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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
Tuesday evening, 23 March 2021 at 8 p.m. all over the United Kingdom, people lit their doorsteps and front windows with candles, flashlights, and phones as a "Beacon of Remembrance" for those who have died in the pandemic. 23 March marks the anniversary of the UK's first Covid lockdown. Here in Scotland, my family and I shone our flashlights at the people in the house across the street from us, whom we've only come to know since the pandemic began - standing at our garden gates and shouting encouragement to each other from across the street. On Wednesday, 24 March 2021, I did my third stint of volunteering at a local Covid vaccination centre - and got my own first vaccination at the same time, right in the middle of my volunteering shift. It was so uplifting! Everyone there was in my own age cohort, as they roll out the vaccine by age group - but also, because I was in a local vaccination centre, I met so many people that I knew as they came in for their own vaccination appointments. Within 40 minutes of ushering people to vaccinators (NHS - National Health Service - nurses and the Army were both giving vaccinations), I had met four people I knew - two friends and two of my grown children's former teachers. When it was time for my own vaccination, I was made to feel like a poster child for the entire programme - someone had to fill in for me for ten minutes while I stood in the queue, all the other marshalls laughed and joked with me as they gave me the necessary information, and half a dozen NHS staff all exclaimed, "You should have told us you had your vaccination letter, we'd have slipped you in earlier!" When it was done I went straight back to marshalling. I am an American ex-pat living in Scotland; I have had dual citizenship since 2016. My heart absolutely swells with pride to see how my adopted country is rising to the challenge of vaccinating its people, and to be able to help out with that a little bit.
March 29, 2021
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Has the pandemic affected your political views in any way? If so, how?
I don’t think it’s affected my political views that much but it has made me distrust in the government to a degree I never have before. Before, I had the belief that during times of hardship, the US would do the right thing by its people. That’s due to the privilege I have in my background, but as we get further into this crisis, I’m reminded of Tuskegee and the AIDS pandemic and my distrust that they are helping, or care enough to help, grows. I’m super pro vaccine, I’m a biology major, and want to work in a hospital, and at the same time I am so distrustful of the federal government at this point that I am not going to get that vaccine right away. They want to roll it out so low income communities and communities of color have “access first”. Maybe good intentions, but it’s not a good look. The major corona tests didn’t work well, the antibody tests aren’t checking for the right ones, they are so focused on results that they’re getting sloppy. I know enough about biology to know that you can’t get sloppy.
July 30, 2020