Ms. Fusaro 3/31/20
Blog #3
- What is it like working from home?
While working from home has been a difficult transition for me, I’ve gradually become accustomed to my new lifestyle and appreciated my newfound independence as a student. Before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was accustomed to waking up at six in the morning to arrive at school before the first-period bell. I left each class when the bell rang and walked to my next class before the late bell rang. My life on the weekdays had become a routine as I waited for the weekend to sleep in. On March 15, 2020, when Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that all schools were suspended until after spring break, I felt relieved because the number of cases was rapidly increasing and I didn’t have to decide whether I wanted to stay behind in my classes or make-up past exams. These past few weeks, I had to ensure my attendance was checked instead of my teachers taking on that responsibility. From time to time, I had to check my clock to see how much time was remaining before my next class started instead of depending on the regular bell. While it took me a few days to get settled with the new ways of learning such as utilizing Zoom, I enjoyed the freedom I had to work on lessons that were due my next session or prepare early for my next weekly reading mega-thread, similar to how it may be in college. I started appreciating all the technological devices I had as I became dependent on them to communicate with the outside world such as replying to my peer’s comments about the Interview with the Vampire readings. However, I miss going out with my friends, seeing my teachers, and learning from my classmates face-to-face daily. Some challenges that arose included leaving my work to do at a later time which led up to a build-up of assignments due the same day. Still, because I only had three classes per day of the cycle, I had an abundant amount of free time to practice my instrument and pursue a new hobby such as playing the piano. While researching new updates on COVID-19, I came across an interesting article that found employees worked more and quit less when they worked at home according to a 2016 study. While our situations are not necessarily the same, I found it relatable to hear that employees were overall more content with their job or responsibilities.
Article regarding the 2016 study: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/coronavirus-creating-huge-stressful-experiment-working-home/607945/
- What are the updates around the world/community regarding the virus?
As of March 30th, 2020, a 1,000-bed Navy hospital ship is docked in Manhattan because of the lack of medical facilities to treat COVID-19 patients compared to the thousands of newly detected cases every hour. There are a total of 159, 680 confirmed cases in the United States and 2,932 deaths with New York leading compared to the other states of having the most number of cases. This is largely because New York is the most densely populated city in the United States and the slow early response coupled with packed trains allowed for New York to be the epicenter for COVID-19. According to the New York Times, President Trump is saying that the United States will be producing ventilators and other medical equipment to Europe, especially hard-hit regions such as Italy as a worldwide effort to contain the virus. Another historic event is the creation of a $2-trillion coronavirus stimulus bill which is the largest in United States history. The bill accounts for small businesses, $150 billion for local and state governments and $130 billion for hospitals, according to the Los Angeles Times. The bill also assists most adults by paying them directly $1200 or less, depending on their tax returns. While there have been reports of recovery by patients in Wuhan, China and as shown in the graph below where recoveries are increasing steadily, doctors are reporting that between 3 and 10% of cured patients become reinfected with the illness. For example, in a Fox News article, Tongji Hospital in Wuhan confirmed that five of 145 patients tested positive again in nucleic acid tests. Reading the current statistics reminds me and others to social distance and to wash your hands for twenty seconds during this unprecedented time.
84% of Chinese cases, 97% of critical cases and more than 96% of deaths are within the Hubei province.
The virus has infected over 764,800 people in at least 171 countries.
Los Angeles Times Article: https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-03-24/congress-white-house-stimulus-deal-coronavirus
Fox News Article: https://www.foxnews.com/health/up-to-10-percent-of-recovered-coronavirus-patients-test-positive-again-report-says
Additional fascinating article about how the COVID-19 virus spread worldwide: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/22/world/coronavirus-spread.html?referringSource=articleShare
- Your own personal feelings and thoughts about what is happening right now.
The epidemic that’s occurring right now seems surreal. In November, I had a discussion with my class in AP Biology about our speculations regarding the next pandemic. No one in my class had brought up the COVID-19 or any viruses that were even remotely similar to this virus. To personally experience a historic event is certainly something that I’m going to look back on ten years later and it will still be shocking. Things I’ve always done such as washing my hands are now my priority as what seemed natural to do is currently heavily stressed around the world. While the daily updates continue to show an increased number of cases and deaths, I remain hopeful that as we are the next generation of health care professionals, I will continue to remain informed about new medicine scientists are creating or missteps the world is making. In the case that something similar occurs in the future, history doesn't repeat itself and we prevent the numbers from increasing even further. I also know of people who are still working to treat patients and are risking their lives, which makes the virus even more of a threat to people that haven’t traveled to countries where the virus has taken a significant toll on. As supermarkets continue to shut down and streets are deserted on the news, I continue to recognize how detrimental this virus is and the hard work that has gone into eradicating the current pandemic and serving the people’s needs.
