Items

• 2021-05-03

  Business As Usual

  I am a software engineer at a small, fairly conservative, company in PA. Because of its small company status it was never required for our employees to work from home, at least that was what they told us, and throughout the pandemic it was in fact a requirement that we work from the office. I wasn’t surprised when I was told I would be traveling to Washington state but I was apprehensive. A few of our employees were getting stick but I had so far been safe. On May 3rd 2021 I drove to the airport with a mask on my face and hand sanitizer in my hand. The airport was fairly empty as it was early but the few people that wandered the terminals were wearing masks. My flight was long but I got some sleep with the help of some Dramamine. That night my coworkers went out to eat but I decided to order in. The next morning I headed downstairs to head out for my first appointment. At the registration counter there were brown paper lunch bags sitting out in a neat row, the woman behind the desk asked me if I would like a breakfast bag to-go. As I walked over to pick up one of the bags she explained to me how due to Covid-19 they are not longer serving a hot buffet breakfast but are instead were providing this to-go bag options, I smiled from underneath my mask and thanked her. The bag had a banana, a granola bar, a yogurt and a bottle of water. I drove to the meeting site and headed inside, there were few people around but I noticed no one was wearing a mask, I felt like my light blue mask was a huge neon sign directing everyone’s attention to me. When I arrived at the designated meeting room I set up my computer and prepared the demo while I waited for others to arrive. One by one they walked in, greeted me, shook my hand and took a seat. Still no one was wearing a mask or if they were it was not secured properly, I felt embarrassed being the only one with a mask on. Once everyone arrived I stood up and looked at the room, everyone was looking right back at me, waiting. I took off my mask and began the meeting. The rest of the week was more of the same and the trip home was uneventful. A few days after getting home I tested positive for Covid-19 and was finally allowed to work from home, at least until I got better.
• 
  2022-07-11

  Hand sanitizer at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport

  This is a picture my mom took while at the Phoenix Airport. Since the pandemic, hand sanitizer has become more available in public places.
• 
  2022-06-27

  Hand sanitizer at entrance of Foot Locker

  This is hand sanitizer I found while out shopping at Scottsdale Fashion Square. It was not just this store that had it, others did as well. I didn't notice people using it while I was there, but it might have been used more often when things were opening up more and vaccines were not as well-distributed yet.
• 
  2022-05-25

  My Hands Are Raw and I Can't Think

  Listening to Marketplace on the radio each morning as I arrived at work in mid-January of 2020, I never suspected that what was forcing cancelations of Lunar New Year celebrations in China would leave me with raw hands and ringing ears. At that time, I was working at the Census Bureau for the lead person responsible for on-the-ground execution of the 2020 census in Idaho. The work involved data analysis and strategic planning, as we created and staffed a field operation to complement the Census Bureau’s attempt to transition from the traditional door-to-door canvassing to online self-reporting. In the early days of the pandemic, we tried to maintain business as usual as we, and most of the country, watched cases rise. When things got bad enough, a mandate from Washington shut down our office for nearly six weeks. When our team was called back, we entered a totally new world. The Census Bureau leadership had mandated a hyper safe work environment and work rules. The office furniture was completely rearranged to create social distance. A six-foot perimeter around every desk was marked on the floor to ensure work interactions took place at a distance. Similarly, walking paths were marked on the floor and one-way traffic was encouraged. Everyone was issued a box of masks and hand sanitizers and soap dispensers were everywhere. The visual was pretty laughable but it is my hands and ears that carry the strongest memories of attempting to work in this environment. Trying to comply with the guidelines meant more hand washing and sanitizing than one would likely see around an operating room. The government, while trying to be a really good parent, however, had failed to supply hand lotion. Shame on me! I didn’t bring my own and raw, chapped hands became my red badge of courage, and compliance. Additionally, I will never forget the volume in that concrete block room. A room full of people on the phone can be noisy; but social distanced work conversations meant masked people shouting to co-workers as they stood six feet from their desk. It was the definition of cacophony. The work I was doing required a lot of attention to detail and I remember it being so loud at times I could not think clearly. There were time I would go outside to listen to quiet of the traffic on the busy street in front of the office.
• 2020-03-13

  Living through A Pandemic

  I can clearly remember when the pandemic began and as it progressed. I was in my senior year of high school. Before we understood the magnitude of what was going on there was a general consensus that it would be over in a few weeks. There is a culture with the media that trends only last a short time and we move on as a society. We all thought this would be another trend. A few months later and many things were still shut down. I finished school online and got my diploma in my car. We wore masks everywhere to stop the spread and everyone kept hand sanitizer on them. I also worked in food service at the time which was considered an essential business. We got extra pay and had extra precautions to follow. A few steps that were put into place were timers to wash hands at least once every 30 minutes. When masks started to be required they were sold out. I made a makeshift mask out of hair ties and a bandana. Soon Covid-19 tests became widely available and that created individual quarantines. People would test every time they came in contact. In the beginning, people were worried about paying their bills. Both of my parents owned small businesses. We had to sell our home to scrape by. As time passed the country made accommodations to open businesses up again. Two years later and we are still majorly affected. Now we are affected by product and labor shortages. Often grocery stores are out of certain products. However many businesses created contactless services such as grocery pick up, and delivery became more widely common.
• 
  2020-11-08

  Celebration

  A comic strip about Covid-19
• 
  2020-04-14

  Reflections of a Grocery Worker

  This photograph is a selfie photo from my time working at my local grocery store in Wakefield, Rhode Island, USA. I don't have many photos from this period that reflect the pandemic and my memories of it, but this photo represents the early days as the USA first began to adopt masking after the CDC realized that non-symptomatic spread was happening. Experiencing the pandemic through the lens of a grocery store was very interesting. It was a unique perspective for understanding different people's anxieties and doubts around the pandemic. It was also a strenuous place to be during the pandemic, having to constantly adapt to supply chain issues, worker shortages, and the mental strain of working in a likely unsafe environment. About a month into the pandemic I was asked to move from my home department of prepared foods, and help the grocery-stocking staff catch up with the unpredictable shipments coming in. Shortly after that, I was moved over to the front of the store to help keep count of the people in the store and encourage customers to use masks/hand sanitizer. I remember being met with a wide variety of gratitude, skepticism, resistance, and more--even including a lecture on covid as a conspiracy! At times, this role brought me anxiety as I saw news stories of door-people and security guards being killed or harmed for asking visiting customers to wear a mask. In a weird way, when I left my job to attend grad school at UMass Boston, I felt a bit of suvivor's guilt. Whenever I come home to Rhode Island, I hear that the folks at my old store continue to struggle even over a year deeper into the pandemic.
• 
  2020-06

  Feeling the Burn

  Like many people at the start of the pandemic, I was not able to go to work everyday. At that point in time, I was working in a museum in Holland, Michigan, as their Interpretive Programs Coordinator, planning and running different programs to coincide with whatever exhibit was currently in the museum. My job quickly became obsolete as everywhere essentially shut down for quarantine. After a few weeks of “working from home”, we were eventually allowed to open the museum again, but with a plethora of new rules and protocols for both our staff and visitors. The biggest change was the alcohol. Not for drinking, although I’m sure that past time sky-rocketed during quarantine. I’m talking about hand-sanitizer or whatever alcohol based cleaner the museum could get their hands on in mass quantities during a time where sanitizer was a difficult commodity to come by. Even our local distilleries were producing hand sanitizer to assist with the shortage of this now imperative product. At the beginning of the pandemic, we did not know how the virus spread yet. There was a time where people were wiping off their groceries with disinfectant wipes or leaving their package deliveries on the porch for days to kill germs before bringing packages inside. Part of our new protocol at the museum was the constant use of hand sanitizer as well as having to wipe down every surface we touched with disinfectant wipes after touching it. You opened the door to your office- wipe it down and use hand sanitizer. Walked to the kitchen to use the microwave- wipe it down and use hand sanitizer. Typed your employee code in the key pad- wipe it down and use hand sanitizer. It was everywhere in the museum. Hand sanitizer has many sensory descriptors. I’ll always remember how slimy this brand was, and how it smelled like the chalky Flintstone vitamins I took as a child. But this practice of constant use of hand sanitizer and alcohol based wipes destroyed my hands. They became so dry and red. The alcohol eventually caused them to crack. The more I had to use the sanitizer and touch the disinfectant wipes, the worse my hands became. The alcohol on my open sores burned. For some in the pandemic, mask wearing was the bane of their existence, but I couldn’t stand the constant use of sanitizer. I was using vaseline every night to try to remedy the burning, but it couldn’t keep up with the use that was required to attempt to keep the rest of our staff and visitors safe. Unfortunately, the pandemic was lasting much longer than the world had anticipated and having no work to do due to the limited capacity in the museum was making me restless. I left that job in August of 2020 to work as a legal assistant in Muskegon, MI. Luckily, the further into the pandemic we got, the more we learned about the virus. As more research came out, scientists discovered that Covid-19 is an air-borne disease, and is more likely to pass through the air than by touching surfaces. Therefore, I didn’t have to use hand sanitizer as constantly as I did at the museum. Of course I’m still careful, and I still use hand sanitizer much more than I ever did pre-pandemic, but when a client walks in our office and uses the sanitizer on my desk, it’s like I can still feel that burn.
• 
  2020

  A New Yorker's Perspective on Life During the Pandemic

  I wrote because I felt compelled to, to chronicle what was happening to try and make sense of it and help me process it.
• 
  2021-12-16

  Sanitation Frenzy

  This is a table filled with lots of masks and sanitizing products. Whenever it’s stacked up in my closet, I like to call it “Mask Everest,” because of how crazy it can get. I want this to reflect and portray the amount of caution that my family (especially my mother) took during the pandemic so that we would all come out alive.
• 
  2021-12-06

  Amberley L. and Elsa Hanson Oral History, 2021/12/06

  Elsa Hanson and Amberley L. interview each other about how they think COVID-19 compares to past pandemics. They also discuss how the public has dealt with the pandemic if there will be long term effects of the pandemic, and what precautions they have been taking.
• 
  2021-10-01

  Can't Leave the House Without... (HIST30060)

  (HIST30060) This photo depicts the contents of my hall table draw which is located near the entrance of my house. Inside the draw are the essential things I can grab before rushing out the door. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the draw was just for my keys, but now (as we can see in the photo) it also houses my family's spare masks and hand sanitiser. I thought this photo was important to share as it captures what I now cannot leave my house without. The mask no longer feels strange or new, instead, it feels like a second skin that I feel bare without.
• 2020-03-29

  Eau de Sanitizer: A Home Fragrance

  The early days of quarantine were quiet and calm, as the streets around my home in Southern California were filled with silence since there were fewer cars and people roaming outdoors. Sanitizer and rubbing alcohol were in high demand, and in heavy rotation in our home, as everything that came in was wiped, sprayed, and cleaned before being put away. I remember coming home from the store and wiping down every item with alcohol and sanitizer, and I remember wiping down every counter, surface, and phone. Afterwards, the house was filled with the sharp and dismal aroma of rubbing alcohol, as the fragrance mimicked a well-diffused scented candle. The distinctive scent wafted throughout the living room and lingered within the walls, the drapes, and the furniture. It became the scent of March 2020, and a home fragrance which lacked the expected or traditional calming or soothing properties of a candle or diffuser that is placed in a room. Every outing resulted in rubbing alcohol-infused surroundings, which served as a constant reminder of the changing climate. Eau de Sanitizer recalled the uneasiness, fear, and chaotic shops of the early pandemic, as it was a fragrant reminder of the unknown. The memory of that spring is tied to the scent of rubbing alcohol, and now every time I light a candle in my living room I am reminded of those early days.
• 
  2021-10-08

  covid in 2021

  I’m Brayden O’Connor I go to lone star middle school, I’m from Pocatello Idaho, I was born in 2009. What I like about school is probably getting to see all my friends and meeting a bunch of new teachers each year. My hobbies are baseball, hockey, hunting, camping, being outside, and playing with my dogs. I would describe the start of this school year as, very stressful, difficult, and boring. It’s not similar at all. And what’s different, is probably almost everything we don’t have to wear masks anymore and we don’t have to wipe our desks down after the period, we go back full time now no more a day b day, no more hybrid, no more Wednesdays off. A lot has changed but it is still manageable, like we must use hand sanitizer and we must be careful of everything we do. Its very different than what it used to be when it was the 4th quarter of 5th grade. During then we had to go full online because there was the covid outbreak. Then in 6th grade we were pretty much all online for most of the year but then at the very end we went back to school with masks mandatory. But then this year, (7th grade), we are back to school full time with masks optional.
• 
  2021-10-08

  Lone Star Covid Archive

  My name is Cardin Madera I go to Lone Star Middle School, and I enjoy school. I would describe the start of this school year weird because it has been a long time when I last went to a full year of school and I am not into the routine yet, so it makes it weird. Last year is similar because we still must sanitize our hands to keep us safe. Also, the staff are still not messing around about Covid-19. If you were to tell a joke about Covid, “saying this kid has Covid” and it is a lie you would get in trouble. It is different than last year because we do not have to sanitize our hands as much. Then we get to have our masks off the entire day if you want and it is not like we have half of the school students at school and the other half at home. There are somethings that changed between 4th and 7th grade because during 5th grade we were almost done with the school year but then covid hit and we had to do online for the rest of the school year. Then in 6th grade at the beginning of the school year we were doing online for a long time, and it was not helping a lot because I really could not ask questions about the assignment we are doing and about the lesson.
• 2021-10-06

  COVID-19: The Impact of Power, Gender, Race, and Religion

  Life during the COVID-19 pandemic is something that no one could have expected or prepared for. The way that our everyday lives instantly got disrupted and for many people their lives turned completely upside-down. We went from going to concerts, shows, and movies with friends and family, to lockdown in a brief second. Yet, for everyone lockdown, quarantine, and even work all looked different. There were many factors that went into trying to be able to stay safe and healthy during this time. Not everyone had the same advantages to try and protected themselves and their loved ones; some of the driving forces behind the advantages or disadvantage were power, gender, race, and religion. The more power, money, influence that you had during 2020 was what could almost guarantee that you and your family would be okay. By having money and power one was able to by as many masks as they wanted or by as much disinfectant as they could. Those people didn’t need to worry about if they could afford the inflated prices of hand sanitizers and Clorox wipes (if they could be found). Having power and money meant having information and accesses. This meant that those who possessed these things, could have accesses to doctors for healthcare purposes but also to get information about what was happening in their local area. With the possession of money also came space. Besides disinfectants and good masks such as N95s or KN95s, space was the next most luxurious thing people could have. Having space meant that you and your families weren’t all crowded on top of each other even if that’s how many people felt like they were because of lockdown. Having space also meant that if one of your loved ones got COVID-19, there was an area for them to quarantine and not but the rest of the people in the house at risk. Power and money were what separated those who could afford to stay at home and be safe and have minimal disruption to their lives, and those who still had to leave the house every day, if they were some of the fortunate ones to have jobs and put their lives at risk to try and provide for their loved ones. The way that gender was impacted by COVID-19, was that for lots of family’s stereotypical gender roles were reversed in some cases or even ceased for a bit. With everyone spending so much time at home, there was no more reason for any one person to be doing either the housework, looking after the children, or even doing all the cooking. While it is not just women that stay home with children, plenty of men to do, it is a stereotype that most women stay home with the kids and that the men work. Well with many people working from home or unfortunately being unemployed the jobs that typically might have fallen on mom became a mom and dad job. However, gender was not only impacted in these ways. While COVID-19 was already a hard, tough, and sad enough event domestic violence rose drastically during lockdown. Because people were forced to stay home, women especially since they are the dominant gender affected by domestic violence, had no option but to remain in the same environment as their abusers. This is not to say that men did not face the same situations but in America, 77% of domestic violence victims are female. Race played a huge part in the treatment of those with COVID-19 as well as accessibility to masks, disinfectants, and other forms of PPE. Areas all around the country that were not primarily made up of white people, were hit the harder with COVID-19. These groups of people were not given or provided the same level of care or protections that those where were white did, during this crisis. People who were any race other than white were treated as second class citizens to those who were white. They tended to be forgotten about by the healthcare system or were not prioritized the same way those who were white were. The color of your skin during 2020 could have been the difference between living or dying due to COVID-19. Religion was one of the biggest debates that surrounded the entire COIVD-19 pandemic. Religion was the cause for fights, violence, and even deaths of thousands of people. People used their belief in religion as a reason for why they did or did not believe in many parts of COIVD-19 crisis. One of the oldest debates in history is religion versus science, and this debate in modern times has never been so present in every part of the country and many parts of the world. Not only were people’s personal beliefs in religion playing a role in the chaos of the pandemic, but the attendance of religious gatherings such as church and temple causing issues as well. As a result of millions of people choosing to still attend religious gatherings, they were spreading the virus because of being in such close contact with many people. Even when there were executive orders in place prohibiting gatherings of over a certain size to prevent the spread of COVID-19, people still felt it was their right to go to these gatherings. The COIVD-19 pandemic impacted and altered the lives of billions of people. There are lots of factors that played a part of making the pandemic better and making the pandemic worse. However, at the end of the day the ones that were the most prominent were power, gender, race, and religion.
• 
  2021-08

  Journal of the Plague Year (My Experience)

  My story tells how seriously some people took the pandemic. Some people were very scared and took extreme measures to stay safe while others took the pandemic seriously, but didn't really take extreme measures to stay safe.
• 
  2020

  Humorous Memes About Quarantine and Covid

  During quarantine I collected many humorous memes about staying at home and the problems that brought. All sorts of subjects were covered: cooking, getting along with your spouse/roommates, homeschooling the kids, learning to bake bread, being stuck at home, sanitizing, facemasks, people hoarding toilet paper, boredom, effects of isolation, etc. Here are a few of those memes.
• 
  2020-09-08

  First Day of School Scents

  September 8, 2020 was the first day of school at my regional high school and I was beginning my third year as a teacher. As always, the night before the first day of school was marked by butterflies, but this time around, the butterflies were not due to the excitement and hecticness of the first day, but due to fear. As someone who social distanced to an extent unmatched by most of my peers, coming to school on the first day terrified me, as I was concerned with putting myself around so many other people in such a small room, specifically high school students who certainly enjoyed more social interaction over the summer than I did. However, as a teacher, I had to come in with a smile on my face, as you can see in the picture, despite the immense fear I was feeling in the pit of my stomach. What I remember most clearly is the smell of the school. The hallways were filled with hand sanitizer dispensers which released a scent that could overpower all else. Individual classrooms were packed with cleaning supplies and Lysol wipes which I had to clean each desk with between periods. What is so shocking is that more than anything, it is these smells that I associate with the fear I felt that first day of school. Though that first day was one of the most fear-inducing days of my life, the year ended up being incredibly rewarding and my students and I together helped each other through one o f the mo st difficult years of our lives. Though originally nervous to teach in 2020, I am incredibly grateful to have been able to conquer this year with my students by my side. Hopefully someday I will not have such an adverse reaction to the smell of hand sanitizer.
• 
  2020-06-14

  Solace in the Smell

  This is a story about how hand sanitizer kept one woman hopeful during the pandemic. "Sanitation theater" was a coping mechanism used by individuals, businesses, and organizations used to convince ourselves that we were safe. So much of what we needed during the pandemic, was respite from the dread and insecurity. So much was unknown and so much felt out of control. The smell of the hand sanitizer produced by my local distillery instantly evokes the emotions I felt at the height of the pandemic
• 
  2021-04-19

  Rollercoaster Fun

  Safe activities outside including amusement parks.
• 
  05/03/2021

  Jeff Foster Oral History, 2021/05/03

  Elizabeth Hathorn interviews Jeff Foster, a college student and member of the U.S. Army. He discusses the effects of COVDI-19 on college classes and on military training. He also touches on a few other aspects of life during the COVID-19 quarantine.
• 
  2021-03-27

  #JOTPYLesson from Stephany Mae

  I’ve learned that we should’ve been wearing face masks during flu season this whole time (#neveragain), that stores used to skimp on refilling the hand sanitizer before this (#neveragain), and that despite parents realizing how hard teaching is, teachers and schools are still scapegoated for many a’thing.
• 
  2021-01-28

  Helpful, Novelty Add-ons for Corona Accessories

  Here are 5 pictures of various accessories for masks and hand sanitizer that began to appear in the last months of 2020 and early 2021 and have continued to the present (April 2021). Among them are mask "straps" and "chains" much like glasses strings for eyeglasses to keep a person's mask from accidentally falling off their face. Another picture shows a "posh" faux leather mask wristlet with a matching pouch for hand sanitizer. For those going on a airplane, a complete Corona safety travel kit including masks, antiseptic wipes, a headrest cover, and disposable gloves is produced by the company IFLY Smart. Finally, the emphasis on preventing potentially COVID-19 infected droplets from getting on someone's face lead to an entire pantheon of plastic shields attached to the wearer with bands or even hats of which this final picture is only one of many examples. These pictures show how businesses were quick to capitalize on the new problems, needs, and wants of a society having to accommodate Corona Accessories. It also shows how rapidly COVID was commercialized which is unusual for a significant event in the 21st century. Arguably, no single event in the 21st, and perhaps only World War II in the 20th, ever so thoroughly entered the public consumer culture like Corona. The prevalence of these products may also hint at the demand for them.
• 
  2021-03-05

  In Native America, the National COVID-19 emergency has hit us hard

  This article describes the incredible losses the Native gaming industry has sustained due to the pandemic.
• 2021-02-07

  Gas and New Covid

  When I was pumping gas I realized how much has life has changed from about a year ago. This time last year I did not have to wear a mask, glove, and wipe down everything just to get gas. It is crazy to think that a simple task like getting gas requires people who are responsible to put on their mask, put on gloves, get their hand sanitizer/ hand sanitizer wipes and wipe down the card machine and the gas handle. Then finally, after that is all done you can insert your card push the buttons, choose your fuel grade, then pump, and finally, you can place the pump back on the machine. Then you have to strategically take off the gloves like I was trained when dealing with blood and then I have to use my hand sanitizer then I can get in my car and leave. This new task and very detail-oriented "dance" was foreign to most of us this time one year ago and now it has become a way of life. This is important to note this change because there was a time before that it was not like this and maybe one day we may get close back to that but if not we need to document the change.
• 
  2020-03-19

  Alberta Distillery

  Post from Strathcona Spirits about specialized hand sanitizer.
• 
  2020-08-26

  Yukon Brewery

  A post from Yukon Brewing in August 2020 about their hand sanitizer.
• 
  2020-03-17

  Ontario Distillery

  This is a photograph from March 2020 showing the hand sanitizer made by Dillons Distillery.
• 
  2021-01-24

  Coffee Shops and a Sense of Normalcy During COVID-19

  When COVID-19 started affecting Kansas City, little changed at first. We wore masks, used hand sanitizer, etc., but life went on as normal otherwise. As the virus progressed, we closed our offices and I started working from home. One of my pre-COVID rituals was a trip to Broadway Cafe close to my house for a great latte or macchiato. At least this ritual was still intact. Then, the coffee shops all closed. It sounds silly to say this affected me even more than going into the office. It was my normal routine for so many years though...that a trip to the coffee shop served as an anchor for feeling life would go on, regardless of how far the virus progressed. The audio file attached is my espresso machine at home. I now buy coffee beans for the house, grind them, and pour shots of espresso to drink straight or craft into a macchiato or latte. The sound of my machine grinding beans, pressing the grounds into a puck, and then pouring into shot glasses still did not replace the coffee shop, but it did become an anchor to help me adjust when I needed it most. Today, our coffee shops are open for pickup service. Between that and still pouring my own at home, using their beans, life is good. I look forward to a post-COVID world where the local roasters and coffee shops continue to play an important role in my personal sense of normalcy and the social health of our collective neighborhoods.
• 2021-01-20

  Covid Rules

  To be honest there are way too many rules that you have to follow. The most common of course is the wearing a mask every time you are in the same room with a different person. The only problem is that I fell like I might pass out if I wear it for too long. Another one is Only walking in one direction. Here is the problem, You walk around the building and accidently miss your class. Either you go back 20 steps and are forced to turn around by the TA or you complete a full circuit around the building and are tardy, your choice. The next rule I find incredibly annoying. every time you transition classes you are required to get hand sanitizer. The machine ends up giving way more than it should and you send the next 5 minutes trying not to run in to something while looking down and rubbing it on your hands. You also have to do that while trying to walk to your next class. And my personal favorite, just kidding, is social distancing. I you are in break and you are trying to play a game or just talk you must be 6 feet apart. I hate it because you practically have to yell for the person to hear you.
• 2021-01-20

  Consider some of the rules or procedures that you have to follow, and tell your feelings about them

  There are many new rules specifically for COVID-19, some seem to be good and others not so much. Some of the rules we have to follow at school are we have to always wear masks when around people, we have to be six feet apart from everyone, we have to constantly sanitize our hands and everything we touch, and we always have to eat outside. We are lucky because we get to be one of the only schools open, but it definitely is not fun having a mask on for almost 7 hours. Eating outside and always sanitizing isn't as bad, but the six feet apart rule is also very annoying.
• 
  2021-05

  Smelly Hands Are Clean Hands

  I welcomed my first child into the world at the very beginning of the COVID-19 crisis in the United States, leaving my fiancé and me isolated at home with a newborn. After three months, we desperately needed a night away from our precious bundle of joy. The only restaurant open was a sketchy looking German beer garden blasting accordion music, but we were just thrilled to be spending some adult time together while our son was with my mother for the evening. Upon walking into the restaurant, I readily pumped some off-brand hand sanitizer into my hand, and nudged my fiancé to do the same. I rubbed my hands together as we were seated, and breathed a sigh of relief that we were free from the colicky cries of our beloved child for the night. Suddenly my nostrils filled with the stench of bottom shelf tequila. The hand sanitizer wasn’t simply off-brand, it had been homemade by the restaurant. It was as if whomever had concocted the sanitizer was convinced that the best way to ward off the COVID-19 virus (and the fear attributed to it), was to completely bombard the olfactory system with the smell of alcohol. My fiancé remarked that because the sanitizer smelled so horribly, it must be killing all of the germs; unknowingly, he became a perfect example of how individuals have come to associate certain scents, like alcohol, with the illusion of cleanliness. Thinking back on that experience, I find myself pondering just how effective their homemade hand sanitizer really was. Or, more than likely, was it a last ditch effort (forced into action by society’s panic buying of cleansers), to provide their customers a sense of security through unconscious sensory associations.
• 
  2020-12-03

  Don't Touch ANYTHING

  One of the biggest things throughout this pandemic was washing your hands and using hand sanitizer. If you touch something in public or that isn’t yours, it’s like your hands are on fire and you need to immediately put them out. I open the door to a store and I immediately grab one of the five hand sanitizers in my purse and drown my hands in it. This object pokes a little fun at the coinciding of the pandemic and those who’s 21st birthday was during COVID restrictions. Joking that this is the best alcohol someone could receive this year as they are finally legal to drink, when most people would probably be thrilled with hand sanitizer as a gift. This item would be of interest to future historians because it illustrates something particularly significant about 2020, the importance and use of hand sanitizer and all those who had makeshift 21st birthdays.
• 2020-12-12

  Before Covid-19

  In January of 2020, life was normal. No masks, no constant hand sanitizer and no social distancing. Everyone had regular schedules. Mine consisted of school, soccer and seeing friends on the weekends. It was not until I was on a family vacation that I found out about the virus. It didn't really sink in until the day our school announced a two week quarantine. I expected it to be a short two week break and then life would go back to our normal routines. As quarantine kept getting extended, I knew that Covid was not going anywhere for a while.
• 
  2020-12-09

  Faculty Meeting

  Our school is a private one in a larger metropolitan area in the United States. Our administration is doing everything it can to keep us physically in school. We currently are still operating on a hybrid plan where most of our kids are in class with us but some are online at home. Our school has kept strict guidelines - social distancing, masks, hand sanitizer, and many more precautions have been put in place, including virtual faculty meetings so we won't gather in large groups. In a world where people are clamoring to stay home, I feel safe in my school and I feel that we have done a great job. Some students have tested positive, but our administration and nurse have taken the necessary steps to identify close contacts quickly, quarantine all involved, and test individuals who require it. The pandemic is not being taken lightly at our school and our administration is working many extra hours to make sure we don't have to go virtual. Our teachers and staff still keep a very positive attitude and I feel very thankful to be at this school.
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  2020-12-02

  Sonja Carlson - MY COVID STORY

  This is a short COVID-19 reflection on the experience of Sonja Carlson, a semi-retired craft guru. The story is written as a Word Doc.
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  2020-07-23

  Snap Judgment podcast episode on covid-19 in San Quentin state prison (CA)

  Podcast episode produced by Snap Judgment in which they look at covid-19 outbreaks in San Quentin prison
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  10/17/2022

  Sachiko Mortia-Mulaney Oral History, 2020/10/17

  This is an Oral History interview with University of Cincinnati student Sachiko Morita-Mullaney. Sachiko discusses her experience as a student at the University of Cincinnati. She brings up her identity as a Japanese-American woman and how that has affected her personally during the pandemic due to anti-Asian racism. She also talks about her small online business, and the different ways her and her family’s employment have been affected by Covid-19. Sachiko, a Political Science major at the University of Cincinnati, is very informed about the government’s response to Covid-19. She shares her opinions about healthcare in the United States and how racism and classism have affected the United States’ response to the coronavirus. Finally, we talked about the future and the quality of the US response to the coronavirus.
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  2020-11-07

  COVID Took Over My Life

  This photo screenshot is from a clip of the LAs Vegas Strip taken on March 30th of 2020, by Michael Quine. When this photo was first released on social media, I could feel my heart sink. This is the photo that made me realize how serious COVID was getting. My city. The city that never sleeps. Being silent. Out of the seven years that I’ve lived in Las Vegas, this was the first time where I had seen a street completely empty. When I look at this photo today, it reminds me of the day all of our lives changed, but I also think of how this is now considered the norm. Everyone wears masks and hand sanitizers every way you look.
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  2020-08-06

  A New Passenger Seat Rider

  This August I prepared myself to drive almost 48 hours from my home to attend and work at St. Mary's University. As one may imagine there were many hoops to jump through as an international student coming to the United States during a pandemic. One of the most important aspects of my travels was to stay safe. Before leaving my family helped me put together my passenger. A box I kept in my passenger seat to be easily accessible in my fully packed hatchback. In this box, I kept sanitizing spray, hand sanitizer, a spray bottle to clean my hotel room surfaces, gloves and masks. By using the contents within the box and respecting CDC guidelines I successfully made my trip from the Great White North safely.
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  2020-10-30

  Follow the Yellow Brick Road

  “Do you sell hand sanitizer?” asks nearly every customer that enters the door into the store that I work at. If I’m not busy, I’m usually kind enough to walk them down to the aisle they’re in (Aisle 12, Cleaning and Breakroom!), however, if I can’t take the time to, I tell them to follow the stickers we have on the floor that leads to that section. Sort of like the yellow brick road from The Wizard of Oz led Dorothy and her gang to the Emerald City. Many stores nowadays have social distancing and directional stickers for aisles, but this is the only place that I have seen these types of stickers. This is something that I have come to associate with life during the pandemic; now learning to work during this.
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  2020-10-16

  Trump Rally Amid High Covid-19 Numbers in Iowa

  Iowa is one of the states with the highest coronavirus numbers as of October 16, 2020. President Trump plans to hold a rally for his campaign right after he recovered from the virus. This photograph talks about the measures they plan to take during the rally. There is a chance that even though they are taking these measures; it does not mean that it will prevent the numbers from going up, especially since President Trump just recovered. In many local newspapers, there is a lot of concern over this rally.
• 2020-10-14

  Slimy, Uncomfortable, and Antibacterial

  I work at a bar in north-east Wisconsin. The stereotypes regarding the people of Wisconsin and their love for drinking and the bars are pretty accurate. There isn't much to do in the small town I live in besides that. When Covid began, people were most concerned with the bars being open. We were closed for a while as many devoted patrons, and the Tavern League of Wisconsin tried to fight the orders. We've been open now for several months and still most people that come into the bar do not take the virus or safety measures seriously. There's been times where customers tell me I don't have to wear my mask, or I don't need to wipe down their table, or use hand sanitizer as much. I am constantly around people at my job and risk a lot of contact with the public. I take the safety measures seriously and constantly use hand sanitizer. Since Covid, we have bottles of hand sanitizer everywhere, and now, because of the demand of sanitizer, we have strange brands made out of different products than I am used too. Every time I put on hand sanitizer it comes out all slimy all of my hands. It's incredibly uncomfortable and it feels like you almost need to wash your hands after to get rid of the gross feeling. But eventually it rubs in, and I go on with my job, only to follow up the uncomfortable sensation of slimy hand sanitizer with the complaints of customers who think the virus is fake and there shouldn't be any regulations in place that may hinder the bar experience.
• 
  2020-10-06

  新型コロナ、皮膚上でインフルより５倍長い９時間生存…エタノール消毒の重要性も実証 京都府立医科大（2020年10月6日）- New corona survives 9 hours on the skin, 5 times longer than influenza … Demonstrates the importance of ethanol disinfection Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine (October 6, 2020)

  京都府立医科大学の研究チームは、 新型コロナウイルスが、インフルエンザウイルスに比べて ヒトの皮膚上で長期間生存することを明らかにしたと発表しました。 こちらは ヒトの皮膚表面でのウイルス量が時間とともにどう変化するかを示したグラフで、 赤が新型コロナウイルスを、青がインフルエンザＡ型ウイルスを表しています。 研究チームによりますと、 新型コロナウイルスは皮膚上で９時間程度生存することが明らかになり、 これはインフルエンザウイルスよりもおよそ５倍長いということです。 京都府立医科大・廣瀬亮平助教 「ウイルスが付いているものを手で触って、 その後喉や口や目の辺を触ると、それによって感染するので、 手の上で長生きをするということは、 そういう機会が増えてしまうということでいくと、 感染リスクが上がると考えたほうがいいのではないかと思っている。」 一方、研究チームは、 濃度８０％のエタノールによる消毒効果についても評価を行いました。 それによれば、15秒間の消毒でウイルスが完全に不活化され、 「新型コロナウイルスに対する手指消毒の重要性を実証した」 としています。 京都府立医科大・廣瀬亮平助教 「エタノール消毒薬を使用すれば、 （ウイルスが皮膚上で）長生きするとはいえ、 過度に心配する必要はないのではないかと思っている。 ただ、長い時間生存するということは、裏を返すと、 やはり感染のきっかけが把握しづらい。 例えば手に１時間しか付いていないということであれば、 感染のきっかけ、他者に移すきっかけとかも認識できる可能性があるが、 やはり７，８，９時間と長い時間手に感染性のウイルスが残っていて、 どこを触ったかもわからないとか、どこからもらったかわからないという 状態になってしまう可能性がある。 最近、感染した人への風当たりが厳しい部分もあるが、 接触感染という観点から行くと、 なかなか個人の努力だけでは厳しいかなというところがあるので、 そこに関しては周りの方も優しい目で見てほしいと思う。」 ※引用元 ●論文：Clinical Infectious Diseases Ryohei Hirose et al., (2020) Survival of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza virus on the human skin: Importance of hand hygiene in COVID-19 https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-... ●プレスリリース：京都府立医科大のHP ヒトの皮膚上に存在する新型コロナウイルスの生存期間を解明 https://www.kpu-m.ac.jp/doc/news/2020... The research team at Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine discovered that the new coronavirus, compared to influenza virus, survives for a longer time on human skin. This is (graph shown on the screenshot) a graph showing how the amount of virus that is viral on the human skin surface changes over time. Red represents the new coronavirus and blue represents influenza A virus. According to the research team, it was revealed that the new coronavirus survives on the skin for about 9 hours. This is about five times longer than the influenza A virus. Assistant Professor Ryohei Hirose, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine stated "By touching something with a virus with your hand, then touching your throat, mouth, or eyes, you will be infected by it. The evidence that the virus lives long on your hands means the higher you will be exposed to the virus and thus I think it's better to think that the risk of infection will increase. " Meanwhile, the research team also evaluated the disinfecting effect of ethanol with a concentration of 80%. According to the research, the virus was completely inactivated by disinfecting with the 80% ethanol for 15 seconds and it "demonstrated the importance of hand sanitizer for the new coronavirus". Assistant Professor Ryohei Hirose, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine stated "If you use an ethanol disinfectant, Although the virus lives longer (on the skin), I don't think we need to worry too much. However, the fact that the virus survives longer means it is hard to figure out how an individual got infected. For example, if you the virus was on your hand for only an hour, It may be possible to track down the cause of infection and the cause of transfer to another person, but the infectious virus can remain on the hand for 7, 8 and 9 hours, and it is hard to tell what you touched that had the virus and where you got the virus from. Recently, there are negative views on people how got the virus, but looking from the point of view of infection via contact, it is difficult for an individual to put in the effort only, and I would like people to be more kind to them.”
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  2020-04-03

  Home brew hand sanitiser, St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne

  During the first wave of the pandemic in Victoria hand sanitiser and the ethanol used to make it were in global short supply. The hospital Pharmacy collaborated with local gin distillery Suter & Sons to make its own home brew hand sanitiser.
• 2020-10-06

  My Life During COVID-19

  In early March of two-thousand twenty, my husband and I had just begun a journey of going back to mass on a weekly basis. When the governor of Washington, Jay Inslee, mandated that all gatherings of more than five people had to be shut down, that included our local church, gyms, local restaurants, and more. This mandate closed local parks, schools, and many businesses for the remainder of the Spring season. Easter mass was also cancelled which personally impacted my family as it is a tradition to gather at our local church with extended family for the holiday. My husband and I were both considered essential employees at our places of employment during this time. We had to carry a letter to prove our being essential while we drove to and from work. Working in the front office of a physical therapy clinic, the patients arriving before treatment and exiting afterwards began to feel unsafe due to the fear we all felt leaving our homes. This fear also resonated with my two co-workers because one was a Type I diabetic and the other was six months pregnant. Throughout the month of April, I began working from home in order to decrease my hours so that my coworker with diabetes was able to keep his hours. My other coworker who was pregnant took a leave of absence for two full months before returning during phase two. Since the state began phase two and released restrictions, churches and gyms reopened with capacity limits to provide social distancing from one another. My sister, who works for a private preschool, was uncertain if classes would reopen in the fall. She was making daily Zoom calls with her small preschool students from March until summer break began in June. As the state slowly begins to open up, our lives have changed with the use of masks and hand sanitizer. The distancing that has been placed over society has increased concerns about leaving home. The world is holding onto hope for a sense of normalcy that will soon arise from the clutter of dirty masks and used gloves.
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  2020-03-19

  A comparative evacuation

  This is my own story of evacuating Malaysia in March due to covid-19 during my Fulbright grant. This story is important to me because, while I did not want to leave Malaysia, it is a humbling reminder of how privileged I am to have been able to evacuate somewhere when so many people throughout the world had no option but to stay put and brace themselves for the pandemic.
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  2020-08-31

  Mask bin

  Note the overflowing mask bowl next to the car keys and hand sanitizer. This illustrates the new protocol for leaving the house, which now means grabbing a mask as well as your phone and car keys. To me, this speaks volumes about the way the pandemic has affected daily life and our routines and what we consider “normal” to be
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  2020-06-13T06:06:06

  The Hungry During The Corona Pandemic

  Workers from the food bank of lower Fairfield County in Connecticut took this picture This is a photo that I found on CNN of one of the shelves in a food bank. The amount of people that are relying on food banks has drastically changed since the begging of the pandemic to now. From the pandemic, Feeding America predicts that an estimated 1 in every 6 Americans may face hunger due to the conditions. This photo made me think how fortunate my family and I are and how lucky we are that we don’t have to be concerned with where our next meal is coming from. I think that this Is an important photo because it shows how many people are in need of food and are unable to support themselves. since more people are out of jobs because of not being able to come in contact with other people has affected the income of many and the amount they can spend on food.