Items

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  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.
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  2020-10-23

  A Distanced Reality

  Instructions, requirements, and signifiers inevitably invade my sight on the once-bustling streets of Philadelphia. This is an image of a square graphic glued to the sidewalk on South Street, a historic and well-known place in Philly. This graphic has been sponsored and done by Philadelphia Mural Arts historic center was founded to help eradicate graffiti. As a design student, I quickly noticed how artists and designers were using their resourcefulness during these times of uncertainty to take advantage of their visual skills to communicate the precautions of the CDC. With technology allowing me to virtually connect better than it ever has been able in the past to my friends, family, and loved ones, I realize it cannot provide to us that tangible human connection we all have experienced before within 6 feet. Although there may have been efforts to remove and peel away this graphic there will never be a removal of the effects and tolls the Coronavirus has taken on our world, country, and beloved cities.
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  2020-10-23

  WHO’s COVID-19 Infection map, 23 Oct 2020

  The WHO is an authoritative source for tracking COVID-19 infection rates via various countries Centers of Disease Control. For several months, most countries contained COVID-19 infection rates. As expected, infection rates dramatically increased as governments relaxed restrictions. This represented the forecasted second-wave. Unlike the first wave, mortality rates were much lower. Several possible causes from improved pre-vaccinne treatment plans to poor testing and tacking during first wave biased mortality rates. Lastly, it represented born-digital content regarding COVID-19.
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  2020-10-23

  Sign Outside Collier County Museum Requiring Face Mask

  This is the sign the Collier County Museum at the Government Center put on the front window when it was announced by the Board of County Commissioners that masks are required within all public buildings. The sign was posted right after the museum resumed in-building operations and was enacted along with more rigid sanitation and cleansing procedures.
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  2020-10-23

  9 Year Old Boy Walks To School For Wifi

  A 9 year old boy has to walk to school to use the wifi to attend his online classes.
• 2020-10-23

  The great mask debate

  This article is one that shows a good example of a COVID “success story” in a European country, while highlighting some of the failures in American leadership during the pandemic. Especially when it comes to the concept of leading by example. Slovakia is a country that seemed to tackle the pandemic head on, taking extraordinary measures in order to slow its advance across the nation. The article shows that Slovakia took three key steps in order to curb the pandemic when it reached the country’s borders. 1) Face masks were widely adopted 2) A nationwide lockdown was swiftly enacted 3) Slovakian leadership showed the way. For me, this submission is important because it is essentially the tale of two countries. While nothing is certain, If American leadership had taken a similar route to navigating the perils of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is likely that less Americans would have lost their lives. While America is more than 60 times more populous than Slovakia, there is little to no excuse for why the pandemic has been so poorly handled here in comparison to a nation with less resources like Slovakia.
• 2020-10-23

  Iowa Hotspot

  Iowa has reached an all time high for the virus with Des Moines at the center.
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  2020-10-23

  Life Lives On

  The story is titled, “Today, In the midst of all of the covid-19 and 2020 madness, we purchased our first home!” it specifically highlights the durability of Humans and the positivity that will emerge from this horrible pandemic.
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  2020-10-23

  Masks: Socially Responsible and Fashionable

  I don’t think I’ve worn jeans, or really anything other than leggings and t-shirts since I started social distancing. I’m pretty sure my makeup drawer hasn’t even been opened since March. I wear a mask when I go grocery shopping, so why even bother? A friend of mine shares Facebook and Instagram posts nearly everyday of herself wearing makeup and a mask that matches her outfit. As you can see from the photo she allowed me to screenshot, she adapted her need for social responsibility to fit with her own personal style. I think it’s time to feel like myself again; maybe get matching Sword Art Online masks for my daughter and I.
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  2020-10-23

  Travel During Covid

  Travel during Covid what mostly like any other travel, just with a mask, and people didn't actually want to sit right next to you waiting to board the flights. The actual flights were different, though. The seats were not filled unless you were a member of a party travelling together. That being said, my first class ticket as a single travelling passenger with no other members of my party allowed me to have a full row to myself unlike most flights where everyone is seated in close proximity whether you know the passengers seated next to you or not. It was actually nice in terms of people respecting personal space.
• 2020-10-23

  No New Friends during Covid

  The saddest part about living my last year as a teenager during covid isn't the fact that I have to stay at home and live with my parents for the 8th month in a row while all of my friends go out and party, or the fact that I constantly feel like I'm wasting time and should be doing more with my life and my time, or the fact that I'm constantly at a crossroads about wanting to change my major but not wanting to do so remotely, and as a result making my curriculum harder than it needs to be. I would say that the saddest part of it all is all of the people I lost along the way. For starters, I guess being in the house 24/7 makes people reveal true colors. Not only did I lose friends, but I also lost love-interests and overall people I thought would be in my life forever. No these people did not die, but their relationships to me did. The first friendship lost was a guy I held very close to me during high-school, so close that our friend group continued to communicate with one-another post-graduation (which says a lot). The reason everything blew-up was his reaction to the BLM. Me, being an African-American girl would hope that I had chosen friends that would not support unnecessary police brutality, and instead stand-up for the killing of black lives... Sadly, this wasn't the case. Lost friend #1, remained quiet during this movement after George Floyd's murder, and instead only chose to speak about how the rioting and looting had inconvenienced his life as a caucasian male living in Naperville IL. You could say I was a little offended about where his concerns lie, but this didn't stop me from speaking on it and giving him the chance to save the friendship. The was a chance he neglected to take and let's just say that was the last time I have spoken to him. I do not believe that politics should be the "end-all-be-all for relationships, but not wanting someone to die because of the color of their skin is not politics... it's human rights. Moreover, friend #2 was lost during the period of COVID due to him developing a completely new personality and turning into someone who didn't respect the words of others, and instead get mad when things didn't go his way. Given that I had shared a lot of personal experiences with friend #2, I was very hurt to see this side of him. But this didn't stop me from cutting him off. I haven't spoken to him since April, may that friendship RIP. Moreover, countless people turned out to be the opposite of who I thought they were during this time, and I have cut many ties and burned many bridges amidst experiences COVID-19. Although on the bright side, those who are truly meant to be in my life have shown their loyalty and strengthened our bonds stronger than ever throughout the past few months, and for this, I will be forever grateful to have lived through something as life-altering as the pandemic.
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  2020-10-23

  My phone usage during COVID-19

  Covid has done a lot of things in my life, although the way I would say it has impacted me the most is through my phone usage. I've been spending a lot of time at home and the way I found myself curing my boredom, and passing the time is by being on my phone. The attached image is a screenshot I took on April 25th, 2020. As you can see my average screentime was 8h 34m per day. Although what I find most surprising is how many hours it indicates I spent on TikTok that week. According to the screenshot I spent 25h 47m on TikTok in 7 days. To break it down for you, TikTok is a new social media app that consists of short videos 15-60 seconds long. The algorithm formulates a "For-You" page of content it suggests you would enjoy. Ultimately meaning during April of 2020, I spent over a day scrolling and watching 15-second videos for entertainment. That sounds like an addiction. That to me is an absurd amount of time to be spending on your phone, let alone one app. During this time, I rarely left the house, as Illinois was still in phases 1 and 2 of reopening businesses. I got most of my entertainment virtually, and as a result, developed a really short attention span. Not only did TikTok consume my life, but it also left me unable to watch videos longer than a minute on YouTube and streaming services like Hulu and Netflix. This was an issue for the while-being, but after I realized the rabbit-hole I was falling down I made the decision to stop using the app as much, and instead use my time doing things that didn't involve me being on my phone to be more productive. Today, in November, I have a screen-time that is less than 3h a week. This may be due to me being back in school and having school work, as well as working basically full-time and babysitting on the side. I simply do not have 25 hours to waste on TikTok as I did at the beginning of quarantine.
• 2020-10-23

  My not-so-fun Freshman year of college

  My experience with COVID-19 is, I'm sure as basic as most other individuals my age. I vividly remember being at the library studying for finals later in the day upset that DePaul hadn't sent out regard giving us 2 weeks off for spring break like seemingly every other school in the United States. I felt left out and redundantly did my homework. It wasn't long after that I heard a roar of cheering on the 2nd floor of the library that was supposed to stay at a whisper. I knew this could only mean one thing... DePaul had come to their senses and had given us our well-deserved two-weeks off. Although, this wasn't the case. My joyful celebration came to an end when I read the email they sent out to their student body in March, telling everyone that they would be moving out and not returning until possibly September of the next academic year. I WAS SHOCKED. Moreover dumbfounded, and not ready to have my freshman year come to a halt. Even more, I didn't feel making students move out was necessary... The virus wasn't that serious and would be gone soon. I didn't know of any other colleges that were taking measures as drastic as DePaul... because of this, you could say I was pretty annoyed at the inconvenience DePaul was putting their students through, as all of my friends on other campuses got to enjoy their extra week of spring break. March 13th has a known reputation of being the last "normal" day before everything changed due to COVID. This was the last day that many people remember not having to worry about the pandemic, the last day before everything changed forever. After this day the country took on a very dark path, and many people believed it was the end of the world. With news reports at all-time high reporting cases growing day-by-day in our country, and spreading like wildfire: it's safe to say that our entire country was in a state of panic. Throughout the next few weeks, almost all of my friends at other schools had to drive back down to their campuses and move out since the "two-week spring break" was anticipated to last much longer. After this, I felt less left out, and almost grateful that DePaul had taken the time to look ahead and save us the hassle of separate trips to move out. Being at home for the first month was honestly in my opinion pretty fun. I got to sleep in every day, and I didn't have FOMO (fear of missing out) because the country was on a somewhat strict lock-down and I knew that everyone around me was doing the same thing. Zoom phone video-calls became the next big thing in my personal and school life. I had new normals such as washing my hands every 30 seconds, wearing a mask whenever in public, and not touching my face with my hands... These were all habits that I thought would be short-lived, although here I am writing this in October of 2020, doing still having to do the same things. The past few months have gone by really slowly but oddly fast at the same time. It's almost November, I ended up staying home to save money on housing for school since all of my classes are online. Almost everyone I know has all online classes since our country hasn't taken the proper measures to get rid of covid and instead chose to adapt to covid, making the turn-around time of going back to life-pre-covid exponentially longer. Furthermore, many college students have chosen to live on campus while doing their studies to be able to get out of the house with their parents and be with their friends. This is the one thing I wish I was able to do since the past 8 months living at home are drastically different than when I was by myself away at school. Although, I understand that financially it's the smartest decision so I'm continuing to preserve on, even as my friends get to live a life somewhat more entertaining than myself. It's the price I have to pay for caring about the well-being of others more than my youth being filled with memories of going out. Now I take life day-by-day and continue to make goals for the future. But in all honesty, I have no idea what the future entails.
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  2020-10-23

  COVID funeral

  Although the death had nothing to do with COVID I wanted to showcase how many people are being forced to say good bye to loved ones during the pandemic. I attended a funeral this morning through zoom, my friend was killed a few weeks ago in the east coast and today his family laid him to rest. On the plus side I saved on airfare and travel and was able to watch in the comfort of my own home. Most people were live and had their cameras on while others chose to turn them off. Since I was one of those with the camera off, I can say I felt the liberty to mourn as I wished in the privacy of my own space. A few minutes after the service started, I almost forgot I was on a zoom meeting until the sound gave out for a few minutes. The service was like any other I had been to, with eulogies, songs and a picture slide show BUT it was unlike any I had ever been too because it was remote. There were over a hundred people in the meeting from all over the country. Those who were physically in the church wore masks until it was their turn to speak, and the over all theme of social distance and COVID was not lost even among the tears. I snapped a photo to show how I was watching.
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  2020-10-23

  GoTo対象　北海道のバスツアーで41人のうち12人感染(2020年10月23日) - GoTo travel: 12 out of 41 people infected on a bus tour in Hokkaido (October 23, 2020)

  Go to travel is a program in Japan that covers certain amount of traveling fee in Japan in order for the economy to boost back up. This program has been somewhat controversial I would say because we are still in a pandemic and we should not really travel around, especially Japan has one of the highest numbers of elderly people, and by traveling we could expose them to the virus. Also, I really do not understand how they can just overlook someone when they are having some kind of symptoms. It is very irresponsible for the tour company to do so and risk others to get the virus. GoToトラベルの対象になっている北海道のバスツアーで参加者など41人のうち12人が新型コロナウイルスに感染したことが分かりました。 　読売旅行によりますと、感染者が出たのは今月中旬に関西地方から新千歳空港に入り、北海道をバスで周遊した3泊4日のツアーです。参加者38人と添乗員ら合わせて41人のうち12人の感染が確認されました。参加者は新千歳空港に到着した際、体温や健康状態を書くチェックシートを添乗員に提出しました。この時、参加者の1人が「せきや喉の痛みなどの呼吸器症状」の項目をチェックしましたが、添乗員が見落としていました。その後、この人の感染が確認されて全員の検査をすることになりました。その北海道では22日に新たに40人の感染が確認されました。このうち札幌市は31人で、一日あたりとしては過去2番目に多い人数です。 It was found that 12 out of 41 participants, were infected with the new coronavirus on a bus tour in Hokkaido, which is a part of GoTo Travel. According to the Yomiuri trip, the infected participants came from the Kansai region in the middle of this month on a 3-night 4-day tour that landed New Chitose Airport and traveled around Hokkaido by bus. Infection was confirmed in 12 out of 41 people, including 38 participants and tour conductors. When the participants arrived at New Chitose Airport, they submitted a check sheet to the tour operator to write down their body temperature and health condition. At this time, one of the participants checked the item "Respiratory symptoms such as coughing and sore throat", but the tour operator overlooked it. After that, this person's infection was confirmed and everyone had to be tested. In Hokkaido, 40 new infections were confirmed on the 22nd. Of these, 31 are in Sapporo, the second-highest number per day in the past.
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  2020-10-23

  テレワークでもキチンと決まる「テレウェア」とは？(2020年10月23日) - What is "tele-wear" that works for working from home? (October 23, 2020)

  This is just a fun news talking about how to look good in meetings despite feeling comfortable in meetings. In japan working from home is “Telework”, like telephone, and they used “Tele” with wear to signify business clothes that is used for remote work. 紳士服大手の「はるやま商事」は20代から30代をターゲットとした店舗でテレワークに合わせ、楽ちんなのに、きちんと決められるビジネスウェア「テレウェア」の提案を始めます。テレワークが続くなか、デニム風でやわらかい着心地のジャケットとの組み合わせやオンライン会議で自分の服装がどのように見えるか店頭で確かめて買うという新しい「試着」のスタイルも期間限定で提案します。 Haruyama Trading Co., Ltd., a major men's clothing company, is a store targeting people in their 20s and 30s, and started proposing a business wear "tele-wear", which is comfortable yet looks put together. As working from home continues, we propose this new "try-on" style for a limited time, such as combining it with a denim-like soft jacket and checking the look at the store to see what your clothes will look like for online meeting.