Covid-19 drastically affected life as we knew it and brought about changes that we may never see a change back. Covid-19 affected neighborhoods, families, businesses, communities and so much more. Particularly, in my case, it affected everything, but I was more affected by its disturbance within my family. Thankfully, nobody in my family has died from Covid-19, but it caused a distance between me and my extended family.
I and my immediate family live in Gary, IN while most of my extended family lives in Illinois, Mississippi, and Minneapolis. We are all spread out, but the family that I am closest to are the ones that live in Illinois, particularly Chicago. Once Covid-19 started spreading one of the precautions that health officials put out was that you should not visit extended family, especially family that are older because they are more at risk. That put a real damper on being able to go visit family that you always visit. So ever since last year, I have not been able to see my cousins, aunties, uncles, or my grandmothers. It is even crazier because my mother has not been able to visit her mother in a while and that is quite sad just for the simple fact that time is dwindling sadly. My father can go visit his mother and family who lives with his mother because he helps take her places and takes care of her on occasions, but since my mother does not have an actual reason to visit, she just calls her every now and then to check up on her.
That is not the only thing that is affecting me but also the way that the community is changing. There is an article that talks about sanitary reform by Jon. A Peterson and it reminded me of how the community changed once Covid-19 started spreading rapidly. I began seeing hand sanitizer everywhere, everyone wearing masks, social distancing signs, etc. There was a quick and strict sanitary change that took place. Before the pandemic I have never seen these types of sanitary precautions, I have honestly only seen people wear masks daily when watching videos that took place in Japan and South Korea. I am guessing that normal to wear masks in public settings in Asian countries. I wish this were normalized in western countries before a pandemic came and swept through our lives.
So this leads me to think about how so many communities but also me, in general, will be affected after the pandemic ends, but for it to end we have to stop the spread and a way in doing that is to being vaccinated. This reading brings attention to those that are being left behind when the vaccinations are being rolled out and it just makes me think that if you are able to get vaccinated don’t just do it for yourself but do it for those to protect those who are unable to get vaccinated, cause not everybody is lucky enough to get vaccinated. Some of my family including my mom is going to get vaccinated. Some of my extended family on my mom’s side have already got vaccinated and my mom is up next because she is more at risk of being severely affected by Covid-19. After all, she does have asthma. I do not plan on being vaccinated until next school year when I will be moving to Indianapolis for school since all my classes will be in person. I just want to not only protect myself but potentially protect those surrounding me who may not be able to get vaccinated.
So hopefully if enough people get vaccinated, we can stop the spread and go back to normal. This makes me dream of the future of life after the pandemic and also how the community will change. The post-pandemic city will most likely be different than the pre-pandemic city. I know that will be the case in cities that are financially equipped but for my urban neighborhood, I am not sure that will be the case. I hope we will not be left behind in innovations and transformations as they predict in the article by Matthew Gevers. He mentions in the article that marginalized groups should be within the discussion when it comes to planning how the post-pandemic city will be and I really hope that will be the case because everyone should be apart of the discussion not just groups that are not marginalized cause that will just cause a divide that is not needed. We are all in this together.
References
Peterson, Jon A. “The Impact of Sanitary Reform upon American Urban Planning, 1840-1890.” Journal of Social History, vol. 13, no. 1, 1979, pp. 83–103. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3786777. Accessed 6 Apr. 2021.
Gevers, Matthew. Three Design Lessons for the POST Pandemic City. www.arup.com/perspectives/three-design-lessons-for-the-post-pandemic-city.
“What is Vaccination Equity”, CANVAS IUPUI