Items

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  2020-07-01

  Defender of Target

  During COVID-19 I worked at Target. I was freshly 21 and like everyone else, was shocked by the intensity and severity of the pandemic. What had begun as a part-time gig quickly became my entire world. In the state I lived in, our store was considered an “essential business,” and therefore remained open. It was my job to stock and fold children’s clothes, maintaining a clean store front in the midst of the chaos. Throughout the early days, I would stand behind my folding table watching full-grown adults battle over toilet paper. They would line up outside of the store hours before it opened to ensure they’d receive a package of the holy grail. Suddenly, folding Peppa Pig shirts wasn’t my only duty. I became the protector of fitting rooms, the hunter of lost and contaminated clothing; gathering items that had been illegally tried on and stuffing them into their quarantine room, to “disinfect” for 3-5 business days. Being an essential employee during the pandemic made me jaded. It offered me insight into the human mind, a glimpse of what panic and fear can do to a person. I saw the worst, but also experienced kindness and empathy from people who understood what it was like to be caught in the midst of the hellfire. For some, Target turned into a safe haven, a place that remained open and reliable despite the madness going on in the world, while others gave up their sanity to keep it up and running. I will always think of my time at Target as a glitch in the matrix; a bizarre patch of time that tested the strength of a part-time sales associate, and humanity.
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  2021-07-06

  HIST30060: NO BASKETBALL FOR ALL!

  The local basketball courts near my house were closed due to risk of contamination with COVID-19, much to the dismay of my sweet young neighbours.
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  2020-03-21

  Policing the Plague

  This is a photograph of myself that I took just prior to the service of a search warrant on March 21st 2020 in Salinas, California. The state of California was the first to issue a statewide lock down order due to COVID-19 and had done so just the day before on March 20th. Officers in my department were required to don our gas masks for the service of search warrants and other specific activities at this time due to concerns of contacting the virus. These specific gas masks are issued to be used in environments in which CS or CN gas is introduced. They are also designed to be effective in nuclear fallout and are subsequently extreme overkill in regards to protection against COVID-19 and additionally utterly unpractical for officers whom work 40 plus hours a week. The requirement to wear these masks was very short lived as we soon downgraded to surgical masks and cloth masks. Nonetheless, this exemplifies the fear that has surrounded COVID-19, especially in the early days of the pandemic, and the often drastic reactions we as a society have had in response.
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  2020-03-29

  Nurse discusses the hospital response to the mask shortage

  Nurses/ health care providers are given 1 mask per shift to use for the entire 12 hours (sometimes 1 per pt and other hospitals 1 masks for their entire patient load). After we use the mask we place it in out brown bag to reuse- it is being done all across the country. It’s crazy really for healthcare providers to wrap their heads around- we never re-use ppe because of risk of contaminating yourself. But we have no choice. You do it like this now to make your supplies last. *Annie R. (NP) and Jillian Decker #HIST521
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  2020-03-28

  AT&T Store In Tacoma, WA clearing its merchandise

  AT&T Store in Tacoma, WA clearing its merchandise to property sanitize and prevent contamination on any of its hardware