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2021-10-01
A friend of mine who is a nurse and cared for people with Covid throughout the pandemic sent this to me after the vaccination was available for 7 months and she was still caring for patients who didn’t believe in the vaccine or who weren’t yet convinced to get it. It speaks to the burnout and frustration on from line workers.
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2021-10-03T16:30
I was interviewing the life of a lab pack chemist in Massachusetts during the midst of the Pandemic, from daily routine to personal feelings.
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2020-12-03
From the "Friends of Rincon" Facebook page, Marysol Cuevas, a realtor in Rincon, shares the December 2020 Covid-19 restrictions in English. The comments show that people were grateful to have access to the new restrictions in English. The restrictions read:
🏠 Curfew is from 9pm until 5am. Sunday is a "lock-down" day - you are only permitted out for emergencies
🍺 Dry-law (no alcohol sales) in effect 5am Saturdays until 7am Mondays. Restaurants are permitted to serve alcohol at tables on Saturdays
🛒 On Sundays, only supermarkets, pharmacies, gas stations, hardware stores, a...
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2020-06
My daughter being congratulated by my father at her virtual college graduation at my home June 2020. Reminder of all of the important life cycle events that were cancelled or made virtual.
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2021-09-30
"My party, right or wrong"
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2021-10-05
Maria del Carmen Gonzalez de Telemundo PR entrevista al alcalde de Rincón, Carlos López Bonilla. El alcalde dice que los turistas están ignorando las reglas de distancia social y los toques de queda.
Maria del Carmen Gonzalez: "Nostotros con se encuentra el alcalde de rincón, Carlos López, a quien le agradecemos que esté aquí con nosotros durante la tarde de hoy. Como el municipio a manera de las situactión para controlar a los turistas a tenido a problema con el."
Carlos Lopez Bonilla: "Sí, ese es situactión un mucho problema. Cuando comenzó todo esto, el toque de queda, por lo menos tuvimos que nosotros a intervenir con más de 100 ahorita en las diferentes calles, las diferentes playas, extraído poco a poco. En el segundo día fueron menos y hay hoy en el día de hoy ya ha sido 88 personas que nosotros tenemos que ir con otro. Personal a intervenir con ellos y hablar con ella."
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2021-09-20
I have a screenshot of several anti-vax debates from my town's FB group. The poster was against vaccinating kids.
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2020
Over the course of the pandemic, everything went online. One of the major problems I faced was with technical capability- my computer was an older laptop, meant for doing assignments but not much else. Having to run Zoom, project applications, and other online requirements fried my laptop. It also made me think- How were underprivileged students doing work? I was lucky to even have a computer, and I mostly relied on the desktops at my university in the library before the pandemic started. Now I have a new laptop, but I know most people aren't so fortunate.
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2021-10-05
Beginning July 15, 2020, the governor of Puerto Rico ordered all tourists to show a negative, molecular Covid test in order to enter the island. The governor had tried to close down all US mainland flights from coronavirus hotspots but the FAA did not respond to her request. Instead, the governor required tourists to show proof of a negative Covid test, using this QR code (above), in order to leave the airport. Throughout one's stay in Puerto Rico, the government texted/emailed everyday asking for any symptoms. For the first several months, the questions were only in Spanish (above).
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2021-10-04
This is an assignment submitted by an Arizona State University student while they were taking a Religion 101 course. In the attached document the student describes their experience with covid 19.
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2021-10-04
My experience with the covid 19 pandemic was very different from a lot of people’s. Instead of staying home and not going outside, I had to work. I wasn’t a nurse or doctor or even a service industry employee. I did work in health care but registration. I also didn’t work at an ER or hospital. I worked at an urgent care that didn’t treat covid but did test for it. This urgent care was also in the middle of Los Angeles, California. I was doing patient registration in Los Angeles, California, at the peak of the pandemic when one in every three people had covid.
Since we were so understaffed and overworked, I easily worked about 60 hours every week for almost a year.
Now I’ve worked many jobs throughout my adult life. These include retail during Christmas, a theme park during summer and Halloween haunts, and the graveyard shift at a casino. Out of all those, the worst people and treatment I encountered were from the patients who wanted to be tested for covid 19 when we ran out of tests. We were a private company, and Los Angeles had multiple free test sites available to anyone in the LA area. You didn’t have to even to be a resident or have insurance. But none of that mattered; they were there and wanted to be tested. Even though it was 9 o’clock at night and we ran out of tests over four hours ago.
I know I’ll always be able to find an administration or clerical job in health care. I have over ten years of experience in that field. But, after what I went through during covid, I don’t think I will ever work in health care again. Every time someone says health care works are heroes, all I can think is, they have a funny way of showing it.
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2021-10-04
I am writing my own personal experience of how religion affected my lifestyle during COVID-19 pandemic
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2021-09-24
Pictured are 3 at-home COVID-19 tests. These tests were given, free of charge, to school personnel at a middle school outside Houston, Texas. Each staff member received 3 tests with the hope that sick personnel would test themselves at home before coming to work with symptoms. The test is a nasal swab test which requires a smartphone app to retrieve results. It was noted by this school district that a medical professional confirmatory test would be required after a positive at-home result.
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2020-06-09
This image demonstrates the panic-buying of toilet paper at a Walmart store in Katy, Texas. Attached to the shelves there are signs limiting customers to one pack. However, the customers had taken the toilet paper so quickly there had been no time to remove empty boxes. I'm not sure anyone predicted or fully understood the obsession of toilet paper hoarding at the beginning of the pandemic. Yet, it is one item that I continue to buy often to keep a stock in my garage. I think that internal panic of hoarding toilet paper is something that will always stick with me. It is a piece of the legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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2020-04-14
Things began to shut down towards the end of March 2020. At the time, my 5-year-old daughter was taking ballet classes. The dance academy canceled classes for about 2 weeks before they introduced online ballet classes through Zoom. I remember thinking how silly it was. The instructor could not do much to correct and help over Zoom, instead the kids followed along as much as possible. Eventually, the Zoom classes ended and the entire dance academy closed down for several months.
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2020-05-22
This image shows a line outside of a Walmart in Katy, Texas. During the spring and summer of 2020, I would make it part of my routine to visit the grocery store at 7:00am every Friday morning. People would line up outside of the doors waiting for them to open. It was too early for anyone to talk. I'm sure people rather not talk to one another because we were to remain 6 feet apart-- with duct tape lines suggested on the sidewalk. Plus, standing in the southeast Texas humidity made us all melt under the masks. Once the doors opened, people would grab a cart and rush in. From there, it would be a race to the back of the store where the water, toilet paper, milk, and paper towels were stored. However, my prize was disinfectant wipes. The cleaning aisle was my first stop every Friday morning. Very rarely would I get lucky and any Clorox or Lysol wipes would be on the shelves. Today, I have about a dozen containers on a shelf in my garage... and I continue to buy more.
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2021-03-24
In 2020, when schools closed their doors my children were ages 2 and 5. Because I was a public school teacher, I was no longer away at the school for 10+ hours a day. My kids were not old enough to have started school so I didn't need to learn about their online learning. However, I came to realize they needed a set structure to keep them busy during the what-seemed-like endless days we would be home together. A friend shared this schedule with me and I took pieces from it to work into our daily lives. It was important to me to keep my kids brains active and I knew I had to take on the role of a preschool teacher to do so. Eventually, we got into a groove and the many days became purposeful.
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2021-10-04
A quick comment about Law Enforcement during the pandemic.
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2021-10-04
Restaurant Employees’ Experience during COVID-19
The norms of life pre-COVID are not the norms we are experiencing now. We all get accustomed to our ways of living, and then our lives have changed in a blink of an eye. I am a server in a restaurant and walk out each shift with cash in my hands. March 19, 2020, my life changed. I was a college student that lived day today when it came to my income, and for six weeks, I did not have an income to help with the bare necessities of living. However, I was very fortunate that my parents were the lucky ones that still had jobs, and they were able to help me until the restaurants opened back up. I have learned the importance of saving money. The experience of working in a restaurant during COVID-19 was unlike any experience I had in the past. Everyone was required to wear a mask, and the interaction with the guests was unnatural. The guests not being able to see our expressions and not hearing us clearly, I felt we lost the customer service our guests expected. It was challenging to breathe with the masks as the restaurant industry is fast-paced, and at times we would get overheated, nauseous, and did not feel well. I was always ready to go home so I could take off my mask.
To-go sales now are a much more significant part of the restaurant business. The challenge with the increase in to-go orders is the design of the kitchens. They are designed to handle the projected sales based on experience, and when to-go sales became unlimited, the time to prepare meals doubled in time, and guests were unhappy. Many did not understand that the kitchen can only produce some much product per hour. It eventually got to the point that the restaurant would have to turn off their phones because the kitchen was at the maximum number of orders that they could produce.
Trying to keep the guests happy was a challenge. If we took unlimited to-go orders, then the cook times were doubled. However, if we limited the number of to-go orders, the guests would also be unhappy. It will be interesting to see if the restaurant industry gets back to the norms of pre-COVID.
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2021-10-04
With the pandemic still raging on, more nights are spent at home with pets and family... So much so that sometimes it seems that our pets develop favorite TV Shows to watch with us... !
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2021-10-04
Working in law enforcement the past few years has been tough. So tough that many are reconsidering the career and either leaving or just not applying in the first place. So many agencies, including my own are now offering hiring incentives... and each agency is trying to offer better than the others to entice people to hire on. It has turned into an incentive frenzy...
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2021-10-04
While perusing facebook, I came across this meme about healthcare workers being threatened with termination if they refuse to get vaccinated.
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2021-08-23
This is an article from Duke Global Health Institute that theorizes that pandemics such as the one we are in now, are actually relatively common and most people are likely to experience one in their lifetime.
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2021-10-04
While researching pandemic memes, I came across this website that compiles statistics on the pandemic from all around the world.
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2021-09-17
Once again, Covid-19 tops the list for Law Enforcement In Line of Duty Deaths, just as it did last year. Now, more than ever, Law Enforcement needs our support and assistance!
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2021-02
At the beginning of the year, my workplace began offering free Covid vaccines and time from work to get them. I signed up because I know how important it is. Arguments about whether the vaccine should be mandatory aside, I got it because I can, and there are those that can't and this is my way of helping them too.
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2021-10-04
Hunting around the internet for pandemic memes and came across this one. For some, this is the first time they have had to spend an extended amount of time at home all day every day with family and the struggle is real... so very real!
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2021-10-04
I found this while searching online for pandemic memes and it gave me a chuckle!
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2021-10-04
I began the Plague Year in the heartland of the United States: Rogers, Arkansas. I was towards the end of my two year term of service for my church, which was my full time job from 2018-2020. After spending nearly two years focusing wholeheartedly on Christian and spiritual concepts such as redemption, outreach, transcendence, faith, repentance, covenants, and endurance, my mindset going into the pandemic was admittedly a spiritual one. More specifically, I saw the pandemic as a growing opportunity for the whole world. The key, I thought, was that the coronavirus doesn't discriminate: It can infect you regardless of your race, socioeconomic status, social class, sexual preferences, or gender identity. It is a threat to everyone. Although we later learned that the disease, in fact, does affect people disproportionately, this one tenet of my philosophy- that it poses a threat to everyone- still stands. With this in mind, coupled with my heavily Christian, and moreover religious perspective, I viewed the advent of the coronavirus as a lesson that humanity had the opportunity to learn from. Whether they would take that opportunity, I couldn't say at the beginning, as I had recently seen examples that bolstered my faith in humanity, and also ones that degraded it. This was particularly interesting to consider immediately after exiting the 2010s, a period that many Americans and people of the world view as a tumultuous one. What I can say, however, is that I was optimistic. Even if a divisive political climate, humanitarian crises across the world, the longest war in American history, and a widespread mental health crisis couldn't jumpstart people's empathy for one another, hopefully a worldwide pandemic could.
Looking back after 18 months of plague, I would say that I have observed mixed results. In very visible ways, the world, and particularly the United States, has become considerably more divisive. I look at the rise of conspiracy groups, the charged conversations I've observed related to masks or vaccines, the storming of the capitol, or the events that led to the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, and I think that the pandemic has only served to stress people beyond their breaking point. I am disappointed. Now that I am much more involved at a secular institution, in a state university, and much less involved in my church, I often fall into skeptical and even cynical thoughts lamenting humanity's inability to learn a lesson. I revile at the unchecked pride that rules the lives of so many. I look around and see many who would rather be "right" than be objectively correct. These people are my friends, family members, former mentors, and authority figures. Like the Coronavirus, these shortcomings of character have the ability to affect anybody.
I would like to say that I have seen the same results on the other side, that I have seen enough examples of individual acts of courtesy and kindness to offset the vitriol, but I don't know that I can. I also don't know if I can't in good conscience make that observation, the proverbial jury is still out on that one. That will take more time to see. True change is something that stands the test of time, which we haven't had the luxury of observing yet. While the hate, cynicism and conflict that I have previously mentioned are very visible, and immediately announce themselves, change in the perspectives and hearts of people is more of a slow and gradual process, especially considering that the pandemic is not over. I hope to observe in later years that this pandemic defined our generation in a positive way, the same way that our progenitors gained appreciation and humility and grit from the great depression. I know that I, for one, have made efforts to do the same. I suppose that this all comes back to faith- faith that I have that this will one day be worth it. Although my life is a lot more secular these days, I retain the same faithful perspective that I gained volunteering with my religious organization for 2 years, the one that I had at the beginning of the Plague. It has not broken me, and deep down, I don’t truly believe that it’s broken the collective “us”, either.
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2021-10-04
This is a quick reflection on some aspects of how life is different now due to covid-19.
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2020-08-27
I am on the women’s soccer team at Arizona State University, and the world’s way of handling sports during the pandemic was ever changing and interesting to say the least. This photograph depicts me playing soccer outside while fully masked. At the start of the pandemic, all sports were put on a complete hold and all athletes were sent home. The next progression was that we were able to return to campus, however we must practice fully masked and maintain no contact with other athletes. As you can imagine, running sprints in August in Arizona was no easy feat, but nobody complained and everyone was just happy to get back on the field. Within a couple of months, we were able to resume contact, remove masks, and play against other schools as long as weekly testing was enforced. As the year has progressed and vaccinations have become readily available, the restrictions for vaccinated individuals have been almost completely lifted and testing is no longer required. This pandemic has completely changed my outlook on sports and life in general. It is so easy to dread the early morning practices, the hard team workouts or count down the days until your next off day. However, once those things are completely taken away from you, you truly realize how lucky you are to even be on the field in the first place. This pandemic, in all that it has taken from us, has given me a sense of appreciation for all the little things that I used to dread. I find myself being much more optimistic in the hard moments than I was before, and I have been able to be much more grateful for the opportunities that I have been given. I truly do think that this lesson will carry over into my life beyond athletics, and that I will have a different outlook on seemingly dreadful tasks. You never know when a global pandemic could suddenly put your life on hold.
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2021-10-04
The reflection that I have uploaded is a short summary of the biggest impacts Covid-19 has had on my life. This was the first time I've had the opportunity to share how Covid-19 has affected my life and I hope my experience helps others understand what life was like during these times. This submission is important to me because I want people 50 years from now to be able to read this and know how this pandemic has changed the world and how adaptable humans can become.
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2021-10-04
The essay outlines what I had initially known about COVID-19, what I experienced, what close family or friends experienced, and how I saw the world change as a result. The purpose being to share my thoughts to not only get it off my own chest, but to help others feel comfortable in sharing their own.
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2021-05-30
This is a story about being a pregnant person during the pandemic
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2020-08-31
I was in the military and on the opposite side of the country as my family when the pandemic began to take hold. Heavy restrictions were applied to those of us who were living on the base where I was stationed. At first the leaders within my organization said that restrictions would be temporary and would dissipate soon, if they were followed. The restrictions that we were required to follow were as follows: we couldn't leave the base, unless it was for essential travel (i.e. groceries), we could not be within six feet of each other, and we could not go into our friends rooms. While these restrictions were for our own good, it greatly reduced the quality of life for myself and my friends, because we could not hangout together like we used and most of our families were hundreds of miles away. Additionally, leave to go home was not being approved because of the restricted movement that was put in place. Eventually, the supposedly beneficial rules that were set in place to protect us, turned out to produce more scorn and hate for the people who made them, who didn’t care follow them, than they did good. After months of living like this, the rules became loose enough for people, who were from out of town, to come and visit. This being said, life for the first four or five months of the pandemic were full of totalitarian rules and heartache. Overall, life in the beginning of the pandemic was bleak and grey without any vision of color for the future. In August of 2020, my then fiancée and family were able to travel across the country to see me. The relief that I felt to be able to see my loved ones was indescribable and much needed. When they were in town, my wife and I got married and we were able spend a week with our families before they left for California. While, the relief that I felt was overwhelming and fantastic, I would never want anyone to live in forced separation from their loved ones, no matter the cost.
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2020-09-27
On September 3, 2020, I was notified by a friend that I had come in close contact with someone who had tested positive for COVID-19. I then spent the next 14 days in quarantine, not once leaving my room. Since I live and work in the Taylor Place dorms, I immediately notified the community directors and was placed in a quarantine dorm where I could be separated from my roommate. Despite testing negative for COVID-19 and not having any symptoms, I still needed to quarantine for 14 days as a precaution according to ASU Health Services.
Being confined by empty white walls and only being able to see slivers of the sky made the loneliness even more apparent. Although my camera was the first thing I packed, it took me until the ninth day to find the motivation to pick it up. I began photographing the things I could see from my dorm or my “Views from Quarantine.” Using a long lens, I had residents pose in their windows in ways that expressed their personalities. With every photo, I felt less and less alone.
I began to realize how important it is for people to see what it meant to quarantine in the dorms. So I also began photographing my meals and room. At the end of it, I put together a photo story, “Views from Quarantine,” that was published in The State Press. It is probably one of my proudest accomplishments so far.
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2021-10-03
I believe we have all lost a lot during this last year. Loss of normalcy. Loss of community. Loss of family and friends. At the beginning I'm sure a lot of people thought the world was gonna end. And in a way it did. Our old world died as we are currently creating a new one. New babies are entering this world with a new chance. another chance to make the world a better place. Another chance to create a new world. They are seeing people for the first time. Yes we loss last year. But we also gained. As the poem states, the art of loosing isn't hard to master.
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2021-10-03
A look at a global pandemic from a 21st century American point of view, nearly a decade after the last pandemic of the world.
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2020-12-25
This is a polaroid photo of my family getting together on Christmas day in 2020. We are all wearing masks because some of us have more hazardous occupations that may have exposed us to covid. We had been tested but wanted to err on the side of caution. We thought it would make a good picture, and wanted to document our lives during the pandemic.
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2021-10-03
All of the fun memories that are normally reminisced upon later were replaced with stories of disappointment. My last two months of high school were basically stolen from me. COVID-19 stole the fun events that I deserved and worked twelve hard years for. A time that should have been filled with excitement and fun-filled memories with friends turned into memories of disappointment and separation. Everything that I was looking forward to at the end of high school was canceled. There was no in-person school, all sporting events, senior trips, prom, and graduation were canceled. The world turned virtual. I spent my days attending classes through Zoom not being able to truly interact with my classmates. I missed going out to get lunch with my friends and walking down the hallways talking about how much homework we got. I could not leave my house until the day came where we had to wear masks and social distance. My “prom” consisted of taking pictures with my friend and eating dinner at home rather than dancing the night away. My final goodbye to my teachers consisted of a drive-by car parade where we decorated our cars and were cheered on from afar. My graduation turned into a silent, empty auditorium allowing one parent or guardian to record me walking across the stage and receiving my diploma. I was extremely jealous that my Class of 2019 friends, just the year before, got the opportunity to experience all of the things that I didn’t. As a junior, I assisted the senior dessert and I remember how excited I was to be able to participate in it for my senior year. The disillusionment hit me when my senior dessert was driving to Crumbl Cookies, grabbing my cookie, and going home. All of these activities should have happened in-person surrounded by the smiling faces I’ve spent four years seeing, but instead I got a pandemic.
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2021-08-05
Arizona Governor Doug Ducey and the Arizona State Legislature have attempted to make it illegal for school districts to require face masks. Tucson Unified School District's school board voted for a mask mandate in defiance of this. Other Arizona districts followed, risking the withholding of COVID relief funds that the governor is refusing to disburse to any district with a mask mandate. A judge later ruled that the law was invalid and schools could have a mask mandate. As someone with children who are in school but are too young to receive a vaccine yet, I hope districts continue to require face masks for the safety of the students and staff.
The Arizona Daily Star published a story about TUSD's decision.
TEXT OF ARTICLE:
Tucson Unified School District is requiring all staffers, students and visitors to wear masks at all its school sites when the school year begins on Thursday, Aug. 5.
The TUSD decision defies a new state law that bans public schools from issuing mask mandates.
“While Gov. (Doug) Ducey and the state Legislature has decided to ignore the advice of our public health experts and endanger our community, we can’t sit idle and watch COVID inevitably spread throughout our schools and devastate so many TUSD families,” said board member Ravi Grivois-Shah during an emergency Governing Board meeting Wednesday morning. “This is why I will support, along with my colleagues, a requirement to have masks on TUSD campuses and authorize TUSD to enforce this.”
The board passed the measure 4-0. Board President Leila Counts was not present for the vote.
Masking in schools is an important mitigation measure to slow the spread of COVID-19, and especially the new delta variant, health agencies at the county, state and federal level all say.
This week, with Tucson classrooms back at capacity, as nearly 140,000 children across Pima County are returning to classrooms in person, indoor masking is one of the remaining virus mitigation measures schools have left. Social distancing is problematic at most school sites because of large class sizes, and there’s a state ban on a vaccine mandate. Further, a vaccine is unavailable to anyone younger than 12 years old.
Between July 20 and Aug. 2, there were 102 virus cases in Pima County schools and 11 outbreaks, according to data from the Health Department. Those figures occurred when most schools here were not yet open.
At the end of July, cases in schools accounted for about 8% of the Pima County’s total reported cases, compared to 4% of total cases during last school year — when masks were required. The county also has seen an increase in pediatric admissions and ER visits in children over the last two weeks of July.
Vail Unified is the only Tucson school district that has been open for two weeks. Without a mask mandate, the district has 57 current COVID-19 cases in students and 12 in staff workers.
The county Health Department has already temporarily closed three Vail classrooms and told staffers and students to quarantine.
“Last year, schools had a number of tools that are no longer available,” said Vail Superintendent John Carruth. “They had the ability to do hybrid learning with smaller class sizes, require face coverings and close classrooms if needed. This year, Vail has two instructional options for families — fully in person and fully remote. With all of our teachers assigned to in-person or fully remote instruction, we are leaning on structures we built last year to support students when (the Health Department) requires them to quarantine.”
And while some parents, especially those with children not old enough to be vaccinated, fear for their children’s safety in a packed classroom with unmasked people, other parents are staunchly against mask mandates, saying it is unnecessary and even harmful.
In an informal survey by the Arizona Daily Star, with 180 participants two weeks ago when the COVID-19 numbers were lower, less than a third of respondents said masks should be optional, in line with the new state law. The other two-thirds said masks should be required or schools should at least have the option to require them.
TUSD, with about 42,000 students, follows at least two other school districts in the state, the Phoenix Union High and Phoenix Elementary school districts, in defying the governor and state Legislature by requiring masks.
A Phoenix Union teacher sued the district over the mandate, but a court hearing on the case that was set for Wednesday morning was postponed until next week.
Science teacher Douglas Hester filed a lawsuit against the Phoenix Union school district’s board members and superintendent on Aug. 2, saying the mandate is illegal and can’t be enforced. A hearing on the case is set for Aug. 13.
While most Tucson school districts are strongly recommending that students and staff wear masks indoors, most have also said they don’t intend on mandating masks, including Vail, Marana, Amphitheater, Sahuarita, Sunnyside and Tanque Verde.
TUSD Board Member Adelita Grijalva said the mask mandate is necessary for the following reasons: More children are getting sick from the new COVID variant; new evidence has shown that fully vaccinated people may still be able to transmit the virus; the delta variant appears to be more contagious than chickenpox; and many students in the district are too young to be vaccinated.
“Probably over 30% of our district cannot be vaccinated because of age,” she said. “I know my youngest can’t. I know many of our children cannot or their friends cannot, and so we have to do everything we can in the district to ensure their safety. That’s our No. 1 priority.”
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2020-05-01
The University of Arizona offered antibody testing in April and May 2020 to a limited number of community members. The goal was to get a better idea of how many people had already been infected with COVID without realizing it. I signed up for the test which was located at the new Arizona football practice field. This was my first time venturing out of the house since everything shut down and it was a surreal experience, being on campus but not seeing anyone walking around. The university is usually full of people with lots of energy. It was also uncomfortable being around people in the testing site because I had avoided being around anyone other than my immediate family since March.
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2021-07-13
A photo of The French Dispatch cast at the Cannes Film Festival generated a lot of memes. Declan Cashin (@Tweet_Dec) made one about the different COVID-19 vaccines available for each of the cast members. This meme is relevant because it was a popular image in 2021 that combined the reality of the pandemic, when several vaccines were available.
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2021-08-19
The University of Arizona football achieved 100% vaccination rate at the beginning of the 2021 season, the highest in the Pac-12.
TEXT OF NEWS ARTICLE:
The Arizona football program is 100% vaccinated against COVID-19, the team announced Thursday. The rate includes players, coaches and other staffers.
First-year coach Jedd Fisch had made that a goal, and the team has achieved it. The UA is believed to be the only team in the Pac-12 to have reached 100%, with UCLA in second place at 98%.
During Arizona's media day earlier this month, Fisch revealed 115 of the Wildcats' 118 players were vaccinated — a 97.4% rate and a five-player improvement from the team's mark in July.
Other teams in the Pac-12 that are above the 90% threshold include Washington, Colorado, Utah, USC and Oregon. Oregon State (88%), Stanford (85%) and Washington State (80%) are behind the other Pac-12 programs, while Arizona State and Cal haven't disclosed their vaccination rates.
Ole Miss is another college football program with all of its personnel 100% vaccinated.
“We are proud to say our football program is 100% vaccinated,” the program posted via Twitter. “Our players, our staff and all who are affiliated with our program have worked very hard to accomplish this goal.
“We take our health very seriously, and we are committed to a 12-game season and beyond. We are also committed to staying healthy and are hopeful that campus can follow our lead.”
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2021-08-06
Dr. Christina Bergin shares a thread on Twitter after her child was exposed to COVID in the classroom. She provides a story about spending 18 months doing everything she could to not expose her family to COVID because of her work in a hospital, only to have her child exposed after three days of in-person learning at school. She addresses her tweets to Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, who (with the legislature) have attempted to prevent schools from instituting mask mandates and have threatened to withhold federal COVID relief funding that the state is supposed to disburse to Arizona school districts.
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2021-10-01
Elizabeth Jacobs (@TheAngryEpi on Twitter) regularly tweets about the pandemic. She has been vocal about the University of Arizona's mitigation strategy, specifically how the university will not defy Governor Ducey's ban on mask mandates. She is a professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Arizona and has played a big role in the UA Vaccine POD and COVID-related research. She is particularly outspoken about vaccines and masks in education settings, not just at the university level but also for K-12.
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2021-02-25
The University of Arizona ran a drive-thru and walk-up vaccine POD for six months in 2021. During that time they provided more than 240,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine to the Southern Arizona community. I volunteered at the POD for 10 shifts between February 2021 and May 2021, helping with traffic control to get as many cars safely through the stations, with observation to ensure everyone was okay after receiving their vaccine, and with registration to help get information all ready for the nurses giving the vaccine. It was great to be a part of the solution and helping people protect themselves and other community members. One woman, while waiting to get her shot, told me how excited she was to be able to hug her grandchildren again. She started crying because she was so relieved to see her family and feel safe doing it. It was a great atmosphere at the University of Arizona and everyone was working together for each other. Something I will never forget and that I'm proud to have been a part of. The photo is from my first shift in the observation area on the Mall, waiting for the POD to open and line cars up for observation post-vaccine.
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2021-10-01
One of the more grueling things to come out of the pandemic, for me at least, has been to watch my family fall prey to misinformation and fear-mongering. When the vaccines started coming out, my family refused to get them. I felt like I couldn't get them without causing an upset in my family. I figured that, since I am an online student and I rarely leave the house, it was okay if I didn't get vaccinated, but really the only reason I didn't was because I was afraid of my family's anger. I felt like I had no choice, to be honest. It's a horrible feeling.
In addition, my mother convinced my grandparents that getting the COVID vaccine booster shot is pointless, because people who are vaccinated are still getting COVID. Even though from what I understand, this only happens in very rare cases. She also tried to scare me out of getting the vaccine by claiming that women who get it experience irregular menstruation, a sign of infertility, or sharing news stories of people who had allergic reactions, got sick from the shot, etc. I cannot adequately describe my sheer frustration with this attitude of thinking they know better than doctors.
A month ago, my mother noticed a strange purchase listed on one of our bills. She called my father and learned that he had purchased Ivermectin, a drug normally given to horses, because he had read something on the Internet about how it could be used to treat COVID. People have been overdosing on this stuff and it makes them extremely sick or could even kill them. We were able to convince my father to return his purchase, but my mother heard from her chiropractor (a very strange and eccentric man, in my opinion) that his wife, a licensed doctor or nurse, had been giving her elderly father small dosages of Ivermectin to treat COVID, and that it had supposedly worked. She asked me if I thought she should tell my father this. I said no, because I don't think he understands the difference between a licensed medical professional doing something and a person with no medical training attempting to do the same.
Having said all this, I also must admit that I do not know who or what to believe. Do I put by absolute faith and trust in anyone who is labeled an "expert"? Well, no. Experts are human, and they are not immune to mistakes. So part of me does understand people wanting to take matters into their own hands, because they feel like the only person they can completely trust is themselves. I just wish more common sense was used and more people were able to grasp nuances, I guess. Is that the experts' fault for not being clear enough, or is it the people's fault for not understanding? I don't have any answers. I don't think anyone does.
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2021-10-21
Lamentablemente, estas personas en Puerto Rico y en todo el mundo continúan muriendo y enfermando gravemente por Covid-19. Estas son las cifras del 21 de octubre de 2021:
El Departamento de Salud registró en su actualización para hoy, viernes, seis muertes y 78 casos confirmados adicionales de Covid-19 en Puerto Rico.
Los decesos reportados fueron en las regiones de Bayamón, Fajardo, Mayagüez y la zona Metropolitana, entre las edades de 38 a 85 años. Se informó que cuatro de los seis fallecidos no estaban vacunados, mientras que los otros dos tenían condiciones de salud preexistentes.
Hay 137 adultos y 17 pacientes pediátricos hospitalizados por el virus. De estos, 47 adultos están en unidad de intensivo.
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2021-10-01
Puerto Rico ha tenido serias reglas de Covid. cada persona usa una máscara en todo momento. Este meme muestra el impacto cuando alguien no usa máscara.
