The Shock of COVID-19
My Worst Fear Confirmed
First Days of Varoon P
March 11-15 2020
Locations: Newark, NJ to Central New Jersey
On March 11th, 2020, COVID-19 was announced as a pandemic, and the world was struck with fear and confusion of what was to come. Not since the Influenza outbreak in 1917 has the world been thrown into a time of comparable economic turmoil and health hysteria. On that day, I found myself at my Rutgers University apartment in Newark, New Jersey, microwaving a cup of Ramen noodles while browsing through social media on my cell phone. I sit down to blow off the steam hovering from the cup, hoping that my first sip won’t burn my tongue off. But as I lifted the cup and fork closer to my mouth, something strange popped up on my feed. The title of the post said: “The WHO has classified COVID-19 as a pandemic,” while linking a statement written by the World Health Organization (WHO). I dropped my cup Ramen upright on the table in shock, accidentally spilling a little of the searing hot soup on my leg but barely even noticing it as I tried to wrap my head around the title of the post. I quickly scanned the article, and my worst fear was confirmed: COVID-19 was here to stay.
The next day, I called my parents and I got ready to move out. Rutgers had announced that spring break would start earlier due to COVID and I decided to use that opportunity to move back home as soon as possible. I said goodbye to all my roommates and friends, knowing full well it would be a long time before I would see them again. When I got home, I unpacked after a long day and just rested out. My family and I were definitely in a bit of a panic. We made sure to get non-perishable foods like canned goods from the supermarket and tried buying some toilet paper, which ended up already sold out. Much of my time for those first few days was spent on FaceTime where I would call my friends up to see how they were doing, what precautions they were taking, and if they knew anyone who had the virus. As a pre-med, I was also deeply interested in the science behind COVID-19, and I read many journal papers and articles online to grasp a better understanding of what this virus was. I also discovered COVID-19 number tracking sites like Worldometer.com that influenced my mood based on whether the number of new cases and deaths each day was rising or falling. The worst part about my experience for the first few days of the Pandemic was how the terrible news of spiking cases was unavoidable because of social media. After those initial days, however, I started to calm down and accept the state of the world and just made sure my family and I followed COVID-19 health guidelines to stay safe.
Links:
"WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 - 11 March 2020"
"RUTGERS UNIVERSITY-WIDE EMAIL MARCH 10, 2020"
Link to Archival Record of My Worst Fear Confirmed
Link to Archival Record of WHO Director-General's Opening Remarks on COVID-19 on March 11, 2020
From Ignorant Bliss to Informed Fear
First Days of Liana
Locations: Newark, NJ to Newark, DE to Central New Jersey
March 8-16 2020
My Account of the Interview with Liana:
On October 4th 2020, I interviewed Liana about her first days experiences of when COVID-19 was announced a pandemic on March 10th 2020. Liana is a 20 year old college Junior who attends Rutgers University-Newark for their nursing program. During the interview, Liana seemed to remember the early days of when COVID-19 was first announced as a pandemic very well. This may have been because the announcement of the pandemic, Rutgers starting spring break early, and Liana visiting the University of Delaware all happened within the same week. It is worthwhile to take note that although she was aware of the virus’s presence in the U.S., she still was not worried about it because of her lack of information about this disease. As a nursing student who was learning about health related information like pandemics in her Microbiology class, Liana was not necessarily aware of the state of the world outside Rutgers and how the virus may have been affecting the country. However, when she returned home, it was compelling to understand her shift in cognition where she was more aware of the dangers of the virus after reading through studies and reports.
Before leaving Rutgers-Newark to go home, Liana’s used the first days since the announcement of the pandemic to travel down to the University of Delaware. It was interesting to learn from Liana about the reactions of those students who were also told to leave campus within a few days. What was surprising was that the students were not necessarily worried about the disease itself but rather concerned about figuring out how to get back home. While booking a flight within a short time period is troublesome, it was interesting to see that they were not too anxious about catching COVID-19 since Liana stated that they all still went out to eat. This scenario shows how pervasive the unawareness of the severity of COVID-19 was for some college students. Liana’s description of how she felt as though she was in a bubble at Rutgers-Newark seemed to fit the same atmosphere at the University of Delaware, where people also had a lack of information.
When she first arrived home, Liana described that she had a more mellow attitude of COVID-19 because she wanted to offset her grandparents’ worry. However, after a few days at home reading through some reports of COVID-19, Liana was able to understand how harrowing this disease had become. The information she gained was the catalyst needed to burst her bubble of ignorance and help her understand how harrowing this disease had become. Her whole family began to take more precautions to help protect the grandparents and Liana’s father, who was recovering from cancer. Apart from just actions, Liana's feelings changed as well. She went from being indifferent about the virus to afraid of leaving the house. The thought she may pass the virus along to more vulnerable family members made her fearful to go out and do things as she normally would. Overall, Liana’s first few days of COVID-19 being announced as a pandemic was a transition from nonchalant unawareness to a fearful realization of the potential devastation of COVID-19.
Links:
"RUTGERS UNIVERSITY-WIDE EMAIL MARCH 10, 2020"
Link to Archival Record of From Ignorant Bliss to Informed Fear
Link to Archival Record of Interview with Liana - From Ignorant Bliss to Informed Fear