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The Stories

C.P., a teen in Gisborne, New Zealand

“My mother works in the hospital and my father worked within the grocery store so we were always cautious about the way we did things. We talked at dinner about covid and all the crazy things it had people doing. We laughed about people wearing plastic bags or Stormtrooper masks (Starwars) when they went grocery shopping…The thought of covid was constantly on my mind, a stressor that was inescapable.”

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T.M., a teen in the United Kingdom

“People are out working hard for us, forcing themselves through that fog of fatigue. Except in theirs, grief at leaving their families and seeing so many deaths is interspersed within it. Driving them through is something more powerful than that harsh, thick fog. They know that right now, we need them and that this pain, this fatigue, this fog, is temporary. That’s what we all need to remember, whether we are on the front line at the hospital or in our homes. It’s temporary.”

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M.S., 44, a poet and editor in Jersey City, NJ

“I still remember the afternoon of March 13, 2020, when I started following the official site of the New Jersey Coronavirus Dashboard and the number of cases started to climb up like mercury on a hot thermometer. I was anxious due to the fact that my nine-year-old was in the school playing and socializing with his peers with no fear and awareness about the pandemic. I requested the school for a day off […] my fears were realized when the mayor ordered a state lockdown the very next Monday.

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J.B., 79, a retired university professor in Avondale, AZ

“Our eldest Grandson’s a true hero. One of the ‘Red Vests’ managing the ‘Front-End’ of our local grocery store he calms irate customers who don’t want to comply with quarantine and rationing regulations. He’s been continuously exposed to Covid-19 every day for months”

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S.T., 41, an echocardiographer in Waukesha, WI

“…Everyday at work we hear something new and new protocols are made. It’s necessary and hard to read everything to keep up with the changes. It is now the end of May. I don’t know if I see my field in healthcare ever being the same again…”

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E.A., 19, a student in Sun City, CA

“…This pandemic has ripped apart the façade of what seemed to be a good economy; in reality, this “good economy” was built upon the people who are now disproportionately dying and with no healthcare. I beg my fellow Americans to look at this inequality sternly; why do we have such contempt when we call it out when in reality we’ve pretending like it didn’t exist at all. I have grown so increasingly frustrated to see people think about themselves when I see people that remind me of my father and sisters die on the news for having to work…”

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Life in Quarantine: Witnessing Global Pandemic is an initiative sponsored by the Poetic Media Lab and the Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis at Stanford University.

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