Items

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  2020-04

  Pandemic public bus

  Photo credit goes to the Coronavirus Chronicle Facebook page. The photo shows the locked front part of the MTA bus. This photo directly connects to my experience of taking buses during the surge of the Covid-19 pandemic in March and April 2020. I observed absolutely the same picture of the bus interior every single day on my daily trip to work. The front of the bus was purposely locked by crisscrossed chains and two safety belts. Hence passengers could not get on the bus in the front and the machine that took trip payment money and cards also were not available for public use. Passengers had a free ride throughout the pandemic on all NYC buses. MTA drivers avoided close airborne contact with other people to keep themselves safe and not lose their in-person work respectively. Such isolated buses reminded me of a post-apocalypse underground train in one of the parts of the Matrix film. Neo and his fellows had to hide from computer program agents that try to invade their shelter at the abandoned subway system.
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  2021-04-23

  Yang Not Getting LGBTQ Support for NYC Mayor

  People in the LGBTQ community feel that the former Democratic Presential nominee is not out for their best interest but instead is just using them for their vote. They feel like he should push more for homelessness, housing, healthcare, and other issues important to the LGBTQ people but Mr. Yang says he loves and supports the community. He is running for New York City mayor and is the former nominee of the democratic party.
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  03/13/2021

  Covid-19's Effect on LGBTQ+ Community in NYC

  Interview with Krystal McRae
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  2020-11-03

  NYC Celebrate President-Elect

  In New York City, people gathered on street corners after the 2020 election was called to celebrate the President-Elect, Joe Biden. This video was shot by my sister, Catherine Sweeney. The pandemic made this year’s election a very important one for many people, as their jobs, relationships, school, and health were all affected by the decisions of the new president. As a relief to many, the candidate with a solid COVID and public health plan was elected. Joe Biden wants to find a unified coronavirus strategy and create a Medicare-like public insurance plan. Over the last few months leading up to the election, many celebrities and influencers have been urging people to get registered to vote, educate themselves on the candidates and issues at large, and take part in democracy. This year, many Americans, including myself, voted using mail-in ballots. Others showed up in masks on voting day and waited in socially distanced lines, to make sure their vote was counted. It took several days longer than usual to announce the winner because states had to process so many mail-in ballots. This goes to show that democracy carries on in a pandemic.
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  2020-04-29

  Behind Closed Doors

  Beyond the ERs, ORs, and ICUs, there is another region of the hospital that is directly impacted by the pandemic- the lab. As a medical technologist working in clinical microbiology, I, along with my colleagues, have been processing hundreds of patient specimens and conducting various SARS-CoV-2 PCR tests 24/7 to aid in the diagnosis of COVID-19. At one point, during the beginning of the NYC outbreak, we were processing samples from all five boroughs, Westchester, and the lower Hudson Valley. We were the first human beings to view those results as they came out of the machine and saw the patterns unfold before everyone else. It is an eerie feeling to be working in a quiet lab when you feel this immense gravity of the vast storm looming overhead- knowing that every sample you process has a story and a life behind it and that your results are the thunder that reverberates beyond your four walls and out into the world itself- echoes that strike like lightning, illuminating the thin line between life and death.