Our system who leaves the house three times a month at best, and has mostly online friends:

The flu has a seasonality to it — C-19 has no such predictability. Further, Covid antibodies — even from infection — decline rapidly.

Each Covid infection increases the risk of developing chronic health issues like diabetes — including in children — organ failure, stroke, heart conditions, kidney disease, and mental health problems. Additionally, there’s the risk of long Covid or clusters of health issues that can last years after initial infection. These range from exhaustion so severe that people with the condition find it difficult to work or socialize, to heart palpitations, difficulty thinking and retaining information, to severe anaphylactic reactions in the absence of an allergic trigger.

“People were testing regularly at their workplaces, in schools and complying with that,” said Eiryn Griest Schwartzman, executive director of COVID Safe Campus, a coalition of academics and advocates pushing for improved mitigation efforts and disability inclusion in higher education. “And then suddenly, the narrative shifted where that became something that’s ‘unfavorable’ even though polls still show that masking and other precautions like that are still popular and understood in shared public spaces, like transit and healthcare. There’s still public support, but it’s not being reported on in that way. More often it’s being reported on as something that support is fading, or unfeasible or not politically viable when it absolutely is. But those narratives are self-perpetuating, and they feed into policy.”

There are many ways to improve coverage of Covid. More stories need to include voices and perspectives of people from communities that are most at risk from an infection, such as people from the disabled community, from low-income communities, people of color, and elderly people. And their perspectives should be included broadly — not just in stories specifically about their communities.

“There’s a CDC study which shows that many people are willing to take precautions, like being vaccinated and wearing masks if they know that Covid levels are high,” says Lucky Tran, the director of science communication and media relations at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. “The problem is that the majority of people are not aware that Covid levels are consistently high … because of the narratives coming through the media.”

The risks go up with repeated infection and it’s rational for even the healthiest among us to try to take reasonable measures to avoid getting C-19. We also need to be vigilant around our unconscious biases that frame some lives as worth saving while others are not.

“We know that people are more likely to wear masks if they understand how high the risk is. Or if they understand that it’s airborne and not droplets, so like six feet apart isn’t enough, and we actually need to keep masks on because it lingers in the air,” says Griest Schwartzman. “But a lot of people still don’t know that, or they’ve been made to believe that maybe it wasn’t that serious, or they don’t have a clear understanding and don’t know people that could clarify that for them. It really harms people that don’t have access to the health literacy they need to understand themselves how at risk they are,” they added. “And that’s not their fault. It’s the fault of a lack of accurate health and science communication.”

It’s also the fault of the media.

— Kendra Pierre-Louis

I’mma Leave This Right Here #Funny

C 19

Ok... but it's esay...

| DAY 1 |

We read page 9 in Citizens: An American Lyric”. We read and discussed “Lone Wold” story. We discussed “What is heritage and it’s relevance in society”, “What are are the charactertistics of a leader” “Who are we really”, “Inside out or Outside In?” and compared Mary Revfke’s poem “trees” to page 9 of Citizens: An American Lyric” By Claudile Rankine.

| DAY 2 |

We discussed survey of privileged and entitlement, and studied a quote from Gandhi today.

| DAY 3 |

The class continued our studies today and learned about what kind of listeners they are, as well as explored American past and present.

| DAY 4 | 

We wrote the cover letter and cover page for our anthology today. Although a small class, we have bonded a lot and learned a ton and can’t wait to share what we’ve come up with with you.

| DAY 5 |