Items

• 
  2021-01-08

  Trump's Twitter and Facebook

  A comic strip about Covid-19
• 
  2020-03-19

  #FormalFriday

  "Since everyday is Corona Casual now, I propose we start doing 'Formal Friday.' Break out the tux or gown, do your hair, and settle in for a fancy day at home." I posted that on Facebook on Thursday, March 19, 2020. The next day, I shared a photo of myself in a cocktail dress, pearls, and lipstick, laptop balanced on my knee, chaotic home office behind me. In the weeks that followed, I would post a reminder on Thursday, and on Friday folks would post photos of themselves in their finery. These were friends from all aspects of my life, people who didn't know each other, using the hashtag #formalfriday and adding a little levity to an anxiety ridden time. For me, it was one of the only bright spots. Work from home started March 12th. Five days before that, my husband had informed me our marriage wasn't working. And five days after, my mom went into the hospital, where she was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. Over the course of 10 days, my world had been ripped out from under me. The emotional isolation was crushing. Compounded with the physical and social isolation - I was living each day on the verge of collapse. But on Fridays, I would put on makeup, jewelry, and a gown and pretend that everything was hunky dory for social media. That my level of fear, of anxiety, of panic were on the same level as everyone else's. I would take a photo, sometimes with my daughter, and post on Facebook. Then I would take off the sparkles and finery and return to the dull reality of leggings and dread. Formal Friday went on for eleven weeks. I saved my favorite dress for last: A full-length gown with a black and white striped skirt (it has pockets!) and crop-top illusion. In the photo, my daughter is in her pajamas because we had given up on making her get dressed by then. I'm clenching onto her and she's flopped backward, totally over the whole thing. There's a smile on my face that doesn't reach my eyes. After I posted it, I had multiple friends reach out to ask if I was OK. We were three months into a two-week quarantine, yet the pandemic was a solid third on the list of things I was most worried about. The strain was starting to show on my body, in my face. Looking back at the photos now, I think about the illusion of social media and how easy it is to pretend that what someone posts is reflective of their full reality. I was going through the most challenging time in my life, but based on what I put on Facebook, I had enough joy to play dress-up once a week. At the same time... I still had enough joy to play dress-up once a week. And it brought me joy to see other people do the same. Seeing my friends, and friends of friends, and screenshots of zoom meetings, where people were in suits, or gowns, or just putting on a little make-up because that's all they could muster, kept a flame of happiness glowing inside me and helped me get through those first eleven weeks. It was silly, it wasn't a representation of reality, but when my whole world was on fire, it was nice to feel beautiful with friends.
• 
  2020-07-27

  Desolation

  The moment I saw this photo, I felt the profoundness of it. The New York subway system empty. Normally people would be walking through these gates, flooding the long hall between trains and destinations. The thing that strikes me more than the emptiness is the long tunnel leading to the exit. Well over 100 feet long the tunnel seems to go on forever, a feeling that mimics the endless period of the covid lockdown. It just felt as if it would never end, and now, looking at the tunnel I feel a sense of sadness, as if a year of my life was wasted, one that no matter how much I try to forget, I cannot.
• 2023-02-28

  College of Staten Island Facebook Screenshot PROMPT

  The HST718 Public History Class at the College of Staten Island was tasked with taking screenshots of submissions to the Lockdown Staten Island Facebook page from 2020. The students were to use the information found on the page and submit the screenshots and add metadata. Their submissions will be linked to this assignment.
• 
  2020-05-24

  Fireside Chat Final Episode

  The final episode of Fireside Chats! Students share their stories from quarantine. Thanks to Mr. Andrew Savage and his US History team for making this happen.
• 
  May 24th, 2020

  Above and Beyond

  Staten Islanders went above and beyond in coming together during this pandemic.
• 
  May 5th, 2020

  Covid: Should We Re-open? A poll

  Is it too soon to reopen all businesses on Staten Island? I wanted to reopen, but I was nervous. My parents are old and this kind of poll result really frustrated me.
• 
  April 18, 2020

  Paper Product Shortage

  A sign of the times. Here is the paper product aisle in a Stop and Shop in Staten Island.
• 
  May 2nd, 2020

  CVS in Lockdown

  The CVS on Armstrong and Arthur Kill Road requires masks and social distancing if you are shopping there.
• 
  April 20, 2020

  Blood Donation

  I donated blood today. They've had a shortage of donors, so I decided to do it. Pretty simple process, and I got to talk to people in real life and they gave me snacks after. It was actually fun. My mom made me the mask.
• 
  May 2nd, 2020

  Wait Here

  Wait here. This was the story of Covid Life. We had to wait in specific spots, and not crowd registers until called on. This happened quite often, especially at the pharmacies!
• 
  2020-06-05

  Staten Island during the Covid-19 Pandemic

  Photos depicting Staten Island Protest during Covid-19
• 
  April 19, 2020

  CSI Class of 2020

  "Finally the thoughts of what my graduation were real. What it would look like, what I would wear, and who i would invite. The joy I felt thinking about the thought of graduation in May; has been replaced with uncertainty. Myself and another class mate walked the campus although it were closed to find lingering students and faculty to complete information for our capstone project, not knowing that what we thought would be a temporary shut down became more permanent. The feeling of despair is an understatement because I returned to school after almost 20 yrs to finish my degree only to be deprived of the feelings you get from accomplishing everything that's required to graduate. All I can do as for now is stay safe so when that alternate graduation date is set, I'm a part of it. You won't take my accomplishment from me Covid!"
• 
  2020-06-12

  Do you Think there Will be a Second Wave of Covid-19 on Staten Island

  Do you think there will be a second wave of Covid-19 on Staten Island?
• 
  May 1st 2020

  The New Normal

  The New Normal: People had to stand 6 feet apart when they went shopping. It caused a lot of problems. We also had to wear face masks which caused tension among guests.
• 
  April 8, 2020

  The New Normal on Staten Island

  Is this the new normal or will Staten Island go back to the way it was before the pandemic?
• 
  April 8, 2020

  Public Health Measures on Staten Island

  Social distancing, face masks, empty shelves and restrictions throughout Staten Island.
• 
  2020-05-13

  Covid-19 Fireside Chat Series: Episode Two

  A virtual chat series that was shot during lockdown. This episode covers students talking about their experiences during lockdown
• 
  April 8, 2020

  Is this the new normal or will society return to the way it used to be?

  CSI Public History Coronavirus Chronicle created a poll asking "Is this the new normal or will society return to the way it used to be?" Four people responded. Three said yes and one said there will be a new normal.
• 
  April 23rd, 2020

  Hospital During Lockdown

  What Hospitals were like doing during lockdown
• 
  2020-06-17

  Covid-19

  Love in the Time of Covid-19. Check out this great video by Christ Mikhael that looks at how Covid-19 has impacted everyday life on Staten Island.
• 
  2020-06-17

  A Case of a Different Perspective

  Youth, Students, Perspective
• 
  June 19, 2020

  Essential Worker Appreciation

  Screenshot of a poster thanking Staten Island essential workers from the CSI Public History Coronavirus Chronicle Facebook page
• 
  June 20, 2020

  pandemic continues staten island

  Screenshot of various photos in Staten Island during Covid19 from the CSI Public History Coronavirus Chronicle Facebook page
• 
  December, 2020

  Battery to Chelsea, along Hudson River Park.

  I took this photo a couple of weeks ago walking from the Battery to Chelsea, along Hudson River Park.
• 
  June 28, 2020

  Staten Island Ferry Social Distancing

  Screenshot of the Staten Island Ferry with social distancing tape on the seats.
• 
  June 28, 2020

  The Strand

  Screenshot of two people looking through books from the CSI Public History Coronavirus Chronicle Facebook page
• 
  July 12, 2020

  Arch of Washington Square park during BLM demonstration

  Screenshot of washington Square park arch before a BLM demonstration from the CSI Public History Coronavirus Chronicle Facebook page
• 
  2020-07-12

  Statue of Garibaldi

  Screenshot of Garibaldi statue from the CSI Public History Coronavirus Chronicle
• 
  2021-06-09

  Professor Vanlife

  In the summer of 2021, I accepted an adjunct job at a college back East. Rather than spend half the salary on rent and in order to socially distance from others, I fixed up a Toyota Sienna minivan so I could live in it for the summer. This was the first trip I had taken since the late winter of 2020. On the drive out from California, I stopped to climb a mountain in Wyoming and had the trail to the summit mostly to myself. Here's what I wrote about it on Facebook: "View of Laramie Peak (elev. 10,275) in present day Wyoming, an important landmark on the Oregon Trail. For those emigrants not from Appalachia or northern New England, it was the first really big mountain they’d ever seen and it loomed in front of them for several days as they approached it from the plains. Mark Twain passed by here in 1861 and recollected later, speaking about the mountain in the third person: 'Looming vast and solitary -- a deep, dark, rich indigo blue in hue, so portentously did the old colossus frown under his beetling brows of storm-cloud. He was thirty or forty miles away, in reality, but he only seemed removed a little beyond the low ridge at our right.'"
• 
  2021-03-12

  No Mask, No Garden

  The Desert Botanical Garden is a fixture of Phoenix area tourism. A botanical garden of arid lands, it's unique and draws thousands of visitors every year. Their social media emphasized the importance of masking during the pandemic, with the catchy phrase "Let's not get prickly about safety."
• 
  2022-10-30

  Silenced voices of the commoner

  The recent Covid-19 pandemic has had immense local and global ramifications, especially for us Victorians who have experienced the world’s longest lockdowns. It was a significant worldwide event which will certainly be looked back upon by future generations, just as we have analysed previous historical diseases, such as the bubonic plague. But how should archivists determine which sources, and likewise which voices should be permanently preserved within the historical record? Traditionally, an archive is a collection of documents that archivists have selected to be permanently preserved as sources for future historical or other forms of research. Initially, only scholars with an ambition to conduct historical research had access to archives, but their digitisation and free nature have ensured that anyone is able to access the documents they contain online. However, the process of creating both physical and digital archives is inherently flawed. Archivists have a formidable power to evaluate which sources are “worthy of inclusion”, and simultaneously which ones are not; essentially what compromises the historical record. Therefore, although archivists are characterised as unbiased and impartial individuals, they are inextricably influenced by “societal biases” in their decision-making, as they simply have to select what they personally believe will have value to future researchers. It has culminated in them privileging and prioritising the voices of individuals within positions power, which has indefinitely created “gaps within the historical record” through inhibiting the voices of those without it. Rodney G.S. Carter echoes the problem in asserting that the existence of archival “silences” is the “manifestation of the actions of the powerful”, which has a substantial impact on how marginalised groups produce and likewise form both social history and memory. Ariella Aïsha Azoulay has cautioned readers that “digital archives are no exception”. With this in mind, if we consider the 19-month impact of the pandemic upon Victoria, I am certain that archivists will acknowledge the voices of those within positions of power when determining what sources should be preserved. Of particular importance would be those of primary actors that shaped Victoria’s lockdown experience, most importantly the protagonist of the lockdowns, Premier Daniel Andrews (fig.1). Figure 1. Video of Premier announcing sixth lockdown, cited in Patrick Durkin, “’Recuring nightmare’: Victoria’s snap lockdown is the ‘new normal,’” Financial Review, August 5, 2021, URL: https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/very-concerned-victoria-faces-lockdown-after-eight-new-cases-20210805-p58g3o. I am aware of the threat of “information overload” both real and digital archives currently face with an abundance of available sources, but I would argue that the preservation of major political statements alongside previously supressed voices would be beneficial to any archive created surrounding the Victorian Covid-19 experience. A consideration of the experiences of marginalised voices would be imperative to a future historian, as it would enrich historiography by offering insight into the social-political dynamics of the event, and its psychological impact beyond official government and political documents. I will now consider the value of this “bottom-up approach” in capturing the Victorian pandemic experience from the viewpoint of the common man, me, a historically marginalised group within the realm of archives. I personally wasn’t too concerned about the first lockdown and its stage three and four restrictions as they would “flatten the curve” of infectious cases, providing our health system with the best opportunity to tackle the fast-spreading virus. Life as we know it changed though with only four reasons to leave home; shopping, exercise, caregiving, and work. The café I worked at had to shift to “take away only”, as many others (fig.2). Figure 2. The Food Republic Café, “covid update for customers,” Blackburn, March 23, 2020, URL: https://www.facebook.com/thefoodrepubliccafe. I was still able to work alongside my barista colleague and friend Max which was pretty good, and I was able to perfect my coffee artwork (fig.3). Figure 3. The Food Republic Café, “promotional post during lockdown 1” Blackburn, April 8, 2020, URL: https://www.facebook.com/thefoodrepubliccafe. I was also able to continue exercising and riding my bike, but I wasn’t able to see or visit any friends or family, which initially seemed like a fair sacrifice to make for the health and wellbeing of all Victorians (fig.4). Figure 4. George Vesnaver, Selfie on bike ride, April 10, 2020, photograph, Main Yarra Trail, Melbourne. However, after being continuously plunged in and out of lockdowns by the time the sixth one came about, I was very angry to say the least as representative within my covid journal entry (fig. 5). Figure 5. George Vesnaver, Covid Journal Entry, October 27, 2022, photograph, Kew East, Melbourne. Laura A. Millar’s observation that “the concept of evidence” must be broadened as opposed to its current restrictive and rigid format adopted by archivists has reaffirmed my belief that my experience and that of other regular people should not be forgotten. My sources may just seem like information to an archivist because of their form, but they are filled with evidence of this historic moment. Their eternal preservation within an archive would serve anyone wanting to write about the Victorian Covid-19 experience in the foreseeable future. For example, figure 2. would enable one to see how government information was disseminated via social media; the confirming and likewise conforming of political decisions. Figure 3. would reveal the way in which people adapted to Victoria’s first initial lockdown via humour, helping us remember attitudes towards the past event. Figure 4. would showcase a sense of normality during unprecedented times, through an ability to continue exercising. But most importantly the response depicted in figure 5. towards figure 1., a first-hand account of the psychological impact of the endless lockdowns instigated by those with political powers. Winston Churchill once said that “history is written by the victors”, so considering those with and without power survived the pandemic it seems only fair that all our voices should be recognised in the historical record.
• 
  2020-04-04

  HIST30060: Daniel Andrews' Facebook Post

  This is a screenshot of a Facebook post made by Daniel Andrews’ public page on 4th April 2020. This post exemplifies the Victorian Premier’s ability to co-opt social media trends in promoting his own political agenda. Popular in early 2020, the meme followed the template of “Good morning to everyone except,” followed by exclusion of a relatively a niche social group. This screenshot illustrates the subtle use of social media as propaganda by the Andrews government. Andrews’ social media pages are seldom thought of as such, as the skill of his social media team has allowed him to maintain a popular and likeable social media persona. In an age of ubiquitous social media use, the Andrews government has used social media very effectively to protect its legitimacy and justify its methods. For example, the screenshot highlights the use of guilt by the Andrews government to legitimise health restrictions. The government consistently stressed that the pandemic restrictions were for the benefit of the public and necessitated complete compliance. Those who rejected health advice were endangering the entire community and “putting everyone at risk.” This post therein encapsulates sophisticated government propaganda and the co-opting of social media for political purposes. I selected this post as someone influenced by the sophisticated campaign of government messaging. It lead me to resent rule-breakers and see the prolonged restrictions as a legitimate use of government authority to protect the public. As someone who entered the pandemic as a supporter of the Labor Party and Daniel Andrews personally, I no longer think the severity and length of the lockdowns were necessary. Yet, his social media presence certainly made him likeable, funny, and relatable at the time.
• 
  2022-05-25

  Iko the Smooth Coated Collie

  When the pandemic hit, there wasn't a lot going on in my house. I was living at home, working where I could/when I could (nannying, dog walking) and my parents had recently retired. My parents quickly turned into stereotypical teenagers, spending all day on their phones and iPad, scrolling through Facebook and playing card games electronically. My mom got sucked into a few dog groups on Facebook as she had always wanted a dog in retirement and to train this dog to be a therapy animal. It was her dream to take this dog to schools, hospitals, and nursing homes and provide much needed stress relief and other benefits that therapy animals provided. When I was a kid, we had a smooth collie name Stormy and he was a great family pet. When he passed away when I was in high school, my parents agreed to not get another dog until retirement (mostly my dad's request, my mom could have dogs all her life if it were up to her). Then COVID and there was nothing for my mom to do besides look at dogs on Facebook, specifically smooth collies. After much discussion and pleading by my mom and probably sheer boredom by my dad, my parents decided to get a puppy from Kentucky in July. We named this little one Iko and he came home rambunctious as ever. This brought a host of new senses into the house. First was the sound. Iko was never a big barker, but he did bark as most dogs do. I never saw this as a bad thing. Prior to Iko, there was no lively activity or accompanying noise. Also came the smells of a new dog. Miraculously, Iko came potty trained at 8 weeks (over achieving puppy from the start) but Iko had lots of hair and stirred up a lot of dust, thus making the house smell more like a dog kennel than our house before that was pretty clean (because there wasn't anything else to do during COVID besides clean). The final, and my favorite, sense that Iko brought into the house was the unconditional affection. With a new dog in the house, there were constant pets and puppy kisses which added a huge sensory stress relief to what was going on outside in the world around us. Iko Brough so many senses and such life into our home. He brought the youth out in my retired parents who go on long hikes with him out in the mountains of Utah now. Iko, the smooth coated collie, saved our COVID.
• 
  2022-05-04

  Erika Groudle Oral History, 2022/05/04

  Erika Groudle is a resident of Monroe, Washington. She lives in a tiny house with her partner on her mother’s property. In this oral history interview Erika discusses working with kids during the pandemic and her opinion on how they handle mask wearing. Additionally, Erika discusses her “pandemic garden,” caring for her grandfather, staying connected to friends and family during the pandemic, how she first realized the pandemic was close to home, and the realities of living in a state that not only had the first case and death of COVID-19 in the United States of America, but also highly publicized protests in Seattle. Interviewer: Jason Inskeep Interviewee: Erika Groudle
• 
  2020

  COVID and My Christianity

  This story is how I view the American church's response to the pandemic, both at a local and national level, and how it affected my faith.
• 
  2022-04-07

  Corrupt Vaccines

  This is an Instagram post by dswlaura1. This post shows a TikTok video, with hashtags as a description. The tags refer to things like the Ottawa Freedom Convoy, which has been a massive ongoing protest against vaccine mandates in Canada. Other tags include references to "The Great Reset", which is a conspiracy theory that the pandemic was created in order to make people more subservient to elites in power, while losing both their money and freedoms in the process. "Agenda 2030" is another conspiracy theory where it was established that 2030 will be the official "end" to the virus, along with other things.
• 
  2020-04-08

  Neighborhood Sidewalk Art

  A few weeks into quarantine our neighborhood decided to decorate all the sidewalks and driveways with sidewalk chalk. This was a great way for the kids of the neighborhood to express themselves and feel a sense of togetherness, even though they were all apart. With the use of the neighborhood Facebook group, we were able to coordinate times for the kids to go around and check out all the cool sidewalk art and leave messages for their friends to read. This really made my son feel like part of something, as a kindergartener he was just getting used to being in school, and then after Spring Break he was not able to return to class and we had to get creative. This neighborhood art project was a bright spot in a very difficult and uncertain time.
• 
  2022-01-29

  Save our Children Tour?

  The anti-vaxxers are out in full force. Disguising themselves as Patriots dedicated to personal freedoms and, for some reason, the saviors of children? This Save Our Children tour harkens back to Anita Bryant’s homophobic “Save Our Children” movement in the 1970s but it’s unclear if they’re the same thing? No about page on their website. I find this disturbing that not only are people hesitant to get vaccinated, some groups are mobilizing to spread misinformation and disinformation about the vaccines as well. This comes in the tail of Neil Young’s ultimatum he delivered to Spotify about their hosting of Joe Rogan’s podcast. Neil Young and now Joni Mitchell have demanded that Spotify drop their music if they keep hosting Joe Rogan. Spotify’s stocks are way down since they chose Joe Rogan over Neil Young.
• 
  11/20/2020

  Joanne Jahkne-Wegner Oral History, 2020/11/20

  C19OH
• 
  12/12/2020

  Shawn Berg Oral History, 2020/12/10

  Shawn Berg was born in Milwaukee Wisconsin, and raised in La Crosse Wisconsin. Recently he moved to Altoona Wisconsin to begin his job as a service manager at Texas Roadhouse in Eau Claire. In this interview, Shawn discusses how COVID – 19 has affected his life personally along with how it has effected the local Texas Roadhouse regarding their employees as well as their guests that come in. Not only does he discuss the consequences for the employees, but he also talks about how the guests have reacted to the mask mandate and how the restaurant has handled it all.
• 
  04/24/2021

  Zakrzewski Nic, Oral History, 2021/04/24

  Nic Zakrzewski is from Eau Claire, WI and is a UW Eau Claire student. He also works part time as student custodian at the university. In this interview, he discusses the topics of mental health and his difficulties maintaining family and friend relationships. He also discusses how the transition to online classes has affected his day to day activities. The role of local and federal government in his pandemic experience is also touched upon.
• 
  05/12/2021

  Katherine Running Oral History, 2021/04/22

  Katherine Running was raised in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. She currently resides in Fargo, North Dakota. She is currently occupied as a graduate student and a lab researcher at the USDA in Fargo. In this interview, Ms. Running talks about how the covid-19 pandemic has affected her professional and personal life. She also discusses how people have stopped trusting science and facts.
• 
  05/09/2021

  Galina Pozharsky Oral History, 2021/04/21

  Galina Pozharsky is a Russian immigrant who has been living in Eau Claire for the past 10 years. We discussed her views on why she believes Covid-19 is not that big of a deal and why she believes the pandemic is at least partially politically motivated.
• 
  05/19/2020

  Trent Jansen Oral History, 2020/05/19

  An oral history interview with Trent Jansen. Trent discusses how family and friends have been impacted by the COVID pandemic. He also talks about how his day-to-day work life has evolved during the pandemic. Trent additionally discusses his views that it is time to reopen businesses and get people back to work. He theorizes that mental health issues caused by shutdowns will result in worse long-term issues than the virus itself.
• 
  2021-11-13

  Anti-Vaxxers in the Family

  I have a minimum of 2 resolute anti-vaxxers in my extended family. We try to avoid conflict but sometimes their ignorance is just too much for me to bear and I feel like I have to set the record straight. Here's a summary of what's going on in these screenshots from a FB post. 1. Great aunt posts a meme using the experience of the Polio vaccine to promote the COVID vaccine. (meme included) 2. Anti-vax aunt (orange) posts snarkily that in the case of the polio vaccine, it was only rolled out after 60 years of research. 3. I step in (as a historian of public health) and comment that she's mistaken, the polio vaccine went from lab to roll out in 25 years. While mRNA (on which the COVID vax is based) was first discovered in a lab 35 years ago so it stands to reason that the amount of time between lab and roll out is similar. 4. Meanwhile... anti-vax second cousin (purple- daughter of great aunt who made the original post and also resolutely anti-vax) tags anti-vax aunt (orange) and says "amen." as in... she lends her support 5. Anti-vax aunt (orange) responds to my initial rebuff in #3 and says "wrong. it took 35 years to discover it was a virus" (as if that, added to the 25 years of development constitutes 60 years of "research" 6. I step back in and repeat... polio vaccine research began in 1930, and it rolled out in the US in 1954. Surely she doesn't want to go back to the "good old days" when it took 30 years to discover whether something was a virus, really...?? 7. I was wrong. Anti-vax aunt (orangs) DOES want that. She says, "Yes, really" 8. pro-vax cousin (light blue-an oncology NP) comments "Wow. That's sad to think about" 9. Anti-vax aunt (orange): ? 10. pro-vax cousin (light blue): is we were not able to identify viruses like we can today. It's sad to think about all of the people that would die unnecessarily. This exchange went on but I just don't have it in me to continue with screenshots. Great aunt (original poster) chimes in and says she doesn't care what people's beliefs are but both of her daughters (one of them the anti-vaxxer in purple) families have COVID right now and she's in her 70s and was exposed to both and never caught it. She firmly believes it's because the vaccine works. Anti-vax aunt claimed she "didn't post a belief, she posted a fact" I said "no. you posted an incorrect fact that was skewed to make it look like the polio vaccine underwent 35 more years of research than it actually did and I corrected you." It's amazing to me that technology that has been in development for 35 years (mRNA) is seen with such suspicion because the virus it's being used with COVID-19 is new. So the assumption is that the vaccine is "untested" even though the technology behind it has a robust research history. I'm even more amazed by people who are anti-covid vaccine even though they had their full slew of childhood vaccines on schedule. I have two very close family members who refused to get vaccinated (different family members than the two distant family featured above) and they had all of their childhood vaccines. One of them even told me she fully expected that everyone who was vaccinated with the COVID vaccine will die in a few years or even "sprout dicks" for all she knows.... yes... It's imperative that we, as a society, figure out how to address misinformation and disinformation. Certainly, facts/statistics/"Research" are open to interpretation to a degree but much anti-vax info out there is politically motivated. It's not coming from scientists who spend their whole lives studying this stuff.... it's coming from PACs and anti-establishment groups who have beef with the US government and/or "Big Pharma" or Western medicine.
• 
  2021-08-14

  "Ways to Connect Despite Social Distance: Empower Ecuador"

  When being part of the program Empower: Ecuador at my school, we were preparing ourselves to travel to Guayaquil, Ecuador to be present with the families in the community. The families in the community were called our neighbors. Prior to traveling and meeting families in person, each person from the class was given a bookmark with a picture of a neighbor and a brief description of who they were. We were supposed to pray for the person selected and have him/her in our hearts until we meet them in person. Due to COVID-19, we were never able to meet these people whom we felt very close to and it was very sad. Therefore, we were tasked with the beautiful idea of writing letters to them about our prayers and best wishes for them in times of trouble. After a couple of months, I received a message through Messenger, and to my surprise, it was the person I wrote the letter to. She was thanking me for the letter and for how happy she felt when she received it. Also, she shared the desire to get to know me more through social media. It was a beautiful moment and proof of how we could connect with each other despite the social distance. To express this story I am sharing a screenshot of a conversation through Facebook (messenger) with a neighbor from Guayaquil, Ecuador. She is telling me that she received the letter I sent and how grateful she is for it.
• 
  2020-03-28T19:52

  Technology Fun During Pandemic

  The photo I am submitting is a screenshot of a Facebook video call with a few of my family members. My family has always been very close. We are a loud and very big Puerto Rican family that enjoys our get togethers as much as possible. Over the last few years, people have scattered about the country, making it harder for all of us to get together. One things this pandemic enabled us to do was to communicate and gather together via online video platforms. As my aunts and uncle turned to facetime and facebook video calling in order to check in on my cousins and I, it actually gave us room to gather more than we had been pre-covid. When the world move to technology and zooms to bridge the gap of human face-to-face interaction, people got closer while being further apart.
• 
  2021-05

  Reopening too Soon

  In many states, the government seemingly ended mask mandates and opened back up in one day. Washington State lifted mask mandates and reopened everything at 100% only to reinstate mask mandates and reduce compacity a few weeks later. This has lead to the meme of everything is on fire but let's just reopen anyways.
• 
  0017-01-17

  A new idea of delicates

  Finding humor during the pandemic has been hard, but we still find our way. Washing delicates turned into washing masks during the pandemic.