4 Adapting To A New Normal
Madison Brennan
On March 13th, 2020, a state of emergency was declared and schools closed due to the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus. At the time, I was 18 years old and in my fifth year of high school. I had already graduated the previous year but returned because I was supposed to have surgery and wanted to avoid my recovery interfering with the start of university. I was enrolled in two classes and worked most afternoons at our local pharmacy. As the pandemic escalated, schools and non-essential businesses were closed, social gatherings banned, conspiracies about the coronavirus were circulating on Facebook and everything we knew was different.
As news of a full lock down were spreading, people rushed to buy toilet paper, stock up on prescriptions, started wiping down their groceries, and stockpiled disinfectants like Lysol wipes. Large plexiglass barriers were put up in essential stores to avoid contact with customers and there were hand sanitizer dispensers everywhere. The pharmacy I worked at, deemed essential, was busier than ever. To stay on top of the demand at the pharmacy my owners decided to separate the staff into two teams. This was so that if someone got sick, there would be another fully equipped team to continue serving the community. We quickly realized that the demand for prescriptions was higher than the staff on my team could handle. They decided to train me as a pharmacy assistant, adding another person to count and compound prescriptions, but the catch was that they needed me to work full time. Having already accepted my university offer from McMaster in February and graduating the summer of 2019, I emailed my teachers to explain that I wouldn’t be coming back to online school and would be focusing on working full-time. Essentially, I dropped out. I worked nearly every day, filling prescriptions and running them out to customer’s cars. My mom who is a respiratory therapist working in the hospital led to a change of routine for our family. Since we were both essential workers, every day when we came home, we would change out of our clothes in the garage and shower to avoid bringing any germs into the house. We couldn’t see anyone outside our immediate family, so my mom and I spent more time together than ever. We cooked meals together and watched the news during this strange and uncertain time. Before lockdown, we didn’t really have time to cook fun meals, always rushing to the next thing, but now we had so much time.
By mid-summer, coronavirus (now referred to as COVID-19) cases began to decline, and restrictions were not as strictly enforced. Social gatherings were still discouraged, but we could go for walks outside if we avoided others on the sidewalk. I still remember the oddness of seeing so many people wearing masks as they walked alone down the road, crossing the street to avoid coming in contact with another walker. We started to adjust to our new normal, adapting to the world continuing virtually. In September 2020, I started my first year of university which was completely online. My mom created a home office for me in the basement, as McMaster University was closed to the public, meaning I didn’t get the typical first-year residence experience. My days blurred together, consisting of watching online lectures, working at the pharmacy, cooking, and going on 7km mental health walks in the countryside. I spent most of my time in the basement, only coming up for fresh air, to watch the news, and to eat food. As someone who thrives on social interaction, the hardest part of this period was the inability to socialize in person, especially during my first year of university when I was supposed to be making new friends. I remember my mental health was declining, as I constantly thought about how I was missing out on my first-year experience. However, looking back, I now realize that being at home was the best thing for me, it allowed me to focus entirely on adjusting to the academic portion of university life, acting almost like a stepping stone for when I returned in person. It allowed me to slow down, focus on school and eventually ease myself into the transition of school starting in person and making friends.
The surgery I was supposed to have the previous year was postponed until October 2020. Although restrictions were still in place, the full lockdown had lifted. Due to hospital restrictions, I found myself facing the anxiety of going into surgery alone, without my mom. She would have been there when I woke up if I was able to have the surgery when I was supposed to but now she wasn’t allowed to come with me. The thought of waking up without her by my side was terrifying. I stayed overnight in the hospital and called my mom when I woke up, trying my best to relay what the nurses and doctors had told me. After being discharged my mom picked me up and I was able to recover in the comfort of my home without worrying about having to go back to school in person.
I ended up receiving the first of my covid vaccines on March 26, 2021, and my second three months later at the pharmacy I worked at. Since I was vaccinated early on, I was able to avoid getting COVID until March 2022 in my second year of university once classes had resumed and I was living in Hamilton. By this time there was not as much fear associated with it, medical professionals had a bit more of an understanding of its virulence and the measures to take to prevent spread. I isolated with my roommates who were also sick for 10 days and watched our lectures through an online recording until we were no longer contagious and could go back to classes in person.
Similar to many other pandemics explored in class such as HIV/AIDS, Syphilis, Ebola and many more, people were looking for someone to blame. Unfortunately, there was a lot of hate and blame directed at Chinese people because the origins of COVID were believed to be from a zoonotic spillover from a bat in a wildlife market in Wuhan, China. Many of the disinformation spread during this time placed blame on Chinese people, suggesting the virus was intentionally released, which is obviously not true. It didn’t help that the US President, Donald Trump continuously referred to it as the ‘China virus’ or ‘kung flu’ which perpetuated this theme of hate, discrimination, and blame. There were many protests at this time by anti-vax movements who believed that the mandatory vaccination requirement was an infringement on their rights. The fake news spread like wildfire on social media platforms, causing a divide between people who believed in science and people who believed that the entire thing was a hoax or a way for the government to control us. It was a very interesting time in the world because social media only amplified the spread of disinformation. Although these aspects of covid were difficult to witness, it highlighted the importance of critically thinking about the information displayed on social media platforms.
