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2022-06-10
This is an article from NHK World-Japan.
There have been more COVID-19 cases reported in Tokyo, Japan. However, the article reports that the cases have been in decline despite these new 1,600 cases. The Japan Times website, they have a timeline that discusses the same 1,600 new cases, but also shows an Outbreak map of Japan's current cases, deaths, testing, and other things. This is a reminder that Japan is still struggling with the virus, but there is some hope with the cases decreasing weekly.
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2022-06-09
This is a news story from Penn State University by Jessica Hallman. A recent study has shown that user corrections given back and forth on social media has helped reduce the spread of misinformation. Through sharing source-backed information, people were able to pick out fake news easier.
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2022-06-11
This is a news story from CNN by Kaitlan Collins. The CDC is expected to lift the requirement for air travelers to test negative for COVID before entering the US. The travel industry has been lobbying the CDC for months regarding this issue after it was no longer determined that the restrictions are no longer "based on the science and data." However, just because it is getting lifted now, the CDC does have the power to reinstate this restriction if a new variant develops and causes concern.
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2022-06-11
This is a news story from Healio by Michael Monostra. During the COVID pandemic, adolescents are eating less processed food.
"In an interim analysis of the Processed Intake Evaluation (PIE) study of 452 adolescents and young adults presented at ENDO 2022, participants reported eating less ultra-processed food during the first 2 years of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 compared with prior to 2020. Ultra-processed food consumption dropped further in 2022 when COVID-19 restrictions eased."
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2022-06-09
This is a news story from Travel Awaits by Amy Sward. Due to a pilot shortage, nearly 100 planes are sitting idle because there are not enough people to fly them. Part of the reason for this pilot shortage is because of COVID. It is due to both buyouts and some pilots being forced into retirement due to age requirements. The shortage of pilots has created hiring sprees where companies like American Airlines are offering better pay and work schedules to lure people into flying for them. American Airlines plans to hire 2,000 pilots in 2022.
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2022-06-10
This is a news story from Eater by Jamie Feldmar. This chronicles the changing food habits of people throughout the pandemic. In 2020, there was a wave of panic buying for things like flour, canned soups, and frozen vegetables. The use of grocery store delivery apps also increased that year. Instacart, a grocery delivery app, saw a 229% sales increase.
With the panic buying came people looking for ways to use up things like canned goods and dried pasta. Things like sheet pan dinners, salads, and other easy meals became sought after in that time.
Another change that occurred was people trying food trends popular during the pandemic. Things such as sourdough and whipped coffee were major food trends of that time.
Meal kit delivery rose during the pandemic. Blue Apron had subscriptions to their food service skyrocket. Hello Fresh did as well, and was forced to close down temporarily to hire 3,000 extra workers to tackle the rising demand.
In 2021, other food trends occurred while many restaurants and other dining establishments could not operate at full capacity. Things like espresso martinis and the dalgona candy, and candy made popular by the TV show Squid Game, were just some of those food trends.
The food trends were not without labor issues though. In October 2021, Kellogg's workers went on strike, which affected the supply chains of that brand.
Supply chain issues have become an ongoing problem since the beginning of the pandemic. In February 2022, the US temporarily shut down avocado imports from Mexico, making the food more expensive.
With supply chain issues comes rising inflation. According to the USDA, food prices in 2022 were expected to rise between 6.5% to 7.5% increases. The Russian war with Ukraine cited as one of those causes.
May 2022 saw a baby formula shortage, where 40% of baby formula was out of stock.
Today, the USDA is looking to learn from the pandemic and the food issues that are occurring. One way they are doing this is through "a framework to transform the food system," which has the focus on building a more resilient supply chain while providing for rural and underserved communities.
My own prediction is that the supply chain issues will mean more local food and less imported food overall in the United States. This means opening more food processing plants and increasing work domestically within the food industry to meet demands. The global food system is very fragile to things like pandemics and war. If food prices are to ever get lowered as well, it is important that more food gets produced and used locally. It would have the added benefit of being more environmentally friendly too, as the food would not have to be shipped as far away to where it gets used.
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2022-06-10
This is a news story from ABC News by The Associated Press. The shutdown of the Smithfield Foods plant in California is happening in part due to COVID. Some 300 employees were exposed to the virus in 2020, which created labor issues. Due to the exposure, California's Division of Occupational Safety and Health fined the company $60,000.
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2022-06-09
This is a news story from Columbia Missourian by Chloe-Ryan Woolfolk. After two years of either cancellations or limited capacities, Pride Month events in Columbia will be returning to full capacity. Listed in the article are local events that people can attend now, with lists of fees and general details.
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2022-06-11
I am an anxious person. Before covid it took all my energy to get up in the morning, put on decent clothes, go to school, meet with friends, go to restaurants. The lockdown was the best thing that ever happened to me. My best buddy moved in with me and my family, my classes went online, I slept more, I gamed all the time, we got takeout. Now I'm being invited places. I have to reinsert. I miss covid.
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2022-06-10
This is a news story from The Washington Post by JD Shadel. Due to the last two years of Pride Month remaining virtual due to COVID, some changes have been made along with it. Included in the changes since COVID are leadership ones in Philadelphia and London after allegations of their Pride leadership having racism and transphobia.
The rising inflation has made it so summer travel is more expensive than before. Things like hotels, plane rides, and other modes of transportation cost more than they did before COVID.
One change that has been brought about because of COVID is the rise of virtual events. Groups like NYC Pride, Capital Pride and Pride Amsterdam will have online streaming available. The NYC Pride March and the LA Pride March will be available on Hulu.
Another debate that has changed since COVID are questions about "pinkwashing" in which a company will recognize Pride for profit, while not donating to any LGBTQ organizations. Some of the corporations in the past that have used Pride merchandise to sell things during Pride month while contributing to anti-LGBTQ organizations have been heavily criticized recently.
Overall, COVID has contributed to changes in how Pride is celebrated.
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-0022-06-11
During this pandemic I was just getting adjusted to becoming a student again. I invested into some music equipment to provide my son and my nephew an outlet and something that could keep them occupied. The pandemic forced me to not be around my nephew and other family members. During September 2020 my nephew’s life was taken due to violence. This crushed my spirit and I felt like a failure. I lost two people I love ❤️during this pandemic my mother in January 2022 and my nephew. We were forced in isolation and could not spend quality time with each other.
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2022-06-10
What’s it like living in lockdown?
Everyday felt like a cycle, especially online school.
You wake up:
-Turn your laptop on
-Eat
-Sleep
- Defecate
and repeat
No leisure activities on the weekends, like we used to have.
You're separated from socialisation, family, and friends.
So you start to try new hobbies. Or instead, rot in your hobbit hole (bedroom).
If I'm being real, I spent my lockdown in a big t-shirt and walking around in my underwear.
Skateparks were closed so I skated in my driveway and neighbourhood.
All my neighbours could hear was the slamming of my board, and ahhhh.
I eventually switched to skating in my garage, and then just stopped skating as a whole.
I tried writing screenplays, which were terrible.
Lockdown was separation from people to people contact, boredom, weight gain, and extremely long screen time.
I’m glad it’s over, but I definitely learned a little bit about myself.
The fact that everyone else was in lockdown made it a lot more doable.
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2022-05-29
This biography was created out of a self-directed project from the HST580 class. This biography will be linked to the submissions of the person mentioned in the document and title.
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2022-06-04
This is a news story from The Seattle Times by Scott Greenstone. Pride has changed quite a bit over the last two years due to COVID. For a while, Pride celebrations were held virtually. The in-person events in 2022 will now resemble what Pride was like prior to the virus. Included in this article are personal stories of people who did not come out until the pandemic, with this year being the first year they will attend Pride in-person.
For some, they didn't realize they were trans until the pandemic hit. Rhys Hutton, for instance, did not know he was trans, and is also coming to grips with having autism. Hutton's story of how he came to the realization started on TikTok when the algorithm kept showing videos of trans-masculine people. This exposure helped him figure out his identity more.
Stories like this are not uncommon, according to a recent Gallup poll, ten percent of Millennials and twenty percent of Gen Z identify as LGBTQ+.
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2022-06-08
This is a news story from CNN by Jamie Gumbrecht. Moderna believes that their COVID-19 booster is effective against Ominicron, and more effective compared to the normal two doses. The claim is that the booster provided a stronger antibody response than the initial two doses.
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2022-06-09
This is a news story from CNN by Donald Judd and Betsy Klein. The Biden administration has announced a vaccine rollout for children five and under. The vaccinations are to start as early as the week of June 20.
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2022-06-06
This biography was created out of a self-directed project from the HST580 class. This biography will be linked to the submissions of the person mentioned in the document and title.
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2022-06-06
This biography was created out of a self-directed project from the HST580 class. This biography will be linked to the submissions of the person mentioned in the document and title.
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2022-06-01
I remember the days leading up to lock down, one of my professors was warning us that if need be we would effortlessly be able to transition the remaining weeks of class online. To my peers and I, we thought that was a little extreme to talk to us about going remote, we didn't think something that was happening in another continent would reach us so quickly. Fast forward a week or two, work was so slow we were ordering food and sitting around talking for the entirety of our shift. At the time I was a host and was getting paid hourly so I didn't mind but I didn't think about the way it was affecting our bartenders and servers. Within the next two days we were shutdown and I was filing for unemployment. Interestingly enough, that time was the most money I've ever made in my life. I was collecting 2-3x more money than I would have gotten if I was working. I changed my life style, I started nannying once August of 2022 came around because I couldn't afford to only have my hourly host pay once things started to open back up again. I was eventually given a promotion at work to Bartend once my nanny family no longer needed me since they were comfortable with the kids going back to school and day care. I was making a livable wage but it was nothing compared to what sales were before covid. It was never consistent, when the numbers began to spike people, reasonably so, would stay home and money was tight. I was so unhappy at my current job I was despiertly seeking a new one but in January of 2022, it was still a little scary, numbers were spiking and finding a new industry job seemed next to impossible. I found one but it came with a lot of consequences. I struggled financially for months. If it wasn't for the support of my family, I wasn't sure if I would have been able to make rent, pay my car, or even feed myself. Thankfully as the months have gone on it's gotten better. It's now June of 2022; over two years since the pandemic first started, and while nothing is normal, it's the closest it's ever been. Those who were once in the same position as me, scared of how they were going to survive are back to making livable wages. But I won't lie, I'm still scared, there is no certainty or promise that things will stay as "normal" as they are this 2022 summer. All we can do is hope and pray, and be thankful and grateful we're here to talk about it.
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2022-05-30
Japan, as of May 30th, 2022, is relaxing the face mask guidelines. For the most part, masks do not need to be worn outdoors except when the elderly are in close quarters to other people. Indoors, masks are still required indoors except in the case of when someone is in little to no conversation, which the article shows in a chart. The chart's example states walking around museums and libraries where there is little to no conversation. One of the reasons for why Japan is relaxing face masks is because summer is approaching and the temperature will rise. There are fears about face masks causing heatstroke. In Japan, temperatures can range from 70-90 degrees F, but the summers are hot and humid too. So, it makes sense to relax the restrictions, especially in the outdoors.
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2022-05-26
This biography was created out of a self-directed project from the HST580 class. This biography will be linked to the submissions of the person mentioned in the document and title.
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2020-09-20
This assignment was given to students in Northeastern University's HIST 1219, History of Global Pandemics, taught by Dr. Streets-Salter in Fall 2020, and then taught by a graduate student in Fall 2021.
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2020-12-04
This is an optional assignment given to students in Northeastern University HIST 1323, History of Boston, taught by Dr. Rabinovitch in Fall 2020.
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2022-05-10
Jaime Godinez is a high school U.S. history teacher in Yuma, Arizona, and an ASU graduate student being interviewed for a class assignment. Jaime gives some background on his life, including the fact that he was born in Arizona, but raised in Mexico. He discusses how his feelings have changed about COVID before the world was shut down and everyone was forced into remote work, but also more recently. Still, Jaime endured when he became unemployed and began to study at Arizona State University. However, Jaime was disappointed by the fact that he could not coach basketball. Finally, Jaime tells us how he and his family dealt with living together during the COVID-19 lockdown, including when he bought dumbbells online so he could work out at home. Jaime would have preferred to work out in a gym, much like many others, but this was a compromise that he had to make. Jaime reminds us that we must listen to medical professionals in the future and we must be socially responsible when interacting with the public.
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2022-05-22
Republican blowout at midterms? not so fast
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2022-05-24
This biography was created out of a self-directed project from the HST580 class. This biography will be linked to the submissions of the person mentioned in the document and title.
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2022-01-13
COVID-19 has had a huge impact on both students and teachers. Not only has there been learning gaps, but there has also been an impact on the social and emotional well-being of teachers and students.
Many experts now say that these issues need to be addressed before focusing more on academics.
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2022-02-01
According to a poll given by the National Education Association, 55% of teachers who participated feel burned out enough from COVID-19 to quit. Some of the reasons that COVID-19 has caused additional stress for teachers is due to student behavior, additional responsibilities, and longer hours.
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2020-08-06
During the summer of 2020 I was taken from my current unit (where I work as a nurse) back to the ICU to care for the overflowing patients. The ICU is a very noisy place, but one noise that was new was the knocking. To go into a COVID patient's room you have to put on booties, a full length gown, two pairs of gloves, an N95 mask and a surgical mask along with eye protection. It is a lengthy process so once you are in the room you don't leave until all tasks are complete. So if you need something when you’re in there you would knock on the glass doors of the patient's room and one of the helper nurses would come and read what you had written on the door in a marker and get the items for you.
It was so quite in the rooms, no families were allowed so it was you, the machines and the patient. It was so hot you could feel the sweat dripping down your back and pooling in the arms of your gown. It was a very isolating feeling, usually there are lots of hands and people in your rooms with you to help or just to chat but not during COVID. The knock-knock could be heard all down the hall. It reminds me of the isolation we all experienced during this time and also how resilient we are and how helpful nurses are to each other. Nursing is a team sport. It is a sound and an experience I will never forget.
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2022-05-24
This biography was created out of a self-directed project from the HST580 class. This biography will be linked to the submissions of the person mentioned in the document and title.
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2022-05-28
This biography was created out of a self-directed project from the HST580 class. This biography will be linked to the submissions of the person mentioned in the document and title.
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2022-05-21
This is an Instagram post by spacegrd. This is an infographic on why someone would choose to wear a mask. The three reasons are: humility, kindness, and community.
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2022-05-22
This is an Instagram post by coach.fun.2. The study is not linked in the description, but I did find the article the title is referencing. The story come from the Huffington Post. It says that political affiliation is linked to vaccination rates, which some claim are what is making the difference between living and dying from COVID. Wealth and access to certain care are also taken into account. The study was from Brown and the study claims that states that went heavily for Trump had more cases of COVID deaths.
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2022-05-22
This is an Instagram post by reddingrancheria. This is an advertisement for wearing a mask to protect the elderly. Seeing as elderly are more at risk for dying of COVID, I can understand why elderly would wear masks more often themselves, in addition to their caretakers wearing masks frequently.
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2022-05-22
This is an Instagram post from feministhood. It is making the comparison between the rhetoric Republicans have had regarding COVID versus abortion. The person writing this says thinks that it is rather contradictory. The contradiction comes from thinking that "my body, my choice" applies to masks and vaccines, but should not apply to abortion. The commonality is that both issues deal with bodily autonomy.
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2022-05-28
This is an Instagram post by tat2luvgirl37. This is a political comic referencing both school shootings and mask wearing. The comic artist is trying to create irony where the parents of one of the kids seems to worry more about mask wearing rather than gun protection. The mask versus no-mask camp is highly partisan, with the no-maskers typically being Republican in the United States, and the pro-maskers being Democrat. Additionally, the Republican party is overall viewed as being more-pro gun, which some critics say is the reason why mass shootings happen more often. As we can see by the #voteblue used by the person that reposted this comic, it is very politically charged and meant to be criticism against those that are pro-gun and anti-mask.
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2022-04-29
This is an Instagram post by stutteringloudly. This person is celebrating his mom getting her fourth dose.
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2022-05-03
This is an Instagram post by everydayjustnottoday. The person that posted this equates masks with intelligence. Intelligence to this person is attractive. Masks have been a controversial topic due to the belief that they will inhibit communication or cause psychological issues. There are many different sides to this debate.
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2021-08-10
Caption to post:
As I’m sure you’ve seen and experienced, mask mandates are starting to come back. In stores, offices, and on my college campus as well.
As a person with hearing loss, masks make it so difficult me for me to communicate. I rely so heavily on lipreading, seeing how the mouth moves when speaking, to understand what is said. Without lipreading, my speech recognition is around 16%. This means with masks, I can only absorb 16% of all interactions - that is incredibly isolating.
When I go back to the classroom in September, it’s going to be so difficult to navigate the classroom setting when I can’t understand anyone. My teachers will have clear masks provided, but what about during group work or when students ask questions that I might also have? I’m going to completely miss out on the college experience I’ve been longing for for a year and a half because people won’t get vaccinated.
I’m tired of disclosing my hearing loss to check out at a store. I’m tired of constantly fighting for closed captioning for online lectures. I’m tired of living in a pandemic where we have a solution to end it.
Vaccines work. Vaccines save lives. Getting the vaccine means you’re helping deaf and hard of hearing people get back to a place where they can communicate again.
SAVE this post and SHARE to spread awareness. This topic is NOT talked about enough and it’s something that affects the deaf and hard of hearing community every single day.
ID IN COMMENTS
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2022-05-28
This is a news story from Reuters. After intense lockdowns, Shanghai is looking to reopen again.
Shanghai officials urged continued vigilance, even though the vast majority of its 25 million residents live in areas that are in the lowest-risk "prevention" category.
"Wear masks in public, no gathering and keep social distance," Zhao Dandan, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, told a daily news conference.
Similar measures are being taken in Beijing, where things are reopening there too, but with restriction.
Starting on Sunday, shopping malls, libraries, museums, theatres and gyms will be allowed to reopen, with limits on numbers of people, in the eight of Beijing's 16 districts that have seen no community cases for seven consecutive days.
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2022-05-26
This is a news story from The Associated Press. Just recently, there have been over one million COVID deaths recorded in the United States. The author of this piece asks if Americans have just begun to tolerate mass death. Racial and social inequalities are also cited, where the author claims that those of certain backgrounds are more likely to die sooner or more violently. The COVID deaths are then related to the recent shooting deaths, such as in Buffalo and in Texas. While the gun violence deaths are lower than the COVID deaths, the author uses this to show that little is being done for either to help lessen the amount of deaths.
I don't agree with the author completely on this due to dying from COVID being very different from dying from a mass shooter. With COVID, people could pass it along unknowingly and get someone infected, as it is an asymptomatic spread. With a mass shooter, it is much less predictable and far more sudden. From what I have seen on my social media, I did not see anyone I follow really mark the 1,000,000 COVID death milestone, but many have expressed outrage over both the Buffalo and Texas shootings. I don't think the question should be whether Americans accept mass death or not, but of methods of prevention. Obviously, gun ownership won't solve all problems. The police that had guns were waiting outside the school as the shooter was slaughtering kids and adults. Though, one man with a gun, a border patrol agent, is who finally shot the mass shooter and killed him. This is more of a question of character, as well as how competent police forces are in these scenarios. I do not think the author made a fair comparison because protecting yourself from COVID to prevent death would be an entirely different process than protecting yourself from a mass shooter. While the goal of preserving life is the same, the methods differ. Outrage isn't an issue because I have seen people upset over death from COVID and mass shootings. The main problem I see is that people have trouble coming together on a solution.
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2022-05-26
This is a news story from Salon by Meaghan Ellis. This is an opinion piece on what this author thinks about Fox News contributor Tucker Carlson and his approach to the shooting in Texas. The news story says that Carlson claims the lockdowns increased mental illness cases.
Whether this is true remains to be seen, but from my own experience with lockdowns, I did have trouble adjusting. I had at least a few mental breakdowns over feeling like a prisoner in my own home. I don't think the lockdowns would trigger everyone into becoming a potential mass shooter, but I do not think they were healthy for many people either. People need human contact regularly, and being cut off from that and only having social media or very few people to see in-person would feel isolating. I think mental health is not paid attention to enough by public health officials when it comes to lockdowns. Mental health is still part of overall health. I do understand why the lockdowns happened, but I think many went on too long, which has had a bad effect on society. It is obviously not the only reason someone would have a mental illness, but for people that already did have mental issues, it made them worse. I have high functioning autism and without a good support system, I'd possibly be doing way worse.
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2022-05-28
This is a news story from the New York Times by Ceylan Yeginsu. This is about how people have been finding ways to bypass restrictions while traveling. Land crossings are a way some people are doing this, since land crossing does not require testing for entry into some countries. One way this could be done is doing the mandatory self-isolation period of five days, than choosing a different flight to a country like Mexico first, to then cross into the United States by land to avoid the ten day isolation required for testing positive for COVID. This article is quite interesting because it shows the ways in which COVID restrictions can be bypassed through loopholes within the framework. I have no idea the amount of people that actually do this, but at least a few have noticed ways to get out of restrictions.
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2022-05-27
Picture of a black disposable mask in the street near Parque 15 de Enero de la Independencia in Arequipa, Peru.
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2020-07
I graduated with my bachelor's degree in April 2020, shortly after my state began heavy COVID-19 shut downs. The plans I had for my career took an unexpected pause. After several months, I finally found work at a local convenience store as a cashier. To accommodate heightened concerns about hygiene and sanitation, we had several bottles of hand sanitizer set up around the checkout areas for both customers and employees. I didn't know how different hand sanitizer brands could be. I suspect that the sudden demand for it during the pandemic must have led to cheaper, lower quality versions being distributed more widely, but our hand sanitizer was the worst. If you pressed the lid of the bottle, you would suddenly find your hands full of a large, unwieldy blob of what felt like elmer's glue and smelled somewhere between a rotten banana and a doctor's office. Try as you might to rub it away, you would inevitable be left with sticky residue all over your hands until you washed them. I guess in that sense it was an effective sanitizer in that it probably made a lot of people actually wash their hands. I no longer work at the gas station, but every time I think of that first COVID summer and that job that I was both so thankful and a little disappointed to have, I think of the feeling of that hand sanitizer.
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2022-05-27
This is to describe the sensory changes I experienced when I visited my employer's main office during the lockdown.
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2020-05-17
The warmest April on record, yet we were all stuck inside. The streets usually congested with the honks of angry black cabbies, the loud hum of overused mufflers on double decker buses and the low rumble of the tube running underfoot were silent. The metropolis of over nine million people had come to a standstill. Windows usually closed to protect against the sleet or smog, were opened to quiet clean breezes. London felt serene, almost idyllic, until the piercing siren of an ambulance run would cut through that fairytale.
Before COVID I never paid attention to the St. John’s Ambulance First Aid Training facility on my street, only occasionally seeing the paramedics pop in the Arabic supermarket next door during lunch. As the news was counting the number of days we were in lockdown, I started counting the number of ambulances lining my street; popping my head out the open windows, looking up and down the road. However, sitting in my favorite chair in my flat, back to the window, I could avoid the grim sight, a constant reminder of the reality of the pandemic.
I would take my tea in that purple chair, alternating between endless Netflix shows and books, the church bells across the street the only thing to remind me of time. The warm sun and smog less breeze would join the bells drifting through the open windows. Through the books and shows, I not only escaped COVID but my small London flat. The silence of the city amplifying my imagination, only to be shattered by that first initial scream of the sirens, jolting me back to reality. Willing to sacrifice the warm breeze at my back, I closed my windows to protect my ears and the fantasies I had created. However, the double paned windows, sturdy enough to block out the honks of angry black cabbies, were no match for the sirens.
Unable to even slightly defend against the shock of the sirens when surrounded by the new silence of the city, I learned to live with it. I reopened my windows to let in bells, breezes, and sirens, instead tuning my ear to notice the ambulance’s first turn of the engine to brace for the piercing scream that would soon follow. As the days continued, my ears started to acclimate to this new normal, with each ambulance run making me jump a little less off my chair. Though my body and mind would never accept the sound enough to not to jolt me even from the deepest sleep, as if to remind me that this was anything but normal.
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2020-09-01
One of the most profound sensory experiences I had over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic was the new yet comforting experiences that engaged all the senses of visiting St. Anthony the Great Monestary in Florence, Arizona. My first visit, I stayed for a long weekend. Visitors remaining at the monestary for more than a day are put to work on the grounds, aiding the monks in their daily work. I was put in the kitchen due to my previous experience in a commercial kitchen setting.
The diet at the monastery is remarkably simple; a bean and rice soup, bread, and tangerines grown at the monastery. None of the smells of these foods were new or remarkable to me, but instead this provided an interesting aural experience. The monks pray constantly in everything they do, and kitchen work was no different. Low, repetitive Greek prayers were the only auditory input in the kitchen, aside from the hum of the dishwasher and the clinking of utensils against pots.
Services were held in the early morning, around 3:00am. While making my way from the guests' lodging to the church, I heard a rhythmic wood-on-wood striking, reverberating across the monastery. I saw the source. A monk was striking a wooden board, suspended in the air by two chains, with two wooden mallets. This was essentially the call for the service to start. I later learned from another pilgrim that this practice was adopted by Greeks living in Ottoman-controlled Greece when restrictions on church bells were implemented.
The service itself, too, was a sensory experience unlike any other. Sonorous Byzantine chants, clouds of aromatic incense, all lit by candlelight and a handful of small oil lamps. The sense of touch was also engaged; I felt the wool prayer rope in my hand, each knot a tactile counter for the number of prayers completed. Nearly every sense was full engaged in this temporary and much needed respite from the chaos of the outside world during uncertain times.
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2020-05-01
From 2005 to 2020, I was a police officer. My life was hectic and noisy. I carried two mandatory work cell phones everywhere I went, 24 hours a day, which rang, beeped, and chirped continuously. A police radio was on in my house, in my car, or in my ear, every hour of the day. In my world, people were always talking, at work and at home. I resigned from my position in April of 2020, just as the COVID lockdowns were coming into effect. I suddenly found myself with nowhere to be due to no longer having a job and having minimal to no contact with others due to the lockdown. Being an avid flyfisher, my days became about spending most of my time on the river alone. This was also not normal, as I am also a flyfishing guide, and am used to fishing with other people, who are usually talking to me, but due to COVID, I no longer had clients. The constant of my life went from hearing people talking (and yelling) and devises making noise, to the sound of the rushing water of the river. I soon found improvements appearing in my life. I began feeling better, sleeping better, eating better, was able to focus more, and had a much more positive attitude. All of which were side effects of being on the river everyday by myself. The COVID pandemic was an opportunity for people to re-connect with nature unknowingly, as outdoor activities were their only choice of recreation outside of their homes. Due to outdoor activity being the only option for recreation, people learned, or remembered in some cases, the value which nature can add to life, as well as how simple it is to take nature for granted. The pandemic forced people back into nature, which re-awakened (or maybe awakened for the first time) the special relationship between the human senses and nature.
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2020-04-10
The memories that stick in my head the most durning the pandemic are of the time I spent in my backyard with my partner and our dogs. I couldn't go to work and there was not much to do with my job virtually. I spent my days outside playing with my dogs; and sitting or laying on the grass next to my partner. I would sit in the backyard and feel the warmth of the sun cascading over my body; as I inhaled deeply the warm rush of the marijuana smoke into my lungs. I would walk on the ground barefoot feeling the earth beneath my feet and the grass between my toes. Listening to the birds chirp and the bees buzz by on their way to pollinate the many wild flowers and vegetables we have in our back garden. It was such a peaceful time for my partner and I. We had only bought our house a year or so earlier, and during this time we really started to feel like we settled into this space. Our backyard was our shelter from the world. To juxtapose that with what was happening outside of our sun drenched backyard is the most striking thing about these memory for me. Here we were enjoying a freedom that is seldom experienced in this hyper-capitalist world we live in (the freedom of not working). We were fortunate enough that we could spend our days in the sun with our dogs while the world passed us by. There was a brief moment during this pandemic where we hoped that others would see how capitalism ruins our lives and how much better things could be. It seemed in many ways the earth was healing, we had a brief glimpse into what a ecologically sustainable future could look like, but not only that, we had an opening to see what a life that emphasizes people over profit and leisure over work could be. Unfortunately, that was not going to last and was never meant to. The powers that be needed their profits, and their workers to exploit; and slowly but surely they demanded we risk our lives for their economy. The warmth of the sun and the feel of grass beneath my feet was lost to the grinding gears of the capitalist machine and I'm not sure I'll ever get it back.