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2022-06-17

Victoria pressed to scrap two-jab Covid vaccine mandate amid worker shortage

This is a news story from The Guardian by Adeshola Ore. The Victorian government has been pressed to stop the two-jab vaccine mandate due to a worker shortage. "While some industry groups have called for the two-dose mandate to be abolished to help ease the skilled workers shortage, the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) said the decision was up to health officials." "Almost 95% of Victorians aged over 12 have received two doses of a Covid vaccine."

2022-05-20

How covid didn't really effect me.

My name is Kasper, I live in the U.S. and I was 24 at the time the novel corona virus first started to cause shutdowns nation wide and world wide. I did not have the luxury of staying sheltered in place as I worked for a company that was deemed necessary to operate no matter what. My co-workers and I were basically told that our company will close when the federal government completely shuts down. That never happened. All throughout the pandemic I did not notice many changes to my life other than lack of major social events. I still hung out with friends and didn't really take the whole shut down seriously. I never had anything major happen to anyone I knew until the second year. That being said I never felt that hiding was going to solve the whole pandemic issue as many people believed it would. I spent a lot of time riding motorcycles with my wife and friends living my life to the best of my ability. One thing that did change was the whole mask dilemma. I wasn't someone against masks but I do wish the whole situation would have been handled differently. I feel that the picture above can illustrate that I did not nor will I ever let anything stop me from living and enjoying my life

2020-05-16

Is COVID-19 a "Great Equalizer?" [DUPLICATE]

I made two memes. The first meme is intended to answer the question, “Are pandemics the “great equalizers” in terms of social inequalities—do they level the playing field?” with the example of COVID-19. And the meme says the answer is “no,” and that the socially vulnerable are more exposed to the dangers of COVID. The second meme is intended to answer the question, “Have you observed any patterns of human behavior with the Covid-19 pandemic?” Former President Trump called COVID the “China Virus” and fueled people’s hatred of Asians. This meme tries to remind the audience of his negative remarks but in a humorous way without offending Asian populations. It also illustrates how words can magnify feelings of racism, fear, and uncertainty, which can result in scapegoating. This meme gives the audience an opportunity to learn more about the unfair treatment of Asians during the pandemic and why it happened.

2022-05-10

GC Oral History, 2022/05/11

A student describes their experience working during the Covid-19 outbreak.

2020-03-01

Covid-19 Life

When covid first began, it did not have a huge impact on my life and the lives closest to me. The two week quarantine was more of a vacation rather than a punishment to me and my friends. However, as the months went by and I was the only one that had to go back to work due to being an "essential worker" while my friends did not was a blow to me personally. I continued to work 40 hour weeks and lost thousands of dollars monthly due to the low pay and being in a sales job. My friends were in the restaurant business so they continued to get unemployment and made more than me. This was a very annoying to me. I would never hold that against them since I would have done the same thing if given the opportunity. As time went on, it became a different type of annoyance from dealing with people who refused to wear a mask and gave constant issues to me and my coworkers. Our company had rules and while I had to wear the mask 8 hours a day, the customers did a fraction of that and still would constantly complain. I understand they can be annoying but it did not affect their breathing like they claimed. I had a couple compare themselves to Rosa Parks by "refusing to wear a mask to make a change" which got under my skin. The way the American government went about preventing covid was done in a terrible manner and I am extremely glad we are past the true heart of the pandemic.

2022-03-03

Mask On!

This is an Instagram post by taracomics. This post is a PSA reminding people to be respectful of small businesses that want masks. The reasoning is due to small businesses having less workers, and if too many people get sick, it can't stay open as long, thus giving money issues.

2020-07-03

Bad science, bad business practices

The attached article is about a plant nursery in Snohomish, Washington that banned its employees from wearing face masks on June 3, 2020. This business did not take safety precautions for its employees seriously, and actively encouraged and promoted unsafe practices. This is something that is worth being documented in the JOPTY due to the fact that the stereotype of Western Washington state is that it is very liberal, very progressive. But there are still many pockets of areas that still are not. It’s important to remember that this stereotype isn’t true. I think this is also something that is another example of the general public not taking the lives and significance that service industry/customer service workers seriously.

2022-03-26

Locked In and Locked Down: Surviving COVID-19 in FCI Edgefield BOP

The COVID-19 crisis has impacted mass incarcerated facilities at an exceeding rate, exacerbating existing staffing shortage and leaving those housed in large numbers increasingly vulnerable to COVID-19. The Federal Correctional Institution in Edgefield, South Carolina is no exception to this hardship. FCI Edgefield has be forced to expand its use of a practice called "augmentation" or allowing those in non-correctional roles at the prison to work in correctional officer roles. This is because staff members are getting sick an exceedingly high rate, causing some staff to have quarantine for several days while others have chosen to retire early out of the fear of high exposure and incentives losing way due to the crisis. Since the pandemic has taken off, only a small number of inmates have died from COVID-19, about 50 in total. Yet, due to less experienced staff on site due to shortages, one inmate died due to undermined symptoms on January 27, 2021. Overall, stories like these are important because they show how state officials, lawmakers, and policymakers have made little strides in reducing and slowing down the spread of the coronavirus in state and national prison systems. People like my mother, who works at FCI Edgefield, have preexisting medical conditions that put them at a heightened risk for complications if they were to catch COVID-19. Thus, we should make aware that these state officials have waited too long to make strides towards reducing the prison population, routinely rotating staff, and increasing social distance measures in the jail populations. As the pandemic wears on, much is still needed to be done in prioritizing staff and prison populations for vaccination matters. While this idea has generated some wide societal debate, I find it hard to argue that people who work and live in correctional facilities are at a major disadvantage in this crisis. Therefore, it is only fair to consider these high-risk groups first when prioritizing phases and measures of the vaccines and health and well-being.

2022-03-20

A Day in the Life of a Delivery Driver in the South

I deliver copier toner to various clients across Northwest Arkansas, so I am able to see the various ways COVID-19 has impacted businesses, both large and small. Particularly, I am able to see the various protocols of businesses relating to admission into their facilities. From the time I began delivering in March of 2021 to today, it is interesting to see the adjustments made by the community as cases would fluctuate. It is further interesting to see a southern perspective, as the south has been notorious for having a lackluster approach to the pandemic. I will detail six varying instances of businesses across NWA and how they have changed or not changed from a year ago. 1. Banks were an interesting study. My company supplies three major banks across NWA, and all three had very stringent protocol in March 2021, and as cases have declined, they have removed these protocols entirely. In early 2021, bank lobbies were closed to outside visitors with zero exceptions. In order to make my deliveries, I was required to call the bank and meet a staff member at the front door, and both myself and the staff member were required to wear facemasks and social distance. Now, in 2022, these protocols have vanished entirely. Bank lobbies are now open entirely, and masks and social distancing are a thing of the past. This directly correlates with a dramatic fall in COVID cases and deaths, as well as a rise in vaccinations across Arkansas. 2. Chicken plants and food processing plants are an essential part of the economy of Northwest Arkansas, being the home of Tyson, George's, and Cobb-Vantress foods, as well as many others. The protocol for processing plants were stringent in 2021, and they continue to be so in 2022. It is standard practice to not only wear masks and social distance, but also to take temperatures and answer a health questionnaire by security guards. The only change I have seen is a vaccination requirement. Nobody is allowed on the premises of many of these chicken plants without having had both dosses of the COVID-19 vaccine, and vaccination proof must be available whenever requested. Food safety is essential in preserving the health of workers and the community at large, so it is no surprise that these stricter protocols have remained in place. 3. Schools are similar to banks in that COVID protocols greatly shifted from 2021 to 2022. Many schools in 2021 had masks mandates for both students and staff and encouraged social distancing. Now, in 2022, masks and social distancing are no longer required, and school is entirely like it was pre-pandemic. Student's are free to wear masks if they so choose, but any protocol has vanished. This is particularly prevalent in smaller school districts. Depending on the district, many smaller ones had zero protocols to begin with, so things haven't changed in that sense. 4. Manufacturing plants are common in NWA, and many of them have maintained pandemic protocols in 2022. Temperature checks, masks, and social distancing are the norm. There are even a few plants that require appointments to enter their facilities in order to maintain security and prevent the spread of COVID. This is largely attributed to maintaining the health of the workers and preventing outbreaks in facilities that would limit production capabilities in a time when goods are so scarce. 5. Transportation is another major business in NWA, and interestingly, protocols have been minimal. Many transport companies had no original mask requirement, social distancing requirement, or a temperature check. This attitude has continued in 2022, despite the extensive traveling many truck drivers engage in. There were many concerns in the COVID conscious sectors of the community about the possibility of interstate infection, but no changes to trucking protocol were made. It is further interesting the extensive COVID regulations placed on truckers from other states, compared to states like Arkansas. 6. Hospitals and medical clinics, like many across the nation, have made minimal changes to COVID protocol. Washington Regional Medical Center, Northwest Medical Center, and Mercy Hospital all have bared the brunt of COVID in NWA, and masks, temperature checks, social distancing, and exposure questionnaires are the new norm, and medical administration has been unmoving in their insistence on these protocols. Indeed, medical facilities are the locations in which there is the greatest risk of exposure and many medical clinics are still closed to walk-in visitors. The only change really seen from 2021 to 2022 is the allowance of visitors. Previously, no outside visitors were permitted in the hospitals without special permission. As cases declined and vaccine rates grew, the hospitals lifted this restriction and now visitors are common place. It will be interesting to see when and if some of these protocols will change as the pandemic advances. Indeed, it is also interesting to see how and if protocols become a new essential part to admission to various facilities across NWA beyond the pandemic.

2020-08-10

Smelling the labor shortage

Trash stinks. This fact is universally recognized, except, maybe, by raccoons and the like. Nobody likes to have trash around, let alone piled up and overflowing. And that's not something that most people have to really worry about. The – at least relative – cleanliness of the streets is taken for granted by the vast majority of people who are privileged enough to enjoy regular cleanup services. For most of my life, I placed my trash in a bag in a bin in my kitchen until it was full, or, if I made chicken for dinner, until I was done cooking. Then I took the bag out of the bin and out to the larger bin outside – out of sight, out of mind. When Sunday night rolled around, I emptied the kitchen bin one final time, took it out, and wheeled the larger bin to the sidewalk. It was empty when I woke up on Monday and thus began the cycle again. The city's sanitation workers faithfully took care of mine and everyone else's trash before the crack of dawn. But something changed one Monday morning in August 2020. I pulled in the driveway at 3:30pm after having just finished an exhausting shift at a coffee shop, where a third of my coworkers had called out sick over the course of that week. As I always do, I walked over to the bin, grabbed the handle, and started wheeling it back to its usual place by the back yard gate. It felt heavy. It wasn't full; I usually don't produce enough trash to fill it up every week. "Was today a holiday?", I thought to myself. No, it was just a regular Monday – as regular as any day could be post-March 2020. Maybe they were just behind schedule. I kept walking back to the back yard gate and. as usual, I spun the bin around intending to just walk away. Being clumsy, I managed to set it off its balance and knocked it over. Trash spilled onto the ground and one of the bags broke open. The smell of rotting eggshells, an old hunk of cheese I found while cleaning out my refrigerator three days prior, and the, er, soiled, cat litter wafted upwards creating a smoldering cocktail of aromas that left me coughing. I got gloves and a mask (something I never would have owned six months back) and cleaned it up – no big deal. Tuesday came and still there was no sign of the sanitation workers. Sunday arrived and again I wheeled the bin to the road; this time it was so full that the lid would not fully close. I assumed that last week's interruption of service was a one-off. As I got home from work Monday and saw the bin still full, I realized the degree to which I had been taking the trash service for granted. I wheeled it back to the gate, went inside, and opened up the news app on my computer. I stumbled across an article about the disproportionate affects of COVID-19 on essential workers. The lack of service was not a one-off, it was a problem. Recent photos of streets littered with trash and overflowing bins abounded when I did a Google search for them. I went outside to go for a walk. That smell – the cocktail of cheese, eggs, and cat litter – was now at my front door. Similar cocktails emanated from each house I walked past, each with their own garnish, so to speak. It was overpowering. It was the first time I had experienced the result of our modality of living in such a visceral, sensory way. But beyond my own discomfort and beyond the discomfort of my neighbors' similar experiences, that overpowering stench that saturated the air made me conscious of the people who clean it up for me every week. It made me conscious of the degree to which we as a society depend of them and people who perform other services we take for granted. It highlighted, in a very stark way, what our society prioritizes above the health of its people. The sanitation workers don't make very much money. They have to go to work, even if they are sick, because lack of guaranteed sick time even in the midst of a raging pandemic puts their lives at risk. Either way, their lives are at risk.

2020-02-21

Journey into Georgetta's Covid Experience

My name is Georgetta Jones, and I am a cashier at the College of Charleston City Bistro. Also, I work at a Daycare; Devine Daycare. As soon as Covid-19 started, I contracted it (February 2020) due to my being an 'essential worker' at my job. I was horribly laid up for fourteen days, and, as this was before the vaccines were released, I was afraid & certain I was going to die from this terrible disease. Fortunately, due to my rare blood type (O+), I had natural immunity to the virus, and was able to recover quickly after the fourteenth day; I went back to work on the 15th day. COVID-19 is a horrible virus, & it is shameful not to see people take it seriously. Due to my vitamins & water, I was able to get better quickly; it is important to take the natural precautions to protect oneself against the disease. If we as a country (and the world) are to overcome this deadly disease, we must trust in medicine, trust the doctors, trust science, and, most importantly, trust each other.

2021-09-30

Pro-Vax, Pro-Union Anti-Fascist Poster - Jewish Melbourne

In the wake of the anti-lockdown riots that gripped Melbourne in September 2021, the Campaign Against Fascism movement disseminated the phrase Pro-Vax, Pro-Union, Anti-Fascist. Inspired by this, Link/לינק, a zine associated with the Jewish Labour Bund in Melbourne, posted a poster to their Instagram account, of their take on this messaging, including the shouting man from early twentieth-century Bund posters. The poster was also physically published in the zine's second edition in October 2021. HIST30060

2020-12-25

Pandemic Christmas 2020

This is a polaroid photo of my family getting together on Christmas day in 2020. We are all wearing masks because some of us have more hazardous occupations that may have exposed us to covid. We had been tested but wanted to err on the side of caution. We thought it would make a good picture, and wanted to document our lives during the pandemic.

2021-03-06

Cost me my job

I had a severe case of COVID-19 that I caught at my office that included pneumonia and a lower intestinal infection, along with a trip to the ER of my local hospital. At the ER I received breathing treatments and two strong antibiotics for the pneumonia and intestinal infection. This was in addition to severe fatigue, body aches and breathing issues. I was in bed for a little over two weeks and when I got back to the office, I was terminated for not being available during the illness.

2021-02-07

Plan A Reopening Schools and Rights

This document from North Carolina Association of Educators is explaining the legal facts that educators have in my state when it comes to opening schools fully under Plan A. This document shows what legal protections we have and don't have as a state employee and how COVID-19 is viewed as a public health issue. It is important to note that as of right now most school districts in my state are not on Plan A which is 100% open but instead are either on Plan B or Plan C. Plan B is partially open/ online and Plan C is strictly online. Our governor is encouraging our schools to reopen and is opening more vaccine sites as teachers are next in line for the vaccine. This is important to document because every state is doing so many different things and people's rights vary from state to state.

Black square with groups of pink hearts. Handwritten-style font reads, "Those those of you who work - tirelessly to keep things going, we thank you. Farmers. Postal workers. Delivery drivers. Sanitary workers. Pharmacy workers. Non profit workers. First responders. Health care workers. Police officers. Military personal. Truckers. Grocery workers. Factory workers. Utility workers. Bank employees. Civil service workers. Journalists.

2021-02-07

To Mask or not to Mask

Perhaps, it is an American phenomenon. People refusing to wear masks in public places, even when face to face with an “essential worker.” At the start of the pandemic in the United States, when people were closing their doors and staying home, there became a flurry of conversations about essential workers, the people who couldn’t stay home, in order to keep society as we know it flowing. Hospital workers, fighting the unknown; the service industry, continuing to feed and care for people; factory workers and truckers, delivering the stuff people staying home needed, all essential. Unfortunately, there is an ongoing battle that effects everyone: people refusing to wear masks. Some in the medical industry, especially the ones helping COVID patients fight for their life, feel like it is a slap in the face. People in the service industry have to decide between asking somebody to put on a mask and risking being verbally or physically attacked by the person, or risking their own health. I have added a few sources. First, some memes and pictures, thanking essential workers. There is an article from Forbes on how to deal with customers who will not wear a mask. I’ve added a BBC article on why Americans don’t wear masks, but also an article from The Indian Express that shows anti-mask protests in multiple countries. Masks are a pretty simple addition to our lives. Of course, they take a while to get used to, and still leave me sweaty. While they are not a solution for completely stopping the spread of COVID, they do make a difference, and should be taken seriously. The sources I’ve attached tell a small part of the story of how humans have reacted to this pandemic.

2020-12-05

How the pandemic made Instacart “essential”

Article about the rise of instacart

2020-06-09

JBS Meatpacking Plant Outbreak

I wanted to include these news articles about an event that happened in my community. 287 workers at JBS meatpacking plant tested positive for COVID-19 at the beginning of Summer 2020. I am ~somewhat~ familiar with this meatpacking plant. When I attended Mountain Crest High School in Hyrum, I ran cross country and one of our running routes required us to pass this building. I usually did not like this route because the smell combined with running often made me nauseous. I believe it was bought or acquired since my running days by JBS because we used to refer to this place as “Miller’s”. Fast forward about nine years later when these news articles were published. This was the first huge outbreak in Cache Valley. It took some time before COVID-19 hit Northern Utah. Yeah, I think we had a few cases here and there. But it always felt “manageable” to me before this event. But with this outbreak, I began feeling unsafe in my corner of the world. I was especially upset at the injustice of this situation because most of the workers at JBS were Hispanic/Latinx. It felt like no measures, like paid leave or free testing services, were being taken to protect these workers. According to a Bear River Health Department report for June 1, 2020, Hispanic/Latinx accounted for more than 40% of COVID cases. Yet, only about 10% of the population here is Hispanic/Latinx. I strongly feel that this is because of JBS. I feel frustrated living here in Utah during the pandemic. So many people do not care about the situation we are in. Meanwhile, there are people who make sacrifices by working on the “front lines”. For the Hispanic/Latinx community in Cache Valley, it doesn’t feel like a voluntary sacrifice. But rather, another example of unfair systemic racism. Meanwhile, it seems so trivial and unjust that my community still insisted on having a county fair and little league baseball this year. I understand the economic consequences and reasons why people are hesitant to take precautions in certain situations. It is complicated and we don’t really have a great safety net for people in America. That being said, I hate seeing the flippant attitudes while people are literally dying. This weekend, we reached a record spike in COVID cases in Utah. And Election Day is this week. I feel so anxious all the time. And I am trying to reach for some peace wherever I can find it. I really hope that soon we will start taking this pandemic seriously.

2020-10-11

In California’s prison factories, inmates worked for pennies an hour as COVID-19 spread

This article highlights the changes that have been made inside US correctional facilities during the Covid-19 pandemic. While visitation, religious services, rehab and educational programs, phone usage, and even showers have been cut down or completely eliminated, prison labor continues. Incarcerated people are also not able to refuse to work. Doing so can result in loosing privileges time added onto a sentence, or loss of parole or release. In this particular article when the prison was confronted with the worry over the virus being spread through work they defended their position saying they only continued work in places that produced items necessary to fight the pandemic such as soap, hand sanitizer, and masks. While much of the spread of Covid-19 in correctional facilities has been linked to the transfer of inmates this article highlights another avenue for spread, the movement of materials to make things such as masks. The women in one prison were making masks using fabric produced by the men's prison next door. The driver that delivered the fabric from the men's prison was not wearing a mask or taking other precautions.

2020-10-13

Rockstar mom

CNN reports the story of Brianna Hill who went into labor in the middle of her bar exam, which had to be delayed because of the pandemic. Her water broke and she labored while still taking the exam. After having her baby boy, she continued on with her exam. This story not only highlights the wide effects of the pandemic but also shines a bright light on the resilience of motherhood and the power of determination.

05/24/2020

Malesia Lyles Oral History, 2020/05/24

An incomplete interview with Malesia. Malesia Lyles tells the story of the illness in her family from November 2019 through March 2020, and the steps she went through to get medical help. This involves themes of racism, homelessness, shelters, education, and children.

03/30/2020

Deborah Lydon Oral History, 2020/03/30

Title: Interview with Deborah Lydon by Lauren Meister Creator: Deborah Lydon and Lauren Meister Date: 03/30/2020 Description: This interview from Deborah Lydon highlights the response to the coronavirus (or COVID-19) pandemic within the context of the Midwest. Her insight as a healthcare lawyer with a background in biology gives a different perspective to her evaluation of the situation compared to someone in a different field of study. This interview was conducted during the second week of required social distancing as required by Mike Dewine, the Governor of Ohio.

2020-05-01

Lockdown Labor

What does it mean to labor? To toil, particularly in these times? And what happens now when one is suddenly denied this? With businesses closing left and right and people losing their jobs due to the pandemic, I wrote this reflective piece to commemorate Labor Day in these unusual times.

2020-06-23

Fierce competition in the marketplace

A meme posted about the cutthroat labor system in Peru, it's true that there's a lot of competition in certain sectors. In some cases, vendors barely make a profit because everyone is trying to offer the lowest price just to make the sale. I often had this conversation with my mother in law who sold clothing on consignment, I understand that consignment is a normal practice, but if you have to take a bus/taxi to someone's house 3 or 4 times to collect installments, the minimal profits you were making are essentially erased. Now that Peru is allowing some vendors to start selling again, it's once again a volatile and competitive environment because so many people have been without work and the basic necessities.

A digital poster requesting that people boycott Amazon, Whole Foods, Target, and Instacart on May 1, 2020, in solidarity with striking workers.

2020-04-29

Stand With Striking Workers Digital Poster

A digital poster outlining the demands of workers in the online shopping/delivery/grocery staging a one day strike to urge the public to boycott the companies involved on the day of the strike.

screen shot of texts about working at Starbucks

2020-05-10

Day 65 of self-quarantine

This picture can be considered a meme, which shows how the things that after being in self-quarantine for a month from a my job, I really took for granted how great it was to help someone out, even if it is helping them out with their drinks. All the things I would complain about, I wish I hadn't as this quarantine had made me miss my job. It relates to the pandemic as it has shifted our world tremendously. These reoccurrences were what was considered normal to me. I only want to be able to help someone out again, being at home hs been a struggle #CSUS #HIST15H

2020-04-11

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