Items

• 
  2022-03-31

  Suicide Statistics Against Queer Youth

  Suicide statistics against queer youth released by the CDC in the first half of 2021. According to the CDC, 1 in 4 queer children attempted suicide.
• 2021-03-11

  Hearing Suffering

  I am a psychiatrist and in my 30 years of practice, I have never heard about so much suffering.
• 2021-01-21T11:58

  Symptoms of COVID

  Many people who have had COVID have suffered from terrible symptoms ranging from fevers to dry coughs to headaches. When I had COVID, I had very mild symptoms, and I feel very lucky for that. The most I suffered from was a light headache and minor loss of smell, and that lasted only a few days in itself. My aunt on the other hand suffered from horrible symptoms. She had a fever 24 hours a day and couldn't even get out of bed; that's how sick she was. She got the worst end of the bargain. My dad, like me, had mild symptoms. Like me, his sense of smell was gone for only a little bit, but he had a horrible dry cough and a scratchy throat. Now, this may be because they are way older than me, but I still feel extremely lucky that my health didn't diminish. A lot of people have had horrible experiences with COVID, resulting in awful, long sickness, or even death, and I think that my experience with COVID was so much better. My heart goes out to those who are still suffering from this plague, and I recognize how fortunate I was to have had such little symptoms.
• 2020-07-05

  The Silent Sufferers

  I am the product of a small town in Western Pennsylvania. I grew up, got some very lucky opportunities, and was able to go on to do things I never thought possible. I have no formal education beyond high school, and have spent most of my life from 12 years old on teaching myself what I needed to know to keep moving forward. I live in the Pittsburgh suburbs now and work as an IT professional. I went back to my father's recently to help him out with some IT work at his shop. He's been in business for 20+ years now and we fall on fairly opposite ends of the political spectrum. I've seen him go through difficult periods before, but walking on to his shop floor and seeing the absolute desolation that covid-19 has left in its wake, was so overwhelming I was crying when we left. He and I have talked about covid and the Trump administration at various points in the past several years. Sometimes calmly, sometimes less than so. All I could say as someone who is very much pro "Stay at home, wear your mask, stop fucking bitching." was "I'm sorry this is happening, and anyone on either side of the aisle politicizing this horrible thing for their own gain, should have to walk through there and see the effect it has." His response was a simple “Thank you.” and we moved on to other topics. My job allows me to be remote 99.9% of the time, and on-site time is batched to make the most of it. My paycheck has not been affected at all through this, nor my benefits, and until the recently announced ICE changes, I had no concerns that it might be affected. I am extremely fortunate in the face of a world being flipped upside down. Governor Wolf was perhaps more heavy handed in his approach in some rural areas compared to more urban ones, and that will have a lasting impact. With my very limited sample set of 1, my father has 70 - 90 employees in a building the size of a couple airplane hangers. They made a difficult decision to close for several weeks. He was heartbroken, but agreed for the safety of his employees. Once we entered our green phase, they were able to re-open, but the impact that time had on their business was unimaginable. This time last year, his shop had nearly $750,000 dollars in product in production, ready to go to their customers. This past weekend it was only $82,000. My father is confident his company will survive this storm as they have many others. The renewal of the Payroll Protection Program will offer some relief, however if business doesn’t increase, or the program isn’t renewed again before covid-19 is acknowledged as a very serious problem, or a vaccine is found, layoffs are inevitable. I can't imagine how he sleeps at night when I'm having difficulty doing so myself. He knows that it’s not only his employees being impacted, but their entire family. Part of his being in business for himself was my need for better insurance because of my medical issues as a child. He and his partners have always provided as much of the cost of health insurance as possible as a result. Last I knew, they were still covering 90% of all costs for every employee and their families with minimal contribution from the employee. After hearing how angry my brothers and Dad were about the quarantine, then seeing the devastating impact covid has had on them, I understand now why they were so angry. If the Federal Government had been more willing to admit something was happening, make an appropriate plan, work with state governments to put appropriate restrictions in place, and provided resources to help make that happen, he might not be in this spot. However, if Wolf hadn't done what was done, how much more of an impact would this have had on Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and their surrounding communities? There's no "one size fits all" solution here. Each situation is different, but without support and resources, how do you make those decisions effectively?
• 
  2020-04

  “People have described it as these times are unprecedented."

  “People have described it as these times are unprecedented. Nobody has had to endure or deal with or live through something like this of this magnitude in the past. I know that there's always been previous flus or outbreaks or epidemics here and there you know the black plague obviously was a big one the Spanish Flu the flu of 1918 was pretty bad and you know a lot of those were pretty treacherous for how many lives that they took and how much it affected communities that way so thankfully we haven't had to deal with that a whole lot with this one as of right now.”
• 
  2020-04-08

  Why Alaska Native Villages Were Quick To Self-Isolate

  “Now, past suffering of Alaska’s native people is shaping emergency actions that aim to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. In tiny villages and across the sprawling North Slope Borough, authorities acted early to enact some of the nation’s toughest travel limits. The borough, for example, barred entry to its eight communities for everyone but individuals with special waivers. There is a practical reason for the restriction—the limits of local health facilities—but history also plays a role.”
• 
  2020-04-28

  My Thoughts on COVID-19

  #REL101 a personal account on the pandemic
• 
  2020-03-22

  Where Is God in a Pandemic?

  writer and priest James Martin grapples with the "problem of suffering" during the worldwide coronavirus pandemic. He poses the question of why does God allow such suffering and tribulation to plauge the world. He comes to the conclusion that it is impossible to know and that the faithful must be able to keep their faith even when they don't understand the actions of their God.
• 
  2020-04-08

  PANDEMIC 2020

  Feelings concerning people who have the COVID-19 virus.