Items
Date is exactly
2020-07-27
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2020-07-27
Empty Rockefeller Center
During the height of Covid, when New York City first went into lockdown, it was surreal to say the least. I think the last time the city was so empty and void of life was 9/11, so to see it again in 2020 really highlighted just how severe the situation was. Two of my sisters, who are a nurse and hospital manager, talked about being in the city for work, and practically being the only ones working in person, and it feeling like some kind of post apocalyptic movie. I remember around May of 2020, I helped my other sister move out of her dorms at #NYU, and it took about 15-20 mins to get to the bottom of Manhattan (Union Square) from The Bronx, due to the lack of fellow cars on the road. To see such a highly populated and lively city such as NYC turn into a ghost town almost overnight was something of a shock. It was one thing to see photos, and speak on how insane the situation was, but to actually be in the heart of Manhattan at this time was… well scary. So, seeing such a busy area such as Rockefeller center be completely empty is insane to say the least, and brings up a sad reminder of just how bad things were in the initial stages of the pandemic. -
2020-07-27
Patience and Fortitude
The New York Public Library’s website explains, “During the 1930s, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia named [the library lions] Patience and Fortitude for the qualities New Yorkers would need to survive the economic depression.” I remembered this fact and connected immediately with it the first time I saw Patience and Fortitude wearing their masks in solidarity with the New Yorkers they have watched over for more than a century. It struck me that we would need those virtues to make it through COVID-19 as well. “Those lion statues have seen New York struggle through and overcome many hardships from the 1917 Flu to the Great Depression to September 11th,” I thought. Things were grim in New York in 2020. We were the first to experience the horror that would eventually engulf the whole country. The infection rate was high, hospitals were full, people were dying. It was easy to despair. The masked lions were a powerful symbol of the resolve and resilience of New Yorkers and a reminder that this turmoil, too, would pass into history and the city - like the lions - would remain standing. -
2020-07-27
Desolation
The moment I saw this photo, I felt the profoundness of it. The New York subway system empty. Normally people would be walking through these gates, flooding the long hall between trains and destinations. The thing that strikes me more than the emptiness is the long tunnel leading to the exit. Well over 100 feet long the tunnel seems to go on forever, a feeling that mimics the endless period of the covid lockdown. It just felt as if it would never end, and now, looking at the tunnel I feel a sense of sadness, as if a year of my life was wasted, one that no matter how much I try to forget, I cannot. -
2020-07-27
Are you not entertained?
A comic strip about Covid-19 -
2020-07-27
The Social Lounge Bar
Located in Saint Augustine, FL. Business closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic 2020 The Social Lounge was forced to close forced to close amid the pandemic. As of June 2020, they were unable to open due to state and city mandates. Owners Scott and Coleen Moulton commented: "We hope to open as soon as possible, and when we do we want to make sure it is a safe environment for our staff and customers." -
2020-07-27
The Prince of Wales Restaurant and Pub
Located in downtown Saint Augustine, FL. Closed since March 2020 due to the pandemic. Remained closed as of July. Owners were unavailable for comment. The Prince of Wales Restaurant and Pub was forced to close in April due to state order close of all nonessential businesses. They have yet to reopen as of late July 2020. -
2020-07-27
Ben and Jerry's
Ben and Jerry's outside doors displayed lighthearted and creative signs encouraging guests to comply with local and federal social-distancing orders. The first stated: "We're sure your smile is lovely, but... masks must be worn in the shop." The second sign read: "Please follow the cow markers on the floor" and showed a picture of cows standing six feet apart. -
2020-07-27
Justice for Vanessa Guillen
"The lives of Latino soldiers should be just as valuable as the lives of any other soldier of any other ethnicity. Together we are going to move seas, and together even the heavens will hear us. Whether it be for Black Lives Matter, for Vanessa, for Sean, for George, for Breonna, for everybody, for Andreas. We are going to do it," said Samantha Varela, protesting for Army Spc. Vanessa Guillen. Details of Vanessa Guillen's death and disappearance are just beginning to be revealed. It still doesn't paint a full picture of the Army's negligence in preventing and responding to sexual assault and harassment. Follow @findvanessaguillen for the latest updates and national actions. Funds are currently being raised for a March in DC on July 30th to demand a Congressional investigation into her death. Photos from Justice for Vanessa Guillen, July 12, 2020 -
2020-07-27
Economic Relief Package For Homeowners in Alife, Italy
I decided to include this screenshot of the economic relief package that homeowners that have a mortgage have the opportunity of receiving. I think it is interesting to discover what relief packages are offered in Alife, Italy compared to the United States of America. This is important to me because my family lives in Alife, Italy, and are homeowners that have mortgages and they have been financially affected by COVID-19. This item is of interest to future historians because it will help future historians understand what economic relief packages were offered to the citizens in the region of Campania Italy. Future historians will have a better understanding of how the economic relief packages in the United States of America compared to the economic relief packages in regions in other countries such as in Campania Italy which is the region that Alife is located. As the article entitled, “What archivists keep or not” documents are a great way to “help us remember, to share, to compare, to analyse and to synthesize information” (Thompson, 3). -
2020-07-27
Anti-masking groups draw from anti-vaccination playbook to spread misinformation
This article expounds on how anti-maskers are taking research out of context in arguing against COVID-19 restrictions. In addition, this story compares the similarities between anti-maskers and anti-vaccination protestors. -
2020-07-27
Australian Health Worker quote on exhaustion
Many of us feel too tired, but we know that we still have several weeks of this to go. Quote from Female aged 52, Specialist Care Doctor. Image created by the Health Worker Voices project: https://mspgh.unimelb.edu.au/healthworkervoices -
2020-07-27
Australian Health Worker quote on families
It's really tough for families that need to see their loved one in their last few days and they just can't be there. I think that's really rough. Quote from Female aged 45, Intensive Care Nurse. Image created by the Health Worker Voices project: https://mspgh.unimelb.edu.au/healthworkervoices -
2020-07-27
Student reaches out to Professor asking to take Fall 2020 course remotely
When the Fall 2020 course schedule was announced at St. Mary's I ran to see what type of classes I was going to have. There were 3 options either online, virtual, or a combination of virtual/in-person. My course with Dr. Root was scheduled to be a combination class. I had a lot of fear about going back to campus and especially going to class in-person. I reached out to Dr. Root with the hope that he would allow staying full virtual. Thankfully he was understanding of my situation. This email is the conversation that we had over the situation Screenshot of an email by Dr. Root -
2020-07-27
Going to College During COVID-19: Tips for College Students and Their Parents
In this interview with infectious disease specialist Cynthia Snider and clinical psychologist David Gutterman, they outline some tips for navigating college during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pair outlines important issues like wearing a mask, social distancing, and proper hygiene. This interview also touches on the anxiety and uneasy feelings both parents and students are feeling going back to a crowded campus. All in all, it’s important to listen to oneself and keep a line of open communication, as well as stay safe and stay healthy. If everyone follows these guidelines, these two experts feel that universities should be able to allow students safely. -
2020-07-27
Jewish Melbourne: Caulfield Bubs program on explaining Covid-19 to children
In July, Caulfield Bubs (a playgroup for Jewish bubs (0-3yrs) at Caulfield Shule) hosted a zoom event with Professor Frank Oberklaid, where he provided advice to parents on "explaining the Covid pandemic to young children". -
2020-07-27
Jewish Melbourne: Pekelach call for supplies and support
At the beginning of Melbourne's second lockdown, Pekelach - a Jewish organisation with helps with food insecurity - put out a call for supplies and for people to join their 'CovID-19 Relief Team' in order to provide support for particular needs. -
2020-07-27
"Hope to see you soon"
Due to Covid-19 my uncle's birthday party was turned into a Zoom get together. The participants were asked to create a video and submit it before the event. Normally, I probably would have just said a simple hello but feeling isolated and full of stored creativity I decide to make song. Aiso, I had lost my job due to covid. The subject of the song was the wish we, I , have to interact with fellow humans at a time when we are not able to. Who even knew what Zoom was before Covid and would I have ever tried to create a song with a harmonica if i was not quarantined, probably not. I do not think I even said the word "quarantine" more than once a year, and then only for a crossword puzzle. I tried to create a song that expressed my feelings for the time and create a performance piece that was challenging for me to do. I think after the tenth take my lip muscles were cramped and I had actual lip abrasions from sliding the harmonica back and forth. The finished product was rough and maybe one of the other 30 takes would have been better but i was on a birthday dead line so it is what it is. Unfortunately, the video file proved too big or the sound too bad that when my video was played for the Zoom "party" most of the sound was lost. Hopefully, it was not edited out. This little video will always be my gateway memory of time spent during the Covid-19 lock down. Through this song I will remember everything that happened, which was and is a lot. During my time at Brooklyn college getting my MA in education there was a focus on different learning styles which I think is typified by my video. -
2020-07-27
First day of school during Covid
My daughter began 1st grade at home through online learning. Her first day was July 27th, and she returned in person on September 8th. Trying to balance everyone working and learning from home was an incredible struggle, and didn't benefit anyone. Mom was working on her dissertation and taking classes, her dad was teaching high school from 8-3 each day, and she had classes with homework throughout the day. For a 6 year old who had no idea how to type, it was very hard to get everything completed. While we are glad that she is back in school, I worry about her safety everyday. -
2020-07-27
No Permission for Indian Festival
The nine-night Garba festival, in which devotees dance to the tune invoking blessings from goddess Ambe, will no longer be the same. Thanks to COVID-19, chief minister Vijay Rupani told Garba organizers in Gujarat on Monday not to give permission to event organizers following safety guidelines. -
2020-07-27
Jewish Melbourne: 'Chevra Hatzolah message to Wear a Mask'
facebook post by Chevra Hatzolah encouraging people to wear masks: ""Wear a mask. It's not too much to ask." - Daniel Andrews. Premier of Victoria Wearing a face covering helps keep you and others safe. Coronavirus (COVID-19) is spread from close contact with a person with COVID-19. Face coverings help stop droplets spreading when someone speaks, laughs, coughs, or sneezes, including someone who has COVID-19 but feels well. The best way to protect other people against COVID-19 is keeping 1.5 metres apart, wash your hands often, and cough or sneeze into your elbow or tissue. Face coverings add an additional protective physical barrier to protect you and your loved ones. And if you have symptoms – get tested. Information is sourced from the DHHS at https://www.dhhs.vic.gov.au/face-masks-covid-19 In a medical emergency call 9527 5111." -
2020-07-27
My desert garden
Living in New Mexico, it can be hard to have grass or many plants due to the heat and dry ground. Between my dogs running around, the water needed, and the time it takes to have grass in the backyard we hadn’t grown any in a few years. When the quarantine had been happening for a while, my mom devised a plan of how to set up a sprinkler system to water they back yard and have grass and plants instead of dirt. The idea for a sprinkler system was one idea of many my family came up with. She ordered all of the parts online and researched ways to set up and successfully put a sprinkler system and dripline in. After receiving all the parts in the mail, my mom set off to home depot to get a ground trencher so we could put the piping underground. We had to lift and drop the trencher so the large dirt blade would create a path. She was supposed to get a small single-person trencher but came back with a giant and extremely heavy one. Since many people had the same idea of doing yard work during quarantine, the other trencher was being used by someone else. The trencher weighed so much and was so hard to move through the house into the backyard. We finished trenching by the end of the day and were ready to lay down piping. The hard part was getting the trencher lifted into the back of our car again, it was unbelievably heavy and it took all 4 of my family members to lift it into the car. We took some time and faced some more challenges when trying to grow a yard, but in the end, it ended up working out. Our yard now has a layer of grass and a drip line system to water other plants around the yard. -
2020-07-27
Being Known
As a Grandma in rural Wisconsin, I spend hours each week in my garden. After a particularly grueling day, these thoughts came... about weeds, Covid, politics and their relationships. I don’t know how to upload, so am just going to put my poem into the next box. -
2020-07-27
Vacation during Covid-19
My friend Ramsey and I went to Florida during the Corona Virus and we had to wear masks everywhere we went, even on the airplane. -
2020-07-27
Journal Entry - July 27, 2020
This is a journal entry on how I'm feeling about having to return to the office full time. -
2020-07-27
Wichita School Enrollment Proceeds Under COVID's Long Shadow
Upon rejecting the governor's order to delay the start of Kansas schools until after Labor Day, 2020, the decision as to if and when to reopen fell upon the state's individual school districts. Although Wichita school district USD 259 ultimately decided to delay the start of the academic year until after the holiday, enrollment proceeded under a cloud of uncertainty and unanswered question for students, parents, and teachers alike. This photograph points to that reality by advising all affected parties as to where the latest information can be found regarding an extremely delicate and fluid situation that left students, families, and teachers across the country wondering how something so routine as the new school year could be navigated safely in the face of a potentially deadly virus. -
2020-07-27
Masked and Contactless Service
Following Wichita's municipal ordinance overriding the Sedgwick County Commission's decision to forego the governor's mask mandate, citizens were required to wear protective face coverings in all public spaces within the city limits. Electronic billboards and marquees, such as this one from west Wichita's Credit Union of America, announced that all customers must comply with this order should they wish to conduct business within their environs, while at the same time offering contactless methods for various bank transactions. These photographs underscore the urgency of both masks and social distancing, two of the most effective anti-COVID countermeasures, in combating a rapidly accelerating outbreak that city and Kansas state officials struggled to corral during the summer of 2020. -
2020-07-27
Protesters chained to governor's home as prison deaths mount
In an effort to urge the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, to release people incarcerated at the state's prisons and jails, and stop immigration transfers, protestors chained themselves to the fence outside the governors home. The fourteen protestors were wearing surgical masks and face shields to protect from the spread of the coronavirus. The protest was organized by the California Liberation Collective. The fourteen protestors that chained themselves to the fence were accompanied by many others calling for action in light of the continued death toll the virus is having on incarcerated populations, particularly at San Quentin Prison. -
2020-07-27
Confusion on the Plains
These screenshots of the Kansas Health Secretary's Twitter account highlight the mixed messages that have come to characterize the efforts to combat the coronavirus in the summer of 2020. Just days before, the virus had been "gaining speed," and Kansas was "heading in the wrong direction," but by July 26th, the state's infection rate appeared to be "leveling off a bit." Although he presses Kansans to adhere strictly to all mitigation practices, these messages reflect the jarring effects of instantaneous communication and data analysis as medical professionals and ordinary citizens alike struggle to accurately comprehend the real-time scope and spread of COVID-19; a disease that had been completely unknown just a year before. -
2020-07-27
Tuolumne County outpaces Calaveras County in new COVID-19 cases
The local newspaper reports on increasing COVID-19 cases in Tuolumne County as opposed to the neighboring Calaveras County. These communities are in rural California and Tuolumne County has a fairly large population of COVID-19 skeptics and deniers correlating with their largely republican voting habits. This article discusses how the county must remain under 53 cases over 2 weeks to not have more public spaces closed according to state standards. If trends remain as they are it could mean a return to a heavier lockdown for the county. -
2020-07-27
Lockdown Clothing Project
We are two London-based fashion scholars – Lorraine Smith (aka Lori) and Jana Melkumova-Reynolds – who have always been curious about how others dress, and how this relates to identity. Recent social changes (due to the coronavirus pandemic) have increased that curiosity. How are people dressing when in lockdown and isolation situations? How is this different to the way they dressed before? Has it affected their sense of self? This project aims to shine a light on those changes and reveal some of the many and varied personal stories relating to fashion and dress in 2020.