Dublin Core
Title
A Graduate Student's Perspective on the First Days of the Coronavirus Pandemic
Subject
COVID-19
Description
A graduate student analyzes his own first days of the pandemic
Creator
Kenneth Morrissey
Date
10/4/2020
Rights
All rights to this work belong to Kenneth Morrissey
Format
Word Document
Language
English
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
A Graduate Student's Perspective on the First Days of the Coronavirus Pandemic
Before the coronavirus came to the United States of America, I did not take the virus all that seriously. I remember from my youth there were a number of other disease “panics” every so often. But at least from my personal perspective, it always seemed as if all the worry was completely for naught. Even though I knew that these diseases were infecting some people in my home country, they never really impacted my life in any meaningful way. When I first heard about the virus in China, I assumed it would be the same as all the other past disease panics. I was sure that some people in America would be infected by COVID-19 and the media would make a big deal about it, but I thought that the virus would pass without much incident in a couple of months. In fact, I was so sure that the virus would not amount to much that I even made jokes about the coronavirus to some of my friends. I remember one of the jokes started off when I overheard one of my friends talking about how one of their family members was worried about their sick child. In order to lighten the mood, I quickly quipped “He obviously has the coronavirus” and the room burst out laughing. The child of course obviously did not have COVID, since this was way before the virus landed in America, so we could all laugh assured that everything with the child would be fine. I still find that moment funny today, but more in ironic way than the joke was originally intended to be taken. This is all to say, in early March of 2020, I would have never imagined the coronavirus would have impacted my life as much as it has over the last six months.
My perception on the coronavirus completely changed when I heard the players on the Utah Jazz had contracted the virus in early March of 2020. The memory of the opening of the Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder basketball game on March 11th, 2020 is still burned in my mind. The pre-game started off just like any other during the NBA regular season. The players were warming up on the court, the commentators were breaking down what each team needed to do to win, and the fans were getting excited for the upcoming game. But slowly but surely, you could tell that something was wrong in Chespeake Energy Arena. The player and coaches were suspiciously talking to the referees, the commentators had a confused tone in their voice, and Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert was out from the game with a mystery unnamed illness. Then after what was supposed to be a “short delay,” the players left the court and the PA announcer told the audience that the game was cancelled. It then came out the following day that star players on the Utah Jazz Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell had contracted COVID-19. People, myself sometimes included, often think of celebrities and athletes as super humans who are immune from things like diseases. When a celebrity does come down with a disease, especially ones as popular as Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell, it lets the public know that the disease is something to be reckoned with. Once I saw this happen, I knew that my life was going to be dramatically changed for the foreseeable future.
The very next day, on March 12th, I had my usually scheduled appointment with my counselor. Before I started with the counselor I am with now, I was in a really dark place in my life. These regularly scheduled meetings helped add some much needed normally and routine to my weekly schedule. But there was something a little bit out of the ordinary about this week’s visit. On the secretary’s desk where I normally signed in, there was little bottle of hand sanitizer. The secretary, who had obviously heard about the newly named pandemic, motioned for me to use the hand sanitizer. This in and of itself was not that big of a hassle for me, after all it only took five seconds of my time, but it represented the first of many changes in my life. That visit was actually the last time that I saw my councilor in person, even to this very day. A lot of the places that I used to frequent followed their temporarily shut down, which meant I had almost nowhere to go so that I could socialize with my friends. And perhaps worst of all, I became afraid to go outside, even for the simplest of things. The pandemic and my fear of it had essentially destroyed the careful schedule that I had planned out for myself.
The current coronavirus pandemic should serve as a forewarning for how to handle future potential disease pandemics. Many people, including myself, did not take the early days of the pandemic seriously enough. There was a very popular mindset early on during the pandemic that life should just go on as normal. I still remember seeing photos of people crowding beaches in Florida like nothing was wrong at all. This mindset created the perfect situation for the virus to thrive. Thanks to medical and scientific research, the general public now knows of easy steps that they can take in order to stop the spread of future potential infectious diseases like the coronavirus, like social distancing and wearing a mask. Whenever we learn of potential infectious diseases spreading to America in the future, we must make sure that we take these preventative steps from the very beginning, in order to prevent the situation from getting as bad as the current coronavirus pandemic. I know for certain that I will never be laughing at a disease like COVID-19 ever again.
Before the coronavirus came to the United States of America, I did not take the virus all that seriously. I remember from my youth there were a number of other disease “panics” every so often. But at least from my personal perspective, it always seemed as if all the worry was completely for naught. Even though I knew that these diseases were infecting some people in my home country, they never really impacted my life in any meaningful way. When I first heard about the virus in China, I assumed it would be the same as all the other past disease panics. I was sure that some people in America would be infected by COVID-19 and the media would make a big deal about it, but I thought that the virus would pass without much incident in a couple of months. In fact, I was so sure that the virus would not amount to much that I even made jokes about the coronavirus to some of my friends. I remember one of the jokes started off when I overheard one of my friends talking about how one of their family members was worried about their sick child. In order to lighten the mood, I quickly quipped “He obviously has the coronavirus” and the room burst out laughing. The child of course obviously did not have COVID, since this was way before the virus landed in America, so we could all laugh assured that everything with the child would be fine. I still find that moment funny today, but more in ironic way than the joke was originally intended to be taken. This is all to say, in early March of 2020, I would have never imagined the coronavirus would have impacted my life as much as it has over the last six months.
My perception on the coronavirus completely changed when I heard the players on the Utah Jazz had contracted the virus in early March of 2020. The memory of the opening of the Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder basketball game on March 11th, 2020 is still burned in my mind. The pre-game started off just like any other during the NBA regular season. The players were warming up on the court, the commentators were breaking down what each team needed to do to win, and the fans were getting excited for the upcoming game. But slowly but surely, you could tell that something was wrong in Chespeake Energy Arena. The player and coaches were suspiciously talking to the referees, the commentators had a confused tone in their voice, and Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert was out from the game with a mystery unnamed illness. Then after what was supposed to be a “short delay,” the players left the court and the PA announcer told the audience that the game was cancelled. It then came out the following day that star players on the Utah Jazz Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell had contracted COVID-19. People, myself sometimes included, often think of celebrities and athletes as super humans who are immune from things like diseases. When a celebrity does come down with a disease, especially ones as popular as Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell, it lets the public know that the disease is something to be reckoned with. Once I saw this happen, I knew that my life was going to be dramatically changed for the foreseeable future.
The very next day, on March 12th, I had my usually scheduled appointment with my counselor. Before I started with the counselor I am with now, I was in a really dark place in my life. These regularly scheduled meetings helped add some much needed normally and routine to my weekly schedule. But there was something a little bit out of the ordinary about this week’s visit. On the secretary’s desk where I normally signed in, there was little bottle of hand sanitizer. The secretary, who had obviously heard about the newly named pandemic, motioned for me to use the hand sanitizer. This in and of itself was not that big of a hassle for me, after all it only took five seconds of my time, but it represented the first of many changes in my life. That visit was actually the last time that I saw my councilor in person, even to this very day. A lot of the places that I used to frequent followed their temporarily shut down, which meant I had almost nowhere to go so that I could socialize with my friends. And perhaps worst of all, I became afraid to go outside, even for the simplest of things. The pandemic and my fear of it had essentially destroyed the careful schedule that I had planned out for myself.
The current coronavirus pandemic should serve as a forewarning for how to handle future potential disease pandemics. Many people, including myself, did not take the early days of the pandemic seriously enough. There was a very popular mindset early on during the pandemic that life should just go on as normal. I still remember seeing photos of people crowding beaches in Florida like nothing was wrong at all. This mindset created the perfect situation for the virus to thrive. Thanks to medical and scientific research, the general public now knows of easy steps that they can take in order to stop the spread of future potential infectious diseases like the coronavirus, like social distancing and wearing a mask. Whenever we learn of potential infectious diseases spreading to America in the future, we must make sure that we take these preventative steps from the very beginning, in order to prevent the situation from getting as bad as the current coronavirus pandemic. I know for certain that I will never be laughing at a disease like COVID-19 ever again.