Living through the COVID-19 pandemic for over a year now, all of us have experienced feelings of confusion, fear, and isolation. Beginning March 2020 when the stay-at-home order was first introduced in most of America, we left our schools and workplaces, not knowing how long we would be gone for. As masks became mandated and people began to realize the severity of the pandemic, we quickly became uneasy, rushing to stores to buy out their stock of hand sanitizer amongst other products. While in quarantine, many of us have dealt with separation and loss of loved ones.

Last quarter when Professor Imada lectured about Hansen's disease, commonly known as leprosy, providing insight into the incarceration and animalization of lepers, I immediately drew connections to COVID-19. Not only was the disease itself fascinating to me, but so was the fact that those affected were exiled to a place thousands of miles away from their homes, against their will, and often remained there for the rest of their lives. I cannot imagine being forcibly separated from everything that I know solely because of a disease that the public fears and stigmatizes. While COVID-19 victims may not experience the same incarceration that leprosy victims experienced in the 19th century, isolation from family and friends remains a unifying theme.