Items

• 2021-06-20

  Norrish First Visit to old Home Post Covid

  In the timeframe of the slow lifting of restrictions from the Covid 19 pandemic and shutdown, my family and I were less inclined to engage in travel, at least originally, than we had been before the pandemic. The luxury of just having the freedom to meet with local friends and re-engage in the simple pleasure of taking in a movie at the theater or going shopping at the mall were enough. Eventually, desire to see family that had been cut off from us because of the pandemic encouraged me to take the plunge and fly to visit my sister in my boyhood home state of Wisconsin, a place I had not visited in over twenty years. The plane trip itself was a strange mix of familiar experiences such as checking in my luggage and going through airport security combined with new experiences of wearing a mask in the airplane at all times while regularly using hand sanitizer whenever interacting with people or objects potentially infected with Covid 19. Despite being personally vaccinated, the act of traveling in this way felt both isolating and risky. To be masked up while still being in such a confined area as an airplane after the isolation of staying mostly at home for most of a year felt like a flimsy defense against the potential threat from Covid 19. Isolation from one another still seemed to be the new norm for people, with minimal conversations between strangers. Otherwise, the flight itself was uneventful. Once in Wisconsin, my sister and I spent most of the time visiting locations of my childhood. Places such as our former family farm now owned by a distant cousin, or the creek I learned to swim in or the elementary school I had attended before moving away to Arizona, which had been turned into a recycle center that looked more like a dump than a school. Much of our time was spent talking and reminiscing about the past. Essentially reconnecting in person rather than through text messages or the occasional Zoom call. When we traveled to more public locations such as restaurants, a local baseball game, or Fourth of July fireworks, it was apparent that despite health protocols being strictly followed in locations like airports, local mask regulations had been greatly relaxed. While essentially all staff members were wearing masks, the majority of patrons tended to be without masks. While hand sanitizer was available in the restroom, it seemed fewer and fewer people were using it. It was once again a strange combination of familiar experiences such as ordering a meal with the overtone of pandemic restrictions such as staff masks hovering over your shoulder like a ghost, present but less and less substantial. Overall the trip itself was enjoyable, but was mostly an opportunity to reconnect with family while at the same time reassuring myself of the relative safety to be able to travel once again. Eventually, as more restrictions were removed and the increased access to vaccines made Covid 19 less of a fear and more of a nuisance, other family trips to tourist destinations such as San Francisco or Disneyworld became once again a normal part of travel for myself and my family. But my first trip after restrictions began to relax, there was definitely a reminder that the reality of Covid still hovered over our heads, even as we began to move closer and closer to new normal in our post-Covid world.
• 
  12/14/2021

  Anonymous Oral History, 2021/12/14

  Anonymous is a person who, in his senior year of university, was hit by covid. Anonymous goes into detail on what went wrong with the pandemic, how new sources are at the biggest fault, and how it affected his personal life when looking for a job, and interacting with family and friends who both do, and do not want to be vaccinated, and self-isolating with many precautions despite Wisconsin having very few mandates.
• 
  11/26/2021

  Betsy Stangel Oral History, 2021/11/26

  Betsy Stangel continuously faces difficult challenges in her everyday job as a math teacher at Wausau East Highschool. But since the COVID-19 pandemic Betsy, in her later years of teaching, has had to adapt and mold not only her styles of teaching but many of her teaching standards to reach many of her students and their struggles with the virus. Betsy constantly must find new methods of interacting and engaging her class along with dealing with pressure from other school district staff. In addition, the new lazy “COVID lifestyle” that fellow teachers have been encompassing within students and their assignments could be in correlation to parents, guardians, and a vast majority of the American population’s tone towards returning back to work. This could explain why education has been such a rough adjustment back to the original five-day-a-week class schedule.
• 
  12/07/2021

  Wyatt Goetz and Sloana Goetz Oral History, 2021/12/07

• 
  11/27/2021

  Terry Ehle Oral History, 2021/11/27

  Terry Ehle lives in Two Rivers, Wisconsin with her husband, three daughters, and two foster boys. She works as a librarian at the local public library. In this interview, Terry discusses the struggles she faces during the COVID pandemic trying to juggle such a large family and their many extra-curricular activities. Her daughters are involved in musical theater, sports, and international travel- all of which have been impacted by COVID. She struggles to manage all of these different activities together, all while trying to be a good mother and a good employee. Because of her situation, she has had to take a lot of time off of work and has found herself working many nights and weekends to make up for the lost time.
• 
  12/12/2021

  Cheryl Oral History, 2021/12/12

  Cheryl is just one of my many Eau Claire County residents who have been experiencing the many issues of COVID in the nursing home environment. But what makes Cheryl’s story unique is that throughout this pandemic she has seen three different outbreaks within her facility and just recently experienced Covid for the first time earlier this month. However, Cheryl claims that thanks to COVID nursing homes, especially her current facility, will never resort back to normal. Much like her potential to engage in therapy, COVID has halted many aspects of Health care’s motivational tone and instead turned into an isolation facility. Through her limited experiences with staff and her few conversations with family and her roommates, Cheryl has hit rock bottom a few times. Yet through her love of the holidays and association with such a supportive family, Cheryl continues through, what she predicts, to be the next major virus that will never leave.
• 
  2021-12-20

  And a Happy New Year

  My boyfriend and I had visited his parents over our Christmas Holiday from college. They had just recently gotten back from Hawaii, so they had travelled through several airports to get to and from Baton Rouge. Despite my boyfriend and I being vaccinated and wearing masks around his family, we came to find out that his mother had COVID (she is a staunch anti-vaxxer). Not one week after our visit, my boyfriend and I both tested positive. We spent Christmas and New Years holed up in our tiny apartment, feeling guilty that we had been to our respective works and to visit my relatives without knowing we were positive. His mother is still suffering from COVID complications, nearly eight months after originally having it. I'll never understand why people assume that public health and health education are a hoax. It could have saved everyone a lot of time and effort and suffering if the truth about vaccinations wasn't barraged by misinformation and public hysteria.
• 
  2022-04-11

  Man of Steel

  This is an Instagram post by elmagnifico5000. This post is of a man wearing a mask while showing something he is interested in with it. In the hashtags, he is encouraging people to stay safe, get boosted, and for others to wear masks.
• 
  2022-04-05

  Gabrielle's First Dose

  This is an Instagram post by lavie_est_belle8. This is a post about Gabrielle getting his first COVID vaccine dose. Based on the caption, it looks like the parent/guardian planned a fun day with Gabrielle after getting the shot, including: out for sushi for lunch; games at the arcade; and out for dessert at the end. Gabrielle is standing in front of a backdrop and holding a "I'm Vaccinated" sign.
• 
  2022-04-05

  Masks are still required in Mexico

  As someone who lives in a border town and travels to Mexico quite often, due to the fact that the U.S dollar in Mexico is twenty pesos, from an economic standpoint, it allows me to enjoy my time in Mexico quite well with my family. The only catch is that masks are required everywhere; it does not matter if you are fully vaccinated or not. As long as you keep using masks, you are good in Mexico, from tourism to recreational activities to travel across the country. It's something to consider when traveling to Mexico because I live 30 minutes away from the border to San Luis, Mexico, and sometimes I forget that I need to wear a mask in Mexico since they are no longer required in the U.S in 2022.
• 
  04/24/2021

  Zakrzewski Nic, Oral History, 2021/04/24

  Nic Zakrzewski is from Eau Claire, WI and is a UW Eau Claire student. He also works part time as student custodian at the university. In this interview, he discusses the topics of mental health and his difficulties maintaining family and friend relationships. He also discusses how the transition to online classes has affected his day to day activities. The role of local and federal government in his pandemic experience is also touched upon.
• 
  2021-11-16

  Hermit HERALD, ISSUE 132

  Wokeness, big Democrat problem
• 
  2021-10-03

  The First Game Back and the Last Game of the Season

  This was a photo from my seat at my first mariners game back since the beginning of Covid and the last game of a great season. IT was an emotional game because they lost their wildcard spot, it was probably Kyle Seager's last game as a mariner after 10 years, and it was my first time in the ballpark since 2019. It feels like we are getting back to normal even though I am still hesitant to jumping back in.
• 
  2021-07-18

  Shifting Back

  My family was certainly filled with hope and a bit of relief when our county’s numbers began to steady at 30 cases a day with a positivity rate below 0.5 by June. However, we didn’t let down our guard. My husband’s best friend since childhood is an MD with the county and in May told us the Delta variant is here. We asked what that means and he said “well, outdoors you should be okay, but wear a mask indoors and don’t let anyone breathe on you.” He said this knowing we’re vaccinated and that our two kids, one being his goddaughter, are not old enough to get the vaccine. Numerous times since summer started I ruefully told my husband and mom “enjoy it while we can” because I think we all knew a spike would come once California lifted its COVID restrictions on June 15. It’s taken only a few weeks for LA to return to 1000 cases per day, and where we live in OC, daily cases have jumped from 30 a day to 150 a day in two weeks. Yesterday, the case count was 250 for one day. The variant is here. LA is taking swift action. Effective today, LA’s mask mandate is back in place for unvaccinated and vaccinated alike. It was immediately noticeable when we picked up dinner at King’s Hawaiian. The outdoor tent is up for to go orders pick up and mask mandate signs are posted. Honestly, if people just accepted the practice of wearing masks, I really do think it could help us return to pre June 15 levels. The report I read this week indicated that 100% (which sounds crazy, but it was cited) of the COVID hospitalizations in LA county are unvaccinated. It’s so strange to me that it is the unvaccinated who are so against wearing masks. I’m honestly wearing my mask to protect them, statistics seem to indicate if I get Delta, it should be mild. I just wish my kids could get the vaccine. Oh well, here’s to hoping the mask mandate comes back in the OC, too.
• 
  2021-07-16

  COVID 19 cases are rising in 49 states

  Covid-19 cases are surging in nearly every state with the average of new cases at least 10% higher than a week ago -- and 38 states are seeing at least a 50% increase, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Many experts have attributed the rise to slowing vaccination rates with only 48.3% of the US population fully vaccinated, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We're seeing this because the public misunderstood the CDC guidance for fully vaccinated people as 'We can now do whatever we want. Even if we are unvaccinated, we can now behave as if we are vaccinated,'" CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Thursday. ⁠ (📸: Damian Dovarganes/AP)
• 
  2021-04-05

  Two Shots of Guilt

  Being an older adult, I qualified for vaccines before those who work. I am overwhlemed with gratitude and guilt that I am safe from COVID and others are not.
• 
  2021-03-18

  With Hope

  Today is Thursday, March 18, 2021. Saturday, March 13, was the first anniversary of the Friday the 13th that essentially broke the world, and that was our last day of normal. Or at least that’s how we all remember it now. On Monday, March 15, 2021, the students at my high school returned in “full swing” for the fourth quarter of the school year. I mean by full swing that we have no A and B days, and we are not all virtual. We still have an asynchronous day on Wednesday, but we all know that will soon go away. Many kids are staying virtual, and I don’t know how long that will be an option. So, we have had three days of students back on campus, and I think I would be much more concerned if I myself were not vaccinated, but I am fully vaccinated, and my husband completed his two-week waiting period a couple of days ago, so my house is “safe.” (Though I don’t totally feel that way yet) I don’t work on Wednesday right now, so we celebrated being fully vaccinated by going to an outdoor brunch, which was totally socially distanced, and I appreciated it a lot. I digress, though… school feels like school again. Sure, we limit the number of students who come into the library at lunch, but they are here, the halls bustle, and kids' noise in the hallway trails through our open library doors between periods again. Unfortunately, we are jumping back into things right in time for state testing, so we got this week of “bliss” before things become chaos of finding computers to test, getting students to make sure their computers are updated, and the general panic of finding space and making schedules that comes with any year of state testing. I want things to continue to trend in a direction where I don’t have to rescind all this hope a couple of months from now.
• 2021-02-23

  Population of People in Our World that are Vaccinated

  Only a little over 3% of the world's population has been fully vaccinated. How long will it really take to get everyone who wants to get the vaccine and be vacinated?
• 2021-02-01

  Vaccine Story

  Introduce yourself, where you live, age, and occupation Randall McNerlin, 73, of Phoenix Arizona. Retired airline pilot. · How did you feel before getting the vaccine Physically, I felt find before getting the vaccine, although I was a little concerned about the possible consequences of getting the virus before I could get vaccinated. I had had numerous instances of close contacts with people not wearing masks. I had always worn a mask in public since the early spread of the virus but still felt exposed on occasion. · You can record the moment you get the vaccine/if you already received it, what do you remember and where were you? The day I got the vaccine, I had received word that there was a walk in line, referred to as aisle four, at the State Farm coliseum. I took my wife and son with me in hopes we could all be vaccinated but we were turned away when I told the admittance guards that I had no appointment. I determined to try again the next day but came alone. I told the guard that I had an appointment but once in line I told the volunteer agents that I was hoping to get in as a stand-by. They offered me the shot and I was very relieved to have started down the path of getting some immunity started. · What vaccine did you get (if you know) Pfizer · How did you feel about getting the vaccine? Grateful to science, grateful to the luck of being where one was available and relieved. · Why did you get the vaccine? I listened to science and logic dictated that the achievement of herd immunity of the public was of paramount importance. I wanted to be part of the solution.