Kentucky Kernel: April 7, 2020

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Tuesday, April 7, 2020 est. 1892 | Independent since 1971 www.kykernel.com @kykernel @kentuckykernel

UK senior details life with COVID-19

By Natalie Parks news@kykernel.com

UK constructing 400-bed field hospital inside Nutter Field House

By Emily Girard & Natalie Parks news@kykernel.com

UK will construct a 400-bed field hospital in Nutter Field House, announced President Capilouto in an email to the UK community on Friday morning.

Dr. Mark Newman, Executive Vice President of Health Affairs, said the hospital would have 400 partitioned medical rooms, nursing

stations, dedicated break rooms, shower units, daily towel service and food service.

“This kind of planning and preparation speaks to our mission as the state’s largest healthcare provider and our responsibility to the critical needs of the state of Kentucky,” said Newman.

Newman said the field hospital had been in the works before Gov. Andy Beshear’s an-

nouncement to turn the Louisville fairgrounds into a field hospital.

Capilouto’s email said that the field hospital in Nutter Field House should be ready for operation in two weeks.

“It’s meant to be a lower acuity capablity for us to be able to move patients through our hospital and have them there before they go home or they go to another facility,” said Newman, who said a

call center would be dedicated to handling that flow.

Currently, there are eight in-patient COVID-19 cases at UK Hospital, said director of UK Healthcare Kim Blanton.

Blanton said UK Healthcare had performed 2,031 coronavirus tests and had 74 positives since March 1.

Additionally, she said the hospital had 178 ventilators available for

use.

Newman said that because elective procedures have been halted, the hospital has more capacity than it normally would at this time of year.

“We are ready to start to look at that surge, we’re ready to prepare for it. We have I think two or three more weeks to be getting ready for it but we’re ready for moving into that surge,” said Newman.

Just before UK’s mid-March spring break, senior Kaitlyn White noticed she had a cough.

But since she has asthma, developed in high school after a respiratory infection her lungs never fully recovered from, White didn’t think much of it.

She didn’t develop a fever until a week later.

“And that’s when I was like, ‘oh, this is more than just asthma.’ I should not have a fever. I should not have body aches. I should not have a cough this bad,” White told the Kernel on Friday.

A month from finishing college, 22-year-old White is one of only three publicly announced cases of COVID-19 within the UK student body.

White thinks she was exposed to the disease the week before UK’s spring break, when she went to Louisville for a high school speech and debate tournament.

A secondary English education major, White has coached Henry Clay High School’s debate team for the last four years.

“I’m pretty sure I caught it there because as soon as I got back from that tournament, I began my self-isolation,” White said. The tournament was on Wednesday and Thursday, and with her Friday classes canceled, White doesn’t know where else she might have caught it.

“That being said, based on when I started having symptoms, there is a twoweek window where I could have caught it before I actually started showing symptoms,” White said. “It’s equally likely, honestly, that I caught it from someone else in my day-to-day life who was carrying it, but asymptomatic.”

Since she returned to Lexington from

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Tuesday, April 7, 2020

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Tuesday, April 7, 2020

UK ANNOUNCES REFUND DETAILS; ALL SUMMER COURSES TO BE ONLINE

Beginning April 6, students will be receiving prorated credits for housing and dining plans for the changes in the spring 2020 semester. Those credits will be applied to student accounts through myUK. UK spokesperson Jay Blanton spoke on the changes at a Friday press conference.

“Each eligible student who receives this credit adjustment and enrolls in the fall 2020 semester also will receive $125 in dining Flex dollars to be used in that semester,” said Blanton.

Blanton said the credits would account for 36 percent of the spring 2020 cost for housing and dining and that each student’s credit amount would be determined by their room type and meal plan. The credit will first be applied to any outstanding balance and then can be applied to summer 2020 and fall 2020 tuition, housing and dining.

“If the student does not return for the fall, the student can receive a refund in September,” said Blanton. “Graduating students who have incurred these costs for housing and dining - a much smaller number will receive a refund in June.”

Blanton said there will be a similar pro-

rated plan for parking passes; credits will first be applied to outstanding parking citations. To be eligible, students must return the parking pass and fill out a request form

by May 1, more information available on the Transportation Services website.

A Friday email from President Eli Capilouto also announced that summer courses would be moving to online and remote learning classes, following the university’s move to online learning for the remainder of the spring 2020 semester.

“The move is necessary now to provide time for faculty and support staff to make the transition to online learning and to gives students and family appropriate advance notice so that they can make plans as well,” said Blanton.

Blanton said that around 350 course sections would be adjusted to this remote learning plan. Differential tuition for summer online courses will be suspended; Capilouto said that each undergraduate course would cost $499 per credit hour for tuition and fees.

This price change will apply to both residents and non-residents, said Blanton, and is still subject to Board of Trustees approval.

At the press conference, Blanton announced that summer “bridge programs” such as orientation and other initiatives to transition students to college would be conducted remotely as well.

-Natalie Parks, Emily Girard

Lawn chairs outside of the Don and Cathy Jacobs Science Building sit empty on March 28, 2020. SARAH MICHELS | STAFF

UK PROF APPOINTED TO FILL VACANT CITY COUNCIL SEAT

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CONTACT

Mayor Linda Gorton has tapped UK Professor Mark Swanson to fill the city’s third district seat on the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council on March 30.

The seat, which encompasses the UK campus and parts of downtown, was left vacant earlier this month with the unexpected death of councilman Jake Gibbs. Gibbs was elected in 2014 and won reelection twice.

Swanson, a faculty member in the College of Public Health researches how social and physical environments influence eating behavior. Most of his research is conducted in eastern Kentucky, “where he has worked for nearly 20 years on food, farming, and community development issues,” according to the College of Public Health website.

Swanson will be sworn into office after a 15-day waiting period to allow Councilmembers time to meet him, according to Gorton.

“I’m honored by the confidence Mayor Gorton has shown in me with this appointment, and I look forward to serving my neighbors in the 3rd District in these unprecedented and challenging times,” Swanson said.

-Jacob Eads

Editor-in-chief

BASKETBALL ADDS WALK-ON WITH UNIQUE CALIPARI CONNECTION

Each fall, there’s an influx of basketball players into Lexington. This year’s class recently added a wrinkle.

Isaac DeGregorio, the grandson of Joe Degregorio - who served as John Calipari’s coach at Clarion University - announced on Twitter that he is joining the Wildcats as a preferred walk-on.

The announcement came Saturday afternoon. The 5-foot-11 guard led his high school team. North Catholic (PA), to a Class 3A WPIAL Championship earlier this year, scoring 19 points in the 65-56 victory.

Calipari played under Isaac’s grandfather for two seasons (1980-1982). The years were Calipari’s final as a college player and the elder Gregrorio’s last as the head coach at Clarion.

-Braden Ramsey

Rick Childress editor@kykernel.com

Managing editor Jacob Eads editor@kykernel.com News/features editor Sydney Momeyer news@kykernel.com Asst. news editors

Addison Lander Emily Laytham Natalie Parks Hailey Peters

Sports editor Erika Bonner sports@kykernel.com Asst. Sports editor

Braden Ramsey

Opinions editor Brianna Stanley opinions@kykernel.com Asst. Opinions editor

Sarah Michels

Photo editors

Jordan Prather Michael Clubb

Lead designer

Haley Robey

Social media editors

Lauren Campbell Sarah Simon-Patches

KENTUCKY KERNEL OFFICES 340 McVey Hall University of Kentucky Lexington, KY 40506

ON THE COVER

Construction crews work on converting the Nutter Field House into a field hospital for COVID-19 patients on Monday, April 6, 2020, at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky.

JORDAN PRATHER | STAFF

spring 2020 | 3

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

news Faculty source over 6,000 protective masks for UK HealthCare workers

By Emily Girard

news@kykernel.com

After hearing of a shortage of personal protective equipment at UK Healthcare due to the coronavirus pandemic, a group of Chinese and Chinese-American UK faculty banded together to acquire over 6,000 face masks for healthcare workers.

Haoying Sun, an assistant professor in the Gatton College of Business and Economics, said the group was

motivated to help due to their experience with the virus’s initial impact in China.

“We saw exactly what happened in Wuhan at the beginning. Many doctors, I think over 2000, got infected, and some of them died,” said Sun. “We have relatives still living in China, so we were concerned. [...] We don’t want what happened in China to play [out] here. That would be a disaster.”

Sun used her experience in supply chain management to connect UK HealthCare

COVID

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Louisville, White has been inside her apartment except for a few short trips to get groceries, where she was careful to use hand sanitizer, wipe down carts and limit physical contact.

“Based on when I started showing symptoms, it wouldn’t make much sense for me to have caught it on one of those grocery trips, based on the incubation window,” White said.

She didn’t know for sure that she had COVID-19 until March 30, when her test results came back positive.

Her primary care doctor had encouraged her to get tested, so White called the Fayette County Health Department, which asked about her symptoms and travel history.

“Because I have not traveled to New York, California, China or Italy in the past couple of weeks, they said

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KAITLYN WHITE

that they would not test me because the likelihood of me having it was pretty slim,” White said. A health department worker told her that on March 24, the day before she was able to get tested.

A suggestion from a professor led her to Bluegrass Extended Care, a drivethrough testing location where she was able to be tested on March 25.

A friend drove her to the testing site, with a mask on and all the windows rolled down – precautions even though at this point, they didn’t believe White truly had it. But she wanted to get tested for the sake of the oth-

with outside suppliers. Sun said she was inspired to help after seeing the consequences of equipment shortage in China.

“I remember seeing the news, like one doctor who’s only 28 years old, got infected and died,” Sun said.

“Another doctor in his early thirties, he was planning his wedding, then he got infected and never came back [...]

Now it’s in the U.S., and U.S. doctors don’t have enough protective gear, which is very scary.”

ers at the tournament.

“If there was even a small chance that I had it at the tournament and exposed anyone, I felt like it was my obligation to make sure that people knew,” White said.

Three weeks later, White is not aware of any other cases associated with the tournament. After receiving her positive result, she contacted the tournament director and he notified participants without naming her.

White had to wait five days after being tested for her result. When she knew she had tested positive, she first called the friend who had driven her to get tested.

“He has been self-isolating as well,” White said. “But he it doesn’t look like he’s going to catch it.”

White and her friend waited three hours for her to be tested at Bluegrass Extended Care, stuck in a line of cars that she said “wrapped completely around that building and the building right next to it, and then cars were also

The group has made three orders so far. Their first order of 500 N95 masks, sourced from Houston, arrived on Monday. These masks were

donated to UK HealthCare’s emergency room, department of surgery and division of pulmonary medicine. Two more orders, one from New York and one from Sun’s college roommate in China, are currently being shipped.

The masks were purchased with faculty donations. Dr. Tracy Lu, an associate professor in the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, coordinated the effort. She gathered donations by creating a group in WeChat, a Chinese social

media app. Within 24 hours, over 70 of the 95 group members had donated, resulting in over $5,000 being raised.

“You cannot imagine how much coordination, communication, exploring and searching, etc. have been devoted from everyone in this group to make it happen in a short period of time,” said Lu. “This positive action taken by the group of faculty... can spark a light in this tough moment and spread positive energy within our community.”

spilled out into the road.”

The test itself took less than five minutes.

She didn’t get her positive test until March 30—over two weeks from her initial cough. White said hearing she tested positive, while a surprise, did not change her experience much.

“If the test was negative, I was still going to be self-isolating because I didn’t want to catch it. So it didn’t really change a whole lot for me personally. I knew that either way, I felt like crap. Either way, I’m still going to be in my apartment for a while,” White said.

Since her COVID-19 diagnosis was confirmed, White has been very open about her positive test, sharing her experience on social media and telling classmates and professors.

“I don’t necessarily see the point in hiding it, especially because I’ve seen a lot of people make jokes about it,” said White, adding that she’s been most frustrated by

those who don’t take social distancing seriously.

“I think seeing that someone they know actually has this virus and is actually being affected by it puts it into perspective a little bit more,” White said.

White said several people have reached out to her on social media saying that she is the only person they know who actually has COVID-19, and that many people were surprised a 22-year-old like her got it.

She said it was only fair to tell her professors and classmates about her diagnosis, especially because people who knew she was sick had been sending her worried messages. She didn’t want it to be a distraction if she missed a class.

“Thankfully, all of my professors have been super supportive,” White said.

“They’ve all affirmed that my health is more important.”

An email from UK Police on March 27 stated that two

UK students had tested positive, along with six healthcare workers and one campus employee. White doesn’t know who the other students are, but said she thinks it would be nice to know someone else who has it.

“Even just someone to vent to about symptoms or about this whole process, because you know, misery loves company,” said White, joking that they could start a support group.

For White, who has spent a month inside her apartment with only her white terrier mix, Eli, and a less affectionate cat, the isolation is the most difficult thing to cope with.

“I would say the loneliness is worse than the coronavirus,” said White, who described herself as a very social person.

Her roommate left for her home in northern Kentucky while White was in Louisville and hasn’t returned

DR. HAOYING SUN

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Tuesday, April 7, 2020

opinions

How my immunocompromised family changed my perspective on isolation

By Emily Girard opinions@kykernel.com

Students’ lives have become very different very quickly. We’ve all been yanked out of our normal lives and shoved back into our houses lest we contract COVID-19. A lot of people, including me, have viewed this isolation as an extreme inconvenience. We have acknowledged that we ourselves have a low risk of developing serious health problems, and as such, our biggest concern is how to cope with being unable to leave our houses. For those who can’t help but wonder what this whole situation is like for those with a close connection to at-risk individuals, I can provide one

perspective.

Last June, my dad was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Since then, he’s been in and out of hospitals. Friday, March 13 was the last day I was able to see him in person, as his hospital went into full lockdown the next day.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Now, I love my dad. I don’t know what I would do if we weren’t able to video chat regularly. He hates the quarantine, and we hate it too. We would much rather have him home—if he didn’t have cancer.

For the past few months, my dad has required extensive care. He spent a few weeks battling

an unknown neurological issue that left him unaware of his surroundings. When he finally came around, he was extremely weak. He’s learned and unlearned how to walk several times. It was only yesterday that he showed proof of having an immune system. In the midst of this unprecedented global crisis, where people have come to view friendly get-togethers as harbingers of the apocalypse, neither the nurses nor my family feel comfortable releasing my father.

Additionally, even if his health were a little better and his doctors felt comfortable with sending him home, I know I would not feel comfortable around him. Due to my anxiety, I

Emily Girard and her father at Charlie Brown’s, a local Lexington restaurant and bar, before the coronavirus pandemic. PHOTO PROVIDED BY EMILY GIRARD

have had trouble coping with this crisis.

Over the last few weeks, I went from being unable to accept the seriousness of this pandemic to believing I was tracking the dis-

ease everywhere I went. It is possible that I adapted these views because I was unable to deal with the fear I held for my dad who, at the time, was in extremely poor health. I have no idea

what my family’s situation would be if we were all stuck in the house together, but considering that we would have to manage someone with both physical and related mental health issues, in the midst of a global pandemic, it would most likely be extremely stressful.

This situation isn’t ideal, but we’re making the best of it. When you think about it, my situation is just like everyone else’s; instead of my loved ones being isolated in separate houses, my dad happens to be in the ICU. Even though we’re separated, we’re all being provided for, and I hope that when we do reunite we will all be in good health.

A UK student’s experience of the COVID-19 outbreak in NYC

By Jade Grisham opinions@kykernel.com

Ah, 2020 – little did we know what the year would hold for us.

On January 6, 2020, I moved to the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City for a semester

internship with MSNBC/ NBC News. I was ecstatic to work for NBC and be in the city that never sleeps – until coronavirus came to town.

In late January, I read a story from the New York Times about an outbreak of a virus in China. The

virus was spreading rapidly but seemed to be nothing for other countries to worry about. I remember empathizing and thinking “please let this not affect the United States.”

As time passed, other countries reported outbreaks. Most initial cases

were due to contact with someone who had traveled to the highly effected areas, like China. Then it started to spread within communities via local transmission.

Misinformation began to spread and some people started to panic.

Since I worked in the

news, I felt I was getting all the live updates and factual information. No one who I worked with was panicking, so I let it be and continued to work and live my life as I had before.

I traveled to and from Midtown Manhattan via the subway every day. As

expected, there were many people wearing masks. At the time, I silently laughed at those people. I thought that they must not be keeping up with reliable news and recommendations from healthcare professionals,

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Tuesday, April 7, 2020

COVID

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since UK moved classes online. White’s sister lives in Lexington, but for obvious reasons, White can’t see her or her friends. She regularly FaceTimes with a friend in D.C., also stuck in quarantine, for six or eight hours a day.

“Sometimes we’ll go almost a whole hour without actually talking, just knowing that the other person is there on the other end, and then we can hear the other person doing whatever they’re doing, so we know that they’re OK,” White said.

In addition to her well-wishers, White receives a daily phone call from the health department as part of a contract she signed upon her positive test result.

“It said that if I fail to meet my daily check-in, then they’re allowed to send E.M.S. or health department officials to my apartment to check on me,” White said.

If White leaves her Lexington apartment without permission, she can be taken to court.

On Wednesday, April 1, it was the health department official who told White she should go to the hospital.

“My breathing is what got really bad,” White said. “My cough was a lot worse. I was having really bad coughing fits that would leave my head kind of splitting because I wasn’t getting oxygen.” So, she took the health department’s advice and went to the ER. “Almost immediately I was told that my symptoms weren’t bad enough to need to go to the hospital. The first nurse that looked at me was kind of like, ‘oh, well, I don’t know why the health department told you to come, we can’t really do anything for you here,’” White said. “And then that sentiment was mir-

6 | kentucky kernel

rored by the head doctor who came in and looked at me.”

White said she laid there for a while and was given a drink. They had her walk across the room to see if her oxygen levels would drop – when they didn’t, she was sent home. The doctor told White that she should come to the hospital if her symptoms get so bad, she can’t walk from her bed to the bathroom without needing a break.

“To me, that really seems like much too late. Like if you can’t walk from the bed to the bathroom without stopping for air, I feel like there’s not much hope for recovery. How bad of a condition do your lungs have to be in for your breathing to be that bad?”

White said.

White said she has nothing but respect and sympathy for all healthcare workers and that she’s grateful to them.

“I think they are so noble doing what they’re doing, especially right now,” White said. The virus is hard to predict, she said, and she completely understands why they made the call to send her home.

She hasn’t been given any medication from the hospital, so she’s been trying over-thecounter medications to see what works.

White said COVID-19 feels like a cross between the flu and an upper respiratory infection.

“That’s the best way I can describe it, is I have the chills and the body aches. I also have a cough and that’s not something I normally experience when I have the flu,” White said. Not only is the illness exhausting, but because of the coughing and soreness, she can’t get a good night’s rest.

But for White, even a complete end to her symptoms is not a guarantee of an end to her ordeal. She said she doesn’t have an end date yet, but that it may be 14 days af-

ter she stops showing symptoms.

She is unsure if she will be tested to verify that she no longer has COVID-19.

“My apartment complex has been asking me because they want to send in a cleaning crew to disinfect my apartment before my roommate comes back once I test negative again, but I don’t know if they’re actually going to test me because testing materials are limited. I’m genuinely surprised I was able to get tested to begin with,”

played a lot of games online.

I started a writing journal. I spent about 10 hours writing 365 writing prompts on little slips of paper and putting them in a jar, so every day I can throw one out and write,” White said.

And she’s playing with her dog, her only companion.

She’s spent one night without him – when she went to the hospital, she called the humane society to pick him up and board him in anticipation of a stay at the hospital.

“But the humane soci-

Kaitlyn White’s terrier mix, Eli, is some of her only company while in quarantine. PHOTO PROVIDED BY KAITLYN WHITE

White said.

In the meantime, White’s pandemic experience is like that of millions of other Americans – she’s finding ways to occupy her time while stuck at home, including rediscovering a passion for cooking that sent her to culinary school, but lapsed during busy semesters at UK. “I’ve done a couple of jigsaw puzzles. I’ve re-read the entire Harry Potter book series, re-watched the whole movie series as well. I’ve

ety was already closed by the time I made it home, so I couldn’t call and get him back that night. Wednesday night without my dog, I felt so alone. I was like, I don’t know how to describe it,” White said.

White feels lucky that she does have a network of support, like her roommate’s family, who drove down and dropped off supplies at the door.

“It just sucks because there’s part of you that feels

guilty,” White said. “I know there are other college students who aren’t as fortunate.

They haven’t had the food or resources they need readily available and that’s just really unfortunate to me. I think the university could have done more to support basic needs during this closure.”

White said she was very happy with UK’s decision to move courses online.

“If we were still having in-person classes, I would be absent for a month, maybe even longer because I still don’t know when this is going to be done,” White said. With Zoom, she has been able to maintain active participation and stay on top of her work even after missing a few days when her symptoms were really bad.

“Just to have something to do, to have some kind of normalcy to hold on to, it’s been really important,” said White.

“In my life, I’ve struggled a little bit with mental health, particularly anxiety and some depression. And not having any of my routines has been really hard on me.”

Having Zoom class at regular times has been helpful, she said, and given her something to rely on.

White has been vocal about her experience with COVID-19, in part because she knows many people think young people will not be affected by the disease.

“Young people are not immune to the coronavirus.

And even if only we were in some capacity, I think saying, ‘oh, it doesn’t matter because only immunocompromised people get it’ - I think that’s a really backhanded thing to say because when you say that, you’re saying that those people don’t matter. That’s not true,” White said.

White said it has been frustrating to see people posting on social media making fun of the pandemic. Memes and casual jokes don’t bother

her, she said, but when people say the quarantine is stupid and coronavirus isn’t a big deal, she feels like it’s degrading to people actually affected by the pandemic.

“And then the people who are disobeying social distancing - I don’t think it’s cool,” White said. “I don’t think it’s cute. That’s honestly kind of a slap in the face to people like me.”

One bright spot in the midst of her sickness and the nationwide crisis has been the “absolutely phenomenal” support White has received from UK staff and faculty.

She said her professors check in with her daily, an interaction she welcomes, and that someone from the Dean of Students office had contacted her several times to see how she was doing.

These heart-warming gestures are extra bittersweet because this is White’s last semester at UK. “I’m forging these great relationships with my professors and I’m never going to have class with them in-person again,” said White, who was supposed to graduate in May but plans to attend any postponed commencement.

White has been keeping a list of the things she wants to do when the world returns to normal.

“I think first I’m going to take my dog to the dog park. I think he deserves a trip to the dog park after putting up with me for this long. And he, I think, is a little stir-crazy too,” White said.

She’s missing the normal things the most, even Thirsty Thursday at Two Keys – definitely not social distancing-friendly, White said.

She also plans to buy a bottle of champagne and sit with her friends on the back patio at McCarthy’s, their regular hang-out spot.

“I just want to resume life as normal, as normal as much as possible,” White said.

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because they said wearing masks would not help halt transmission.

My family back in Kentucky started to worry about me, and even recommended I come home until it all calmed down. I refused and decided to push through until NBC forced me to go home However, when President Donald Trump first responded to the outbreak and announced The White House’s formation of the coronavirus task force, I knew this was going to be a monumental time in history.

Regardless of your general opinion on our president, it is clear that he mishandled and underplayed the severity of the issue from the beginning.

The current administration has failed thousands upon thousands of people and has led us to our current situation.

The coronavirus came to the United States and it spread like wildfire.

In NYC, it was all anyone talked about. Walking the streets, I would overhear little bits of conversations like: “I heard it was a certain strain…” and “Has he thought about being tested?”

I instantly knew what they were talking about.

Every person who I spoke to who had lived in New York or New Jersey for 18+ years, compared the feelings engendered by this outbreak to feels after the tragedy of September 11, 2001.

Between the beginning of February to mid-March, life changed all around the world – but I witnessed the great magnitude of the change in New York City.

To take proper precautions, I figured I’d go to the store and grab some sanitary supplies like Clorox wipes and hand sanitizer. Everything was out of stock. People around me were stocking up on groceries and toiletries, planning their work-fromhome situations and, for some, scheduling travel plans to go home.

As the virus spread in NYC, I realized that I was living in the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States.

Yikes.

Positive cases of COVID-19 were announced daily in NYC, many of them right where I was traveling and working. I remember thinking, “It is only a matter of time before it hits this place hard and all at once.” I was not planning on sticking around to watch it happen.

Everything became so chaotic so fast.

My roommate started working from home, but her panic skyrocketed.

She bought a last-minute plane ticket to North Carolina and told me she was unsure of when she would be back.

The streets were quiet.

Restaurants and businesses were empty. There were open seats on the subway.

On the evening of March 11, my boss, coworkers, and I went out after work. Within two hours, Tom Hanks became the first celebrity diagnosed with the coronavirus, the NBA canceled the rest of the season, and President Trump banned travel from Europe beginning that Friday. I voiced my concerns to my boss about wanting to go back home to Kentucky; if I were going to be quarantined, I wanted to be quarantined with my family

instead of in my tiny NYC apartment all alone.

On March 12, I booked a one-way flight back home to Kentucky for March 16. Fortunately, my boss and NBC completely understood and supported my decision to leave New York for the time being.

On March 13, NBC officially sent home all interns. They are paying us until the original last official day of our internship.

I am so lucky to work for a company that cares about their employees and their families so much during these uneasy times.

On March 16, I left most of my stuff in my apartment in Manhattan and came back home with a carry-on suitcase of sweatshirts, sweatpants, a journal and my laptop.

I became so paranoid.

Whether on the subway, in a taxi, or touching the door handles at work, I could not quit thinking about the presence of COVID-19. I washed my hands 10+ times in a day and used hand sanitizer as often as I could.

Two weeks later, I sit in my apartment in Lexington, Kentucky, feeling good and trying to stay as healthy as I can. As I look back, I realize how lucky I am that I got out of New York City at the perfect time.

These are crazy times of uncertainty, but we are all in this together. All we can do to help this situation is to come together, ironically by staying away from one another. This is how we will heal.

I hope that at the end of this, we can better appreciate the little pleasures in life, like sitting in a coffee shop, walking through a park, and visiting the ones we love.

Stay safe and healthy everyone.

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NCAA approves extra year of eligibility for spring sport athletes

By Braden Ramsey sports@kykernel.com

The NCAA Division One Council voted to allow schools to give athletes in spring sports an extra year of eligibility.

The eligibility extension was announced from the official Twitter account of the NCAA on Monday evening.

The Council’s decision gives schools the flexibility to make decisions at a campus level,” said Council chair M. Grace Calhoun.

The Penn athletic director added that schools and conferences were encouraged “to take action in the best interest of student-athletes and their communities.”

The same press release stated that the Council adjusted financial aid rules so teams will be able to carry more players on scholarship. This was due to incoming recruits and athletes who decide to use their extra year of eligibility.

The Kentucky softball team congratulates senior Alex Martens on a home run during the home opener against Texas A&M on Saturday, March 7, 2020, at John Cropp Stadium in Lexington, Kentucky. Kentucky won 11-9.

JORDAN PRATHER | STAFF

The Council also increased baseball’s roster limit because of the eligibility impact. It’s the only spring sport with such a limit.

Winter sport athletes - such as basketball player Nate Sestina - were not given the same waiver, as the Council decided not to extend eligibility for sports where most of the competitive season was completed.

“I’m so disappointed that I’m not going to have another year to coach Nate

and have him in our program. I know he’s disappointed and wanted to come back. He knew the chances weren’t great but that doesn’t make this hurt any less for him,” Coach Cal said in a statement. “I’m proud of how he’s handled the whole thing.”

“I’m going to miss seeing him in the gym every day but there’s no doubt in my mind that he’s helped himself and will have opportunities professionally if that’s what he chooses.”

spring 2020 | 7