Effects of COVID-19 and Moving on

Effects Of of Effects & Covid-19 Covid-19 & Moving On

Summer e-zine 2021

Effects of Covid-19 and moving on | 1

TABLE OF Meet the Editors | Page 6

No Masks, and Reopening Schools | Page 8

Air PollutionBefore, During and After COVID-19 inAustin | Page 12 Fighting COVID | Page 14 COVID-19 Vaccines Available in Austin | Page 18 Consequences of Virtual Learning | Page 20

Effects of Covid-19 and moving on | 3

CONTENTS Stress Before v.s After the Pandemic | Page 24

Are we Ready for the Next Pandemic | Page 26

Polio V/S Covid-19 | Page 30

An Online World Forced Virtual | Page 32

How did Amazon do During the Pandemic? | Page 3634

MEET THE EDITORS LETTER FROM THE EDITORS

Dear Reader, Howdy! And thank you for reading our magazine, it means the world to us. We put a lot of effort and care into providing the finest writing for you all. Making this magazine was a roller coaster. We had our ups and downs, hardships and successes, happiness and tears. And now, dear reader, you can see the fruit of our hard work.

COVID-19 was an event that knocked everyone off their feet. A lot of sadness and anger was caused, many deaths happened, it was bad.. We all had to accommodate how we went out and socialized, but thankfully things are starting to look hopeful again thanks to the vaccines.

Now that the worst has passed we wanted to focus on how Austin was recovering. News and articles focus only on the worst, the damage, the terror, but we wanted to focus on the healing, recovering and events that are happening now that everyone is going back to “normal”.

We found a lot of information regarding that subject. From education changes to business income to mental health, a lot has been going on. Again, thank you for choosing our magazine to read and hope you enjoy. Stay safe!

Sincerely,

Annabelle, Margareth, Shaan, Miles, and Ateeb. =)

Effects of Covid-19 and moving on | 5

Hello, I’m Shaan Barman, and first off, I’d like to thank you for reading our magazine. I’m a freshman at LASA, and I have two younger sisters and an imaginary dog. I particularly enjoy science, ELA and history. I love to draw, read, and cook during my free time as well as play video games with friends and family.

I’m Margareth and I’m a freshman (a.k.a. High school newbie).

I’m a homebody who writes, plays Minecraft and enjoys long car trips. I love to learn about everything and anything. I have no pets but my house is riddled with thousands of stray cats, so that counts? In my free time I think about what I want to be when I’m older and how to sneakily get ice cream from the freezer. Have a nice day!

My name is Miles Fritzmather and I am a freshman at LASA. I enjoy science, math and all things STEM. I have two younger siblings, a brother and a younger sister. Some of my favorite hobbies are video games and going on walks.

I also love pools and cooling off on a hot Texas day.

Thank you for reading our magazine!

Hi, I’m Annabelle, I am your stereotypical anxious LASA freshman, who has a strange obsession with blobfish and the stunning phenomenon that is the movie Ten Things I Hate About You. My hobbies include learning about human sociology, and teen mental health. I also enjoy hanging out with my demon dog Coco, and Gangsta’ cat which we ironically call ‘Cat’. I hope you enjoy our magazine!

Hello, I am Ateeb Mohammad, who is a ninth grader at LASA. Some of my hobbies are playing video games, reading, learning, and criticizing anything that can be. I am a really curious person that can go through great lengths just to find a piece of information. I am not the best writer but I try my best. I put my best efforts in this article and I hope you like it. Enjoy!

No Masks and Re-opened Schools Thoughts about Governor Greg Abbott’s executive order of schools reopening with maskless students.

By Margareth Contreras Montoya

I

t’s the first day of school, you walk into your class and take a seat.

The classroom is full of students for the first time in two years. You feel nostalgia and happiness.

But you quickly notice that there seems to be one small issue: most of your peers aren’t wearing any face masks or maintaining any form of social distance.

Last time you checked, there was still a pandemic going on. You feel some uneasiness in the back of your mind.

High school students studying while wearing masks.

Image courtesy by BBC news Effects of Covid-19 and moving on | 7

On Friday March 13 2020, schools shut down permanently for the school year and the one following.

Students and teachers alike had to face many struggles with online schooling.

But now, on Tuesday May 18, 2021, Governor Greg Abbott issued the executive order that would authorize all the schools in Texas to reopen in full capacity this upcoming 2021-2022 school year and prohibit masks from being mandatory in school settings. The order would be effective after June 4th, 2021. Since then, there has been a mixed bag of emotions

and reactions with these two controversial pieces of information. Teachers, parents and students all have different viewpoints regarding this decision.

Helen Cornwell, a 7th grade science teacher at J. Frank Dobie Middle School, expresses uncertainty about schools opening at full capacity with maskless students.

“We are having a lot less cases of COVID and that at some point we should be able to return to a much more normal kind of school culture where we don’t have to wear masks and social distance as much,” Cornwell said. “But I kind of feel like this might be a little bit early, that we could be facing some risk with this virus that we haven’t yet encountered and unfortunately, students are more likely to suffer the consequences than teachers.”

That feeling of schools reopening a tad early is one that many people can agree with.

But Tiffany MartinezGonzales, a 5th grade teacher at Janis Guerrero Thompson Elementary, has a different view on the matter. She thinks students being maskless is concerning but agrees with students coming back.

“I think that it’s important that everybody is back in

Governor overnor Gregg Abbott discussing schools being maskless to NBC news.

Image courtesy by 5NBCdfw

person, that’s the number one thing,” Gonzales said. “Online worked really, really well for some students and not as well for others, so I think it’s super important that everybody has the opportunity to be back in person.”

Participating in online classes was a struggle for many students. The sudden change from a classroom and having the help of a teacher in front of you, to being alone with limited resources was something difficult for many to adjust to.

Just like students, teachers had to accommodate and change many things. Their teaching methods drastically changed this past 2020-21 school year. They had to teach classes through Zoom, assign work and activities in different ways, and struggle with internet issues. It was quite the experience from being in a class full of students.

“As teachers, the longer you’ve been in the game, so to speak, you tend to have your lesson plans and you know what works for you,” Gonzales said.

“But when we moved to online learning, all of that was out the window, and we were all starting from scratch. We were

all learning, just like the students had to learn.”

Teachers had to re-start from the ground up. It was a difficult journey but they did it. Many teachers learned new technological methods to make teaching classes easier for themselves and their students.

Gonzales said that she will keep incorporating notetaking and assignments on the computer because it makes it easier for her to grade.

“They can do work on a computer, and then it can go home and stay in their Google drives forever,” Gonzales said, hinting that losing notes will not occur as much.

Cornwell said that she will also use the program BLEND a lot more in her classroom, but she said some

Elementary school girl looking up from taking her notes.

Image courtesy from Web24.News

interesting information on how the curriculum will work for the following school year: “They [the district] are changing to something called the blueprints,” Cornwell said “They’re going to be streamlining every single class next year. The idea is that every seventh grade class is doing the exact same thing on the exact same day for every school in the district.”

Blueprints might be able to take some stress off teachers and help them or make classes descend into chaos. Kind of like a science experiment.

Both science teachers really missed their students and doing the hands-on experiments with them. One upside to them of having students come back in person is being able to include the interactive lessons again. As it is a big part of learning science, neither wants any of their students to be excluded from any of the educational activities.

Kendra Bircher, a school counselor at J. Frank Dobie middle school said that coming back to school might remove some fear that we have and move forward.

“The upside to this, for me personally, [is] it kind of removes some of the fear we kind of have and we get to move forward in life,” Bircher said. “Because right now there’s a lot of, ‘Oh, I don’t Effects of Covid-19 and moving on | 9

necessarily want to be close to you’ but thankfully we have vaccines, so that kind of helps alleviate some of that fear.”

Bircher also said that there are ups and downs to the reopening due to how people feel.

“There’s ups and downs only because of feelings and how people feel. Are they comfortable? Are they not?

And so the upside to it is that people get the opportunity to connect,” Bircher said. “And the downside to it is that if people aren’t comfortable, they might withdraw from that social connectedness that it’s very important for us as humans. We need that connection.”

Bircher, just like the rest of the teachers, really likes the idea of seeing their students again.

“Honestly, I love when kids are on campus,” Bircher said.

“I personally like to be able to see you face to face. it’s a

feeling, the energy there, that I don’t get talking to y’all online.

My hope is that the vaccine is doing its job.”

This is just the adult side.

What about the students?

Students are the ones who will be in the schools after all. Velynda Moreno, a student at Northeast high school, said that she’s okay with schools reopening but unsure of everyone being maskless.

“I’m okay with schools opening, but I’m not really okay with the school saying that you don’t have to wear a mask because it can really affect other people around you,” Moreno said. “I would prefer everybody still having masks on even if you’re vaccinated in class. You don’t know if someone else is sick, they could pass the illness to you, even though it’s not COVID”.

Daisy Nuñez, a student at Navarro High School, said that she will still wear her mask to protect others even though she personally is fully vaccinated.

“I would still wear it even though I’m fully vaccinated, but I would wear it to help others that aren’t vaccinated or fully vaccinated. It’s very important to prevent COVID-19,” Nuñez said.

Nuñez also said that she feels less safe with masks not being mandatory due to people not vaccinating themselves.

“Now that face masks are not required I will say it’s a little less safe, not many people are getting vaccines because of all those rumors of what the vaccine can do to you,” Nuñez said.

Nuñez describes herself as a social butterfly and is really looking forward to schools reopening. She said that being social and not being in front of a screen is going to be a relief.

“I really miss seeing all the other students and interacting,” Nuñez said.

“Being social and not just having to listen through a computer is going to be great.

I feel good about going back to school, with all the safety precautions of course.”

Nuñez and Moreno both agree that learning via online means didn’t help them learn much and that there was a huge difference in the amount of help they could get.

“Online didn’t do much for me, I didn’t get as much help as I needed online,” Moreno said “I really don’t like online

Most commonly used mask types laid side by side. sity Health

school. I like it in person, it is a lot better, and you can get the help that you need.”

Students before the pandemic had a lot of physical contact with each other. Whether that be hugs, fist bumps, high fives or other, there was without a doubt a lot of buzz. Velynda thinks that this buzz will come back tenfold with schools reopening combined with students not seeing their peers in over a year.

“Knowing how some kids are?

They like being buddy-buddy and touchy with their friends or partners.” Moreno said.

“They might not follow the school’s regulation about social distancing, and not touching each other that much.”

Safety will hopefully be implemented and be taken seriously in school settings.

Just last year there were 147,246 positive student COVID cases and 73,154 positive staff cases reported in the Austin school district. That was with masks. Now without masks, these numbers will have a 50/50 chance of rising or

Image courtesy from Loma Linda Univer-

falling due to the amount of people getting vaccinated.

If a school reports a positive COVID-19 case at any time of the year, the school will shut down 2 to 14 days depending on the amount of students in contact with the infected person and the cleaning time.

Overall, we just have to wait and see what’s in store for this upcoming school year for both students and teachers alike.

If we keep social distance, vaccinating ourselves and maintaining personal safety measures, we should be alright. We do need to try to go back to a “normal” lifestyle but lifting mask regulations so soon and opening schools up at full capacity may not be the most safe way to go.

Air Pollution Before, During, And After covid-19 in Austin

2020

Due to (Nitrog did de emissio But PM ( bon monoxide) levels Hoekzema, director o at CAPCOG believe th that even though traf usage increased. Alon vironmental authoriti allowing them to cha (making them expell changed while increa

By Margareth Contreras Montoya

2019

Pollution rates were very high. The biggest contributors of air pollution came from illegal air dumping from industries, pollutants from cars, petroleum refineries, trucks, and factories. Mixed with the heat and you have a pollution jambalaya. Oil and gas facilities make the top list of the worst illegal polluters. Illness rates beause of exposure to air pollution were through the roof.

.... 2020 ....

POLLUTENTS IN AIR 2019 Air Quality Index Report

Geographic Area: Texas Summary: by CBSA Year: 2019

Number of Days when Air Quality was...

CBSA

Number of Days when AQI Pollutant was...

AQI Statistics

# Unhealthy Days for with Sensitive Very 90th AQI Good Moderate Groups Unhealthy Unhealthy Maximum Percentile Median CO NO2 O3

SO2 PM2.5 PM10

Amarillo, TX

365

259

96

10

.

.

119

69

44

.

. 291

45

29

.

Austin-Round Rock, TX

365

249

114

2

.

.

115

63

44

.

7 171

.

187

.

Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX

365

234

122

8

1

.

174

71

45

.

. 178

32

155

.

These graphs the294 United36States 4Environmental Tx, Big Spring, TX were courtesy of 334 . . Protection 115 54Agency.

11 .(Ignore . . Amarillo 334 . . focous on Austin) Brownsville-Harlingen, TX

Borger, TX

359

221

57

79

2

.

162

117

19

.

.

.

359

.

.

365

236

129

.

.

.

89

62

44

.

. 124

.

241

.

College Station-Bryan, TX

352

352

.

.

.

.

17

1

0

.

.

.

352

.

.

Corpus Christi, TX

365

262

102

1

.

.

107

62

42

.

. 165

1

199

.

-The graphs show which days where the highest in a specific air pollutant. (Co, NO2, 03. P.M. 2.5, and P.M. 10) throughout that year.

As you can see, in 2019, we where highest in 03 and P.M. 2.5 03(Ozone) is a result of air pollution from internal combustion engines and power plants.

P.M. 2.5(Particle matter)formed as a result of burning fuel and chemical reactions that take place in the atmosphere. . These particles are also the primary reason for Get detailed information about this report, including column descriptions, at https://www.epa.gov/outdoor-air-quality-data/about-air-data-reports#aqi occurrence of smog. This means that an excessive amount of engines were used AirData reports are produced from a direct query of the AQS Data Mart. The data represent the best and most recent information available to EPA from state agencies. However, some absentfuel/ due to incomplete reporting, andburning some values may was change due to quality assurance activities. The AQS database is updated by state, local, and tribal andvaluesa may lotbeof chemical done. organizations who own and submit the data.

Corsicana, TX

365

275

80

7

3

.

193

67

41

.

. 222

67

76

.

Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX

365

181

155

28

1

.

156

93

51

.

10 197

.

158

.

Eagle Pass, TX

339

287

51

1

.

.

104

54

25

.

.

.

339

.

El Paso, TX

365

147

205

11

2

.

157

84

53

.

18 199

.

.

145

3

Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX

365

171

163

26

4

1

202

97

52

.

13 166

2

182

2

Killeen-Temple, TX

365

284

79

2

.

.

105

58

42

.

1 256

.

108

.

Kingsville, TX

284

234

50

.

.

.

87

56

30

.

.

.

.

284

.

Laredo, TX

365

258

106

1

.

.

109

67

41

.

. 131

.

231

3

Longview, TX

365

289

67

9

.

.

129

65

37

.

2 274

89

.

.

Readers are cautioned not to rank order geographic areas based on AirData reports. Air pollution levels measured at a particular monitoring site are not necessarily representative of the air quality for an entire county or urban area.

Effects of Covid-19 and moving on | 11

Source: U.S. EPA AirData <https://www.epa.gov/air-data> Generated: June 15, 2021

In 2020, we decreased in 03 and and PM 10. As it was mentione trucks were a major cause of po struction going on and power p P.M. 10-->particle matter w/ a d limeters. Made from dust blow agriculture, road construction d plants.

Co-> Carbon Monoxide It is produced when fuels such not burn fully. Burning charcoa from cigarettes also produce ca 2.5 and PM 10. Will we produc days this year?

Air Quality In

Geographic Area: Texas Summary: by CBSA Year: 2020

Number of Days when Air Qual

CBSA

# Unhealthy Days for with Sensitive AQI Good Moderate Groups Unhea

Amarillo, TX

366

245

107

Austin-Round Rock, TX

366

260

104

Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX

363

230

129

4

Big Spring, TX

341

275

57

8

Borger, TX

364

236

66

61

237

120

6

Brownsville-Harlingen, TX

366

14 1

College Station-Bryan, TX

353

313

40

Corpus Christi, TX

366

277

87

.

Corsicana, TX

366

278

79

8

.

Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX

366

202

140

21

2021

o us being locked up the N02 gen Dioxide) and O3 (ozone) levels ecrease, proving that car pollution ons did play a role in air pollution. (particulate matter) and CO (carincreased. Experts like Andrew of regional planning and services hat the reasoning behind this is ffic decreased, freight and truck ng with the federal & state enies issuing waivers to refinaries, ange the conteent of their gasoline PM and CO). the pullution matter asing.

Now that everyone is going back outside and traveling, there has been a slow increase in carbon monoxide (CO) again. Air pollutant levels are risisng again. Soon, air pollution levels will be as if this lockdown never happened. What experts from the State of Texas Air Reporting System are afraid of, is that the pollution production rates will double due to EVERYONE being on the move at once.

Fun fact: Air pollution has spiked this year due to the power outages that happened. People heavily depended on Natural Gas for warmth which made those companies excrete tons of pollutants. In a week, 5 companies together made 33,700 pounds of pollutants!

Photo credits from the courtesy of Pablo Stanley, worker of Humaaans

d NO2 but we rose in Pm.2.5 ed in the 2020 paragraph above, ollution. There was a bit of conplants were still boming. diameter bigger than 10 milwn off of mines, slash-and-burn dust, and fossil fuel power

as gas, oil, coal and wood do al, running cars and the smoke arbon monoxide gas. ce waymore pollutants filled

ndex Report

lity was...

Number of Days when AQI Pollutant was...

AQI Statistics

Very 90th althy Unhealthy Maximum Percentile Median CO NO2 O3

SO2 PM2.5 PM10

.

.

138

76

44

.

. 286

57

23

.

1

.

153

63

43.5

.

.

.

122

72

44

.

5 152

.

208

1

. 169

33

161

.

1

.

200

71

9

.

.

.

341

1

.

156

113

16

.

.

.

364

.

.

3

.

176

70

43

.

. 102

.

264

.

.

.

and now, 2021 In 2021 (though graph is still incomplete due to the year not being over) we are seeing a fast increase in CO, 03. PM 2.5 and PM 10 due to everyone starting to go out. There was also decrease in NO2.Which is good, but will it last?

NO2-> Nitrogen Dioxide Produced by fossil fuel burning

Air Quality Index Report Geographic Area: Texas Summary: by CBSA Year: 2021 (Annual statistics for 2021 are not final until May 1, 2022) Number of Days when Air Quality was...

CBSA

Number of Days when AQI Pollutant was...

AQI Statistics

# Unhealthy Days for with Sensitive Very 90th AQI Good Moderate Groups Unhealthy Unhealthy Maximum Percentile Median CO NO2 O3 SO2 PM2.5 PM10

Amarillo, TX

90

83

4

3

.

.

111

49

38

.

.

66

7

17

.

Austin-Round Rock, TX

91

71

20

.

.

.

78

55

42

1

2

41

.

43

4

Tips on reducing air pollution: Carpool when possible, turn off appliances/ lights when they are not in use, use energy efficient lighbulbs, and change your thermostat to be a few degrees cooler in the winter and a few degrees warmer in the summer.You can google more if you’re intrested!

Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX

59

50

9

.

.

.

86

57

37

.

1

28

3

27

.

Big Spring, TX

29

15

7

5

2

.

178

146

49

.

.

.

29

.

.

Borger, TX

59

56

2

1

.

.

102

34

0

.

.

.

59

.

.

Brownsville-Harlingen, TX

59

41

18

.

.

.

99

63

43

.

.

16

.

43

.

College Station-Bryan, TX

90

81

9

.

.

.

84

51

30

.

.

.

5

85

.

Corpus Christi, TX

39

30

8

1

.

.

113

57

42

.

.

9

1

28

1

Corsicana, TX

59

56

3

.

.

.

95

46

34

.

.

32

13

14

.

Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX

78

61

17

.

.

.

63

57

40

1

3

20

.

53

1

Eagle Pass, TX

56

49

7

.

.

.

70

52

27

.

.

.

.

56

.

El Paso, TX

69

55

14

.

.

.

74

54

43

1

11

20

.

31

6 2

.

.

99

51

28

.

.

.

51

302

.

Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX

89

62

25

2

.

.

130

66

46

1

2

15

.

69

2

.

159

64

40

.

. 191

.

175

.

Killeen-Temple, TX

90

75

15

.

.

.

93

54.5

41.5

.

.

61

.

29

.

Kingsville, TX

28

23

5

.

.

.

65

56

33

.

.

.

.

28

.

1

.

153

68

40

.

3 173

60

130

.

3

.

159

93

48

.

7 195

.

164

.

FIGHTING COVID How the Medical Industry HAS Been Affected by COVID-19

By Shaan Barman

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a struggle for everyone, forcing all of us into quarantine. The virus has killed over four million people. Yet even with these shocking numbers, there are still people who are getting the virus, either by not getting the vaccine or by not following the proper guidelines to avoid getting COVID-19. The medical industry has finished their work on creating vaccines, and have already succeeded. So, what else is the medical industry doing to stop the effects of COVID-19 and how are they dealing with medical situations now that vaccines are available?

The COVID-19 virus and the global pandemic hit the medical industry hard. No one had ever heard of, or noticed this virus, until it had already started to spread all across the world. The virus was clearly very dangerous and harmful. People didn't know how to handle the virus. Over a million people died eight months into the global pandemic, and the World Health Organization announced a global pandemic on March 11, 2020. A year later, we're still in a global pandemic, but people are being vaccinated, and guidelines to avoid contracting the virus are being re-worked to keep everyone safe. And now, the medical industry is even more prepared and equipped to deal with situations during the pandemic and cases that involve COVID.

Effects of Covid-19 and moving on | 13

A bottle of an Injection Only COVID Vaccine with a syringe

Photo courtesy of Reuters

The St. David’s North Austin Medical Center. age courtesy of the HCA Healthcare Healthtrust Workforce Solutions

Im

The industry wasn’t always so prepared nor equipped for this. For hospitals in particular, doctors and nurses have to see every patient, regardless of whether or not the patient has COVID. The ICU, or the Intensive Care Unit, has to be prepared for any problem in case the medical condition of any patient is getting worse, or if frontliners have to travel to a state where cases of the virus have surged, or what is called a surge state.

Bipasha Bashar, who works at St. David’s North Austin Medical Center, is a doctor that deals with medical cases during the pandemic, and continues to help sick patients.

“So that means that we have to assess all our resources, the resources being hospital equipment, personal protective equipment, the human resources, the doctors, the nurses, the respirator, like all the ancillary services, including our cleaning crews, we have to take account all of them and make sure we kind of utilize all of our forces to the max,” Bashar says.

Shirin Mirza, who works at AEC, is a doctor in the Emergency Room department, otherwise Effects of Covid-19 and moving on | 15

known as the ER, and has been at the frontlines of emergency response situations during the pandemic.

“We had a big surge policy in the hospital, meaning the hospital gets totally full or overwhelmed with patients,” Mirza says. “So we had a backup plan. For example, if someone gets sick, we have another person take over their shift.”

But having extra personnel around during this global pandemic is also hard due to COVID-19. Other medical care workers are dealing with various other medical problems,are spending time at home with their families, or they may happen to contract the virus or have another form of sickness or medical problems.

When the virus first surfaced, medical professionals didn’t know what the virus was, and didn’t know how to handle it. They had to educate themselves and learn as much as they possibly could about this virus in a short amount of time, and it put a lot of stress and a very large workload on the people in the medical industry. The spike in cases of the virus made it even more difficult for medical workers to help those who needed it.

“Who are the experts in hospital medicine that learn something on the job?” says Bashar. “ I have never done that before.”

Medical workers also had to change certain aspects of their jobs and how they accomplish the tasks involved in their jobs.

Many more precautions had to be taken, and procedures needed to be altered.

“We had to use airborne isolation,” says Mirza, “And of course, we had to use special gowns and gloves. There’s a way of wearing personal protective equipment and also taking it off, because people can contract the virus depending on how they take the PPE off.”

All medical careers have changed drastically in many different ways.

“We have to learn everything on the go,” Bashar said. “The treatment model has changed so many times.”

But hospitals and other medical facilities are still doing all that they possibly can to help people with or without the virus and to ensure that there are less casualties, and the a lesser amount of cases. Some hospitals have separate wings for people with different health issues, and for those with COVID-19.

Families and communities are being thoroughly educated about COVID-19, about what to do and what not to do.

“Education has been the biggest thing,” says Bashar. “We have to educate people.”

Spreading awareness about the virus, even a year after the global pandemic had started is very important. The more knowledge that people gain about the virus helps everyone avoid contracting it. The effects of COVID and the devastating changes brought by it will continue to linger around

People unable to social distance, wearing masks on a busy street during the pandemic.

Photo courtesy of Jose Carlo Fajardo

Bashar. “If you know someone is sick, even though you are vaccinated, you should still maintain some precautions. Don’t think that you can’t have COVID-19 even if you are vaccinated, you can still get COVID-19.”

You can also be aware of the people around you and be mindful of how you should act around them, whether they have been vaccinated or not. Doing this is extremely important during the pandemic to avoid the virus.

“You have to be mindful and responsible for the entire community that you are coming in close contact with,” says Bashar.

Another way to help is to learn about the virus itself, and how to interact with people who have it, and how to avoid contracting the virus.

“The biggest thing is definitely education, education, education,”

“

Awareness amongst community members helps protect the vulnerable, our kids and our elderly in different communities.

“

not just the medical industry but in other industries as well.

“I think the medical industry took a huge hit,” Mirza said “So it will take time to recover. I’m sure from a business standpoint that they will be very cautious and be prepared if another pandemic hits in the future.”

Regardless, average people can help with fighting the virus as well. Everyone should still be mindful about wearing a mask, indoors and outdoors and social distancing.But you can help in other ways. If you know someone who has COVID, tell them to be checked out by a doctor and to self quarantine themselves.

“If you know someone who’s has symptoms, isolate that person,” Bashar says. “Go to self quarantine and get checked for COVID-19, and then take it from there.”

Also, getting a vaccine from your local vaccine location will be very beneficial not only to yourself but to the community as well. It grants people a better chance to avoid the virus. It won’t give someone the ability to avoid receiving the virus at all, but it will help with the bodies immune system to fight the virus off in case the virus enters the body.

“Be productive and be mindful about people around you,” says

doctor bashar says Bashar.

“Awareness amongst community members helps protect the vulnerable, our kids and our elderly in different communities.”

The people in the medical industry worked tremendously hard. They spent days and nights to find a cure for this virus. The workload these doctors took onto their shoulders was heavy.

They persevered and stayed strong, and now, the global population is safe because of the people that risked their lives to help others.

covid-19 vaccines avaliable in austin

Moderna - This vaccine is reccomened for anyone 18 and up. This vaccine has a 94.1% efficacy with those under 65, and a 86.4% with those over 65. the dosage is two shots, 28 days apart. The common side effects are chills, pain, tiredness, headaches, and/or swelling and redness at the injection site.

Pfizer - This vaccine is reccomended for anyone 12 and up. this vaccine was the first one to recieve the FDA EUA, meaning emergency use authorization, after having positive clinical data. this vaccine has a 95% efficacy preventing covid for those not previously infected. The dosage is two shots, 21 days apart. Common side effects are chills, pain, tiredness, headaches, and/ or swelling and redness at the injection site.

Effects of Covid-19 and moving on | 17

Johnson & Johnson - This vaccine is reccomended for anyone 18 and up. this vaccine is different then the previous two, being a vector vaccine rather than a mrna vaccine. Mrna vaccines inject genetic code similar to the SARS-COV2 virus, which infects host cells. the proteins in the vaccine creates antibodies and memory cells that recognize when the real virus is in the body. The vector vaccine injects a harmless adenovirus which carries the genetic code. the code is on the spikes of the shell of the adenovirus, once the shell is in the body, a spike protein produced by the cell trains the immune system, which regonizes when the real virus enters the body. this vaccine has a 66% efficacy.

The dosage is one shot. Common side effects are fatigue, fever headache, pain at the injection site, or myalgia, which is pain in a muscle or a group of muscles.

Each store is offering vaCcines. Which one do you need to go to get yours?

randall’S vaccines pfizer, moderna, johnson & johnson

ADC NORTH vaccines - Pfizer, johnson & Johnson

CVS vaccines Pfizer, moderna, johnson & Johnson

HEb vaccines Pfizer, moderna, johnson & Johnson

Walgreens vaccines - Pfizer, moderna, johnson & JohnsoN

Walmart vaccines Pfizer, moderna, johnson & Johnson

Graphic, Courtesy of google Maps maps

Consequ

ences of Virtual

How online school has affected th e mental h during Cor ealth of onavirus an d how to im students and teacher s prove it

Learnin

g

By Annabelle McKaughan

Photo by KaplanEarly Learning Company You are in the midst of a rapidly spreading pandemic, where only the most cautious, strongest, and smartest survive. Hundreds of thousands drop dead on hospital beds, and you are anxious that you are next.

Meanwhile, reality sinks in as the denial you have guarded yourself with is fading. Isolated from friends, family and stuck in your various living situations for years on end.

Sound familiar? How, after you have almost made it to the end, can you recover your mental health from all the trauma you have experienced?

You are already a survivor, but it’s time to heal.

Whether you are a teacher, parent, student, or anything in between, we have all sacrificed our normal lives to the Coronavirus. Faced with many adjustments and losses our mental state has been jeopardized. Some suffered from the isolation, others from the increased stress, many from depression and grief. Now that we see the light at the end of the tunnel, we can reflect on how Coronavirus affected our mental health and how Effects of Covid-19 and moving on | 19

we can move on from here.

We’ve all been negatively impacted.

We’ve lost friends, loved ones, jobs, motivation, treasured time with friends and family, and for some, a will to live. Our collective mental health has declined. Our youth generally escaped the brunt of the infection; however, their lives have been the most consistently impacted by the pandemic.

A major struggle caused by virtual learning has been that there has been no escape for some children that experience abuse within their household. One in seven kids have experienced or are experiencing a form of mental, physical abuse and neglect. Child abuse is a serious issue that although is universally accepted as taboo, it is a topic that needs to be spoken on. What might this have to do with COVID-19? There has been an increase of child abuse, and neglect throughout Coronavirus.

The effects of school shutting down to exclusively online learning has allowed a strain in finding resources to help. Corporations have had a

significant decrease in workers, and teachers can’t monitor, and check in on students to check for signs of child mistreatments.

Students also can’t escape from their unfortunate situations due to distance and safety restrictions.

Normally nonviolent parental figures can result in stress-influenced violence.

Another way virtual learning has impacted students is that they don’t have access to the technology altogether. Being deprived of an education for a year and a half only because of the unfortunate fact that they can’t afford a computer.

Considering the already tanking economy, and the percent of Americans that have lost their jobs due to the pandemic, money can be tight.

If a student does have a computer they would be sharing the internet with everyone in the abode. This can cause glitches, and difficulties with finding a place with no overlapping audio. All of these factors can guarantee a harder school experience.

Photo by IndiWire Deborah Overdorff, as of Coronavirus is a seventh grade teacher, now upper middle school coordinator at St. Francis school has experienced her share of hardships throughout the pandemic.

Hardships mainly caused by worrying about ‘what exactly is covid?’ and how can this affect loved ones and stu-

dents.

Teachers have also had to face the trauma of virtual learning, and isolating from their employees and students.

Teachers thrive with the interaction of their students. Their main motivation to teach is to help give kids a future in

Talking to a computer full of black screens, and not having the opportunity to help the students struggling.

Not being able to teach all of the material that they could in the previous years. Having to stricten their teaching tactics, because of the technology. All of the reasons above have led to mental health issues. Isolation from students, having to learn a new way of teaching within this abrupt time frame, sacrificing the old ways of teaching. The old ways of teaching that got them into the teaching career. Anxiety of outside of school reasons.

“I started to have some panic attacks in the fall, and just worried about my students, about my friends, about my family,” Overdorff said.

Annika Van Bavel, an incoming fourth grader, who spent the majority of her elementary school experience in quarantine. She hadn’t been able to hang out much with her friends since second grade.

Another big problem has been being away from friends. Thankfully we have technology. Another survey that assessed a group of male and female adolescents that took an identical survey with a 12 month gap showed an increase in depressive and anxiety tendencies associated with stress from school, COVID-19 and the isolation from classmates. For instance Maya Peralez, an incoming freshman at the University of Texas says that she felt really alone without hanging out with her friends. On the other hand, Annika Van Bavel, who is going into the fourth grade this fall disagrees.

“No, not really, hanging out, socially distant. even Google Hangout” Van Bavel said. “We’re in the last month of school. I got to be in person too.

It was nice to play around with friends.”

Next to 70% of students prefer in-person learning, and although there are aspects of online learning that both teachers, students and faculty agree are advantages, the majority struggles with adjusting to

Effects of Covid-19 and moving on | 21

virtual learning.

“It’s only online and a lot of them refused to turn their cameras on and I had a couple of kids that just had a hard time coming to class” Overdorff said.

“I mostly forgot all the stuff I learned,” Van Bavel said. “My brother, he was in Griffin and he said, he forgot everything the day they said it.”

According to many studies including the U.S. Census Bureau-assessment concludes that symptoms of anxiety and depressive disorders have tripled since 2019. Coronavirus especially has affected adolescents, children with already present trauma and mental illness such as anxiety, and depression. To deal with this stress Overdorff results to meditation with her co-workers.

“Mr. Hale got a group of us together and there were about five of us and we met pretty regularly three mornings a week and just did a fifteen-minute silent meditation with each other before school started.”

Overdorff said.

Although meditation helped for Overdorff, there are many other ways that we can improve our mental health.

Whether you are a grade obsessed over ambitious mentally exhausted student, a student who ruthlessly studies the current trends, worrying about your body image, or what everyone thinks of you, the student who religiously watches anime during school hours, or the student who plays video games an unhealthy amount.

Even if you don’t fall into any of these categories! Mental health applies to everyone, and anyone.

Talking on the phone with friends.

Social interaction deprivation can cause exhaustion, and stir up bad emotions, this is partly because of human ancestry, and antecedents hunting in packs.

Cut off any bad people, or any bad

activities that are not giving you joy. No, don’t kill your parents, or siblings unless absolutely necessary, please don’t quit school except if you have a researched plan to do instead.

What I mean is if you have a friend who constantly brings you down, and makes you feel bad about yourself then don’t hang out with them.

If you have an extra curricular you hate, then find something you don’t hate. It’s harder than it sounds, but it is worth it, I promise.

Lastly, eat breakfast. It’s harder for some than others, but having at least one meal a day can help a lot with nourishing our body, and giving us the energy to function. Try starting small, and gradually getting bigger.

If you feel you need professional help, I have a list of people to contact below. I don’t know who needs to hear this but I love you, I’m so proud of you, and you’re too precious to stop living. It gets better at some point, just hang in there.

Resources: Psychiatrists in Austin: Dr. Christian Urrate Specializes in clinical depression, mental illness, attention disorders, and sleep and mood disorders.

(512)-637-9090 Abby Riggs Specializes in affordable child mental health care. Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner practices helping kids/teens with anxiety, depression, and other mental disorders.

(512)-382-6369 Suicide Hotline If you feel at risk for suicide please call this number. Stay safe.

(800)-273-8255

Photo by Tech for Teaching Blog

TEEN STRESS BEFORE

V.S After the Pandemic Throughout this pandemic, teenagers have had to experience many hardships.

Hardships including isolating from friends, and extended family, Adjusting to the Zoom curriculum, taking breaks from their extra curriculars, and other passions that many could not pursue.

Worrying about at risk loved ones, watching the news daily, just so the hope of those at risk people can be stripped away.

All of these factors contribute to stress. In this ASF you will see, and read about the comparison of teen stress before and after the pandemic.

Effects of Covid-19 and moving on | 23

are we ready for the next pandemic Sneak peek from some epidemiologists about the next pandemic

BY ATEEB mohammad

Covid-19 particle

Image courtesey of https://tinyurl.com/mrh9mbyt

Effects of Covid-19 and moving on | 25

Prof. Bhramar Mukherjee is a professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan and she has been following covid-19 very closely Image courtesey of the School of Public Health, University of Michigan

I

n the middle of the next pandemic, thousands of deaths with a possibility of no vaccine. Death toll rises. The world economy is in shambles. Scientists are puzzled about what they should do.

World governments in distress.

What shall we do?

Scientists are currently dealing with COVID-19 and we could use what we have

learned from it to help us prepare for the next pandemic.

The handling of the next pandemic also depends on the government. If the government is not responsible as they should be, there will be lots of confusion and distrust which could cause concerns in the middle of a pandemic.

Professor Bhramar Mukhrjee is the professor of

epidemiology at Michigan University. She has co-authored 280 publications based in statistics, biostatistics, medicine and public health. She said that since the next pandemic is in the future, experts don’t know much as of now.

“We do not know and we are in the mid

dle of a current pandemic and we never know what is waiting for us, but the most important thing from a public health point of view is to stay prepared for anything that happens,” Mukhree said.

City of Austin’s Cheif epidemiologist Janet Pichette Image courtesey of https://tinyurl.com/5y6fumb8

Janet Pichette is the chief epidemiologist for the city of Austin. She has 32 years of public health experience and 18 years of experience working in epidemiology for the state of Texas. Her work focuses on health studies and disease surveillance activities defining the epidemiology of occupational diseases, cancer, respiratory diseases, other environmental health problems, toxicology,risk assessment, policy development, and strategic planning. “ It depends on the pathogen that is the cause of the next pandemic, whether it’s something that requires an intervention or can be a vaccine.”Pichette said. “ The vaccine is a potential intervention that has to be Effects of Covid-19 and moving on | 27

developed or whether a disease pandemic occurs based on a bacterial pathogen, like if we have a bioterrorism agent where antibiotics are the course of treatment. So it would just depend because pandemics, a pandemic just means it’s a worldwide epidemic. There’s a lot of unknown and uncertainty as far as what the agent would be that would cause that it’s not specific to any it may not be specific to any one pathogen. It could be the flu. It could be anthrax. It could be smallpox.”

Pichette says the lessons we have learnt from this pandemic will make us ready for the next one. “ I think with lessons we learned from this pandemic and from other things that we’ve done when we’ve responded to emergencies always make us better at responding to events in the future. “ Pichette suggests that the reason they couldn’t process

COVID-19 cases was because they were underfunded.

“I think the other thing that we’ve learned is that public health has largely been underfunded throughout history. And I think that was very evident during this pandemic. Because of underfunding, we were relying on old technology to process cases and to conduct our case investigations, so that kind of slowed things down.

But I think, lessons learned from every event, whether it be,” Pichette said. “ Any kind of disaster response, whether it’s hurricane or flooding or whatever, we always have lessons learned that make us better in the future.”

With COVID-19, scientists developed a vaccine in a year. Mukherjee thinks we are lucky to come up with a vaccine so quickly since there are so many diseases that still do not have a vaccine such as HIV/AIDS. “Technology has come a

Depiction of partnership between the government and the people. Image courtesey of Investopedia

long way to develop the mRNA vaccines.You know what they’ve learned and how they were able I mean, they’ve been working on that technology for a long time and, you know, it’s,” Pichette said. ” They were able to use it in this response and effectively work, so it may take a shorter period of time.”

Both Pichette and Mukherjee agree that partnership between the government and the people is vital “I think that’s always a very important partnership. You know, to have an effective community wide response, you need to have all stakeholders and all. Partners, whether they’re public or private, working together towards the same outcome, which is, preventing illness, and I think you saw that happen in this response where people to government warning seriously and they closed their businesses and even in the vaccine response, trying to get trying to work together with government to to get their their workforce. Back, back into play and vaccinated, you see a lot of efforts being made by companies to get that done. It is a critical partnership.” Pichette said.

Mukherjee said, “I always believe that this is a partnership between the public and the private corporations who are

manufacturing all these tests and medicines and treatment and running all these hospitals and also the policymakers or the government. So we have to work together. We have to understand each other.”

Both Mukherjee and Pichette agree that a global collaboration is important to keep world affairs in perfect order.

“Of course, lockdowns and any kinds of shutdown measures are really hard on the economy. It also has crushing social consequences.

But I think that the more we take it seriously and we realize that when something like this happens without really fighting the virus or curbing the disease, we cannot really revive the economy. If you look at all the countries where the economy is coming back up, they have a large percentage vaccinated,” Pichette said. ”So I think we have to be very, very alert in terms of any strange disease clusters emerging. We have to have epidemiologic surveillance and almost, you know, policies at every very high alert, checking out any kind of

disease transmission and transmission clusters when people present themselves with strange sicknesses and we have to work globally.” “ Global collaboration is very important,” Mukherjee said.

“As you can see that the UK variant is in Michigan, the Indian variant is in various places, and we are calling them Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta. But we know that they can arise in any country and go to any other country. So we have to be able to really prepare and work together to fight this next pandemic together as one world.”

Even though cases of Covid-19 are diminishing, we should still be cautious as other variants of the virus appear. We should focus on containing the virus and getting everybody vaccinated.

We can still use the lessons we have learnt from this pandemic to help us prepare for the next one and hopefully the next pandemic won’t be as devastating as this one.

Polio Vs. Covid-19

POLIO How Polio was Transmitted: • Through water • Stool How Polio affected the body: • Affects muscle nerves • Affects Midbrain nerves • Overall affects nerves that have a vital function for your well being Polio Vaccine: • Oral vaccination Age groups affected: • children • pregnant woman A polio particle

How Polio ended: • People were getting vaccinated • The U.S declared polio as a eliminated disease in 1979 • one of the only disease to be eliminated world wide after smallpox

A child getting the oral polio vaccine.

Image coutesey of the Center of Infectious Disease Research and Policy, University of Minnesota

Effects of Covid-19 and moving on | 29

Covid-19 How Covid-19 was Transmitted: • Droplets due to coughing/sneezing • Personal contact How Covid-19 affected the body: • Affect primary respitory organs Covid-19 vaccines: • Injected vaccine Age groups affected: • Mostly the elderly

This image shows how much Covid can spread by just coughing.

Image courtesey of The Conversation

How effective it the vaccine: Covid-19 Vaccine

• Pfizer vaccine is 95&% effective after 2 doses • Moderna vaccine is 94.1% effective • Janssen vaccine is 66.3% effective

A bottle with the covid vaccine

How Covid Affected education • • • •

Made people do virtual learning Tech issues affected education Tech issues affected STAAR results canceled STAAR

A lung infected with COVID-19.

Image courtesey of AARP

AN ONLINE WORLD FOrCED VIRTUAL One of the lucky few who pulled out stronger after this year has been the video game industry, but how has the average designer been?

By Miles Fritzmather Projecr Hazel is a hightech mask that will soon be released by Razer, a video game equipement comapny.

Image courtesy of Razer.

N

ews starts to leak its way into the rest of the world, a new and dangerous disease begins to emerge out of Wuhan, China yet no precautions are taken. People move on with life and barely give it a second glance. That was until March 13, 2020. The Trump administration declared COVID-19 a national emergency.

With many people self isolating, many in person businesses were destroyed. The world became either your room or the internet.

As people became more and more stuck in their houses, they had to find a way to entertain themselves. Video games fit that bill quite well. As people needed a way to connect with friends without leaving their homes, video games became more and more popular than

ever before. While most of the world slowed down quite significantly, the gaming industry stayed pretty calm. The console war between Sony and Microsoft still happened. Shelves, virtual and physical, rapidly emptied for weeks of both consoles. 2020 also had some great game releases.

The new Animal Crossing New Horizons game was more than

just a big hit. By the end of 2020, the game had brought in over 654 million dollars. Many other amazing games have come out in 2020 as well, some of the best being Hades, The Last of Us II, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Ori, the Will of the Wisps and many more. But how are the people building the games doing? While the companies might be booming

Game Worlds is a summer camp that teaches kids from 8-18 how to make video games from the groud up in a week. Image courtesy of Game Worlds.

Effects of Covid-19 and moving on | 31

with all the new customers, how are the actual employees doing after all of this COVID chaos?

Alicia Andrew, the Art Director of Proteus Games, and head of Game Worlds, (a summer camp with the intention of teaching kids how to build video games).

Had a really hard time last year trying to manage her own life and the camps.

“Last year was one of the hardest years I’ve ever had,” Andrew said, “and I’ve had some really tough times in my life.”

The camp, like almost everything else, was hit hard by COVID-19 and needed a serious change to make it safe in the pandemic world we all had to fight through.

“I put a lot of myself into [Game Worlds]. And it was really hard to think that it was going to go away,” Andrew said. “And it was important to me that it kept going, but I didn’t think I was going to be able to do that.

And so I had to redefine who I was, and really think about my priorities and also deal with a lot of really difficult situations in as healthy ways as I could.”

optimizing games for Nvidia’s graphics cards. He said that he has not noticed any significant changes to his work life since lockdown started.

While so many people had a really tough time dealing with COVID-19 there were some who had it pretty easy.

Ryan Prescott, a software designer for Nvidia, has been working virtually for the past 8 years. Currently he works on

Proteus Games is an indie mobile game studio created in 2019. Image courtesy of Proteus Games.

Nvidia mainly makes graphics cards designed for video games but also does a fair bit of software related work with a major program called ShadowPlay. Image courtesy of Nvidia

“

I think it was pretty easy for people, at least in my company, to engage, because we all wanted to talk to each other. So every meeting, even if it was a little long, it was like yay, an opportunity to see another human being and talk to them for a little bit.

“In my job, I’ve worked from home for a long time since probably 2014, or 2013,” Prescott said. “So not a lot has changed within Nvidia’s internal workings, because it’s a very email centric company and a lot of voice chat.”

Although he talked about how some people probably had it harder.

“I think COVID had the most impact on studios that won’t allow people to work from home. They had to go through a learning curve and how to re-work in the situation. Electronic Arts is typically a work in office game studio. Our game company, Blizzard, is like that,” Prescott said. “Those companies probably had a pretty severe work stoppage

“

for some number of months, while they tried to figure out how to get everybody working from home and retool their systems to allow people to work from home.”

The gaming industry is a huge place now and so will have different types of people. One group of people worth talking about is the small online business.

Chip Sbrogna, head designer and co-creator of the mobile game company, Proteus Games, had a similar experience to Prescott.

“It didn’t really change much for us,” Sbrogna said. “We started this company in 2019.

And we were only a few employees and had been

I try to remember that for myself. It’s normal and this is weird.

This is legitimately a weird situation. So you’re not alone, that you feel weird and uncomfortable about it. I think that’s pretty much everybody, both kids and adults alike.

Effects of Covid-19 and moving on | 33

”

working at home through the end of 2019, and then into 2020.”

Proteus Games had been online for almost two years now and knew how to work in those conditions fairly well. For them the bigger issue was maintaining a good work/life balance.

“There was nothing else to do except work during that time,” Sbrogna said. “So yeah, it’s kind of a lost year.

A lost year for life, but a year where a lot got done on the work side.”

Everyone needs to socialize sometimes but it can be hard to motivate and make plans. That doesn’t make it any less worth it.

For Proteus Games it was making sure every little interaction was meaningful from both a work and social standpoint.

“With Proteus, it was making sure that every time we did have a meeting, or a

This 3D interpretation of what a SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease corona virus, looks like.

zoom contact, that it was not just meaningful from work sampling, but also personally important,” Andrew said.

“So making more time in the meeting to just check in on somebody or say hi, or catch up a little bit. We’ve been doing D&D which has been really fun, we do it every other Friday. And it’s a great way to just sort of get some of that companionship building that you would have to sort of like go into lunches and that sort of stuff.”

Even though everyone was stuck inside their house not being able to leave, we still found a way to entertain

ourselves. It was harder than usual but we made it through and now it is pretty much all over. So why does everything still seem weird for everyone?

“Everyone’s happy, but it seems weird and uncomfortable,” Andrew said “They [ a physiologist who was on NPR] were saying that’s normal, you’ve been dealing with a lot of fear and anxiety for 14-15 months.

And you just don’t turn that switch off. It takes a little bit of time for you to get out of that mindset. And also, the world is just learning how to deal with this post pandemic stuff. So it’s gonna take time.”

Even though for the most part the world is getting better and coming back it doesn’t mean that we all can just click back into normalcy.

COVID-19 flipped the world

upside down and hurt a lot of people in the process. We now have all been forced to see the world in a new way. For some people it was how video games are a really good way to connect with people in a time like this, for others it was realizing that their house is in fact disgusting, and for others it was deciding that watching five hours of YouTube does not make you happy.

We all have learned new things during this time and it is our job to make sure that we don’t forget them. Learning from adversity and becoming stronger is the only way to improve. You fail and you try again with a new and better plan, video games aren’t the only place that is true. We just failed big time, so let’s try and make a new and better plan.

Now is our chance to make a difference, so let’s not waste it.

With speed very few wished to beleive in 3 major and well tested vacciens have been made made and are being ditributed as fast as possible.

Image courtesy of WebMD.

HOW DID AMAZON DO DURING THE PANDEMIC?

By Miles Fritzmather June 23, 2021

COVID-19 MAY HAVE completely destroyed huge numbers of businesses but Amazon, along with many other big tech Companies, have actually been doing better than ever.

More and more people are beginning to speak up about the very problematic work conditions of Amazon.

Picture courtesy ofABC News

AFTER SPENDING 4 BILLION ON COVID EXPENSES AMAZON STILL MAKES A INCREDIBLE PROFIT OF 5 BILLION IN THE SAME QUARTER.

The graph shows the increase in profits from each quarter. The red bars are the four quarters for 2020 and the blue are for 2019. You can see that not only was 2020 always positive gain but it was also always more than 2019 and by quite a lot most of the time.

Effects of Covid-19 and moving on | 35

As news of conditions in Amazon’s factories get out more and more, people begin to show their anger. Photo courtesy of Valeria Macon/AFP via Getty Images.

Even though Amazon has been doing amazing during the pandemic the people who actually do the hard work are barely seeing any of the benefits.

While some things were changed to help make the work place safer that does not mean it was even good. One worker talked about how there could be people throwing up in the bathroom and going right back to work. When they were getting shift assignmets they would stand shoulder to shoulder disregarding their own rules of constant social distancing.

There were also times when a worker would die of COVID-19 and not tell anyone. These claims are disputed by Amazon itself but many different people have come out and said simmilar things.

Picture courtesy of Brookings Instution

Effects of Covid-19 and moving on | 37

GOODBYE COVID-19.

THANKS FOR READING!