Items
Subject is exactly
Healthcare
-
2020-05-12
Smell and taste disorders during COVID‐19 outbreak: Cross‐sectional study on 355 patients, Dell’Era, Valeria ; Farri, Filippo ; Garzaro, Giacomo ; Gatto, Miriam ; Aluffi Valletti, Paolo ; Garzaro, Massimiliano, 2020 (Hoboken, John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Head & neck, 2020-07, Vol.42 (7), p.1591-1596).
2. Description: Among the most commonly observed effects of Covid-19 on patients are deteriorations (temporary or permanent) of taste and smell (Dell’Era et al. 2020, p. 1591). During the Italian Covid-19 outbreak in 2020, Novara University Hospital conducted a cross-sectional study examining the extent of smell-and-taste related disorders among patients confirmed to have contracted the virus. Results from the study suggest that an overwhelming share of patients experience sharp alterations in both senses, the severity of which differs from subject to subject. While extreme symptoms disappeared a fortnight after subjects participated in the study, a portion of respondents reported lingering sensory effects resulting from the virus (Dell’Era et al. 2020, pp. 1591-96). -
2021-09-07
Thoughts on Covid-19 Vaccine and Blood Clots: Social Media Screenshot
As someone who has studied the history of disease and epidemics, I know that disease causes widespread fear and panic. The uncertainties and unknowns of disease cause people to question themselves, others, and even medical professionals. Sometimes, questioning and being skeptical is what saved lives. For example, questioning Dr. Rush's treatment methods in the yellow fever epidemic of Philadelphia or questioning miasma theory during the outbreaks of cholera in London. Recently, there have been cases of blood clots as a result of the Covid-19 vaccine. This is a screenshot of what WHO has to say about the blood clots and a comment from myself. While I would love to get the vaccine, and I was originally hopeful about getting it, I'm not too scared and unsure what to do. Although WHO says cases of blood clots are rare, there are still many people like myself who are skeptical and only want to make the right decision for their own health and life. With talk of possible mandated vaccines, I am uncertain about what the future will look like for me and others like me. -
2020-07-01
Mask Up: Wear This, Not That to Protect Others
A blog post from Banner Health about risks associated with gathering. -
2020-06-22
What Long-Term Effects Could COVID-19 Have on Your Lungs?
A blog post from Banner Health about the long-term effects Covid-19 can have on the lungs. -
2020-06-08
Social Gatherings and Staying Safe from COVID-19: 5 Questions to Ask Yourself
A blog post from Banner Health about risks associated with gathering. -
2020-06-05
Should You Venture In? 4 Coronavirus Safety Questions to Consider
A blog post form Banner Health about safety risks. -
2020-06-04
COVID-19 Safety: 5 Questions to Ask Before Heading Outdoors
A blog post from Banner Health discussing guidelines about outside activities. -
2020-05-27
Is My Medication Safe? Securing & Disposing of Old Medicine
A blog post from Banner Health on how to safely dispose of and store medications. -
2020-05-18
Don’t Let COVID-19 Halt a Well-Child Visit
A blog post from Banner Health discussing the importance of well-child visits, even during COVID restrictions. -
2020-05-15
Take Charge of Your Health
A blog post from Banner Health on how to take charge of your own healthcare. -
2020-05-13
Is Telehealth the Present and Future of Healthcare?
A blog post from Banner Health discussing the benefits of telehealth visits. -
2021-09-29
Vaccine Apartheid
A post from the RedFishStream Instagram page, which details the ways in which the West has dominated vaccine production and distribution, resulting in a disparity between available vaccinations for overexploited nations, particularly in Africa. Largely, this can be traced to patent restrictions either for medical equipment, or for the vaccines themselves; which make producing these vaccines almost, and if not impossible for these nations. As the description reads, "Less than 1% of the almost 6 billion COVID-19 vaccines administered worldwide have gone to low-income countries, while more than 80% were delivered to just 10 wealthy countries. Fewer than 4% of Africans have been fully immunized, with African leaders speaking out against Vaccine Apartheid at the UN General Assembly last week. According to the WHO, only 15% of the promised vaccine donations from rich countries have been delivered to low-income countries. An Amnesty International report published last week highlighted that when world leaders met at the G7 Summit to discuss the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out last June, the English county of Cornwall, where the G7 Summit took place, and which has a population of just over half a million, “had administered more vaccinations than 22 African countries combined.” -
2021-10-06
Covid Hospitalizations Drop Nationwide
As of September 1st, Covid-19 cases are dropping nationwide. Even though there are still hot spots across the United States, cases have dropped nearly fifty percent. -
2021-10-08
Organ Transplant Debate: Get Vaccinated or Move Down the List
This article discusses the debate between patients who are unvaccinated and those who are vaccinated. Should it be a requirement for a transplant patient to get the vaccine? Being unvaccinated puts not only the patient at-risk for contracting COVID-19, but it exposes doctors, nurses, and other patients as well. Several states have already made it a requirement to get the vaccine before being placed on the organ transplant list. -
2020
Effects of PPE
This photo is an important reflection of what healthcare providers have had to endure and the lasting physical and mental toll the pandemic has taken. It was taken after a 12 hour shift of wearing PPE non-stop. -
2021
Another Hospital
My mother worked at several hospitals throughout the beginning of the pandemic, as there were nurse shortages. At this particular location, she working in several units including the ICU, outpatient surgery, and distributing vaccines. This is important to me because seeing my mom dressed like this and hearing about how she worked in multiple places any given day put into perspective how dire the situation was and continues to be. -
2020
My Mom Working in the COVID ICU
While this is not me, it is still important to me since it is my mom. She has worked in the COVID ICU almost the entire time, and I was really affected by seeing her gowned up like that the first time. Her career during my lifetime has not required so much PPE, so it was a really surreal moment that forced me to really appreciate the extremity of the pandemic and how much danger my mom was in. -
2021-05-16
Vaccine Hesitancy in the Black Community
This tweet reflects an ongoing controversy of the Covid-19 vaccine. The media has reported a hesitancy of the mRNA vaccine amongst the black community, but with little to no context on why there is such hesitancy. Based on the history of the U.S. public health institution, there have been reported inequalities that include a racial hierarchy within the medical system. This tweet specifies the instances of medical malpractice committed towards people of color and insists on an understanding of racial inequality through the lens of people of color that led to skeptical feelings about the vaccine. -
2021-10-08
EMS and Covid
EMS is facing unprecedented challenges in the age of Covid. Response times are up due to the extra 911 call volumes, not to mention first responder burnout contributing to staffing issues. How has EMS been affected in your area? -
2021-10-08
Idaho and the Overrun Hospitals
Idaho hospitals are so overrun with Covid patients and so understaffed that they are drowning. Idaho has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the nation and many people are getting sick. Many hospitals on the border Idaho shares with Washington are choosing to send their sick patients to Washington. This in turn is adding to the burden carried in Eastern Washington. Many healthcare workers in Idaho are burnt out and they are helpless because of the divisiveness caused by politics and Covid. -
2020-12-01
Jeff Stutler II Oral History, 2020/12/01
This is an audio recording about my family's challenges in being with my father when he had a stroke in December of 2020. Forced distancing during family emergencies can be quite a scary experience. -
2021-10-06
The Fifth Wave and it's Strain on a Small Costal Town
The coastal town of Elma, Washington has been hit hard by Covid. The smaller-sized hospitals are overrun with Covid patients and the burden being put on healthcare infrastructure in the area is massive. People are having to wait hours for care at local hospitals and chances are if you call an ambulance, it will not be able to take you to a local hospital. The extra driving is eating up the EMS system's time and causing issues with getting care from emergency services. -
2020-08-04
Experiences of Home Health Care Workers during COVID-19 in New York City
Interview with Madeline R. Sterling, MD, author of Experiences of Home Health Care Workers in New York City During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic: A Qualitative Analysis, and Theresa A. Allison, MD, PhD, author of Extreme Vulnerability of Home Care Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Call to Action -
2021-10-06
Sweden, Denmark Halt Moderna’s Covid Shot for Younger People
Sweden and Denmark decided to halt vaccinations with Moderna Inc.’s Covid-19 shot for younger people because of potential side effects. -
2020-05
The Year That Never Felt Real
When COVID-19 first started spreading in the United States I remember the hysteria that spread so quickly. Not very long ago the aisles in every grocery store in America were empty of non-perishable goods, water bottles, and toilet paper. In the first Fam Bam group chat messages we were making fun of the people buying up all the water bottles, and toilet paper but when we couldn't find toilet paper literally anywhere a little bit of fear struck our household. Just as everyone else did, we began to realize the reality of the new world we were living in and the differences it would make in our lives. In the initial isolation stages I am not going to lie, there was some enjoyment. No work, mandatory social expectations, I was isolated playing my video games, reading my books, ignorant to what was going on in the rest of the world around me almost. It is unhealthy to spend days on end in your room without much social interaction outside of family, sunlight, exercise, just normal day to day life. The walls of my room felt as though they started to shrink day by day, finally when I was called back to work everything was just... different. We were wearing masks, which in my opinion was not really a big deal at all at this point I had begun to understand the reality of COVID. What I experienced from here on was not enjoyable to say the least, when we began doing things in public again everybody felt sort of tense all the time, the energy in places felt dystopic. As a Starbucks Barista we had to mandate masks to every person that came into our store, as a 24 year old working as the manager on the floor I had to deal with some brutal harassment during this time. Every time a customer came in maskless it was my job to ask them "is it okay if I get a mask for you?" if they said no, I had to ask them to take their order outside or refuse them service. Whether I agreed with the policy or not was irrelevant, I had a job to do if I wished to maintain an income so I did my job. Sometimes I would get cursed at, called communist, and just dealt with genuine harassment on a regular basis. When the governor relieved the state of their state wide mask mandate but Starbucks maintained there's it was even worse for us we were the scape goats for a mask mandate and political arguments between two sides we had no part of, the community treated us like political punching bags. To be quite honest, the transition back into society was emotionally exhausting for everyone, but I will never forget how people treated me as an employee just doing there job. At the end of it, I didn't even realize the year had past it just didn't even feel like it really happened. -
2020-10-29
COVID Testing in Schools
This article informs of the Texas Education Agency's decision to provide covid testing kits to school districts throughout the state. The testing kits were purchased from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and were to be distributed by size of district and rate of infection. From there, the school districts could decide how to make these available to students and staff. -
2021-10-06
COVID-19 and the Family Divide
My submission details the drastic shift in the lives of the family unit after the emergence of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. It is important for me to discuss the pandemic's effects within the household as they pertain to internal religio-political affairs. -
2021-10-05
Pandemic 2020
The pandemic affected many of our day to day lives. To start off it isolated us from socializing with friends, family, coworkers and others. It restricted us from doing our normal daily activities and routines. It made us miss important events and milestones that we can’t take back. For me the pandemic was very difficult, although the pandemic has not ended, the start of the pandemic was the biggest hardship. To start off, I had just started a new job that required me to help others get through the pandemic. I was assisting about 12 dr offices in scheduling patients. This was overwhelming to say the least and caused stress and anxiety. Many of us were facing challenges that can be stressful, overwhelming, and cause strong emotions in adults and children. Public health actions, such as social distancing, were necessary to reduce the spread of COVID-19, but that could make us feel isolated and lonely and could increase stress and anxiety. I know for me it was very hard not to be around my family. I’m very close with my family and not being able to see them and hang out with them definitely took a toll on me. For starters I was not able to be in the delivery room with my sister who was pregnant at the time and I was not able to meet my niece in person for months. The first time I met her was through FaceTime, which was not the same as being able to hold my first niece. Adults struggled adapting to new social routines—from choosing to skip in person gatherings, to consistently wearing masks in public. Daily activities that one would normally do were taken. For me my daily activity was the gym and with the pandemic it caused a shut down and once it reopened it was difficult to adjust to the new “normal”. -
2021-10-01
Ironic meme
A friend of mine who is a nurse and cared for people with Covid throughout the pandemic sent this to me after the vaccination was available for 7 months and she was still caring for patients who didn’t believe in the vaccine or who weren’t yet convinced to get it. It speaks to the burnout and frustration on from line workers. -
2021-10-03T16:30
Ryan Nordstrom Oral History, 2021/10/03
I was interviewing the life of a lab pack chemist in Massachusetts during the midst of the Pandemic, from daily routine to personal feelings. -
2021-10-04
They said we were heroes but they treated us like villains
My experience with the covid 19 pandemic was very different from a lot of people’s. Instead of staying home and not going outside, I had to work. I wasn’t a nurse or doctor or even a service industry employee. I did work in health care but registration. I also didn’t work at an ER or hospital. I worked at an urgent care that didn’t treat covid but did test for it. This urgent care was also in the middle of Los Angeles, California. I was doing patient registration in Los Angeles, California, at the peak of the pandemic when one in every three people had covid. Since we were so understaffed and overworked, I easily worked about 60 hours every week for almost a year. Now I’ve worked many jobs throughout my adult life. These include retail during Christmas, a theme park during summer and Halloween haunts, and the graveyard shift at a casino. Out of all those, the worst people and treatment I encountered were from the patients who wanted to be tested for covid 19 when we ran out of tests. We were a private company, and Los Angeles had multiple free test sites available to anyone in the LA area. You didn’t have to even to be a resident or have insurance. But none of that mattered; they were there and wanted to be tested. Even though it was 9 o’clock at night and we ran out of tests over four hours ago. I know I’ll always be able to find an administration or clerical job in health care. I have over ten years of experience in that field. But, after what I went through during covid, I don’t think I will ever work in health care again. Every time someone says health care works are heroes, all I can think is, they have a funny way of showing it. -
2021-10-04
Thank you but... Get Out!
While perusing facebook, I came across this meme about healthcare workers being threatened with termination if they refuse to get vaccinated. -
2021-10-04
Worldwide Statistics
While researching pandemic memes, I came across this website that compiles statistics on the pandemic from all around the world. -
2021-02
Because I can... thats why...
At the beginning of the year, my workplace began offering free Covid vaccines and time from work to get them. I signed up because I know how important it is. Arguments about whether the vaccine should be mandatory aside, I got it because I can, and there are those that can't and this is my way of helping them too. -
2021-10-04
How Covid-19 Has Changed My Life
The reflection that I have uploaded is a short summary of the biggest impacts Covid-19 has had on my life. This was the first time I've had the opportunity to share how Covid-19 has affected my life and I hope my experience helps others understand what life was like during these times. This submission is important to me because I want people 50 years from now to be able to read this and know how this pandemic has changed the world and how adaptable humans can become. -
2021-05-30
Remembering Society's Humanity
This is a story about being a pregnant person during the pandemic -
2020-05-01
Antibody Testing at the University of Arizona
The University of Arizona offered antibody testing in April and May 2020 to a limited number of community members. The goal was to get a better idea of how many people had already been infected with COVID without realizing it. I signed up for the test which was located at the new Arizona football practice field. This was my first time venturing out of the house since everything shut down and it was a surreal experience, being on campus but not seeing anyone walking around. The university is usually full of people with lots of energy. It was also uncomfortable being around people in the testing site because I had avoided being around anyone other than my immediate family since March. -
2021-01-01
A Brief Timeline
This brief timeline describes my experience during this pandemic. I decided to share my perspective because I am sure most people can relate. -
2020-03-10
Goodbye Grandma
This text I wrote is in memory of my grandma, and the horrible and traumatic flashbacks of Covid 19. This experience took a huge toll on me and my family. -
2020-04-16
Happy Birthday...
Today is April 16th, 2020. Instead of waking my mom up with breakfast in bed, she sends me a photo of herself layered in protective gear. At the time my mother was working at one of the largest hospitals in Queens. She went from working four days a week to working six-seven days a week as the rates of COVID-19 hospitalizations increased. Today is her birthday and instead of celebrating life, she is surrounded by fear, death, and uncertainty. Thank you Mom for being strong and putting your life at risk as an essential worker. Happy Birthday -
2020-03-28
Life During A Pandemic
Personal experience during the Covid-19 -
2020-05-01
The start of a pandemic that shock the medical field to its core
I have worked as a NYC paramedic for several years before the pandemic Covid-19 hit the world. As a paramedic, we were trained to deal with most situations that would happen on an emergency basis. We dealt with any situation as simple as a cut on the arm, to as complex as running a mega code on a cardiac arrest patient. When Covid-19 hit NYC, I was unaware of how bad it was going to get. At first, we thought it was a virus that was weaker than influenza, which is something we deal with on a regular basis. At this time, we would get one call a day that was related to Covid-19. I thought that everyone was over exaggerating. Over time, Covid-19 patients became more frequent, and in the matter of a month, it was the only type of call we would get. It was as if every other medical problem that people had went away. But this was because everyone that wasn't infected with Covid-19 was too afraid to go to the hospital. In the month of May 2020, things started to take a turn for the worst. People were starting to get critical on each call, where my partner and I would need to resort to extreme measures like endotracheal Intubation to help them breath. Sometimes, even intubation wouldn’t be enough, and the patient would go into cardiac arrest from the lack of oxygen in the body. It was a very difficult time for me because I felt powerless to stop people from dying to his terrible disease. In June 2020, it got so bad that the hospitals did not have capacity to accept anymore patients that came in. People were put in hallways, next to nursing stations, and hospitals had to dedicate entire floors to Covid-19 patients as they came in. Then another problem started to rear its head. My Co-workers and friends started to get sick. Those of us with families had to also make a choice, either quit their job to protect their families or live apart from them until this was all over. We did not have enough EMT’s and Paramedics to staff the ambulances we had running on any given day. Those of us who were not sick picked up anywhere from 60-90 hours a week. This struggle continues now as well. All over the world, there are not enough emergency services personal to cope with the amount of call volume that we are given each day. Over time we got adjusted to the madness and medicine advanced enough to be able to treat patients so that most did not become critical. Also, the vaccine was made available to the public and things started to get better. I shared my story to show a side of the pandemic most don’t get to experience. It shows how unprepared we were, and how we were able to prevail overtime. I will also include a video to show some insight on the pandemic that was taken with one of the companies I work with. -
2021-09-24
Mert Erden interviews Danny Rollo about Living Through COVID-19
The contributor of this item did not include verbal or written consent. We attempted to contact contributor (or interviewee if possible) to get consent, but got no response or had incomplete contact information. We can not allow this interview to be listened to without consent but felt the metadata is important. The recording and transcript are retained by the archive and not public. Should you wish to listen to audio file reach out to the archive and we will attempt to get consent. -
2021-03-14
Alex Smith Oral History, 2021/03/14
Self-description: “I’m an artist, writer, musician, and an off-and-on again activist, lecturer, worshopshop leader. I’m coming out of Philadelphia. My work revolves around concepts relating to Afrofuturism; for lack of a better term: superheroes and the conceptual nature of superheroes and the idea of the vigilante and the people’s champions and heroes can walk among us. I use [aesthetics and the immersive ideas of] from science fiction, cyberpunk, solarpunk, biopunk, and Afrofurturism to empower people of color, queer people and to project us into the future and our ideas and culture into the future as well. I use different mediums to do that, my bands Solarized (a sort of noisy punk rock band) and Rainbow Crimes (indie rock, but a little crazier and noisier than many excursions into that). I have written a short story collection called ARKDUST. And I do collage work and soundscapes and curate events like Laser Life, which was a queer sci-fi reading that me and my friends in a collective that I’m in called Metropolarity put together. That’s my praxis right now: a little bit of everything. I view my work as if I’m creating for 18 or 19 or 20 year old Alex, who probably needed some queer Black sci-fi in his life. So, I’m projecting these aspects of myself back to the past to not just nourish my community, but to nourish myself.” Personal website: alexoteric.com Other biographical details: Vegetarian, experiences depression, Pew Center for the Arts Fellow, during COVID is the first time in his life he’s had Health Insurance. Some of our discussion touched on: Using art to project hope and remaining hopeful during the pandemic. Afrofuturism as a part of the fabric of activism, how it is imbedded in culture and impacts queer and POC culture. How Afrofuturism exceeds an “aesthetic revival” of representation of Black people in the future and the kind of work that needs to be done to ensure those futures. Deciding to cancel a show he was organizing in the early days of the pandemic to protect the presenters and audience members. The everydayness of people dying because they don’t have healthcare access or can’t afford medicine* outside of the times of COVID-19; racism, sexism, and transphobia in the healthcare system.Corporate interests and their influence on policy. The unreasonable imperative that artists take the pandemic as an opportunity for productivity when many are out of work. It is hard to make art without fuel and without food. Witnesses barriers in the healthcare while caring for his partner after a stroke 5 years ago, the importance of medical bureaucratic literacy in a “Kafka-esque system”. Excitement about getting the vaccine. The pandemic in geopolitical context. Isolation in practice: Safety precautions and research prior to traveling for a funeral. Hope for “science married with activism”. Scholars in the humanities and social sciences need to be more visible, speak in lay person’s terms, do advocacy, and get in the streets. “Nothing is safe unless it empowers.” Other cultural references: Netflix, Zombie Movies, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Oprah’s interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, Black Panther, Teenage Bounty Hunter, Elon Musk, GoFundMe. A specific reference is made to the need for his sister’s sickle cell anemia medicine in this interview. She dies a few months later. The GoFundMe to cover funeral expenses can be found here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/memorial-fund-for-elizabeth-graham?utm_campaign=p_cp_url&utm_medium=os&utm_source=customer -
2021-02-21
Laura Larson Oral History, 2021/02/21
Self description: “My name is Laura, and I am in two bands right now. I am in a band called Scrunchies and a band called Kitten Forever. I play guitar, base, drums, and I sing in those two bands. I live in Minneapolis, Minnesota. For work, I work at a community cooperative grocery store, in an administrative position, but one that is community outreach based and have a lot to do with meeting and coordinating with our community partners, a lot of the work that I do is about mutual aid, and helping out the community with the resources that we have available to us. Besides that I am a visual artist, I like to paint, I like to draw, I like to read books, and I live in a little duplex with my partner and our cat Sissy.” Some of the things we spoke about included: - In addition to performing in the bands Scrunchies and Kitten Forever, working for a community grocer and its ties to health activism. - Income and racial disparities in Minnesota. - The fear that comes with being uninsured in the United States. - The national confusion around the values of masking and other safety precautions and the burden placed on individuals to make these decisions in the absence of clear and consistent messaging. - The significance of shutting down music events while keeping sporting events going. - Media representation of event cancelations, freezers of bodies, and overwhelmed hospitals. - Living less than a mile from where George Floyd was murdered and movements to defund the police. - How the ongoing destruction of the earth conditioned the pandemic and the enduring importance of climate change. - Grocery store workers being essential workers who still did not receive vaccination prioritization. - Collective trauma and that fear begets fear. - Making and consuming art as a form of self-care. - How new the internet still is as a technology. Cultural references: Save Our Stages, The Atlantic article “Cancel Everything”. See also: https://scrunchies.bandcamp.com/ https://kittenforever.bandcamp.com -
2021-03-31
Gyre Oral History, 2021/03/31
Self-Description: “My name is Gyre. I am a multidisciplinary artist based in South Africa with global ambitions. I specialize in music, but I also work as a freelance writer as well as in dance. I’m a dancer learning to choreograph. Political commentator, particularity with regard to the LBGTQA+ community. I identify as queer. I am homoromatic and homosexual at this point in my life. You never know honey, it’s a spectrum. I had my first venture into artistic expression that is rooted in queer rights and queer understanding and queer theory, was my debut album, titled Queernomics, which was a documented audio-visual book about the contemporary experiences of a Black queer South African male, and that has gotten me into the positions that I express myself in, both out of passion and out of profession. Inkosi Yenkonkoni, which means “The Gay King”, in my native language which is Zulu.” Other details available here: Works produced during the pandemic: Kithi, International LGBTQ+ Rights Festival, writing on football. Some of the things we spoke about included: “What happens at the top is just politics, what happens at the bottom is real life.” Thinking about the term “pandemic” Listening to the body The pandemic exposing state corruption Having written a song called “Quarantine” in 2018 The inadequacies and privileges of Medical Aid in South Africa, having aged out of Medical Aid before COVID, the personal impact of worse-health insurance during pandemic, the importance of demonetizing health care Pre-COVID keeping busy: organizing, walking, collaborating Transit during COVID, sub/urban and outskirt disparities Canceling shows and taking dance classes and rethinking what it means to be productive Global Americanization and the impact of Trump’s pandemic denialism on South African health Moving out of disbelief about the severity of COVID after losing a loved one in the first wave Gratitude for the global influence of the Black Lives Matter movement, and sadness that tragedy in the diaspora brings neocolonialism to the fore The importance of social media for queer counter-violence and activist fractures among LGBTQA+ Feeling allyship with the #metoo movement How homophobia intersects with everyday altercations about social distancing The anxieties of hooking up during the pandemic The importance that scientists learn to speak in lay terms about climate change and vaccines Existence as resistance and creating art “Spread love not tolerance” Other cultural references include: Trans Day of Visibility, astrology, and the TV series Pose. -
2021-09-20
KHN: "I Got a 'Mild' Breakthrough Case. Here's What I Wish I'd Known"
I recently got a message from my best friend since middle school telling me that she had tested positive from Covid. She was vaccinated before I was and quarantined more vigilantly during the majority of 2020 than anyone else I knew. Delta variant breakthrough cases are less rare than people believe. Part anecdote part advice The KHN article answers common questions about what to do if you become one of the breakthrough cases of Covid-19 and what this may mean long term. -
2021-09-17
Ariel Emrani and Kate Roche Oral History, 2021/09/17
This audio file shares two perspectives and personal stories about the pandemic. -
2020-03
Recollections from an Oncology Nurse
My mom is an oncology nurse and has worked in the field of nursing for the past 30 years. I recently asked her to talk to me about her experience this past year as a healthcare worker. She recalled the first week in March when things were becoming intense. People were asked to wear face shields and gowns as they were working in an immune-compromised area where the patients had cancer. At the time there was no vaccine. “It was incredibly intense and scary” my mother said. “People were worried about getting Covid from other staff at the hospital and also worried about contracting Covid from the patients.” “I walked into the hospital and there was an incredible underlying anxiety, the feeling of unease was palpable. People did not talk to each other like they normally did - everyone was consumed with the thought of not using each other’s pens, putting gloves on when receiving things from the pharmacy. Things we would never have even thought of before.” She continued, “It was a feeling of both being unsettled and a blind trust you put in your coworkers to be as clean, as responsible and in isolation outside of work as you. The intensity of that feeling was there the moment you walked in. The environment had changed. People were not as happy, communicative, relaxed.” She explained how working in Covid - there was an incredible newness to it - a fear and apprehension. -
2021-03-30
Vaccines Rollin’ Out. Covid’s Over?
The picture that I have chosen for the archive is one of me after getting the vaccine in March of 2021. After receiving the vaccine, I captioned the photo, like many of my optimistic peers, “Covid over.” Since last February of 2020 when the pandemic started, a vaccine was finally being distributed across the country (USA), and a majority of people were ecstatic that quarantining was over. But little did I know, many people would be against taking the vaccine leading to variants of Covid-19 like the Delta variant. This picture was taken six months ago from when this archive was being made, and Covid is still not over because people choose to believe these conspiracy theories of the government putting microchips in the vaccine and other ridiculous things like that. Even with a vaccine that is available to everyone in the United States, the pandemic is still raging on with the Delta variant running rampant in the hospitals which has an even worse effect than the normal strain that was going around from February 2020 to around May of 2021. This picture is just to show how hopeful people get from new technology coming out that can save thousands of lives, but ignorant people choose to convince others what they believe since they are spreading their crazy selfish conspiracies. I was so hopeful of having a normal sophomore year of college, but once again Covid is still present (as of September 14, 2021) putting the elderly at risk and quarantining/putting a hold on people’s lives.