March 24th, 2020

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So this is my first journal entry of quarantine as part of Dr. Chakravarti’s Covid-19 archive. I think this is a great idea and hopefully I will be able to access this archive in fifty years or so and be able to look back upon this with my children and grandchildren. Furthermore, I hope that this journal and my classmates’ archival materials may provide insight into the thoughts of our generation during this for posterity. I am very grateful that I am able to be a small part of this archive, and I hope that there are many more being created in parallel to this one. It seems everyone is so caught up in the present that we forget to document events that will help inform future generations. After all, it is said that “history repeats itself”, and those who don’t know history are doomed to suffer the same consequences as those experiencing it the first time, as we are now.

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Today my mother informed me that my cousin and her boyfriend have been diagnosed with Covid-19, the infection likely originating from his work as a firefighter in the Boston Fire Department. Fortunately, they are both in their 20’s and very healthy, so there is little worry in my family as to their recovery. I think it is important to talk about the supplies situation. Some stores in my town of Barnstable, Massachusetts have been ransacked, like BJ’s Wholesale Club and Trader Joe’s. However, the Star Market across the street from me in my poorer section of town in the village of Hyannis is fairly well stocked, with only toilet paper and hand sanitizer being in short supply. My mom joked that it’s like the difference between Fox News and NPR, that's to say the stores which cater to a more affluent and liberal consumer base have been ransacked as a result of the imminent threat that Covid has been posed as by the more mainstream media and the more lax response Fox News has given. I am troubled by both portrayals. Fox News has been changing it’s tone and is now more serious in regards to the virus just as President Trump has similarly done, worrying less about the economy and how far we can push it until the results are “irreversible”; whereas the mainstream media has pushed their Covid-19 coverage to the point of fear-mongering and are at least partially and at worst fully responsible for the ransacking of supermarkets.

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I would be remiss to not mention what I view as a disgusting act by four senators as reported by many news outlets, including The Hill on March 20: “Sens. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.) each sold hundreds of thousands of dollars in stocks within days of the Senate holding a classified briefing on Jan. 24 with Trump administration officials on the threat of the coronavirus outbreak”. Furthermore, Sen. Burr wrote an opinion piece for Fox News downplaying the virus just days before selling the stocks, and two weeks later changed tone, or possibly revealed his true feelings about the virus and compared it to the Spanish Flu at a private luncheon, as reported by NPR:

“The stocks were sold in mid-February, days after Mr. Burr, Republican of North Carolina and the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, wrote an opinion article for Fox News suggesting that the United States was “better prepared than ever before” to confront the virus. At least three other senators sold major stock holdings around the same time, disclosure records show.Two weeks after Mr. Burr sold his stocks, he spoke at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington to a nonpartisan group called the Tar Heel Club, warning that the virus could soon cause a major disruption in the United States.”

Some, such as Sen Loeffler have claimed that their investments are run independently by advisors, but the Senator from Georgia, whose husband is the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, is not believed by most. Who knows how this will play out, likely the powerful politicians will not get in any trouble and escape with only their reputations scuffed as we have seen time and time again in politics. Moreover, the outbreak is likely to distract from any possibility of an investigation, and as a result it is doubtful that anything meaningful will happen in regards to punishment of their actions. However, while some profit off this virus, a great many Americans come together. The resolve of the American people has been tested time and time again, and we have always persevered and bounced back. It Is not about how many times you get knocked down, it’s about what you do when you get back up, and the American people will continue to get back up and save lives. God bless America, and God bless the world at this trying time.