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2020-04-13
My first mask
This is a photo of the first mask I bought/used when the pandemic began. I bought this mask a few months into the pandemic however, as I didn't feel comfortable leaving my house in the early days, I think I bought this around April 2020 if I'm not mistaken. I remember I was at Wal-Mart as my dad told me that they were selling masks there, at the time there was a shortage of masks and people were panic buying. I remember stores were packed, and people were almost exclusively buying toilet paper - I seriously think that's probably the weirdest part of the pandemic, people were also scalping toilet paper on Facebook marketplace, it was like a secondary currency (Not really but it was a precious resource apparently). They were selling masks at the register, in plastic bags for $1.49 I think; in all honesty I think I would of been better off not buying the mask but the atmosphere of panic kind of made me feel like an idiot for not having a mask. When I opened it up in my car I realized it was literally just a cut up black T-shirt; it was transparent, it didn't wrap around your face, it just hung there. Me being an idiot, I used it for a good solid month, it's a miracle I didn't catch COVID-19. I can't believe that they would sell that to people in Wal-Mart, I mean I think I was one of the only people who bought one so I can't be too upset; but still, people were desperate for any semblance of protection, and such a mega-corp like Wal-Mart felt fine profiting off of those anxieties. I'm not trying to insinuate that they should care, because they didn't get rich by being ethical. -
2020-10-22
Volunteer in vaccine trial dies
Like most people this day and age I get my news primarily from social media. I also watch the news (both FOX and CNN, just to get some sort of truth) but I was stopped in my tracks when I saw this story. I would have expected a downfall in vaccine trials to be reported by CNN or a democratic news outlet but this came straight from the republic horse’s mouth – Fox news. On the topic of vaccines, it seems that most republicans are not only eager for a vaccine but ready to get one, many democrats are a little more stand-offish about it. I stand somewhere in the middle; I look forward to a vaccine but want it backed by science not only the president. This story by FOX news talks about a volunteer in vaccine trials and how they died. It doesn’t discuss if the volunteer was administered medication or a placebo but it still make me wonder about a potential vaccine and its effectiveness.