Distant Perspectives

Canada...on COVID-19

By: Rosa Boehm

In the age of Covid-19, being shipped off to the middle of nowhere has its perks. Apart from total loneliness and a somewhat isolated existence, it’s not that bad. Two weeks ago my parents announced that we would be leaving for Canada 1) in order to escape the pandemic and 2) to be closer to my brother who would be coming to stay with us for a while. Now being settled in here for about 2 weeks, I’m getting pretty bored. I’ve been reading, drawing, painting, and walking, but all that basically everyday starts to get a little boring. As there aren’t as many people where I am, the rules on social distancing and quarantine are much less severe. Unlike in the surrounding towns, the inhabitants of this region are more free to walk around the countryside. This is probably due to the fact that every house is like a mile away from each other but we don’t talk about that. Anyways, the closest town is pretty much in lockdown mode. Every local business is closed. The only stores that ARE open are the bank, grocery store, and pharmacy. But even then, only one person per group is allowed to enter each store and are required to sanitize their hands and wear gloves. This goes to show that even in the most remote places, Covid-19 sparks fear in almost everyone. For instance, one town over, there was a scuffle which resulted in the local pharmacy closing down and not letting anyone in. From now on, they require you to call ahead so they can prepare your order and they can avoid large crowds. Schools are also shut down and I’m guessing that the local economy is slowly dropping. In times like these, we must take care of ourselves and others and be extra vigilant in the fight against the spread of this terrifyingly real disease.

A Perspective from Cape Cod

By: Maia Feik Reinhart

When I arrived at Cape Cod two and a half weeks ago, things were very different. There were no known cases of the coronavirus on the Cape so far, and everyone here still seemed calm. A day later, the first case was confirmed. However, everyone was still going about their normal lives and everything felt pretty ordinary. I remember going to the grocery store with my mother those first few days, and even though we were practicing social distancing, everything felt normal. The store was neither overly crowded with people stocking up on food and household appliances, nor was it completely empty because people were trying to avoid contact with one another. If someone with no knowledge of what was going on in the world had walked into that grocery store, the last thing that they would have thought is that we are in the midst of a pandemic. And the weirdest part of it all was that there were no shortages of anything. There were enough canned products, toilet paper, and cleaning appliances to go around. By contrast, just a few days earlier, my mother had come home from a grocery store in Cambridge and told me how busy it had been, and how she had gotten there just in time to grab the last can of beans.

This state of affairs did not last very long, and the cold harsh reality of what was happening in the rest of the world slowly took over the Cape as well. On Sunday, March 15, the governor of Massachusetts, Charlie Baker, ordered all public and private MA schools to shut down and for unessential businesses to close. I think that this announcement brought a sense of urgency and worry to the general public, and I could tell that the calm Cape Cod vibe was fading. This felt more like the air of anxiety that I had experienced in Cambridge before.

Over the course of that following week, the number of known cases on Cape Cod started to climb. On Monday, March 22, the first death on Cape Cod due to the Coronavirus was reported. The victim was 88 years old and a resident of Brewster, the place where I am currently staying. The man was diagnosed on the Thursday before he died, which shows just how fast the virus can take over your body.

People say that the seasons on Cape Cod are two weeks behind those in the Cambridge/Boston area due to the fact that Cape Cod is more exposed to the open sea. I think that the same applies for the coronavirus. The Cambridge/Boston area is much more densely populated than Cape Cod, which is why the virus was able to spread a lot quicker there. However, it is strange to realize how two places in the same state and within an 80 mile radius from each other, can experience a crisis in such different ways.