Items

• 
  2022-06-15

  China’s shoppers are still on strike and youth unemployment is rising

  This is a news story from CNN by Laura He. This article is on the economic impact of China's zero COVID policy. Retail sales fell 6.7% in May according to China's National Bureau of Statistics. It is slightly lower than the 11. 1% drop in sales from April. Customer spending has fallen in about every category except for food, drink, and petroleum. Youth unemployment is rising in China, as places that would hire young workers were forced to shutdown with lockdowns. The youth unemployment rate rose 18.4% between the 16-24 range in China.
• 
  2020-07

  Apparently I Have Opinions About Hand Sanitizer Now?

  I graduated with my bachelor's degree in April 2020, shortly after my state began heavy COVID-19 shut downs. The plans I had for my career took an unexpected pause. After several months, I finally found work at a local convenience store as a cashier. To accommodate heightened concerns about hygiene and sanitation, we had several bottles of hand sanitizer set up around the checkout areas for both customers and employees. I didn't know how different hand sanitizer brands could be. I suspect that the sudden demand for it during the pandemic must have led to cheaper, lower quality versions being distributed more widely, but our hand sanitizer was the worst. If you pressed the lid of the bottle, you would suddenly find your hands full of a large, unwieldy blob of what felt like elmer's glue and smelled somewhere between a rotten banana and a doctor's office. Try as you might to rub it away, you would inevitable be left with sticky residue all over your hands until you washed them. I guess in that sense it was an effective sanitizer in that it probably made a lot of people actually wash their hands. I no longer work at the gas station, but every time I think of that first COVID summer and that job that I was both so thankful and a little disappointed to have, I think of the feeling of that hand sanitizer.
• 
  2022-05-20

  How covid didn't really effect me.

  My name is Kasper, I live in the U.S. and I was 24 at the time the novel corona virus first started to cause shutdowns nation wide and world wide. I did not have the luxury of staying sheltered in place as I worked for a company that was deemed necessary to operate no matter what. My co-workers and I were basically told that our company will close when the federal government completely shuts down. That never happened. All throughout the pandemic I did not notice many changes to my life other than lack of major social events. I still hung out with friends and didn't really take the whole shut down seriously. I never had anything major happen to anyone I knew until the second year. That being said I never felt that hiding was going to solve the whole pandemic issue as many people believed it would. I spent a lot of time riding motorcycles with my wife and friends living my life to the best of my ability. One thing that did change was the whole mask dilemma. I wasn't someone against masks but I do wish the whole situation would have been handled differently. I feel that the picture above can illustrate that I did not nor will I ever let anything stop me from living and enjoying my life
• 
  2022-05-11

  WHO Plans Global Takeover: The Pandemic Treaty

  American alternative medicine proponent, Joseph Michael Mercola, stated that the World Health Organization (WHO) has started drafting a global pandemic treaty in preparation of a global takeover. in biosecurity. This treaty would grant WHO absolute power over digital identities, vaccine passports, mandatory vaccinations, travel restrictions, standardized medical care, and more. Although the World Health Organization does not currently have absolute authorization over international public health, Mercola argues that the agency is working with the United Nations to pass this treaty on June 16th and 17th so that they may seize absolute control over these entities in order to strip civilians of their basic rights and freedoms based on claims and statistics that seem to exaggerate the climate of the pandemic and its transmissions. As a reader, I am somewhat amused and concern with this information, not because I believe it to be true but because I know that it is heavily misguided. For starters, Mercola tries to persuade readers that the WHO "is not qualified to make global health decisions," but stressed how the agency is tied to international public health and has advocated the public health risk of COVID-19 throughout the whole entire pandemic. Secondly, "The Corbett Report" mentions that the treaty is not expected to be carried out until 2024 which is less urgent of a matter than what Mercola stated in his article (that he mentioned would transpire in mid-June of this year.) Finally, I do not feel that Mercola takes nations and state legislations into account of this treaty and proposal. Although the US federal government mandated the shutdown, it is still up to state legislators to decide the curfews and times the shutdown would commence. Therefore, I think this article, "The WHO Pandemic Treaty Closes in on Absolute Control over Global Biosecurity," offered more conspiracy than tangible evidence, being that this proposal has been drafted or commenced.
• 
  2020-03-10

  How the Covid-19 Pandemic Effected Me

  The Covid-19 pandemic affected me in numerous kinds of ways all trending to be negative. Most specifically the pandemic put a damper on my academic experience. When the pandemic spread to Michigan in March of 2020 and was highly infectious, learning in schools became extremely difficult for my classmates and me. Learning became online synchronous and the whole way of learning changed for everyone. For me, it was extremely difficult to adapt to completely online learning and instruction after being in classrooms for fifteen years of my life. After some time I was able to adapt and continue to be successful but for some of my classmates, the freedoms of online learning took a toll on their academic success. Luckily I stayed focused and put the task at hand to be the best student that I could possibly be. The rest of my high school experience was overwhelming and difficult as well due to the pandemic as the pandemic really never reduced during my time in high school. Regardless of the obstacles that I was faced with, I was able to persevere and place in the top thirty of my graduating class.
• 2020-03-16

  March 16th, 2020

  On March 16th, 2020, I along with millions of other people around the world woke up to go to school and work as if it was any other day. There had been talks on the news of some new disease in Asia, and we all thought this would be over in the next two weeks. This would be the last time I went to school in person for a very long time. At the end of the school day, we were told that we would have a week off of school in efforts to analyze and evaluate what COVID-19 was and how deadly it could be. Myself along with my fellow classmates were only thinking about the fact that we were getting an extended spring break. It never crossed our minds that this would consume our lives for the next two years and drastically change human history. Looking back on it now, it amazes me how one minor inconvenience like can put an immediate halt to every day life, and how I was living through what would now be talked about for many many years to come.
• 
  2020-03-15

  The eruption of senior year

  This is important to me because weight lifting is important when it comes to playing baseball. Even know Covid-19 had hit us and closed down the gym, my friend and I were determined to stay as strong as possible so when we got back to playing we weren't behind anybody. With that being said, we made a squat rack out of wood and used it multiple times a week. We also made a deadlift platform that took us about a week to make and used that a bunch as well.
• 
  2022-03-30

  After two-year hiatus, LGBTQ events return to Fiesta San Antonio

  This is a news story from the San Antonio Current by Sam Sanchez. This story is about LGBTQ events returning to San Antonio after a two year break due to COVID. For the past two years, many of these events have been canceled. This article shares events happening in San Antonio and what non-profits they benefit. Some of these non-profits include: the San Antonio AIDS Foundation, The Thrive Youth Center, Pride San Antonio and BEAT AIDS. Events include: themed parties, chili cook-offs, party shuttles, and fiestas. Certain events include fees for attending and certain COVID precautions, such as masks, to attend.
• 
  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.
• 
  2020-01-01

  Travel

  Before the pandemic, my family, friends and I were traveling and getting to see amazing sites! This photo here is from Africa. We were able to have the luxury of going on this trip right before covid. When covid hit, we couldn’t go anywhere. Places got shut down and people were to stay in their homes. During the summer when covid started to get better, we planned a trip to Spain. A few week later I receive a call from my parents telling me our trip has just been cancelled because covid could shut down the borders and we could get stuck. To this day it is still scary to travel. When I used to be able to go and see the world, now I can’t because of covid.
• 2020-03-13

  What the pandemic!

  March 13, 2020. I am sitting in the middle of senior civics class taking the biggest test of the year. My teacher gasps turning off the lights, and turns on the projector to reveal an email notice to all staff from the principal. This email is alerting us of a district wide shutdown on schools for two weeks. Everyone is confused, but being 17, thinks nothing of it and finishes our tests. Upon living school that day full of excitement, my mom calls my sister and I telling us to bring everything home from our lockers as the nation is shutting down. She tells us to come straight home, no stops under any circumstances. We ride home in eerie silence. Two years later, I still have a vivid memory of the moments leading up to lockdown in my bedroom for months. This pandemic has not only affected literally every aspect of mine and many others lives, but everyone has a very individualized story.
• 
  05/20/2020

  Smoron_Naomi_

  C19OH
• 
  2020-04-29

  Taylor Hubbard Oral History, 2020/04/29

  C19OH
• 
  04/10/2020

  Thomas Backus Oral History, 2020/04/10

  Thomas Backus of Tempe Arizona reflects on what life was like when the COVID 19 hit and how it impacted his life.
• 
  2021-10-01

  (HIST30060) Disaster Payment: "Getting Payed to Study"

  HIST30060. The COVID-19 Disaster Payment, given to workers unable to earn income due to COVID-19 state or territory health order, was given to construction workers during the two-week construction shutdown in Victoria. Traffic control in the construction sector has been my casual job alongside university for the past three years. The recent construction shutdown, however, allowed me to receive the $750 a week from the Disaster Payment without working at all. My housemates and I called this “getting paid to study”. This was especially true in the lead up to exams were we spent the majority of time at home with very little excuse to do anything other than “hit the books”.
• 
  2021-03-30

  Teachers Share Their Experiences Working During The Pandemic | Covid Confessions | Episode #6

  Video Interview with teachers giving their experiences during the Covid-19 Pandemic.
• 
  2021-10-06

  Reflecting on life. Life has been hard.

  It was August 25th, 2019. I had finally reached my parents’ house, all of our belongings* (all that could fit in one car*) in tow, back in my home state of New York. I didn’t want to be here – I grew up in NY, and until two years ago, never intended on coming back. I like to call it the “tectonic plates of life” moving, that moment when you feel something big on the horizon and suddenly, oh hey, here’s a big life decision you didn’t plan on having to make, have fun! Circumstances change, yeah. Life is a pretty unpredictable time warp, and global warming is such a serious issue; it was already sorta tough to not focus on the negatives before 2020. Relationship issues, financial issues, family issues – so many volumes of problems. I already felt like I had lost everything, pride included. Nothing could have prepared me for the pure stress that inevitably comes from a worldwide pandemic. Moving back into my parents’ house as a single parent in her 30’s was just about the biggest pill I could swallow that autumn. Since I had decided to work at Starbucks again, I finally made up my mind to go to college for the first time. In February, I enrolled in summer classes to start at ASU. I was hearing something about a coronavirus, but I wasn’t paying much attention to the news with taking placement tests for college in between working. In March, my daughter’s school closed, and so did Starbucks. It’s hard. It’s hard to not focus on the bad, and it’s so odd to think fondly of the not-so-bad before it. Life just feels a little bit harder. A lot bit, with the increasing violence, hatred and misinformation being spread on a daily basis. Everyone’s experiencing repercussions in one way or another; but something I cannot deny – the something I’m most grateful for: how much I’ve grown, emotionally and mentally. Maybe I can’t credit the stress from the pandemic completely, but it has certainly put all of my other stress in a different perspective. It turned my attention to world issues – I stopped being so wrapped up with myself and my own country, started learning about other cultures after starting college – falling so deeply for that education that I decided to major in Anthropology, with a Minor in Religious Studies. I watched a Ted Talk once that described the good effects of stress.. I feel as if I’m a better human, or at least, a more knowledgeable one. A lot has changed in the past two years. I started college, moved into my own place, moved back into parents’ (hi, tectonic plates!), went from being faithfully Christian to super agnostic/atheist (that was mentally difficult and I’m still processing it) and although I am quite bitter with life in general, I’m also much happier with it, and with myself. I'm a better mom for it. Life has felt like a constant challenge for years now, but I appreciate how easy it is to appreciate the simple things. I may find it annoying that everyone is more on edge, but honestly, who can blame them? Good on everyone for putting up with life! All we can do is learn and grow. And treat the planet well, guys. Let’s do that, too.
• 
  2020-04-14

  Ballet At Home

  Things began to shut down towards the end of March 2020. At the time, my 5-year-old daughter was taking ballet classes. The dance academy canceled classes for about 2 weeks before they introduced online ballet classes through Zoom. I remember thinking how silly it was. The instructor could not do much to correct and help over Zoom, instead the kids followed along as much as possible. Eventually, the Zoom classes ended and the entire dance academy closed down for several months.
• 
  2020-03

  March 2020: A Life-changing Month

  The year 2020 was looking to be much like other years that I spent in college. I was going to be going to classes, meeting up with friends, and working out most days. As March approached, my excitement grew. Spring break was coming, and I had a scheduled trip to Cancun, Mexico. There was talk of a virus spreading through China, but it was very unknown to us. Prior to our trip, we joked about contracting the virus. Little did we know, that would be the week living in the world the way we knew it. My trip to Mexico was everything I wanted it to be and more, but I was ready to come home and finish the semester. We came back from Mexico, and I returned to Duquesne. Within one week of my return, everything changed. Universities around the country started to close for, what we thought at the time, two weeks. Duquesne followed suit. School did not return that semester and the entire country began to shut down. There was a lot of fear and unknown. One minute I was having the trip of a lifetime, and the next minute I was at home with my family only leaving to get groceries. We began using masks everywhere we went, using hand sanitizer many times a day, and staying as far away from others as possible. Although life felt like it completely stopping, the pandemic allowed my family and I to experience something that we might never get to experience again: over a month of quality time together. I was now doing school via zoom and my father, brother, and uncle were home from work. During this time, my family spent a lot of time together. My father and I would find interesting ways to work out every day since our gym had been shut down (see artifact image for a picture of my watch after completing a weighted vest walk. We began these weighted vest walks during the pandemic.). We would watch Netflix series as a family, do puzzles, and even play board games together. I will never forget these memories, even though they were accompanied by fear of the Coronavirus.
• 
  2020-07-27

  The Social Lounge Bar

  Located in Saint Augustine, FL. Business closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic 2020 The Social Lounge was forced to close forced to close amid the pandemic. As of June 2020, they were unable to open due to state and city mandates. Owners Scott and Coleen Moulton commented: "We hope to open as soon as possible, and when we do we want to make sure it is a safe environment for our staff and customers."
• 
  2020-07-27

  The Prince of Wales Restaurant and Pub

  Located in downtown Saint Augustine, FL. Closed since March 2020 due to the pandemic. Remained closed as of July. Owners were unavailable for comment. The Prince of Wales Restaurant and Pub was forced to close in April due to state order close of all nonessential businesses. They have yet to reopen as of late July 2020.
• 
  2020-03-13

  Coming out during a pandemic

  I have submitted my experience of the pandemic from the months of February 2020 through August 2020. I talk about my experience of coming out immediately before the nation shut down. My submission is important to me because I give my personal experience of the pandemic as it pertains to being gay. I find that there isn't enough LGBTQ+ history documented, so I feel that I am contributing to a cause by telling part of my story.
• 
  2020-05-25

  COVID 19 Global Impact

  I have selected a photo of a few parents standing around the front of a school. Some were protesting and other were trying to gather information about the nyc public school shutting down because of covid 19. This photo was not taken by me but was found on the internet among other photos similar like this one. This photo shows what was going on in my neighborhood and what was currently take place at the time.
• 
  2020-03-12

  COVID 19

  COVID 19 I decided to choose as a source an image related to the COVID 19 virus. The image belongs to https://www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/news/coronavirus-countries-cross-100-covid-19-world-update/. This website provides information about the virus and was last updated on March 12, 2020. The image shows the virus spread around the planet earth. This image helps me explain what the virus is and how it spread. I select this type of source because I consider that it expresses a simple but concise message. I consider that it is something that everyone can understand and from which they can learn. By looking at the image people can get an idea of what the spread of the virus really meant. They can observe that its spread was not in a specific area, but rather that it spread around the entire world. Since the virus made its first appearance in Wuhan China, everything has turned into a catastrophe. The virus began to spread rapidly around the world. People were really not prepared for the COVID 19 virus. Many people died from this virus and those who were infected and survived did not have a good time. The virus isolated everyone and everything stopped being what it always was. People could no longer visit their loved ones or spend time with them. Many businesses closed, and as a result many people lost their jobs. Now everyone had to wear masks, they had to keep their distance from each other, and they also had to constantly wash their hands. This was somewhat frustrating, as people searched for gloves, masks, and disinfectants in stores. However, because everyone was looking for the same items there was a shortage of them. Sometimes when people found such items they could only buy one per person, especially alcohol and disinfectants. People really felt desperate. Things had changed a lot. Now many people had to work from home. The same thing happened with the students. Students had to take classes from home through a computer. This was something that didn't seem right to everyone. Many students lost interest. I consider that both historians and everyone in the future should be aware of what the COVID 19 virus was. Although the COVID 19 virus is a new virus that arose suddenly, it is not the first time that humanity experiences something like this. Previously around a hundred years ago something similar had happened with the Spanish flu. The Spanish flu like COVID 19 had also become a pandemic. Because of this, millions of people died. However, this was something that remained in the past as no one spoke of this event. I consider that people could have learned something from the history of the Spanish flu and applied that knowledge during COVID. However, few people are aware of what the Spanish flu was. Therefore, it is necessary to take into account everything related to COVID 19. Although it is likely that the appearance of a new virus cannot be prevented, at least people will know how to protect themselves and thus prevent the spread. The virus spread around the world rapidly for various reasons. However, one of these reasons was that people had no idea how to react to the virus. If people had had an idea of how to protect themselves at that time, perhaps the virus would not have spread the way it did. I believe that acquiring the necessary knowledge about the virus will be of great help in the future.
• 
  2020-03-19

  Early Moveout

  Had to move out of my dorm 2 months early, a few weeks after classes were cancelled. The roommate was from Colombia, had to leave behind half of his stuff to get on a flight home.
• 
  2020-03-13

  My UC SmashBubble

  I was a college freshman only a few weeks into my spring semester when COVID got real. On March 13th, the entire school received an email that academics would be halted and that no guests would be allowed in any of the dorms. In essence, Columbia College Chicago was on lockdown. There was no leaving the dorms because there was no reason to leave. Any comedy gigs that I had were cancelled as theatres began to shut down, school assignments were postponed as schools struggled to find solutions, and most of my friends living in the other dorm buildings were far away. I had washed and sanitized my hands so manically that they were chapped and burning. I was too afraid to go to the pharmacy across the street because I didn't have a mask. The grey walls of a dorm feel a lot more grey when they're the only things you see. I was scared and alone when I heard a ruckus coming from the dorm I shared a bathroom with. One of my suitemates had gathered some friends to play Super Smash Brothers. I had played with him and my roommate in the past, but he was entertaining a group of people I had only seen in passing glances in the hall. I picked up a controller and, for the next two weeks, they were my only friends. We did everything together, played games, ate together, watched TV (turns out they like to watch Wheel Of Fortune, a game that I've won many times from the comfort of my couch), they even persuaded me to watch a little of the anime they all enjoyed. After a few terrible days of thinking only about my problems and what this pandemic meant for my future, a fun, tight-knit group of friends was just what the doctor ordered. I made a lot of fantastic memories with them and, if it wasn't for COVID, they would have remained passing faces in the hallway.
• 
  2021-01-06

  Dealing with Covid at work

  Dealing with Covid at work has been the worst thing that has happened to me. I was at work and had just found out that one of my close co-workers had tested positive for Covid. I was shock. Everyone at my job was scared but in honest truth I was just relax because I knew I didn't have it. Thought wrong. A week after I started to feel a little light headed but I figured it was normal. I had went to go get tested just in case and believe it or not my test came back Positive as well.
• 
  2020-05-01

  Social Distancing - Self Distancing

  When the Covid-19 pandemic caused New York City to go into lockdown the second week of March, it never once crossed my mind how large of an impact this shutdown would have in my personal life. In the picture below I show a poem I wrote during the sixth month of quarantine: My days felt like they were going on a loop. Everyday felt like a continuation of the day before and my mind was tired of it. In my poem I expressed that I felt like a bird that crashes on the windshield of a car, signaling the repetitiveness of my life in my small NYC apartment. I think that this time was one of the most difficult times for my mental health and I tried desperately to find a way of coping. Essentially, this poem represents the mental state I found myself in trying to find different ways to deal with the fact that life had paused abruptly and that nothing was certain anymore. One of the ways that I found myself doing a lot during this time was sleeping. I began to get worried when one day I woke up at 4pm and felt as if I had woken up at 9am. I knew my sleep schedule was a disaster, but I think that this represents how monotone life felt. On another hand, I think that the lockdown served as an opportunity to reorganize my priorities and discover new likes and dislikes. Since I had recently changed my major from Biology to English, this time helped me realize how much I enjoy writing and learning about other writers and their work. I never thought I would enjoy my major as much as I am enjoying it, especially since I can dedicate more time on it thanks to the spare time staying at home gives me. I think that this poem will benefit future historians in their study of the effects the COVID-19 lockdown on people’s mental health. Specifically, historians will be able to be exposed to the anxiety the world felt knowing that there was little we could do to reverse the effects the lockdown was having in our mental stability. Basically, historians will be able to analyze how much the pandemic affected us beyond the physical aspect but the detrimental effects it held against our mental health. All in all, COVID-19 surely fits the line by Charles Dickens, “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times”.
• 
  2020-03-09

  Future Historians

  Dear Historians of the Future, In 2020, there was a pandemic that occurred known as COVID-19 that made drastic changes in terms of restaurants, traveling internationally, school and work. One of my biggest pieces of advice is to ensure the president you have is not a narcissist or a leader who does not take responsibility for the bad things that happen. According to the article “Donald Trump owns the Coronavirus,” published on March 9, 2020, by a senior economist Dean Baker, this document explains how COVID impacted the community and what experiences people faced. Reading this article will allow you to understand the ability to have directorship in guiding the country to a better path then shifting it to the left. For instance, the reading states “It is very likely that we will face a recession as people cancel travel plans and are reluctant to go out to restaurants, sporting events and other public places.” Because of Trump, Americans and the people that live in it had to cancel many of their plans as a result of Trump not taking accurate information into consideration. He was mainly focused on putting blame towards China or the democrats, rather than looking for solutions with CDC. During the pandemic, many people believed Donald Trump was responsible for the Coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. in the article, Baker concludes: “In short, the fact that we are likely facing a serious pandemic, unlike any we have seen in more than a century, is 100 percent Trump’s fault. Because of his vanity and ineptitude, people will die, and many more will get sick.” This article demonstrates how Trump did not care to take action when the pandemic initially began. Because of this, one can say when it comes to having a narcissist president like Trump, leadership plays a role in situations like this for the world. In conclusion, I chose this source to explain my experience of the pandemic and what challenges people faced. In other words, this article will help you understand how the pandemic had an impact on many people's lives. If president Trump initially took action when he first started receiving news about the COVID, people would still be employed and parents would not have to stay home with their children. The negative aspect of this is some families struggled financially as a result of the pandemic and staying unemployed.
• 
  2020-03-11

  CUNY's Response

  Where to even start? 2020, the year where everything and everyone changed forever. 2020 did not just consist of the Covid Virus it consisted of many other threads that harmed everyone’s mental health including students. It was hard for all students during this time but in my perspective College students. This documents faithfully explain 2020 and I will be here to give you future historians a more in depth look at how it really was during these times. The document I chose not only explains how we went from going in person to virtual but also how it made me feel as a visual learner and as a college student of course. CUNY mentioned we were going to have a “Instructional recess from March 12-18th”, this day I will never forget because I did not know that March 11th was going to be the last day of my two-years of college. When I received this email on Twitter that CUNY had stated this I was overwhelmed and shocked. The thought of everything being virtual just didn’t seem right to me, although I did have all the access from computers to internet access, it just did not sit right. As a visual learner this was tough for me, this was a moment of you get classwork and you basically have to teach it to yourself, not seeing my professors in person and through a screen was very hard to get used to, the internet sometimes would not work and it would cut off and I would miss most of the important things said during the lesson, it was honestly very difficult, this was not just tough on students, as well as professors having the same issues. This era was honestly tough, but technology really saved a whole year worth of schoolwork. To the historians reading this in a couple of years from now, I, as a person who lived through these times want you to understand the rough time we went through, from masks to face shields to many deaths and virtually going to school. These were moments in time that no one anticipated. It shaped the future into what it had become, masks may become the new norm, working from home may be allowed for certain jobs and companies, schools just might let people continue to be fully virtual and things may be extremely dependent on technology from now on. To conclude this 2020 document, though it was a rough year where millions of people died worldwide, I can only be thankful that me and the ones I love are safe and okay. We now know how to take proper precautions in case anything like this happens again, though I don’t wish for a repeat of 2020. The year of 2020 is one for the books and one that will go down in history.
• 
  2020-05-30

  Civil Discourse During A Pandemic

  I assume like many New Yorkers, March 13th through 18th was when things really changed. It did for me on the 15th of March 2020 or the ides of March as I like to remember it. My store shut down for what seemed like 2 weeks. Of course, soon I would be given the news we would be shut down completely. I already knew where things were going, at the time I worked at an Asian restaurant, so I was hearing many of the conversations about China then. But I could not have predicted what would happen next. As slow and dreadful as 2020 was, things were moving at lightning speed for the situation we experienced. It felt like every few days something new would arise and test our nation. I selected these pictures because it shows how tired everyone is, the blank faces of people who are following orders, while the other side expresses their hardships all the while wearing masks, the bane of 2020. I want the historian of the future to know that no matter the situation at hand, many of us will still protest for what was wrong even if they got sick. It didn’t matter because we needed to send a message. The two images that you see in the beginning were taken by my friend, Emilio Lopez, who documented the protests, riots, and clashes between police in the summer of 2020. I did not go to the early protests because of covid and the violence/looting wasn’t the things I wanted to be a part of. I remember face-timing my friend to make sure if he was alright as I did not go with him. What he described to me that was happening in the parts of Fordham, and Union Square areas. Emilio had said many of the protesters were young men who were bored of the lockdowns and needed to do something exciting. There were fires, baton exchanges with the cops, and then the looting started. It all got a little too ugly for the whole week of George Floyd protests in New York. One of my close friend’s stores in Fordham was destroyed as a result. The images were taken right before things took a violent turn at Union Square. Where many of my friends were tear-gassed and beaten by cops to disperse when the first lockdown was getting implemented. Those two images, I feel like the body language of the subjects conveys how I felt about the lockdowns, the social injustice, in general about 2020. These were the first few weeks of protests that took place in the wake of George Fyold murder. I was shocked and scared when the masses went on to the streets because of the sheer amount while the pandemic was still going on. I hope the historians of the future can understand us even if they have to go through a cluster of memes from this era, real pictures with real human emotions will always speak louder I believe, and that civil rights in this country still have ways to go.
• 
  2020

  Covid jokes about bars during the time of COVID-19

  This is a set of jokes about bars during COVID which were closed for several months. There are many old jokes that start out "Three (different sorts of) people walk into a bar..." Here is a Corona version. Another one shows how people in an apartment building gather on the rooftop parking lot for cocktail hour, and the other two are jokes about when bars finally reopen.
• 
  2021-04-14

  Reconsidering Taking the Vaccine

  I live in Bronx, New York. When the pandemic struck, it affected everyone tremendously whether you contracted the virus or not. New York is a densely populated place and it immediately required a shut down of all day to day activities due to the soaring virus. It was so impactful that my school had to be closed and I could not go out with my friends on the weekends anymore due to the fact that all business places were closed. Many people in New York contracted the virus which at one point had the highest Coronavirus cases. It made my family and I very depressed to be stuck at home all day and worrying if anyone of us would be the next person to be personally affected by the virus. During the pandemic, which is still current, the introduction of the vaccine made me feel very relieved. Even though it is not a cure for the virus but it would help to fight the virus if you do contract it, and it also lessens the likeliness that it is contracted. This was such good news to my ears. When I found out that there were different types of the vaccines I was very skeptical about it because I wondered to myself about the different component that each might have. Following this, there was word that the Johnson and Johnson vaccine was causing bloodclots. This made me extremely scared to take any of the vaccines overall even though I want to be secured from the virus but I worry that the vaccine would not agree well with my body. This was a mental battle within my family if we want to take the vaccine or not.
• 
  2021-04-12

  Lizza Weir Oral History, 2021/04/12

  Toddlers are natural explorers who run, touch and sniff as they learn about the world. But these behaviors can be dangerous during a pandemic. Parents of toddlers need to weigh the risks of catching Covid against their children’s developmental needs. Lizza Weir, whose daughter Simone was 16 months when Covid first arrived in New York, talks about the hard choices she’s been facing.
• 
  2020-03-29

  Paranoia to Peace

  I struggled with anxiety around the time the news said there was a pandemic going on, and I healed as time went on and the world around me played a part in that.
• 
  2020-03-13T15:10

  The Unexpected Closure of Saint Anselm College

  These were a sequence of emails I received as my college prepared to shut down on March 13th, 2020. This created an immense amount of stress and chaos for myself, my family, and my friends. We were concerned about being isolated on campus away from our families during such a scary, life changing time. The emails embody the idea that we would be able to remain in person, continuing our education in a normal way. This indicated that we truly did not understand the full complexity and severity of the issue. There was a lot of chaos and uncertainty during the weekend of the 3/13/2020-3/14/2020. Earlier in the week, a trusted professor indicated to us that it was only a 50% chance we would actually be sent home so we were absolutely shocked at the decisions.
• 
  2020-08-27

  College During a Pandemic

  Friday, March 13th, 2020 I received an email from President Favazza of Saint Anselm College that the whole campus was being shut down and we had until Sunday to move out of our dorm rooms and go home. We stayed in lock down for months- zoom, tiktok, family, boredom, walks, and eating are what my days consisted of. We got an email that we would be returning to campus in August we new protocols- masks, family units, hybrid classes. We did not care about the rules, we were just happy to be back and see new people. We got sent home second semester of our freshman year, what we thought would last a couple of weeks has now infected more than a year of our college experience. Masks, remote learning, social distancing, and COVID testing is our new normal. The photo above shows my friends and I on the Alumni quad at Saint Anselm College. It was a summer Friday night and we were trying to make the most of our time at college. My friends and I often spent a lot of our time outside. We ate lunch on the quad, spent our weekends on the quad, and did our classes outside. We realized that we needed to make the most of being outside because we had been locked inside for 3 months. We adapted to a huge change in what is supposed to be the best years of our lives.
• 
  2020-08-19

  George Floyd Memorial Zone

  "The next thing I'm pissed off about is 38th and Chicago. I'm tired of Chicago. Why is not Floyd? When we were protesting at the beginning, what we said was 38th and Floyd." - Huda Yusuf (@justaskhuda) On August 6th, Minneapolis city employees informed community members and business owners they were planning to remove barricades surrounding the George Floyd Memorial Zone. This area extends in a four block radius and contains the site where Floyd was murdered by police on May 25th. The city's phased reopening has since been postponed to an undetermined future date. Community members have released a list of 24 demands before the area can open again for normal vehicular traffic. This includes recalling Mike Freeman (Hennepin County Attorney), ending qualified immunity, investing $400,000 in a youth jobs program, and firing four Bureau of Criminal Apprehension officials in leadership positions. Link in bio to the full list of demands. Photos from Sit-In at George Floyd Memorial, August 17, 2020
• 
  2020-08-21

  Living in Wrigleyville during a pandemic

  Wrigleyville home of the Chicago Cubs is known to be a neighborhood of Chicago that revolves around the Cubs. During a non pandemic year when there is a game at Wrigley Field there is people all around Wrigleyville. The neighborhood is bustling with Cubs fans everywhere. The restaurants are filled and the bars too. The cubs apparel shops are getting business and people are just happy. Now during the pandemic the neighborhood has a feeling of emptiness. No fans have been allowed in the stadium in over a year and a lot of the restaurants, bars, and apparel shops have been closed or temporarily closed until the pandemic is over. Things just aren't the same living in Wrigleyville during the pandemic.
• 
  2020-03-10

  Disneyland March 2020

  One year ago today my daughter and I went to Disneyland for spring break and little did we realize we would be lucky enough to be there right before it closed down due to the pandemic. We had four awesome days for our "girl getaway" and three days after we came home Disneyland was closed. We are waiting with anticipation to return to Disneyland when it reopens.
• 
  2020-12-11

  Big Business in the age of the COVID-19 pandemic

  (Undisclosed location and business name to protect employee) I happened to be working on this day when operations in the warehouse were shut down and we were asked to leave until the warehouse was thoroughly disinfected. Note the absence of employees on the floor, however, the merchandise is palletized according to shipping destination. Two days later, management, administrative staff, and warehouse associates were permitted to enter the building and business resumed as usual except with new health regulations all employees and staff were mandated to follow.
• 
  2020-05-31

  High School Graduation-- Covid-19 Edition

  May 31, 2020 Senior year, something that every student looks forward to the second they enter high school. It’s supposed to be a time for celebration, big life steps, and most importantly, spending one last year with the kids you grew up with. Starting senior year in the fall of 2019, everything seemed laid out before me, it was just a matter of finishing college applications and deciding on a college, worrying about who might be my prom date, and whether I would be starting goalie for my varsity lacrosse team. All those worries disappeared when schools got shut down March 13, 2020. At the time only for two weeks, given that Covid-19 was really beginning to hit the United States. My friends and I thought nothing of it and were hopeful for a return to school to finish out senior year. But weeks went on, and one-by-one, everything began to be canceled. First, it was lacrosse. Next, it was the permeant switch to online school. And last, perhaps the worst of all, the cancelation of prom and graduation. When it truly hit that the end of senior year had been taken away from us, I wasn’t quite sure what to do. I sulked around for a long time, and even began to feel like I was losing friends. Flash forward to May 31, 2020, and I’m sitting in the back of my Dad’s truck, which was decorated in my school’s colors of green and black. I sat in my graduation cap and gown all by myself with my parents in the front of the truck. The community had come together to celebrate the Class of 2020 in the only safe way they could think of—a parade. We waited in a parking lot to drive by my high school one last time. Most of my classmates were there, sitting on top of cars, looking through sunroof windows, or sitting in the back of trunks. It was heartbreaking to see all of my friends split apart, all waving from our cars. Friends who I was only really friends with in class smiled and waved, all of us wishing the other well, and dying to give out a hug. As we began to drive through the neighborhoods leading up to the high school, the streets were lined with so many people (all socially distanced and with masks), holding signs and screaming for us. I didn’t cry until I saw my favorite teacher, who saw me and also started to cry, saying she got the letter I had sent her, thanking her for being my support throughout high school. It was such an overwhelming feeling of sadness and joy. When we finally made it to the high school, we all parked and waited to drive by the entrance one more time where they would call our names, as if we were walking across stage. The picture I am submitting is a moment when we had stopped, and I was standing there crying looking out at the high school and all of my classmates. The picture I feel captures how so many were most likely feeling in that moment. Knowing there was so many you didn’t truly get to say good-bye to, but so thankful for the opportunity to see each other from a far. Covid-19 took away so many things for so many people. Graduation was something I had been looking forward to for years. But to see the community come together for us high schoolers in such a confusing time is something I will never forget.
• 
  2020-03-13T13:54

  Looking Back to the Shutdown

  This photo was taken a few minutes before 1:00 PM on Friday, March 13, 2020 at the Arizona Historical Society Heritage Center in Tempe. That day stands out as the day everything started shutting down due to COVID-19. I had set out for an appointment in downtown Phoenix, but found out it had been cancelled when I was about halfway there. I got my Lyft driver to change course and head to the Heritage Center instead so that I could take care of some other business. As all this was happening, a rather freakish thunderstorm broke out. That same day, my son received an email from the University of Arizona advising him not to return from Spring Break, and I found out that Arizona State University would conduct all classes on line for the rest of the semester. The following Monday, my wife was sent home early to work remotely and has continued to do so ever since. Looking back after ten months of the pandemic (whoever dreamed it would go on this long?), this picture symbolizes the start of the whole chaotic ordeal.
• 2021-01-12

  What do I think the cause of the virus Covid-19 is?

  There are many different theories and possibilities as to what created this pandemic of Covid-19, and no body has truly figured out how to stop it or what the real cause is. I believe that Coronavirus has something to do with population control. I think that the government created this virus to subtly eliminate some of the population so that there wasn't an overload of humans, but they never had the idea that it was going to be this bad. It became uncontrollable, and has spread all over the world. Everything is shutting down and things are failing, the world is basically falling apart.
• 2021-01-11

  COVID is all part of a plan

  COVID was not a mistake or an accident. It didn’t just come here like other viruses did it was on purpose. The far left, Germany, Italy, and other countries used this virus to shut down people, shut down opinions and anyone who thought otherwise. Their main goal was to get President Trump and company out of the White House. They rigged the election, rigged the senate races and put in a fony President Joe Biden. Joe Biden isn’t the problem it is his Vice President Kamala Harris, she will bring socialism into this free country. You see, mail in ballot votes are safer cause of COVID, we can’t voice opinions cause of COVID, we can’t live cause of COVID. It’s all fit into a plan to turn this country into China, the left have used COVID to get rid all that we have loved about this country.
• 0021-01-11

  My Experience

  Coronavirus has been hard for our economy and has affected everyone. This virus has shut down schools, people have lost their jobs and everyone has had to adjust to the new rules. This pandemic has being going on for a whole year and 1,899,285 have died. The epidemic started in Wuhan, China, it started spreading through the world. The disease then spread across several countries and affected a large number of people, it was classified as a pandemic.Jul 1, 2020
• 2021-02-11

  My February Before Covid-19

  My story begins February of 2020. I remember that Covid had not become such a big deal in the USA yet, but it was about to. School had not been closed yet and I remember that the Science Fair was maybe going to be canceled. I had been working on it for a long time and I was hoping it was not going to be canceled. Thankfully, it was not canceled and we were able to participate in the Science Fair. As the month of March began, it became more serious and they had to shut down the School. I though it was just going to be until the end of the school year, but it lasted until 2021. That is myself story of the time before Covid-19.
• 2021-01-11

  Origins of COVID-19

  January of 2020 is when I started learning about COVID-19 and its origins. I first heard about the Coronavirus from my parents and news channels which stated there is a new virus around foreign countries that is spreading quickly and cannot be identified with any existing sicknesses. Rumors became of a bat that was carrying the virus and either had been consumed by humans or had transmitted the virus to man. The virus originated in Wuhan, China, but was also existing in Europe and the rest of Asia, at the time. I personally had no concern or worries with it when first hearing this news early on, but it was quite interesting hearing updates about it. My reasoning for this was it had not yet reached America or anywhere near the country. The thought of having to shut down stores, schools, restaurants, and cities did not even cross my mind because of the insanity that sounded of. Today, it seems completely normal hearing and thinking about quarantined, isolated societies because of how we've been living the past year. Speaking of today, I currently know a lot more about COVID. The symptoms, testing, origins, and biology of it are more clear now, a year after its discovery. I feel comfortable with the idea of the Coronavirus and am not scared of it. That opinion hasn't changed since the start of quarantine and COVID. There is still plenty more to learn about the Coronavirus, especially now that vaccines are out, but my adequate understanding of it and its origins is acceptable.
• 2021-01-11

  when covid 19 started, Jacob Orozco

  when the Covid 19 virus hit, everyone was concerned. Apparently the virus broke out in China and was released to the whole world. There was even talk about shutting down the schools. We watched the news as the virus was spreading from Europe to America. as things got worse they eventually did shut down everything, schools, restaurants, ect. My family even thought of moving to another state. Then when Covid was in its groove, we realized its not as deadly as they portrayed. we all thought that this would be a killer virus as the news was saying. To some people it was very deadly, to some it is not. it was especially deadly to old people. to kids like us, it was as if we got a cold. eventually the news and CDC came out with their lies and said that the virus had a 99.9% survival rate to people with no underlining health conditions. thats when my family knew that there was no point in having everything shut down for a long time. The moral is that it wasn't as deadly or crazy as they said it is, sure, thousands of people died, but is wasn't really and grater that the deaths from the flu.
• 2021-01-11

  The orgin of Covid 19

  I first heard about the coronavirus around February. I heard of it mainly from my mom and friends. In the beginning, I was told it started from someone eating a bat in Wuhan China. Then it spread super fast. I was never too afraid of Covid and I never imagined that my school would get shut down from it. We were still going to school until around March 16th when my school got shut down. We did online school for the rest of the year and we also went into quarantine in March. My family still wasn't too afraid of the virus but for the most part, we quarantined and kept our distance from friends. we are still not too afraid of the virus and my family and my opinions have changed too much.