Items

• 2021-07-18

  Vaccination #2

  Relief!!! That is the feeling I had when I drove away from the injection station after receiving my 2nd Covid shot. I just hoped that there would be no side effects since those who had gone before I had complained of side effects from the 2nd vaccination. I was lucky in that the next day after receiving the shot I only had a headache, stiff muscles and a queezy stomach - nothing that knocked me down and out. I just functioned at a slower pace. My entire household has been vaccinated and although exposure and contraction of a variant form of Covid is still a risk factor for everyone, at least I do not have to worry about the devastating effects of the illness for myself or family.
• 
  2021-02-19

  'You just gave me life': Groups help seniors get COVID-19 vaccine appointments

  The elderly of Arizona are having difficulty sign-up for a COVID-19 vaccine. Issues with the state website and difficulty accessing technology seem to be the main causes. The ADHS is working on making the website more functional and is using an appointment hotline to combat the issue. Local groups are also assisting the elderly with making appointments.
• 
  2021-02-15

  COVAX Publication Feb 15

  COVAX - The initiative to help supply vaccines to poor countries FEB 15 publication.
• 
  2021-02-19

  Vaccinations on campus

  ASU is now vaccinating people on campus. Members of the ASU community receive an email when they are eligible. I am eligible and have tried making an appointment twice, but the appointments are always full. After you get a vaccine, employees are supposed to upload a copy of their vacine to an ASU website.
• 
  2020-08-05

  Social Justice and Public Health in 2020

  From the article: The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the spread of the novel coronavirus, has created an unexpected and unprecedented lifestyle shift for many people across the globe. Several months into the pandemic, the public has been exposed to a number of issues they might not have previously considered or thought possible, from hospitals rapidly reaching capacity and the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) to the mental and social challenges of physical distancing and being quarantined.
• 
  2020-11-10

  Sustainable Finance Addresses Social Justice As COVID-19 Raises The Stakes

  From the article: Economic shocks from the pandemic have widened existing inequities around the world, leading to calls for greater social justice in dealing with this health threat. Poorer people, minorities, and women are suffering disproportionately from growing health, housing, income, and education gaps under measures to contain COVID-19 that could set them back for years to come. To fund programs to address the problem, governments, supranationals, and corporations, among others, have accelerated issuance of sustainable instruments--including social bonds, where issuance jumped nearly four times so far this year to US$71.9 billion from the 2019 level. We think the sustainable debt market, partly because of the rapid rise in social bond issuance, could exceed $500 billion this year.
• 
  2021

  Center for the Study of Racism, Social Justice & Health

  COVID-19 TASK FORCE ON RACISM & EQUITY. The site looks at the science and humanity behind the Covid-19 Pandemic through a social justice lens.
• 
  2020-10-23

  Social justice as a foundation for democracy and health

  From article: Jennifer Prah Ruger uses the covid-19 pandemic to show the importance of countries implementing a justice framework for health and equality. This article is part of a collection launched at the World Health Summit, 25-27 October 2020, Berlin, Germany. Funding for the articles, including open access fees, was provided by a grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies to the Council on Foreign Relations, support from the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung to the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
• 
  2020-10-07

  COVID-19: A Barometer for Social Justice in New York City

  From the article: A recent study by researchers at Harvard University found that mortality ratios for Black and Latinx communities in the United States were 3.6 and 2.6 times higher, respectively, than the mortality ratio for non-Hispanic Whites,1 a stark gap also reported in New York City (NYC).2 Other similar patterns have been found in NYC over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Mortality rates for the Latinx and Black populations are 242 per 100 000 and 226 per 100 000, respectively, both more than twice those for White and Asian American residents.3 Surveys conducted by the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy and others tell an even more alarming story. The gaps in mortality rates are just the tip of an iceberg of long-standing public health–related inequities among people of color in the United States. These discrepancies threaten all US citizens—wealthy and poor alike—and they have been exacerbated by the coronavirus.
• 2021-02-18

  Vaccinated

  I received my second vaccination earlier this week. I had minor symptoms (some fatigue and body aches), but otherwise it went well. I had some friends, both in exceptional shape, who experienced high fevers and other flu like symptoms, so I guess I lucked out on that front. The peace of mind is incredible. I plan to still take precautions, especially because even with the vaccine, it is believed you can still carry the virus, but it is wonderful to not have to worry about getting sick with COVID anymore.
• 2021-02-18

  A Multi-Million Dollar Fake Vaccine Scam

  Hundreds, an estimated 600, of fake vaccines were shipped to Hong Kong and internationally by a group led by "Kong". These vaccines consisted of nothing but saline solution or mineral water. They were being sold to medical facilities and other places at inflated prices. Officials in China have made at least 70 arrests in relation to this case with more suspected. It's reported that the group made an estimated profit of 18 million yuan or nearly 3 million U.S. dollars in this scam.
• 2021-02-18

  One-time covid vaccine

  It is an article about an innovative vaccine from COVID that is not two-phased, but one-phased.
• 
  2021-02-15

  COVID-19 REFLECTION

  THE ITEM I WILL BE SUBMITTING TALKS ABOUT THE COVID 19 IMPACT ON ME AND MY COMMUNITY(MY CHURCH)
• 
  2021-02-15

  Getting My BSN in COVID Land

  The start of the semester was like that of any other except last semester I managed to secure an internship for the summer of 2020. Nursing school was already a difficult major to be in and I really didn’t think that it could get more difficult than that of junior year. I truly didn’t know what was to come. I will never forget being at clinical and hearing everyone mention the start of the virus. COVID-19 was on the backburner when it came to the most interesting topics of January 2020, but it would soon prove to be the most prominent in the upcoming months. I distinctly remember shadowing a nurse in the ICU one day and hearing the nurses discuss what was going to happen. “It doesn’t seem like it is coming here but trust me it is and when it does, we will need all the healthcare workers we can get.” This was a statement from one of the nurses that I will never forget hearing. At the time I didn’t fully believe the things that I were being rumored and didn’t think that we would ever be where we are today. As February and March arrived, COVID came to be part of everyone’s lives. Turning on the news, checking your timelines, and most day to day conversation held the topic of corona virus. Before we knew it, our lives changed completely. Our clinicals and classes were held remotely, you couldn’t leave your house without a mask, and we weren’t sure if we were going to be able to attend our internships. One thing that worried a lot of us was working while the virus cases began to spike. I knew that I would continue working as I was if not more than usual. Over the course of my internship I watched as COVID began to impact all the healthcare workers I was surrounded by. Safety precautions in the hospital setting were changing and at first, a lot of people were afraid to come in for their illnesses for fear of encountering a positive COVID patient. As time went on people became less and less afraid to come seek help at hospitals. With a large influx of patients coming in I could see nurses, aides, and doctors among others all begin to take the toll of the virus. This wasn’t necessarily due to exposure but more so that our exhaustion kicked in. Health care providers were and still are working countless hours to help in high census situations. The most frustrating aspect of quarantine has been watching people be noncompliant with mask requirements and stay at home orders. I wake up for work everyday and risk the wellbeing of everyone in my home including myself to help take care of those who need it. As the media has portrayed us as frontline workers, it felt slightly misleading while some of the public wasn’t contributing to lessen the blow of the ongoing problem. I started my internship to gain experience for my career. I didn’t know that I would grow accustomed to death and grief as fast as I have in the past year. COVID has shown me what it means to work hard and what struggles I can encounter in my career before I have even graduated and hold my diploma in hand. I currently work on the same unit I held my internship on as it has been converted into a COVID care unit. I go into work and experience exposure situations day by day but wouldn’t change my career for anything. The corona virus has taught me so much about what it means to be a nurse and take on healthcare as a career. In a few months as I graduate I will be prepared to take on whatever challenges it may have.
• 
  2020-12-23

  COVID-19 The Good, The Bad, and The Deadly….

  COVID-19 The Good, The Bad, and The Deadly…. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck I was in the spring semester of my second year of nursing school. Being naïve and not having experienced a pandemic before, I expected COVID-19 to breeze in and out like the flu every year. What I didn’t expect was a deadly virus that would leave behind it a path of death, despair, and devastation. One of the biggest areas in my life that was impacted by COVID was my education. As classes moved to virtual platforms there was a major learning curve for both students and professors. CDC guidelines and social distancing made it difficult to find areas on campus to study and next to impossible to study in groups. My friends and I worried about our lack of clinical experiences and how that was going to impact our future. Since I had virtually no clinical hours during my specialty rotations, not only was I unsure of my skills, I was also unsure of where I wanted to take my nursing career. Returning to work over winter break was also very challenging. I am a patient care assistant and medication technician at an assisted living facility. All throughout the summer I worked with the threat of COVID looming above my head like a dark cloud. It was the first time in my life that I felt people really depended on me. I understood that my actions impacted the health of others. Fortunately, my residents all remained safe. However, I was not prepared for my return a few months later. The residents were no longer allowed to have visitors and they started testing positive for COVID. At one point we started to run low on personal protective equipment, but we were still trying to take all the precautions that we could to keep us and our residents safe. It was heart breaking to be the one holding a residents hand as they passed away due to coronavirus. My job became a lot more difficult having to communicate with families and watching their final moments with their loved ones. The residents that were lucky enough to not contract the virus were lonely and couldn’t understand why they had to quarantine. They felt abandoned and afraid. It was a very trying time for all my coworkers since we were all working overtime due to our staffing shortages. Working overtime was both physically and mentally draining. Even on my days off I was called in because staff members were getting sick and were unable to come in. It was mentally exhausting because every day I would come in to work and be nervous to walk in to report and see who had passed in the hours I was gone. COVID-19 also brought about some remarkable changes. I have spent a lot more time with my family as we have discovered our new passion-hiking. My co-workers and I have a new appreciation for one another and take the time to have meals together and support one another to make sure we are doing okay mentally. I have been part of innovative changes like my COVID-19 remote patient monitoring job and positive experiences at the COVID vaccine clinic. I have seen the medical and scientific communities collaborate on treatment guidelines and the development of a vaccine. It has also been an incredible period for change and innovation.
• 2021-02-12T15:27:16

  The Year to End High School

  Coronavirus hit the United States during my senior year, and it made things very difficult. No one was really worried about coronavirus at the beginning of 2020, but when March hit people started to realize that coronavirus was more serious. March 12, 2020 was my last day of in-person high school and I had no idea. I did not get to go to the actual last day of in-person high school because I had a respiratory infection at the time. Halfway through the day on March 13, 2020, is when they decided to close all schools in the U.S. for two weeks. All of the kids in my grade thought it was only going to last two weeks and then we would be back in school to finish the year, but that didn’t happen. After the two weeks off, they gave an extra couple of days off to figure out how to change completely to online learning. We ended up finishing the year online and although my classes got easier, my life got so much harder. I am an essential worker that works for a long-term care facility and when I was not doing school or schoolwork, I would be at my job doing as much as I possibly could to keep my residents fed and safe. I had a lot on my plate at the beginning of the pandemic with balancing school and work and trying to figure out how to still have a social life while staying in my house. I also had to be very careful with whatever I did because I needed to protect my parents who are sixty years old and seventy years old and also protect my residents who are mostly sixty or older. Since I was so busy working and doing school nothing hit me until May when the school decided to cancel prom and graduation. This hit me hard because I worked so hard for twelve years to now get nothing. I worked so hard to have all A’s in middle school and high school and be on the honor roll all of those years to not even get to celebrate my achievement. I had one night when I was thinking about all of it and I ended up having an anxiety attack and crying to my sister all night because I was so upset with how I was ending my senior year. I eventually got over it and starting college was such a weird experience it’s been so hard to make friends with people and we haven’t been able to have normal college experiences. Now that it is almost a year after the schools closed there are now two vaccines out and I have been able to receive both rounds of it because of my work, but there are still so many that need to receive the vaccine and we still have a long time before we return to normal.
• 2021-02-11

  Vaccinated!

  Relief was what I felt when I received my covid vaccine. I felt even more relief when my 21-year-old daughter was able to receive her vaccine since she would not have been able to have gotten vaccinated until early summer. My first vaccine appointment was at 12:30 in the morning, and my daughter rode along with me to keep me company since I had to drive to State Farm Stadium. As we exited the freeway to go to the stadium, the parking lot where the vaccines were being administered could be seen, and I was surprised that it looked relatively vacant of vehicles. When we reached the parking lot, we were directed to follow the signs and pull up to the first checkpoint, where a person verified I had an appointment. At the second checkpoint, a person scanned in my appointment and asked if my passenger had an appointment as well. I told the person “no,” and they said, “we have had a lot of people not show up tonight for their vaccination, so if your passenger would like to get vaccinated, they are welcome to do so.” I immediately accepted the offer for my daughter to get her vaccination, and we were directed to another spot where she could fill out her paperwork for getting a shot. Once my daughter completed her paperwork, we were sent to wait in a line where the vaccines were administered, and after a five-minute wait, we had our first vaccine. After we had our shots, we were directed to wait in a line of cars for fifteen minutes to ensure we did not have any adverse reactions to the vaccination. While waiting for the fifteen minutes, an individual came to our vehicle and scheduled our second vaccination appointment, which was a huge relief since going through the computer system the state had established was cumbersome. What was surprising to my daughter and me was that while we waited during that fifteen-minute time frame, a nurse came by to ask us how we were feeling. We both said we were okay and stated we were surprised that we could get through the vaccine process so quickly and how there were so few cars. The nurse told us that many people were skipping out of their appointsments out of fear of rumored side effects from the vaccine, which was why there was extra serum for individuals like my daughter, who had ridden along. So I had the right schedule for the right night for my daughter to ride along. And now my whole household has been inoculated, which is a relief after three times of being in quarantine. Whew!
• 2021-02-11

  Thoughts on vaccine hesitancy

  It feels like we are entering a new phase of the pandemic, one in which getting as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible in now the most important -- though not the only -- public health priority. Perhaps the biggest problem in getting people vaccinated is the on-going issue of vaccine hesitancy. One issue is that a significant portion of people in certain non-white communities seem hesitant to get the vaccine. On the one hand, this is understandable given the ugly history of scientific experiments being conducted on people of color. On the other hand, many of these communities have been hit disproportionately hard by the pandemic, and gaining herd immunity via vaccine is really the only viable way out. So I think it's imperative that a great effort is made to get these communities vaccinated. This should start with President Biden -- who won the presidency in large part because of support from the Black community -- and Vice-President Harris -- the first African American vice-president. Because both of them have a significant amount of credibility in this community, they really should prioritize a public campaign to convince people that the vaccine is both safe and absolutely necessary, and also that time is of the essence.
• 2021-01-20T12:22:00

  Too close to home

  I was in class on a Wednesday and my phone kept going off like crazy.it was being so distracting so I just decided to check why it was going off and then turn it off for good. I picked up my phone and there were thousands of text messages saying "you need to get tested", "go get a test". At this point I was completely confused, so I asked them what was going on and they said that one of my friends had tested positive for Covid and that I need to get tested because I'm hanged out with them on that Monday. Once I read this I completely froze, I didn't know how to handle this information. I was scared for my life, and for hers, I wasn't sure if she'd be okay. If I was going to be okay. I wasn't paying attention to class at all and everything my teacher was saying was going completely over my head. School got out and all I could think about was how am I going to tell my parents that I came home possibly with Covid. The thought of just having to tell them the news and how they could possibly react to it scared the life out of me. I didn't think that I could tell them because I was afraid they would be too disappointed in me and to scared. I finally got the courage to tell my mom and she surprisingly took the news well. My parents weren't happy but they definitely weren't angry so that's good. They told me that I had to wash everything that I have touched in the past 2 days. I was so glad to tell my parents because holding that secret in was tearing me apart inside. I checked in with me friend everyday to make sure she was ok. It's scary to see it on the news and to hear it on the radio but once it hits too close to home, it can really change your entire life.
• 2021-02-11

  Vaccine Censorship 1: RFK

  RFK Jr has been censored for his opinions on vaccines. The secondary factor from this whole pandemic has been the evolution of social media and internet censorship of certain opinions and individuals.
• 2021-02

  Vaccine

  I feel like I am running out of ideas for JOTPY entries so I thought I would share my excitement for my second vaccine appointment next week. While I know we still have a long road ahead with COVID-19, I am excited to take this next step for myself. The peace of mind will be worth it alone. It will be nice when the "plague year" is a memory rather than a current event following herd immunity.
• 2020

  Russian death rates of 2020 pike due to covid

  It is a newspapers article by a Russian media Medusa that demonstrates that Russia has one of the highest covid-related death rates in the world.
• 
  2021-02-09

  INTO THE UNKNOWN

  My oldest friend—let's call her Dr. Z— is an infectious disease specialist. She has been working on an AIDS vaccine for decades now, so when COVID came along, it was traumatic for her in a different way. COVID has commonalities with AIDS and she was grim about vaccine prospects. Thankfully, a year later we are all getting vaccinated as a Herculean national effort unfolds. A few days ago New York State announced that pregnant women could now join the ranks of the vaccine-worthy, so my pregnant cousin asked me if I would ask my friend if it was safe. Dr. Z has two daughters, also both doctors in busy New York City hospitals. This was the exchange we had. And now, I ask you...what would you do?
• 
  2021-02-09

  A Field Trip to the Doctor

  What it's like to go to the doctor for a non-Covid19 reason.
• 
  2020-02-09

  Drop-off COVID testing

  ASU just announced a drop-off COVID-19 saliva testing program. Testing at ASU and in the community, thanks to the ASU Biodesign Institute, has been more accessible and efficient compared to other states. Now, ASU is letting people pick up kits, fill them, and drop them off at a collection box. Results are speedy, returned within about 48 hours. It's reassuring to work in an enivornment that takes the public health crisis seriously and is actively taking measures to reduce risk and exposure.
• 
  2021-02-08

  Recognize Their Courage and Sacrifices

  Evaluating the financial impact of the pandemic on the country, House representatives are asking the government to remember and acknowledge those working on the frontlines and their families. The Bloc Québécois demands the government "significantly and sustainably increase Canada health transfers before the end of 2020."
• 
  2021-02-02

  Inadequate Sick Leave Jeopardizes Canadian Health Workers and Patients

  Due to inadequate medical supplies, lack of vaccines, and inability to slow down the spread of the virus, the pandemic rages on. To make matters worst, over half of Canadian workers lack sufficient sick leaves, which contribute to more outbreaks and the dangers of contracting COVID-19.
• 
  2021-01-27

  Covid-19 Vaccines Mean an End to Isolation at a Retirement Home

  Retirement home residents have started to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. For many, this means they can visit loved ones in different care units and see family. However, high COVID-19 rates are keeping some retirement and other care homes from letting their residents visit or have visitors.
• 
  2021-02-07

  Supporting Healthcare Workers with Meals & Food Services

  Everyone can surely agree that healthcare workers are our everyday heroes. Healthcare workers are the ones who had voluntarily trained and continue to medically assist those who need it without discrimination. All this while risking their own safety and well-being during a deadly pandemic. They are no strangers to long work hours while also having to always stay alert and ready, because quality care can greatly influence someone’s life. Due to most of their time taking care of patients, one can easily see how it can drain their own health as well. Hospitals are not exactly known for their top tier food options either. For these reasons, organizations like Meals for Heroes had worked with food services to help these essential workers with their meals. With the COVID-19 pandemic closing many businesses as well due to safety regulations, we have also been seeing the same businesses (as well as bigger ones) pitch in with meals and more affordable meal plans. Some places are even giving healthcare workers food for free. https://www.uab.edu/fightcovid19/impact/meals-for-heroes https://alabamanewscenter.com/2021/01/20/meals-for-heroes-will-continue-serving-meals-to-frontline-health-care-workers-fighting-covid-19/ https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/free-food-for-healthcare-workers
• 
  2021-02-07

  3 More Vaccine Differences by State Stories

  Shows the differences in individuals included in vaccine phases in different states. It is important because it lets people see the official categories and who should have been when.
• 
  2021-02-07

  Jo Ann Richey Oral History, 2021/02/07

  This is an interview with Jo Ann Richey about her COVID-19 vaccination experience in January of 2021. She talks about how pandemic restrictions have affected her work and social life. She also speaks about where and how her vaccine was conducted. She includes personal insight into how she hopes the vaccines may change her life and society as whole in the future. Contributed by Clinton P. Roberts, HSE, for Arizona State University for the #RuralVoices and #VaccineStories collections
• 
  2021-01-27

  Adventist Health Sonora Cuts Short Its Mass Coronavirus Vaccination Clinics

  This article addresses the issues my hometown is having with their vaccination process. While I do know several individuals who were able to receive the vaccine before the clinics were cut short, this is disappointing to those who had not yet received the vaccine. My hometown is a small community with many older residents, so it is important for the health and well-being of those in the area that the vaccination process happens as quickly and as cleanly as possible. Hopefully the new approach to this rollout is successful, and those eligible will receive the vaccine.
• 
  2021-01-04

  Fast Rollout of Virus Vaccine Trials Reveals Tribal Distrust

  This article discusses why the Navajo Nation is hesitant to participate in the COVID-19 vaccine trials. Although Navajo leaders approved members to participate in the trial, tribal members have expressed extreme hesitation due to lack of informed consent in past experimental trials or the unethical use of tribal medical samples for other experiments. It is important to include this piece in the JOTPY archive as it documents a COVID-19 example of the distrust tribes have held towards the government since the colonization of their lands over the past several centuries.
• 
  2020-10

  Keep Trucking Along

  In the beginning of the year 2020 no one knew just how historical this year was going to be. As a high school senior, senoritis was really kicking in and graduation was in sight. One day, in my global studies class, on the news, we heard of this crazy virus going around in China. I remember thinking, “Oh, it’s fine. It won’t affect me in anyway.” Little did I know there was a whole storm of challenges, obstacles, and battles coming my way. At first, I thought I was just getting a nice two-week break from school and we would be back, and everything would be fine. That two weeks has tuned into over 150 days of lockdown and a completely changed way of life. Every single person all over the world was affected someway by this virus, which is crazy to think about. Nearly everyone struggled with mental health and life changes throughout this time. I did as well, and although my mental health was at its utmost low during the Covid-19 pandemic, and is still recovering as the virus is still taking its toll with a new strand and heightened cases, I want to bring attention to an even bigger struggle I dealt with during this unpredictable, utterly horrible time period: the loss of my best friend. On October 26, 2020 my grandmother passed away at the glorious age of 90. My grandmother had health issues for the past five or so years of her life, but her state started to rapidly decline in August of 2020. At this same time, I was preparing to leave for my first semester as a student-athlete at Duquesne University. Leaving my family, my friends, my hometown, and my significant other was already so difficult but adding on the fact that leaving and knowing that it would take away my last moments with my grandmother was a pain I never thought was possible. I chose to still go and start off the semester since my grandma was moving around hospitals and I could still call her and see her on weekends if I wanted to go home and do so, and it was what she wanted me to do. I talked to her right before leaving for school. With the pandemic, she was only allowed two visitors everyday between the times of 2 and 5pm. So, with the majority of our family living around the hospitals, we had to all schedule times each day so everyone could get a chance to talk to her because of the one visitor limit in the hospital rooms. And I will never forget talking to my grandmother through my face mask about college and hearing how excited and proud she was for me to be where I am in my life today. Only a few days after that conversation, my family and grandmother made the decision for her to go into a hospice facility. This hospice facility was far more strict than the hospitals. My grandmother was allowed no visitors in her room. The only way we could talk to her was over the phone. We are extremely lucky that she was given a room with a window. My family would go and stand at her window so we could see her and more importantly so that she could see us while we talked on the phone with her. I came home for a weekend or two to talk with her through her window and got to see her in her chair with her favorite blanket smiling at all the accomplishments and stories I wanted to share with her. Once her health was at its lowest and her long, well deserved time here was nearing an end, me and my two siblings got to go into her room and say our goodbyes. The next morning my mother got a phone call that my grandmother had passed away. Losing someone, especially someone so close like my grandmother was to me, is the hardest thing in life. But with a global pandemic on top of it … the difficulty and feelings of it all cannot be explained. In the end, I know my grandmother would want us to keep living our lives and “keep trucking along” as she used to say. So that is what we did. Knowing now that she is at peace, out of pain and that she does not have to deal with this crazy world situation in her unstable health condition anymore, gives me and my family closure and security during this time of uncertainty and fear. And I will always know she is right beside me, pandemic or not, watching over me and cheering me on each and every day.
• 
  2021-01-16

  An Eco-Socialist model for fixing the COVID-19 crisis

  Rob Wallace, an evolutionary epidemiologist with the Agroecology and Rural Economics Research Corps, reflects on the state of the US's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He lists a set of demands, per se, that outline how focusing on an environmental ethic based on the principle of meeting the needs of each person can provide a way out of the pandemic.
• 
  2021-02-07

  Plan A Reopening Schools and Rights

  This document from North Carolina Association of Educators is explaining the legal facts that educators have in my state when it comes to opening schools fully under Plan A. This document shows what legal protections we have and don't have as a state employee and how COVID-19 is viewed as a public health issue. It is important to note that as of right now most school districts in my state are not on Plan A which is 100% open but instead are either on Plan B or Plan C. Plan B is partially open/ online and Plan C is strictly online. Our governor is encouraging our schools to reopen and is opening more vaccine sites as teachers are next in line for the vaccine. This is important to document because every state is doing so many different things and people's rights vary from state to state.
• 
  2021-01-16

  My Experience with the COVID-19 Vaccine

  Through my job, I was privileged enough to be able to receive both doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. My first dose went fine, and I had no ill effects besides a pretty sore arm for about a day. I had heard the second dose was a little more brutal and consequently I was slightly nervous when the day came. As a pharmacy intern and pharmacy major, I am a proponent of the vaccine (and all vaccines) and was excited to receive it. Also, as a college student I am ready for life to go back to as normal as possible. Virtual education is undeniably more difficult, and I saw the vaccine as a step in the “normal” direction. My boyfriend drove me up for the second dose and as I had heard helped, I took two ibuprofen tablets before going in. The first thing I noticed that was different was the shot itself. Quite honestly, the second shot HURT. The first one was just a pinch and analogous to a normal vaccine. The second shot was immediately more painful, and my arm was bleeding. The pain quickly passed as I sat for the 15 minutes of observation afterwards. I felt okay, went home, and proceeded throughout my day normally. I was relieved that it had gone well…until that night. As I tried to go to bed that night, I noticed my stomach was not feeling well but I figured I would feel better in the morning. Shortly after, I began to shake violently. I had such bad chills and could not go to sleep because I was shaking so badly. My muscles began to ache as time went on, but I could not control them. In the morning I noticed I had bruises. The arm I got vaccinated in throbbed and I began to feel very nauseous. These symptoms went on for hours and I did not fall into a restless sleep until 3am. The next few days I gradually felt better, but I barely left my bed. Luckily, the semester had yet to start so I could afford to have some lazy days. I felt so fatigued and just off. The arm in which I had been vaccinated remained bruised and painful for just over a week and my lymph nodes became quite inflamed. All of these symptoms are normal after receiving the vaccine, according to a pamphlet about the Pfizer vaccine given to me during my first dose. After two weeks I felt completely normal, but I wish I would have known what to expect after the second dose. I do not want my story to make people afraid of the vaccine because if I could go back, I would still receive both doses. The symptoms I experienced were no joke though, and I was not expecting to be hit as hard as I was. No vaccine has ever impacted me like that, and it was a rude awakening for my immune system. I have since come to find out that I am not alone in my symptoms and that about 70% of people have similar symptoms after receiving the vaccine. I am slightly concerned about the long-term effects of the vaccine because obviously these effects have not been studied. However, I am thankful I had the opportunity to receive the vaccine, and I am also thankful I had this opportunity to share my experience with it to hopefully help others feel more prepared should they choose to receive it.
• 2021-02-06

  Burnt Out Before Beginning

  January 2020 was going to be my year. I had gotten an internship in Pittsburgh, PA that only selected 200 kids out of the thousands of applicants. Not only did I get the internship, but I got it on the unit I wanted to be on, the Emergency Department. March of 2020 comes along. The pandemic has now hit the United States, and everyone panics. May of 2020 comes along. Still in quarantine and in lockdown. I had been out of my job for the past 2 months and was about to begin my internship. Although I was excited to get back to work, I never imagined that it would be as brutal as it was. Every morning at 6:30 am we would get screened at the door. Masks were given out, temperatures were taken, and the three health screening questions were asked. At first, no one came to the hospital. Everyone was still scared and didn’t want to come to the place that held confirmed COVID-19 positive patients. This lasted about a week. Then everyone began coming. Before we knew it we had more patients than staff and we didn’t have enough beds for everyone coming in. Patients would come in with a broken foot and next thing you knew they were COVID positive. Did we wear our mask properly around them? Did they cough on us? Did we maintain 6 feet apart? These were all the questions rambling through our heads once we had learned that a patient was positive after taking care of them all day under standard precautions. We didn’t have enough N-95 masks for everyone to wear, so you had one and that’s what you used all the time. The amount of PPE (personal protective equipment) was far less than we needed. The hospitals tried their best to get them, but sometimes we had to make do without it. At the time, not everyone could get swabbed. We didn’t have enough it’s for everyone so only those that had 3 major symptoms (fever, sore throat, body aches). This was before we knew the asymptomatic patients were so high in number. Every day we wore our masks for 13 plus hours. Every day we wore gloves and gowns for 13 plus hours. Every day we put our lives at risk to save everyone else for 13 plus hours. This is only a snippet of what healthcare members saw throughout this pandemic and are still seeing today. Within 4 months, I was burnt out from the pandemic. I graduate in May and I fear to see what the hospitals will be like then. In better words: wear your masks, get vaccinated if possible, and follow the guidelines. It may not harm some of you personally, but it is hurting your healthcare professionals every day that this pandemic lingers.
• 
  2021-02-05

  Tempe Chiropractor Knows How to Bring Back Taste and Smell

  A local Tempe chiropractor claims he found a fool-proof way to bring back the taste and smell of people who were once infected with Covid. The article states, "Dr. Ross said he simply stimulates the olfactory nerve and taste buds. Demonstrating how it works, Dr. Ross said, 'Have someone put their hand on their heart. The other finger, index finger, is going to be put right at the olfactory nerve, which is at the base of the brain, just above the sinuses. At that point, you're holding both of those. It's literally just a flick on the back of the head. The second part is they stick their tongue out and touch their finger to the tongue. Same thing again, flick them on the back of the head.'" This process has not been reviewed and Dr. Ross stated it might not work for everyone.
• 
  2021-02-05

  Troops to Help with Vaccine Roll-Out

  The White House announced that 1,000 troops will be deployed to California in the next few weeks to aid with the vaccine roll out process. This is a single part of the Biden administration's "whole government" approach to ended the virus. The administration is already setting the goal of 1 million doses per day and may up that to 1.5 million.
• 
  2021-02-05

  Johnson & Johnson's Single-Dose Vaccine

  Johnson & Johnson has submitted a request for emergency approval of their single dose vaccine. As the current vaccines require two doses, this would, in no doubt, help speed up the vaccination process. The down side is that this vaccine is around 30% less effective than the current vaccines.
• 2020-02-05

  Father Received 2nd Dose

  The other day I went with my dad to the State Farm Stadium vaccination site in Glendale and he got his 2nd Pfizer dose. It's amazing to know that for him the pandemic is "over", as he likely will not be hospitalized if he does contract Covid-19 in the future. As my father was my main concern being a young person, it lifts a weight of my shoulders knowing if I come back from class with Covid that I won't hurt him. Currently, he is the only one in my family, including extended, who has received it. He's apart of the minority of Americans who are fully vaccinated, hopefully the numbers will increase soon.
• 
  2021-01-28

  State expands access to COVID-19 vaccinations in rural areas

  In Tennessee, the state has announced new partnerships with rural pharmacies to more effectively reach the elderly outside of urban areas. This particular article focuses on East Tennessee and the rural counties surrounding the Knoxville metropolitan area. This is great news to those who do not live in cities as Tennessee is a mostly rural state. For some elderly people, they would potentially have to drive two hours to get to the city to get a vaccine. However, because of this new partnership, it will make it far easier for those in rural areas to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
• 
  2021-02-03

  The Joy Of Receiving A COVID-19 Vaccine In A Nursing Home

  Residents at a Colorado assisted living faclity got their second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. They are now allowed to have gatherings as long as they continue social distance and wear a mask. Their family can also visit them once again as long as certain safety measures are followed.
• 
  2021-02-04

  The Emotional Toll of the Loss of Smell

  When weighing the various outcomes of contracting Covid-19, the loss of smell seemed rather low on the list. Smell always ranked rather low in the hierarchy of the five senses. Sense of smell was always the go to answer in the childhood ice breaker “if you had to lose one of your five senses, which would you choose and why?” The lowly sense of smell seemed the least important. And in the Covid-19 experience, this strange symptom seemed to pale in comparison with being put on a ventilator, going in a coma, or losing one’s life. However, this article on the emotional impact of losing one’s sense of smell is a reminder that the aftermath of Covid-19, and the very ability to smell, is more complicated than one could imagine. As numerous survivors attest, the loss of smell is disorienting and depressing. It is not simply the inability to taste food, or coping with ordinary smells that are now offensive. Scents are tied to our memories, and many survivors relate losing their sense of smell to losing their sense of self. As this article explains, many survivors are turning to smell training in hopes of regaining a part of themselves that many of us never gave a second thought to prior to this pandemic.
• 
  2021-02-02

  Holding her Baby for the First Time

  As a mother of two, two thoughts have plagued the darkest corners of my mind for the past ten months: “I can’t let anything happen to the kids” and “what would happen if something happened to me?” The thoughts terrify me so much I can’t even say them aloud. So, to read about pregnant women trying to safely bring life into the world amidst the pandemic is an unbearable thought. The thought of being pregnant right now is truly terrifying, so this article struck a deep chord when I read it. A woman at the very end of her pregnancy contracted Covid-19, gave birth while unconscious, and then spent 75 days on oxygen and a ventilator. Her baby was born November 4, and just this past week, on January 27, she was able to hold her for the first time. Seeing the pictures of this mom, who I don’t know and will never meet, with her baby is a wonderful moment of hope. Clearly this family has a long road ahead, as the mom is still weak and on oxygen. However, when you see the pictures of them together, the oxygen mask seems to disappear and all I see is a mother’s love and true joy. A story of survival, and a glimmer of hope in a year that has been bleak.
• 
  2020-05-28

  “Treated like a pariah': 11 COVID-19 survivors reveal what they want people to know

  This article presents the sometimes-unspoken stigma that accompanies having Covid-19. It invited survivors to share what they want people to know, because, according to the article, “for many people living through this, sharing their story is the only way they feel validated as they wait for researchers to wade through the unknowns.” The article expresses feelings of isolation from some who are avoided now that they have had Covid. Others share that there is a sense of blame thrust upon them, by those who feel as though they are at fault for getting sick. Still others disclose the subpar treatment by their health providers. Their lessons include: the disease can turn severe quickly, Covid-19 shouldn’t be about politics, don’t let your guard down, warn your friends and family, it is not just the flu, people need to have empathy, the suffering is real, be your own advocate, precautions aren’t foolproof, researchers and doctors are trying their best, and be grateful. Overall, these stories remind us that even when a person survives, they have healing yet to go.
• 
  2020-07-20

  They Survived: Beating COVID-19 After 70

  When Covid-19 cases began making the news in America, the stories were centered around nursing homes, where the population seemed especially susceptible. Day after day more reports of Covid-19 infecting and killing numerous patients and residents within these facilities painted a dire picture. And it is still dire. However, there are individuals who, despite their advanced age, survived Covid-19. This article from the AARP highlights four individuals in their 70s and 80s who suffered through serious cases involving long hospital stays and ventilators that made it through this virus. An interesting aspect of this article is every person interviewed ends their section by chastising people going out to restaurants, bars, and not wearing masks. Though they survived, they used this platform to try and convey the severity of the situation. As an 80-year-old female survivor from New York stated “This is not the flu. This is something that wants to kill you. It saps your strength and makes you feel like you prefer to die. This disease is such an unknown quantity. I cannot understand why anyone would refuse to wear a mask. It's a pandemic!” Hopefully, people reading survivor stories such as these will make people reflect on the choices, they are making for themselves and their communities.
• 
  2021-02-03

  Masks mandatory inside middle and high schools in B.C.

  Masks are now mandatory inside middle and high schools in British Columbia, Canada. Elementary students are currently not required to. Schools are also asking for more money in order to help with improving safety for returning staff. While much of the population is currently wearing masks, the government has been relatively laissez-faire compared to the United States on compliance.
• 
  2021-01-18

  Stories of Resilience

  As Covid-19 continues to rage and take lives, there are also the lucky ones that survive. This article shares the stories of 14 Covid-19 survivors. Though the people featured come from different age groups, races, socio-economic statuses, and geography, they all share the common experience of coming out on the other side of a lengthy hospital stay. The stories range from an infant who has spent most of his life in the hospital and has survived both a liver transplant and Covid-19, a woman who is now considered a “long hauler” with debilitating symptoms that plague her long after diagnosis, a nurse who caught the virus saying goodbye to own mother who was dying of Covid-19 and regrets nothing, a man who fought two weeks on a ventilator determined to live to see his daughter get married, and a couple who survived together and were able to celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary. These stories remind us of the seriousness of Covid-19, as one survivor states "This is not a joke. This is for real. Take it seriously. It can happen to anybody." However, these stories also remind us of the tenacity of the human spirit, the skills of the medical staff, and the hope that is still alive within this pandemic year.