COVID-19 Feature – Nick's Blog

Pitch

For the interview assignment, I am communicating with a few people who have been effected by this pandemic in different ways. First, my good friend Sean works at Shaw’s, and he’s mentioned a few time how crazy the past few weeks have been in the store. Second, my mother is a director at her hospital and has been on important conference calls whenever she is home. I want to see if she will be able to tell me what new procedures are being put in place, and how the hospital is handling this fluid situation. Lastly, I have neighbors with younger kids in elementary school, and a lot of parents around the country are having to adjust to homeschooling their kids. I was going to contact them and see what they set up for their kids, and how they stay busy being stuck in their house.

Workshop Draft

Nick Scarfo

3/27/20 Workshop Draft

The events that have occurred over the past few weeks have been unprecedented.

Education at all levels has moved to remote learning, college students forced to have to take their classes online. Non-essential businesses in many states have been forced to shut down, and athletics, even at the highest levels, have been halted indefinitely. In fact, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, the last time there were no sports played in the month of April was way back in 1883.

The day to day lives of nearly everyone in the world have been affected by COVID-19. People are being forced to work from home, as government orders are telling businesses to close and for people to stay inside. For the workers who are considered essential, they are forced to go to work every day and put themselves at risk.

Sean Cotter, is an employee at the local Shaw’s Supermarket. Despite everyone else, including his parents, working from home, Sean still punches in everyday, stocking shelves, and unloading pallets. Only nowadays, Sean tries to have as little contact with customers as possible, “I try to keep my contact as minimal as possible,” Sean said. At the same time, when asked if he was worried about contracting or spreading the virus himself, Sean gave a simple no as his department has been proactive with their health protocols, “In my department, we all wash our hands periodically, and use hand sanitizer as well, probably twice every hour.” Shaw’s itself has

installed plexi glass panels in front of the cash registers and service desks, and for the time being, they are prohibiting the use of reusable bags.

Here in New Hampshire, the number of coronavirus cases has reached 314, according to the New Hampshire Public Radio. Hospitals around the state are preparing for large influxes of patients and are continuously updating and drafting new protocols to keep up with the fluidity of this pandemic.

Maureen Scarfo is a Patient Access Director at a hospital in Nashua, New Hampshire. Since she isn’t a nurse or medical professional, she has been asked to work from home three days a week, which she said isn’t bad, but it can be an annoyance at times, “I have my desktops and all the technology and paperwork I need to do my job from home, but when things are time sensitive and I need someone to answer the phone or their email, and they don’t get back to me, that’s when I start to get frustrated,” said Maureen, “but these are trying times, and like myself, everyone is trying to adjust to this new normal.”

Maureen also spends a majority of her time at home on the phone, taking part in conference calls with her fellow directors from across the country. She wasn’t able to tell me every detail about those conference calls, but she was able to share the new procedures her hospital has put in place, which isn’t a whole lot, “Everyone is wearing gloves and masks everywhere, at all times,” Maureen said, “Normally, obviously, if you weren’t actively working you wouldn’t wear gloves or a mask, but now it’s mandatory. I wear one at my own desk in my office.” Maureen went on to say that she could see the hospital’s procedures change more drastically in the coming weeks.

I have a Zoom chat scheduled with a family friend Darlene and her young twins about what remote learning has been like for them, and what challenges she has had so far, and what the kids think about their remote learning.

Final Draft

Adjusting to the New Normal

How New Hampshire residents are adapting to the unfolding COVID-19 crisis

By Nick Scarfo

As of April 6, at 9:00am, 714 people in the state of New Hampshire have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services. Like other states, New Hampshire is taking necessary precautions to slow down the spread of the virus and keep its residents as safe as possible.

Education at all levels has moved to remote learning. College students are forced to have to take their classes online, and non-essential businesses in the state been forced to shut down.

“I try to keep my contact as minimal as possible,” Sean said.

At the same time, when asked if he was worried about contracting or spreading the virus himself, Sean gave a simple no as his department has been proactive with their health protocols,

“In my department, we all wash our hands periodically, and use hand sanitizer as well, probably twice every hour.”

Shaw’s itself hasinstalled plexi glass panels in front of the cash registers and service desks, to protect their workers. The supermarket has also placed a temporary ban on reusable bags in an effort to slow the spread of the virus in their stores.

Grocery store employees and other essential workers are putting themselves at risk to ensure that we are still able to live somewhat of a normal life, and they should be thanked for the work they continue to do.

But what about the people who have been told to work from home? How are they adapting to their new office spaces that me doubling as their kitchen or living room?

“I have my desktops and all the technology and paperwork I need to do my job from home, but when things are time sensitive and I need someone to answer the phone or their email, and they don’t get back to me, that’s when I start to get frustrated,” said Maureen, “but these are trying times, and like myself, everyone is trying to adjust to this new normal.”

It is important for those who are stuck working from home to get away from the screen for breaks every so often, according to Maureen, who stated that she likes to call her breaks “Recess,” which is what she did even when she’s at the hospital,

“The past week or so after a conference call, I’ll go sit on the porch and call my mother to see how she is doing, if she needs anything, or really just to talk. Sometimes, if I want an even longer break, I’ll make lunch or begin to cook dinner. Even when I was in my office, before all of this happened, I would get up for short periods of time and walk around and talk to my colleagues,” Maureen said, adding at the end, “I think we are all missing human interactions.”

The demographic being hurt the most by the lack of social interaction, would be young, elementary school aged children. Kids that age need to go to school not to just become book smart, but also to have that social interaction with other kids, in order to build friendships and teach them how to behave in public and around others. That’s the age where kids should be participating in activities like sports, or music with their friends, not cooped up inside of the house, or restricted to their backyards.

Darlene Bain is a resident of Hudson, New Hampshire, and has two twin boys, Marcus and Anthony, who are in the fourth grade. Their school shut down and Darlene was forced into a teacher role for her kids, which meant following a strict schedule as if they were still in school,

“I make the boys follow their normal schedule as they would. That means they are up early, dressed, and eating breakfast. They don’t have to take the bus anywhere so that’s when I allow them to get their morning TV or video games in. But come 8:30am, it’s off to math class, just like in school,” Darlene said.

As for sports, Marcus and Anthony weren’t actively participating in sports at the start of the virus, but they were looking forward to baseball season,

“This was the first time we could have pitched to the other team, instead of our coaches,” Anthony said with a pouty lip, “I wanted to be a pitcher.”

Since they can’t hang out with their friends from school, or in the neighborhood, Darlene and her fellow neighbors have found a different way to communicate,

“All of our houses and driveways are close enough so I can talk to other parents from the driveway or my front yard while they talk to me from theirs. A few times already, we all organized a Facetime so our kids can all do school together,” Darlene said.

Even after the past few weeks, people still aren’t used to this way of life, and as of right now, we don’t know when this way of life will end, but the important thing to remember when facing uncertainty, is to remain positive.