Items
Date is exactly
2021-03-17
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2021-03-17
Too Many Layers
A comic strip about Covid-19 -
2021-03-17
Spring 2021 St Marys Jazz Clinic
This is an email getting the approval from the university to hold the St. Mary’s spring jazz clinic. It details the protocols the music department was planning to enact to ensure a safe environment for all of the bands coming to perform at the university. This email is significant in that even a full year after the start of COVID there were still certain restrictions on what the band could or couldn’t do, and the band required confirmation from the university that their protocols were sufficient. -
2021-03-17
A Day at Macy's Inc. During a Worldwide Pandemic
As my primary source I chose a picture that I took on March 17, 2021 at 8:39pm, it was the end of my shift in my retail job. This picture was taken one year later since they first closed down the city. I work in Macy’s Inc. at Bay Plaza, and the store was closed during the pandemic until the end of June. When the store first reopened, big crowds of people came to the store every single day without caring about the pandemic. It is understandable that all they wanted was to shop, and also get out of their houses to distract themselves. This picture is just a small representation of what retail workers have to deal with during times like this. It got to a point, where it was very frustrating seen so many people at the store walking around trying to shop. Many people did not care about the 6ft social distancing, and others did not want to wear a mask because it was too hot, or they couldn’t breathe. There was a limit of 600 people in the whole store, but in days like this I know for sure that it was more than that. The women shoes department was always full of people, there was always a long line, people were right next to each other, and others were screaming or talking too loudly. People were getting into arguments with each other, many were getting frustrated because they wanted to get a shoe size right away. Others were just sitting on the couch sleeping, you could hear babies crying, and kids running or playing around dropping shoes on the floor. I remember I was in the register during my whole shift taking customer after customer, some were really nice but others very rude. As my job, I have to ask every customer if they want to open a Macy’s credit card with us, but their answer was always, “I can’t afford it, this virus has made me broke” yet, they were still out shopping. On this day, I had a disagreement with a customer because I told her to put her mask on about 3 times, and she just ignored me. She then, approaches me to pay for a shirt, and I told her very kindly once again, “can you please put your mask on? Thank you!”. Her reaction was priceless because she was furious and asked me if it wasn’t enough with the plexiglass that was between us, I felt very frustrated because she didn’t seem to understand how serious this virus is. I told her no, and refuse to ring her out she then, proceeded to another register very furious and still with no mask on. We are not essential workers but working in a retail store during this pandemic has been very overwhelming. The company benefits from all of this because they reach their sales goals every day. When I think about it, we as employees should be happy that there are sales because it means the store won’t close down, and we can keep our jobs. The customers do not seem to have any type of consideration for any of us as retail workers. It upsets me because now more than ever, everyone should be thankful for still being alive after what we just went through this whole year. We need to appreciate each other, and respect one another because we don’t know what everyone is going through. Always be kind to everyone! -
2021-03-17
#JOTPYPhoto from Kat Bezaire
Finished my BA, between myself and two pals we got a cap, gown and sashes so we staged our own graduation ceremony complete with photos (socially distanced of course) -
2021-03-17
#JOTPYPhoto from Peter Van Cleave
Our pandemic baby -
2021-03-17
Is Early Childhood Development Declining?
There are socialization concerns among adults and adolescents, and most are aware of the reasons behind that. However, children still in early developmental stages (infants, toddlers) may struggle in the long-term. The article primarily revolves around the words and expertise of senior scientist at Haskins Laboratories and a professor adjunct at the Yale Child Study Center, David Lewkowicz. There are physical, emotional, and mental struggles that could negatively impact early childhood development. Examples of these struggles are with how they learn languages by visual and auditory associations, which can be difficult with masks. Another related to masks is facial recognition. Lewkowicz isn't filled with bad news, though. More time and direct attention given to face-to-face interactions and more explicit expressions of emotions can help compensate. These early years are when children are very adaptable as they take in the world around them, so there is hope for more perceptive children coming out of the pandemic rather than a decline. -
2021-03-17
Pandemic Street Art: Dragon76 says, "Stop Asian Hate"
Japanese, New York-based street artist DRAGON76 has just completed a mural in East Village, Manhattan, supporting the “STOP ASIAN HATE” movement. The “STOP ASIAN HATE” mural can be found at East Village, 75 Chrystie St, Lower East Side, Manhattan. -
2021-03-17
Phoenix among U.S. Sites for Moderna’s COVID-19 trials on children
By Jacob Holter/Cronkite News WASHINGTON D.C. – Children from 6 months up to 12 years old could soon start getting the COVID-19 vaccine in Phoenix as part of a trial of the drug’s effectiveness on young people. Drug-maker Moderna announced this week that Phoenix will be one of the cities where it will test smaller doses of its COVID-19 vaccine, which has currently only been approved for adult use, on preteens. The company has already started trials of the vaccine on teenagers. While children have proven to be less susceptible to the disease, health experts say it’s important to have the option of a vaccine for younger kids as schools reopen and to improve the odds of “herd immunity” for the overall population. “The reason we want to make sure that all of these kids get vaccinated is so we can truly achieve herd immunity. We don’t want to have little pockets of people who might be infectious and not be protected,” said Dr. Georges C. Benjamin, director of the American Public Health Association. The preteen trials were announced Tuesday by Moderna, one of three pharmaceutical companies with vaccines approved for emergency use in adults in the U.S., along with Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson. Moderna and Pfizer vaccines require two doses, while the newer Johnson & Johnson vaccine has a one-dose protocol. The announcement came the same day that the Arizona Department of Health Services announced that just over 1 million Arizonans have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. Overall, the state has administered about 2.6 million doses to a little more than 1.6 million people. Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a statement that more than 53 million doses of his company’s version of the vaccine have been administered in the U.S., but “this pediatric study will help us assess the potential safety and immunogenicity of our COVID-19 vaccine candidate in this important younger age population.” The statement said the new trials would take place in the U.S. and Canada. Dr. Steven Plimpton, the lead investigator for the Phoenix trial, said Tuesday that his office has “already gotten hundreds of calls” from parents interested in getting their children into the trial. He said parents interested in the trial in Phoenix can go to the KidCOVE site for more information or can call 602-368-1928 or 866-913-5454. One University of Arizona expert said it will likely take a little while to get the trials in motion. “I would say sometime in the next several weeks, as they get recruitment on board and they have a critical mass to start with and they have all of the aspects of the trial set up in terms of location, staffing, and everything that they need in place,” said Dr. Shad Marvasti, director of public health and prevention at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. Moderna said that children in the first phase of the trial will receive doses of 25, 50, or 100 micrograms of the vaccine – an adult dose is 100 – depending on their age. Results from that phase will be used to determine dosages in a second phase when come subjects will get a placebo. ad1 Ultimately, Moderna expects to include 6,750 children in the latest trials. “The adult dose for the Moderna is 100 micrograms, but they are starting with 25 micrograms and then basically watching folks and kids to see how they react,” Marvasti said. “If that looks good and there are no major issues, then they will have a group of kids in the study with 50 micrograms and then if that looks okay they will have another group that has 100 micrograms.” He added that Moderna’s trust that the vaccine is safe enough to begin trials on kids could have the added benefit of helping to quell vaccine hesitancy among others. “Hopefully, depending on the results, it will help give people more confidence to get the vaccine, especially if it proves to be as safe and effective in children as it has been in adults,” Marvasti said. The announcement of the preteen trials also comes as the state has ordered schools to begin to resume in-person schooling, after a year in which most students have attended class virtually. Benjamin said that with schools reopening, in Arizona and across the U.S., a vaccine for youth would make a definite difference in controlling the virus, as it would prevent kids from spreading it to each other and then bringing it home with them. Vaccination would also expedite kids’ ability to return to normal. “Getting kids vaccinated, I think, will certainly improve their quality of life and their ability to effectively interact with their friends,” he said. -
2021-03-17
#JOTPYSilver from Dr. Terilyn Johnston Huntington
That time when the internet was out at my house and my office was closed, so I held class in the back of my minivan in a parking lot at my university. #JOTPYPhoto -
2021-03-17
A Child’s Reflection
We’ve had my 10 year daughter journal her thoughts during the past year from time to time, and they’ve ranged from mundane (“we made a fort”) to outraged (“Black people are being hurt in this country and not being heard”), so I was curious what her reflection on a year in quarantine would be. Interestingly, her reflection is overall positive. This surprised me a bit, since she is doing online learning through the end of the school year, missed an entire season of competitive gymnastics and has not had a Girl Scout meeting in person in over a year. I’ll admit I’m relieved that her inner thoughts are about Minecraft, playing in our flooded backyard, and continuing to practice gymnastics at home rather than focusing on all that she’s missed. It makes me think that though this year has impacted my kids that to them, their childhood is still pretty normal. Now I just have to break it to her that when she returns to in person instruction next year, she won’t be able to listen to her music during class! -
2021-03-17
COVID-19 Arts & Cultural Relief Fund Distributes Grants To 52 Arts Organizations During Pandemic
Performing and visual arts organizations in Denver, Colorado have received more COVID-19 relief funding. This newest round of funding, totaling almost $900,000, comes from the COVID-19 Arts & Culture Relief Fund. -
2021-03-17
A Reminder of the Realities of the Asian Women in My Life
On my way out to work today, my sister told me she loved me. It was an "I love you" filled with fear and uncertainty. I felt her words echo in my chest and I still feel them ringing in me as I write this post. Every Asian woman that I know and care about has experienced being undermined, fetishized, and harassed for being an Asian woman. For several of my close friends, this has led to sexual violence. I think that is why yesterday’s mass shooting targeting Asian massage parlors hit so hard for me. In his own words, he wanted to “eliminate the source of his temptations.” It takes a lot more than " being at the end of your rope" or “having a really bad day” for someone to commit such a heinous crime. Believing Asian women are submissive and hyper-sexual, calling covid “kung-flu” or the “china virus”, and taunting Asian women with “me love you long time” has real consequences. It dehumanizes Asian women and makes them objects. Objects are easier to harass, sexually assault, and kill. We can not dismiss racism, misogyny, and xenophobia against Asians anymore. Lives are at stake. -
2021-03-17
Vaccine card
The vaccine card is now a flex to have and is something that makes you cool. Not having the vaccine is frowned upon and makes you not cool if you refuse to get it. In the past flu vaccines aren't something you would flex or show off but with covid we do show off the vaccine. -
2021-03-17
tension in the US-Russian relationship
depiction of the international relationship in the covid world -
2021-03-17
Heavy hearted and defeated
The rise of anti-Asian crimes has been a focal point of my predominantly Asian and Latinx community, and has increased to a point where our local police are trying to send out messages of reassurance and solidarity. But this isn’t something that comes out of nowhere. It has been bubbling under the surface as long as Asian Americans have lived in this country. The Chinese Exclusion Act, barring Asian citizenship, miscegenation laws, land laws, internment camps, the murder of Vincent Chin, hate crimes against Southeast Asian refugees, the stereotypes, the cheap sitcom jokes and potshots, the dual embrace and distaste of the so-called “model minority.” A year ago, as COVID-19 began to infect our everyday life even prior to shutdown, many of my students recounted racism they faced at the grocery store or other public places, as Asians were made the scapegoat of the pandemic. This racism was not happening in the Midwest, it was happening in diverse Southern California. How many times this year have I had the conversation with students, family, and friends about the otherness that is associated with being Asian in America? As half of an interracial marriage with an Asian partner, I have seen first hand the comments. Going to Disney World and having my husband joke that he had seen one and a half Asians that week, himself and my daughter - and seeing the stares. Comments from Disney World or airport employees who stared at us and said in a off putting tone, “you must be from California or Hawai’i,” to which I shot back with “why, because we’re so happy and relaxed?” They didn’t crack a smile. Or my husband’s best friend, who in medical residency in Kansas City was approached in a Panera Bread with a man saying “whaaa, you want to fight Bruce Lee” and being asked by his medical resident roommates to translate Ninja Warrior for them because he “knows Chinese” (he’s third generation Japanese American). The friend in grad school in Michigan who, while walking down the street, was met by women who held the corners of their eyes and chanted “ching chong, ching chong.” Never once has anyone repeated the question “where are you from” when I tell someone I am from California. My Asian American husband is always asked at least twice. Also from California, when he responds to the simple question of where is he from with “California,”there is always the tone change and the slowed down, “No, where are you FROM?” Because the underlying, uncomfortable reality is that apparently if you’re Asian, you can’t be “from” America. Your identity is forever a hyphen. But this was not part of the public conscience until recently. With the rhetoric of leadership that continually blamed China for COVID-19, using ethnically offensive names, the acts of racism my students were experiencing in March have evolved into full fledged violence and crime, peaking yesterday with a shooting. Here we are in another moment when COVID-19 has uncovered the ugliness that lies beneath the surface in a country that calls itself a democracy. A country where the police spokesperson tried to explain away the targeted murder of eight Asian women yesterday by saying the Caucasian male shooter was having a “bad day.” No justice, no peace sounds hollow when you wonder if there ever will be either. -
2021-03-17
Homeless People Receiving Stimulus
This is a news article about how homeless populations are able to access the stimulus payments. This highlights how difficult it is for homeless people to receive assistance during the pandemic even though they are one of the most at-risk populations. -
2021-03-17
Hate Crimes Against Asian Americans On the Rise, Hate Is a Virus
Two artists whose work I adore with an important message for today and always. @juliakestnerdesigns (slide 1) and @colorsofhoney (slide 2). Caption is from @juliakestnerdesigns. Caption: Discrimination, racist attacks, and xenophobia against Asian Americans have recently been on the rise. My heart hurts seeing all of the hate crimes and violence perpetrated towards the AAPI community. Anti-racism must include Asian Americans. We cannot allow white supremacy to pit us against each other or let “oppression Olympics” distract us from the real problem at hand. We’re not each other’s enemy; white supremacy is. We can fight for liberation without turning to anti-Black rhetoric such as heavier policing or “tough on crime” justice. This kind of thinking does not bring us closer to our shared goal of equality and liberation. All it does is take us further away from our common goal of fighting against systemic injustices, and forces us to play into the us-versus-them mentality that pits us against each other. We are all victims of the same oppressive system. Just as our suffering is interconnected, so is our liberation. Our equality is irrevocably contingent on the liberation of ALL oppressed communities. Now more than ever, we need cross-community solidarity to fight for our collective healing and liberation. ✊🏻✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿 What we can do: -Amplify AAPI voices and stories -Speak out against all forms of racism and systemic injustice -Educate ourselves on the model minority myth, and how it was designed to create a wedge between Asians and other people of color in America -Learn about AAPI history -Donate to organizations committed to anti-racism To learn more, follow @stopaapihate @hateisavirus_ @ricefeed @teachandtransform @michellekimkim @jocekittyllama . . . . . #hateisavirus #stopaapihate #modelminoritymyth #standforasians #artistsagainstracism #racismisavirus #iamnotavirus #antiracism #dismantleracism #dismantlewhitesupremacy #insolidarity #fightforequality #endracism #westandtogether #intersectionalfeminsim #artmatters #activism #artforsocialchange #stopracism #stopthehate #equalityforall #istandwithyou #unitedwestand #nojusticenopeace #blacklivesm -
2021-03-17
First hug in a long time
A lot of people probably have this same kind of story, but I'll go ahead and tell my version of it. My wife's 93-year-old grandmother lives in an assisted care facility nearby and, of course, has been forced to be very isolated throughout most of the pandemic. However, because all of us have now been fully vaccinated, we were able to go and see her in person a couple of days ago. The most heartwarming moment was when my wife and kids were able to give her a hug for the first time in a long time. I'm sure as more people get vaccinated, they will have more of these kinds of stories to tell. -
2021-03-17
Opening Early Meme
As more and more vaccines are being given, it seems that soon we may be able to slowly begin returning back to normal. However, with mask mandates and restrictions falling off early across the United States, I remain fearful that we may experience another wave/peak. This meme demonstrates that anxiety. -
2021-03-17
Mask trash #16
Blue & white disposable face mask near the bus stop by Hardy & 5th in Tempe, Arizona. -
2021-03-17
Cordale Handy in Mental Health Crisis Killed by Saint Paul Police
In 2017, 29-year-old, Cordale Handy was killed by Saint Paul Police as he was navigating a mental health crisis. Since her son’s death, Cordale’s mother, Kim Handy-Jones, has continuously championed an end to police violence and demand accountability for her son's death.