For this entry, I interviewed my past foreign exchange student from Argentina to discuss how they went about handling the virus. She currently lives in Buenos Aires, and her parents are both doctors. Her mother’s hospital was actually converted into an isolation unit for Covid patients. Unfortunately, their whole family contracted the virus and was placed under quarantine around the same time I was.
Monday, October 12, 2020
Sunday, October 11, 2020
Football Season
With everything else that the virus has altered it has definitely taken a toll on sporting events. One of the most exciting parts about coming to the University of Kentucky for me was football season. I could not wait to finally attend the games as a student at the university. Though it is not exactly how I pictured it, football season is finally here, and students are allowed to go to the games (with restrictions obviously).
How the university is allowing students to go to games is having them enter a lottery to keep the capacity at Kroger Field to a minimum. If you win the lottery, you get two tickets for $11, and get to attend the game in your assigned seat. If you do not win, you still have a chance to go to the game by purchasing unclaimed tickets from the UK athletics app. Over the weekend I went to the Mississippi St. game, and it was totally different than the last college football game I went to.
When people think of college football, their minds typically go to the massive crowds, tailgating, and celebrating with strangers once something exciting happens. However, that is not the case this year. Sitting in the student section is totally different than that image. Obviously, we had to wear masks the whole time unless we were eating food or anything like that. Also, we were only allowed to sit two people at a time. Everyone was super spaced out, and there was way too much room to celebrate with strangers. There was no tailgating or pregame festivities. This year, you are solely there to watch the game.
Below is a picture from where I was sitting. Notice how empty and spaced out the stadium was.
Covid, class, and college
Personally, I do not like the online college experience. I think learning comes from being able to have social interactions with both teachers and students, which is obviously very difficult to do during this pandemic. School and education is a time for students not only to expand their knowledge, but increase their social interactions. With the current restrictions, I am pretty much confined to my dorm room the majority of the day. All of my classes are online, so I sit inside and do schoolwork pretty much all day every day.
I do not think anything should be implemented in regards to help students who are failing coursework. First off, I do not think anything like that could be carried out fairly. Second, college is a time where you have to figure things out on your own and become much more independent than before. Yes, Covid is making school extremely difficult, but it is still the student’s responsibility to make sure they succeed in their learning. The University of Kentucky has numerous resources that are built to help students succeed, so everyone who is struggling should be taking advantage of them.
For me, I am much better at learning in person. I like physically going to class because it wakes me up in the mornings and makes me feel productive about my days. I also learn more in person because there are less distractions in a classroom. This semester I find it harder to focus and have had less motivation as a student than ever before. Also, I feel like I cannot get as much information online as in person. For example, I have two labs this first semester, and they are both online. One lab consists of watching videos and filling out worksheets, while the other is a simulation with questions. During these labs, I cannot actually see what is happening which makes it very difficult to learn.
In the future, I think this could potentially affect the job market. Personally, I want to go into the healthcare field, and I do not think the way my classes are being carried out are preparing me for this. I do not feel that I am able to get the hands on experience I need to be competitive in this field. For example, it has to be extremely difficult to do clinicals online because you are not getting the hands on experience you need to be successful.
My Own Personal Experience
I knew this day would come, the day the virus would catch up with me. I finally caught the virus. It sounds like I am relieved to have had it and recovered, but in reality it was not. Everyone has different experiences with the virus, and this is mine.
My roommate started experiencing symptoms, and neglected to tell my friends and I. Therefore, we all got it, and let me tell you, it spreads fast. We all went down like dominos as each one of us started experiencing symptoms day after day. It’s crazy how quick everything happened. One minute I was out and feeling fine, and the next I had to tell my friends to leave my dorm because I felt so run down.
I went into isolation the minute my fever started because I did not want to expose anyone else to potentially give them the virus. I had gotten tested the day before my symptoms started because I figured that once my roommate had it, I would have it too. I drove back home immediately, and learned that I would be self isolating in a house by myself. I had all the classic symptoms. I had a fever, chest pain, fatigue, nonstop coughing, shortness of breath, and worst of all a loss of taste and smell. My smell still has not totally come back which is disappointing.
A few days had passed and I still had not heard about my test results. All of my friends who had been exposed had already gotten calls that they were positive, so where was mine? Eventually, I called UK’s testing site only to learn that I had tested negative. I knew this couldn’t be right because literally everyone I am with all the time had tested positive. I explained to them my symptoms, and they suggested that I go get another test done because I probably had a false negative.
I scheduled a test the following day, and that one came back positive. Quarantine itself was not bad because I felt so bad I never really had the energy to do anything except for sleep. Honestly, I think the most I did in one day was have a movie marathon.
A few more days went by after I got my test results before I remembered no one from Louisville metro’s health department had called me yet. I did some research, and found the number to see what was going on. After many long phone calls, I only learned that they did not even have a record of me getting a test and testing positive. Therefore, I had to put myself into the system, so I could be released and come back to school as soon as I was allowed.
The worst part of the quarantine was the constant battle with the health department. With guidelines always changing, I heard so many different things from so many different people. I swear every time I talked to someone different, they gave me different answers.
The day to be released had finally come, so I called about my form. This was extremely disappointing because I found out again that I was not in the system. This was odd, however because the health department had emailed me the isolation contract to sign. After many long phone calls, I was finally able to get my form so I could come back to school.
After the virus, I wish I did some things differently before. I wish I had been more careful. Now, whenever I see someone not wearing a mask or following appropriate guidelines, I always warn them what is at stake so they do not have to go through the same experience I did.
Friday, October 2, 2020
UK Core Issue: How Do We Distribute Covid Vaccines?
Deciding who gets a Covid vaccine is extremely difficult. You are basically picking and choosing who has the possibility of getting infected or not. With limited resources, I would do a full assessment on the population to decide who gets to be vaccinated. This would assess all the patients’ medical conditions, medical histories, and family histories to see who is at a higher risk. For example, those who are immunocompromised would get a vaccine over someone who is not. This is because the person who is immunocompromised is at a greater risk in developing complications with the virus. I would also assess how many people in the county’s population wants to be vaccinated. Some may not, so that would automatically eliminate a number of people who would get the vaccine.
COVID-19 Infecting Pop Culture
It feels like COVID-19 has truly taken over our lives. We see it everywhere from the media, and it always being the central topic. Though the thought of the virus may put a damper on things, it doesn’t always have to be that way. People have tried their best to turn this situation into a laugh by incorporating and creating anything that you can imagine out of the virus. This ranges from songs, art, memes, etc. The following contains a few examples.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sayh8ZASxk8
Over the quarantine, we saw many artists come together to try to lift their fans’ spirits. They went as far as to doing virtual concerts and creating new songs and albums to keep us entertained. One particular song released caught my eye: “Six Feet Apart.” This song was written by Luke Combs, and honestly summarizes all of what we are missing out on due to the virus. This caught my eye because I felt like he did something totally different than what other artists were trying to do. The song itself is kind of depressing, but overall reminds us of what we will get to do once we no longer have to be six feet apart.
During the pandemic, people were always trying to find new ways to get the younger generation to participate in slowing the spread. Above is a famous tik tok dance challenge that went viral. The dance is to a Vietnamese pop song called “Ghen,” and encourages people to wash their hands and avoid touching their faces.
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