As with anything these days, politics has created its own pandemic parallel to the one that is currently going on. From day one, Republicans and Democrats argued over whether or not a shutdown should happen, if masks should be worn, if social distancing is effective, and whether or not it is safe to reopen back up. With a collapsing economy, the Republican Party urged businesses to reopen while the Democrat Party favored staying closed to keep the public safe. Both political parties had valid arguments: the American economy is extremely important across the world and people die from U.S. recessions but the wellbeing of our people matters too. Trying to manage this delicate balance between economy and public welfare led to a great deal of debate during a time when we needed to come together as one and it created misinformation being given to the public. Biased news sources shared the statistics that they wanted their viewers to hear. For example, FOX News, a news source with a right-sided political bias, often shared facts regarding how many small businesses had to close and how only a handful of children have died from COVID-19 thus far. Meanwhile, CNN, a news course with a left-sided political bias, showed statistics that regarded the exponential growth of positive cases and potential deaths if we didn't stay shut down. Both FOX News and CNN may have shown accurate statistics, but they only showed one side which can sometimes be just as dangerous as showing incorrect facts.
Even the government wasn't presenting accurate information. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, held nearly daily press briefings with President Donald Trump sharing information and giving out guidelines for the public to follow. Early on, he advised against the use of masks. Later on, he later revealed that masks are necessary to help slow the spread of the virus and only steered Americans away from it initially so that medical staff would have enough access to them. While it may have been the best call, it still made Americans wary of what the government was advising them to do and some even still believe that masks will not help. Aside from a few little hiccups like these, government agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were the best source of reliable information. They provided accurate and detailed statistics that were able to reflect all of America. Local governments also did a fantastic job of reporting positive cases and keeping their own data. Below are several screenshots I've taken of Western New York COVID cases throughout the past few months:
After missing out on the best parts of senior year, many of us current college freshmen looked forward to our college experiences. But with the pandemic still going on, we again are finding ourselves missing out on some of the best years of our lives. First, I want to start with my experience of picking a college in general. In high school, I had a busy junior and senior year where I worked two jobs, took rigorous courses, and even made school history by being the first to compete in two varsity sports during one season. I always seemed to have something going on so I never made the time to narrow down my college choices from my list of twelve. In March, just two weeks before the shutdown, I had finally narrowed down my long list into several schools. I realized that I had not done a single campus tour so I asked my parents to tour the University of Kentucky over spring break. They agreed and I looked forward to getting a better feel for which campus felt right to me. Of course, those plans got canceled and I didn't end up going on any college tour my senior year. I sat at home taking virtual tours of campus and exploring websites to learn which university was the best fit.
Eventually, I decided that UK was the school I wanted to go to despite never even entering the state of Kentucky. This experience of choosing a school without touring was common across the country. There was a sharp decrease in out-of-state students across the country as many decided that it was best to stay close to home during this time. Some students who would have normally attended colleges chose to take a gap year because they didn't want to go to school if it was only online or they needed to work to support family members who may have lost their jobs. The class of 2020 has had a fair share of sacrifice.
Then, despite being allowed on campus, our classes are almost entirely online. We aren't getting the same quality of education that we would've gotten in-person. It's difficult to stay focused on schoolwork when I'm taking classes in my bedroom. I often end up taking spontaneous naps or struggle to focus altogether. Sometimes, I want to take a mental break and hang out with people but it's nearly impossible to make friends. Not everybody wants to meet new people who may have a life-threatening virus and all the events that usually allow people to meet others were online only so we never got the opportunity of face-to-face interaction. I can't tell if someone is smiling at me in the hallway because a mask covers their facial expressions. Every time I hang out with someone, we have to go somewhere in public because visitors aren't allowed in our rooms. The entire college experience is gone. Human connection is absent. The campus is usually pretty dead and deserted. I sometimes wonder why I'm even still here.
I also wonder if I'm safe here and if we'll actually stay on campus until Thanksgiving as promised. All in-person classes, which are few and far between, slowly seem to be gaining more online aspects and will likely end up being entirely online by the end of the semester. Students who are known to have been exposed to someone COVID-19 positive are still attending in-person classes, making the spread even worse. My assumption is that the University is aware of this and will eventually make all classes online, especially if there is a small outbreak in a class. However, one thing I will say is that students are being respectful of university guidelines. Almost everybody always wears a mask, uses hand sanitizer, and keep their distance. Of course, we are not perfect at it but we are trying our best. I genuinely think our students are making the best effort possible. Students are still sneaking students from other buildings into their dorms and the fraternities are still having parties, but overall, we're all doing our part. I understand why students just want to have fun after all the things we were hopeful for were canceled in the spring. I don't know if we will get sent home but with a campus this depressing, I wouldn't mind going home early.
As mentioned earlier, the University of Kentucky has put forth guidelines to keep students safe. The "Daily 4.0" includes regular handwashing, wearing a mask, social distancing, and completing a daily screening survey. Below are pictures of the following:
The daily email we receive to do our daily screening:
The daily screening questionnaire:
Every student had to get tested within two weeks of move-in. Here is a video showing how the process went:
The second half of senior year is the part of high school that everyone can't wait for. Class ranks have already been finalized, the application process to college is done, and as long as you keep a decent GPA you have no worries. It was Friday, March 13th, 2020, and I was excited that the weather would soon be warming up in chilly Buffalo. Our first senior skip day was coming up, prom tickets were going on sale the following week, and the senior trip was approaching in just a month. My high school career was finally about to peak and all my hard work was going to pay off, but what I didn't know was that this typical senior experience would not happen for me. What I didn't know was that I would never step foot in my high school ever again after that day. At first, I was told that we would be out of school for a month and resume classes on April 20th. So, the next day, I went prom dress shopping and spent $350 on a beautiful gown. Our classes transitioned to online and I actually enjoyed my break from school.
Then in mid-April, the governor announced that we would need more time away from school to quarantine before going back. Teachers assured us that we would have a postponed prom and maybe even the senior trip to Cedar Point as planned. We all kept hope as we lounged around home all day, as mandated. It wasn't until May when the governor announced that school would be canceled for the rest of the year when it hit me that my senior experience was officially forgotten. We never got a senior prom, nor a senior trip, nor a senior skip day. Our class officers worked hard to do a senior parade in each of our cars around the campus but it wasn't the same as marching through the hallways on the last day of school. Even graduation was uncertain. There were so many things we were hopeful for. When we would normally be having fun and enjoying our youth, many of us were working the frontlines of a pandemic and had to grow up fast. The sacrifices my class had to make was nothing like those just several years before us. After lots of work, stress, and compromise, we finally were able to hold our graduation in-person on the turf. It wasn't ideal and there ended up having to be two ceremonies since there was a 150 person limit, but it still happened. Each student was allowed to have two guests and it was live-streamed so other family members could watch at home. Senior year was not the best and it's a shame that we had to give up what we did but I am proud of everything that the class of 2020 went through together and I think we really did make the best out of a bad situation.
At 18 years old, I can't say I've done a lot of things but one thing I have done was work at the frontlines of healthcare amidst a pandemic. I work as a pharmacy technician at my local pharmacy, tasked with filling and labeling prescriptions as well as assisting customers and fulfilling and other duties that the pharmacist on duty asks of me. I still remember the day that my boss asked if I was comfortable working and if I would like to wear a mask and gloves.
I laughed. Today, that's the norm.
After the virus was closing in closer and closer to Western New York and we knew that it would soon hit my hometown, it soon became required of us to wear masks to work. Then came fear. Every day that I worked, I walked in terrified. My entire family was young and healthy with no conditions of concern, but I wasn't worried about myself. I was worried about the sick, elderly patients that walked into the pharmacy doors every day. The idea of people having the virus and be asymptomatic was just coming out at this point and I feared that I would unknowingly contract the virus and pass it on to those who would not survive. It was difficult walking into work every day knowing that I might have to live with unthinkable guilt for the rest of my life. I took as many precautions as possible washing my hands frequently and trying not to come into direct contact with customers.
Regardless, it was still my hands touching their pills and the one to check them out at the cash register. I also saw the fear in their eyes. Normally bubbly, friendly people stopped talking to me and looked at me like I was the Grim Reaper. Most vividly, I remember an old woman coming in trembling in fear and rushed out of there as soon as possible. We soon implemented a curbside pickup service so customers no longer had to leave their cars in the parking lot to come in.
Still, fear remained and I questioned whether I truly should continue working or not. I knew that older generations were relying on mine to continue to provide services and that the pharmacy needed me since staffing was tight, so I did what was needed of me and I continued to work. Luckily, the virus stopped spreading as rapidly and restrictions started loosening giving our patients and staff a better peace of mind. By the time I left for school in August, customers started talking more, showed less reluctance to stand near me, and glistened with hope for better days.
I'm proud to have continued working during a pandemic and even happier to see people be themselves again. I also think about those who have worked even more head-on with the virus such as doctors and nurses in hospitals who are responsible for treating positive patients. Many of them did not have access to proper personal protective equipment and had to expose themselves to the virus at work every day in order to help others. I have the utmost respect for those who risked their own health, even leading to their own death, to improve others'.
Below is an attached article giving the names of healthcare workers who died during the pandemic, courageously serving their communities. https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/927976
My name is Sam Hillman and I am currently an 18-year-old freshman studying Chemistry at the University of Kentucky. This blog is a part of a class I'm taking, GEO 261: Global Dynamics of Health & Disease. I come from a small town in rural, upstate New York in the greater Buffalo area. The area I'm from is predominantly white and middle class. My town, which consists of a population of roughly 10,000 residents, has seen 82 total SARS-CoV2 cases to date which is considered to be relatively good. While I am not extremely close to anyone who has tested positive for the virus, I do know people who have contracted it. One person I know who had it had a fever and mild symptoms for several days and his girlfriend never showed any symptoms or signs of catching it from him, regardless of driving him to the hospital. It is believed that he got it when the pandemic first started from the airport, but he couldn't trace an exact moment where contact seemed close. With my mom being a medical office receptionist and me being a pharmacy technician, we were working at the frontlines amidst the worst of the virus and know what some of the struggles were of being an essential worker during this trying time. Keep reading to find out more about me and my COVID-19 story.
