the year 2020 (this was in March mind you). The next day of trekking was far longer than we had expected, but traveling alone through an ancient village to a phenomenal viewpoint of Machu Picchu made it worth it. We ended in with a beat arrival in Aguas Calientes, but that evening was full of celebration and restaurant food. Two of us woke up with food poisoning, and we decided to travel back to Cusco midday rather than in the evening. Upon arriving at our hostel, President Vizcarra came on the television to announce that Peru would close its airports in 24 hours. At the time of our departure in Soraypampa, the coronavirus had only spread widely in China and Italy, but when we got out, the internet flooded our phones with the reality of online classes, the spread of the virus into a pandemic, and the global closing of boarders. Panic-ridden, we awoke at 5 am to escape the claim that hostels and hotels would be locked from the outside by the police to force a 15-day quarantine period set by the Peruvian Government. We waited outside in the rain until the last flight to Lima departed with us onboard (our ticket had coincided with the last day of open airports by sheer luck). In Lima, we were locked in our friend's house, prevented from going outside by the fear of getting arrested by the endless number of police and military stationed on the streets of the city. Day after day passed, we played chess, meditated, and hoped for an email from the U.S. Embassy of Peru. Weeks passed, and the panic of my family was calmed by my less-bothered conscience. After daily reminders pointing towards the extension of our visit to Peru to months, the housing situation ended for two of us, and we ventured to a nearby hotel to wait out the rest of our stay in Lima. By some miracle, we were then put in touch with a DEA agent helping at the embassy (the DEA helped out because the chair of the embassy and many of his employees all fled back to the U.S. leaving thousands of citizens stranded for much longer). The person who aided us brought us to the embassy to get on a departing repatriation flight as standby passengers. In a rare moment of animation, my friend and I flew on an unfilled flight directly to Washington, D.C. Our trip had ended, but our quarantine in a very strange new world had just begun. I want to note that I skipped large swaths of experience to fit this shortened story into a mildly digestable piece. I also did not read through it yet so forgive any mistakes or sections lacking flow. -
09/17/2020
[REDACTED] Han Oral History, 2020/09/17
This is an audio interview with a classmate who is based in Korea. She is a freshman who is studying Pharmacy. She expresses her thoughts and experience on the current pandemic, Covid-19. -
2020-09-17
Millennials and Gen Z are spreading coronavirus - but not because of parties and bars
This article illustrates one of the main problems with fighting a pandemic. In order to completely stay safe, one needs to stay at home. But in order to pay bills and afford to keep their households going, one needs to be able to go out and work. Trying to balance the need to stay distant and the need to provide for one's family is a struggle that everyone is going through together. -
2020-08-23
The face behind the mask
We went to get ice cream for a job well done at school. My mother was driving and my sister and I were in the bed of the truck. That’s when we stopped at a stop sign and someone yelled, “Put on your mask!” We looked around to see where the voice was, but couldn’t find it. This made me realize that even though we were far enough, people still panicked, people still wanted to get assured, and people got mad. We then put on our masks, afraid that people would think that we had the virus. -
2020-05-13
School Cancellation News Article
2. This news article, although short and not very informative, is important to my experience with the coronavirus because it was when I had first learned that schools had started to close. My mother had sent it to me about when as the news had just come out. This was a big moment and a turning point for lots of people because although we had heard lots about the coronavirus and had seen the numbers and read the articles, this would be the first time it would affect us directly. The pandemic, at this time, had finally started to feel real and it had dawned upon me, and likely many others, that this would be something that would really impact me and my life, and it was no longer just something you heard or talked about. This, to me, shows how quickly the pandemic grew and took people by surprise. It also reminds me of times when people would claim that the coronavirus was being exaggerated by the media, or when others would guess that the virus would be gone before summer, because this was the moment that disproved those theories to me. -
2020-05-01
The Effect of the Coronavirus on Hospitals and Doctors
This picture resonates with me for a number of reasons. Firstly, both of my parents are cardiologists and my grandmother is a nurse practitioner, meaning that they have had to deal with the effects of the virus up close. This has put a new reason to worry as my parents and grandmother could be at risk for contracting the virus should something go wrong. This picture says a lot about the severity of the pandemic. Life-saving and even basic medical equipment, such as the ones utilized in the photo, are in short supply. Doctors and medical personnel are called upon to risk their health to help save that of others. Hospitals are plagued with the sea of new patients flooding in, so much so that, overcrowding has become an issue in some hospitals. This picture is important to me because it demonstrates what our medical workers and hospital staff are sacrificing in order to help combat an enemy that surrounds us. -
2020-07-20
Private prison contracts complicates COVID-19 precautions
The contracts for Arizona's private prisons require nearly all of the beds to be filled. This story articulates the difficult balance between keeping inmates safe during a pandemic and satisfying the contracts.