My name is Jade Crew , I would be happy to share the effects of the pandemic in my neighborhood and state.

Schools

I live in a mostly upper middle class suburban area of NY known as Tarrytown. Every single day when going to my local post office to drop off packages, I can see kids playing in the school yard near my house. Each kid has a face mask and many of the games they played involve some sort of social distancing position. Schools are opened down here at a limited capacity , but sometimes they close abruptly depending on how high cases are, so it does vary. It is odd because the high school school is 100% closed but the elementary school in my town is not. I always wondered why but I am guessing because the high school is more populated , since the main high school in my town is combined with the middle school kids. As far as my local private school it is practicing distance learning and giving parents the opportunity to choose hybrid learning over distance learning . Students are still attending school but at the parents discretion, the school also exercises the right to do “pool testing”. Pool testing which allows the laboratory to determine how much of COVID-19 is prevalent in the area.

Church

Every Sunday or so my Mom and I attend a church in Connecticut. When it comes to COVID-19 the church is quite lenient, many people attending unfortunately don’t follow the rules when it comes to mask wearing. The town has even reported the church countless number of times for lack of mask wearing. When arriving at the church there are hardly any social distance measures taken place such as , moved seats, mandated face masks sign , the most you will get is hand sanitizer placed right in front of the door. When you arrive at the church they make it clear that you don’t have to wear a face mask inside. Many of the choir leaders don’t have masks while going on stage , they bring them but some don’t even wear them while heading off stage, where they are passing groups of people. Something disheartening happened last week where the church was said to close because someone in the congregation got Covid. Instead of following through with their email that informed people that the church will be closed for 2 weeks , they ended up opening it a week early. It is quite unbelievable.

Movie Theaters

Coincidentally I used to work at my local theater until it got shut down . The precautions we took were fairly exercised well. Every hour I would clean the countertops with disinfectant and Clorox wipes and wipe down the machines . Our local Showcase Cinema stopped the process of workers making drinks for customers and just installed Soda Machines. As for the theater capacity it was very limited. The restaurants in our theater were barely opened and sometimes caused workers to leave early . The new motto with Showcase is , “Showcase Safe” ensuring customers that safety precautions are top priority. Tickets are purchased online , with reduced capacity, seats are even cleaned with electrostatic sprayers between each show. They even installed high efficient air purifiers in each theater. Showcase definitely is geared up with safe protocols. Each worker has to have a face mask and go through technical temperature screening where they appear in front of a face scanner and the face scanner is actually able to take their temperature . Customers are also required to wear face masks unless they are in the theater and enjoying food.

What Matters To Me

To be quite frank what matters to me is peace of mind, safety of my community , and also safety of my wallet. To continuously see people in my community not wear masks and not follow the mandated face mask protocol by the president is quite disturbing. Sometimes I question if it’s worth it living in an area where people just don’t care or value life. Restaurants seem to still be busy in my town , I am not really an avid restaurant goer , but when I do go there are signs with face masks . Lines are long and you can frequently hear people apologizing to each other for invading space. Safety measures are not being taken as well , when it comes to my town and I am wondering if it’s because my town is small and people downplay the seriousness of covid . I’ve actually heard people banter and joke about covid calling it a “city problem” as if our town was too good for covid or something . These are the same people who prompt me to stay home more.

These discussions matter, it’s also super annoying how the educational system is being handled. Especially in NYC where I attend a public 4 year college under the Cuny system. “Sure colleges should open” okay? , but let’s not type an informal letter, about guaranteed college reopenings in September when there’s a new variant that the vaccine does not fight against at the moment. To see the informal letter posted on my college’s website was such an insult to my health . Lets not normalize the phrase “to be continued” or “ returning back to normalcy” . Let’s face it, things are not going to be normal 500,000 people died within less than a year . This is a fragile time , of course we hate change and that’s natural but let’s stop using words like normal , because face mask wearing was such a far fetched idea a year ago. This is not some new emerging fashion statement that you can pass off. We are tackling a health crisis that has claimed numerous lives, not naïve . This pandemic is happening in our backyard turning a blind eye and suggesting that schools should reopen with no sense of clear direction and no say of vaccine requirements is unsafe and quite sloppy. People should at least choose where they want to be in this type of situation, health is quite personal and I don’t think it’s fair that a man in a grey suit that is head of my college and his colleagues can tell me how much risk I should be exposed to . Travelling 2 hours to even get to my college was hard but travelling that long and encountering numerous people whether its paying for transportation or even seating in public transit is very scary for me . My school’s approach to this pandemic is very lukewarm in tackling this pandemic , and that’s quite disheartening. I have been a hermit crab in my house , it’s just a place I do not want to leave. It’s my safety net , security blanket , my house is the best health insurance I could ever ask for .

Hospitals/Dentists

Going to the hospital or dentist is not my cup of tea . I have actually been quite irritable mostly because some conversations are not worth having at a time like this (I do not want to talk about my 4 cavities or my anatomy,) hysteria is on the rise and I do not want to make any room for it . Being the hypochondriac I am, I would probably open myself up to more risk if I continuously go to the hospital on every symptom I think I have . Telehealth has been my savior and so has reddit contactless medical advice sometimes for free , other times its your doctor reassuring you that your not in need for a physical for the hundredth time . I recently went to the dentist and decided to never go back for a while due to the unsatisfactory treatment I received. They have broken forehead thermometers and when they don’t take your temperature right , they simply don’t care. “Oh it won’t scan”, “Oh well I’m sure you don’t have it”, as if that’s some sort of compliment or something. In what world did being a safe person and doing your job as part of the society now a compliment . It’s the bare minimum and looks are deceiving , anyways! The mundane follow up statement gets me every time ,” You have not travelled right ?”, in which I nod and smile . I declined going to the dentist for the third time over a cavity in my wisdom tooth which I now refuse to have taken out . I feel like I am holding onto things I may not need later on but need right now in this time , things that may help me later. One day my teeth may fall out and I will be left with those wisdom teeth keeping my smile in check . I talk more because I need to , to feel alive outside these walls . I hold onto things of memory even the things I don’t remember getting . Less may not be more in this time for me