Kylie Byrd

Passages from my Pandemic Journal:

Excerpt from entry on Nov. 19, 2020:

"Governor Waltz’s recent restrictions were not quite as jarring to me as others living in Minnesota because in my home state of Washington State, Governor Jay Inslee had implemented COVID-19 restrictions earlier this month so many of my friends and family back home have been discussing this with me. I have noticed many similarities between living in both St. Paul and Mill Creek during the pandemic and after learning about social ecology in this course it makes more sense to me. St. Paul and Mill Creek have similar social ecologies of middle-to-upper socioeconomic status, demographic of a mostly white population, and high suburban residential communities. Ultimately the social ecology of both communities have allowed a majority of the community members to successfully participate in social distancing - which is not as achievable in more impoverished communities. Although, I do not think that both communities fully realize this privilege of being able to distance as there is a lot of backlash. Specifically, I have seen through my friends social media posts back home there have been anti-mask protests in our local town center. I wish these people would realize the privilege they have to live in these areas that have not felt the full weight of the pandemic and wearing a mask can even be debated in the first place."

Excerpt from entry on Nov. 29, 2020:

"One of our discussion questions this week in Medical Geography debates whether the spread of this virus was inevitable and while I believe to an extent this was bound to happen, I really do not think the toll it has taken was. Reflecting on the case on increased testing alone, we needed this at the start of the pandemic and while I am happy it is happening now in Minnesota it is disappointing how late in the game it is. On top of that, it still is not offered in every state to the same extent so as a country as a whole we still, quite frankly, are failing. I wish our country would stop politicizing health and being so naively prideful and take a look at the countries that have been successful in controlling outbreak and transmission through increased testing, quarantining, social distancing, contact tracing and mask wearing."