3/1/20: The Louvre has closed due to concerns about the COVID-19.
3/9/20: The stock market has the biggest crash since 2008.
3/10/20: People are still kind of joking about the coronavirus, but it's all over the news now. Talk is starting to arise about shutting things down. Cases are starting to reach double digits in several states.
3/12/20: Schools at the middle, high school, and elementary levels began to shut down. By Monday (3/16), multiple states had closed their schools in favor of nontraditional instruction (NTI). About a week prior, colleges began to shut down their campuses and switch to online classes. Some colleges implied coming back to campus, but so far, I don't believe any have.
3/13/20: Everything is flying off the shelves. Things like toilet paper, lysol wipes, and hand sanitizer are almost completely gone at every store. Some stores are starting to adjust their hours to give more time to sanitize. People are starting to buy a lot of food, especially anything that will last a long time.
3/14/20 - 3/15/20: Food is gone from almost all grocery stores. Chicken and other fresh meat is gone, and there is full-on panic. Lines at the grocery stores can take an hour or more. People are starting to quarantine themselves. People won't handle things such as IDs to prevent the spread-- you have to hold your ID while they inspect it. The USA starts to ban travel to Europe. The NBA has canceled their season after players began testing positive, as has the NHL (no positive tests for their players that I know of).
3/16/20: Today was the first day without traditional school for many. Teachers had this day to prepare lessons for many schools. More things are shutting down, such as bars and restaurants (aside from delivery/drive-through). Gyms and movie theaters will probably close soon. There are suspicions that martial law may be invoked to keep people within state borders. The CDC is calling for an 8-week quarantine. The peak of the virus is estimated to be around April/early May, and people are already getting tired of the restrictions on their lifestyles. People also believe that airplane travel may be banned even within the USA. The stock market is at an all-time low, and experts say it may take ten to fifteen years to recover. It has been dropping in rates comparable to that of 2008.
3/18/20: The gyms, sporting facilities, hair salons, and nonessential businesses are closed down. Governors are starting to talk about shelter in place (people can't leave their houses). The New York governor said they wouldn't do it there, but other places are doing this. Stores are having more limited hours to sanitize more thoroughly.
4/4/20: All nonessential businesses have been closed for a while. Many schools are closed through May 1, and several schools have closed through the end of the school year. People I know have been let go, and airline employees, small business owners, and restaurants are suffering. The government announced several days ago that all who filed taxes through the 2018/2019 year and had a bank account associated will be receiving $1200 to provide relief. People have started wearing masks to the grocery stores as well as gloves. I helped my mother with making masks made out of reusable grocery bags, cloth, elastic, and pipe cleaners. PPE is difficult to come by for many hospitals. Many states, such as KY, are readying beds in other locations in case of a large influx of people or a spike in cases. People are doing varying jobs of social distancing; several forest preserves have been shut down due to overcrowding and people not social distancing. The lakefront in IL has been closed down, and people found there will be fined $500 if they are there. New York is having a tough time, and there was a ship brought into the harbor to provide extra space for beds. People on cruise ships are not being allowed to dock in the US unless they have US citizens, and people on those ships are essentially stranded. It is a very scary situation, especially for the elderly and immunocompromised. People are rallying to show their support of medical staff. Some people are questioning if the hospitalization rate is accurate, wondering if it may not have been necessary for us to shut down the country. However, I think that most people want to avoid a situation like that of Italy, because nobody would like to turn someone away from treatment due to lack of equipment or insufficient space. Peaks in infection are supposed to vary in different states, some saying they will be mid April, others saying they will be mid May. Universities are considering shutting down campuses for fall semesters. Hiring of employees is put on pause. It s a very uncertain time. However, grocery stores seem better stocked now, which is good. My family is cleaning packaged groceries with bleach and water to kill potential germs and leaving groceries that don't need to be refrigerated in the garage for three days to minimize germs and exposure.
5/29: People are increasingly upset about the coronavirus keeping the economy shut down. States have begun following a multi-step plan to reopen the businesses in each state. Restaurants, beauty salons, etc. have just begun to open up, and they are still closed in other states. Protests have broken out over the death of George Floyd. Some of these protests are peaceful, but others are not. Shops are being looted and sometimes burned over the wrongful death of George Floyd. Some people are still worried about social distancing, but for most of the protesters, the cause of the protest is significant enough to take priority. There are varied opinions about the protests/riots-- some people think that the destruction of property is necessary to bring attention to the Black Lives Matter movement, while others think that it is doing more harm than good. Louisville is having riots downtown due to the death of Breonna Taylor as well as that of George Floyd.
5/31: Cities are increasingly setting curfews as riots and protests are breaking out nationwide to minimize destruction caused by the protests. The BLM movement has gathered national attention, and companies, schools, and Hollywood are beginning to see how systematic racism is in place and they are realizing that they must actively work to fix it.
12/22: Schools have fluctuated between being online, hybrid (a certain number of students come in each day, and others learn online), and in-person. People are still wearing masks. The winter/fall brought a spike in cases, especially around Halloween time. For Halloween, people made chutes for delivering candy and others left out tables/baggies, and some people put up signs that said that they weren't participating in trick-or-treating this year. Schools have become much more focused on inclusivity and social justice, especially towards minority communities. People are actively trying to be antiracist, and Ibram X. Kendi is one of the most prominent people to talk on the subject. Schools are also trying to infuse the idea of antiracism and acceptance into social emotional learning. People are gathering in small groups, and many people limit those who they will have contact with. In terms of holiday plans, some people are still going to visit families, while others have decided to do Christmas with their nuclear families. People are becoming increasingly less reserved when it comes to interacting with people, with the general mentality being "if you're careful, and I'm careful, then neither of us has the virus." My grandparents said that the closest thing they have seen to the coronavirus is polio, when people would have to try to learn via radio because school was unsafe.
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