EQ: How are various healthcare facilities around the world dealing with COVID-19, and how can understanding this help make the healthcare system more fair and equitable for all?

Due to my essential question and my topic revolving around COVID-19, it has been a difficult and challenging time. However, through this time I have learned about our flaws in our country and healthcare system, but most interestingly and surprisingly, I now can see how people who don’t believe in the pandemic/are doing minimum precautions, feel. Last week, I went out to my other house, located in Suffolk county, for a night. No one has been out there and we thought it would be beneficial for my family because we have a backyard where we can sit and where my dog can roam freely. We didn’t have to wear masks nor wash everything after coming in from the outside and because people drive everywhere, oddly enough made it feel a bit safer.

Weeks prior and even until this day, I see a bunch of my Long Island friends out and about, hanging out with friends, going about life, as if there isn’t a pandemic killing hundreds a day in New York. I was furious with these people, I wanted to yell at them and tell them to stay home. But as soon as I got out of the car at my house in Long Island, I felt safe. I was on an acre of our land, we were spaced out from everyone and I could walk in and out of my house without having to wash the door nobs or using my elbows or touching minimal items before washing my hands. Although I was still taking precautions, I walked the dog without a mask and spent time in the backyard without worrying about catching COVID-19.

Waking up the next morning, everything felt somewhat normal, like one of my typical summer days out there. I ate breakfast outside and sat in the sun, my dog ran around the yard, and my parents walked down to the sound with no mask because the roads were empty, as usual. Although we were still iffy about going into town and getting groceries, it definitely brought me into a new mindset.

Last week for my critical reflection, I wrote about different opinions and how I conducted a survey to try to get a different perspective around the country and world. At the beginning of this survey, I thought I would stick to a single idea of what this pandemic is like because I didn’t know different. In NYC I wear a mask and gloves and I feel gross after coming in from the outside. There are more germs and bacteria around us. But in Long Island, there is so much social distance already that maybe they feel as if they are already social distancing? What is their grit? It makes me wonder if they know the reality of what is happening? In NYC, there is a complete change/turnover – minimal cars on the roads, not nearly the typical amount of people out, Times Square is empty. Long Island feels like a constant Sunday, minimal shops open, still tons of cars on the road, and people who are not wearing masks in public places…