Just another Jess

Like many of you, I’ve been deeply unsettled this week about the circumstances regarding the death of George Floyd. And, like many of you, I’ve felt overwhelmed about the subsequent societal backlash and deafening outcries of racial inequality. Thankfully, I’ve been able to take desperate hold of solid footing on the common ground that 1.) Most everyone agrees the death of George Floyd was tragic, and 2.) Most everyone agrees the subsequent rioting and looting in Minneapolis, and then across the country (including our own Salt Lake City), is not as appropriate a response as we could have hoped. But that doesn’t mean that protesting can’t enact social change, or that “peaceful protests” are always without violent conflict. It just means that rioting isn’t an effective way to make a positive difference on social issues. It’s been interesting for me to watch my peers struggle against the seeming dichotomy that those who desperately want to resist racism in the United States

The COVID pandemic has given me a lot of opportunity to contemplate the behavior of myself and my fellow community members. In the United States, we’re at a point where the pandemic has been politicized (I’ve been guilty of this as well). On one hand, we have liberals who range from { reopening the economy means you care more about money than human lives}  to { keep the world in lockdown until we have a vaccine or at least a solid and safe reintegration plan} . On the other hand, we have conservatives who range from { open the economy and let people who are afraid of the virus or are high-risk stay home} to { the whole pandemic is a government conspiracy and my individual rights have been taken away as a result of the lockdown} . More and more, I find myself concerned about this two-party political system we’ve built. It encourages people to “choose a side” and then dig in their heels against the “other.” This division is never helpful, and in fact, it’s incredibly harmf

With a background in public health/health promotion and sociology, a lot of people have asked me what I think about COVID-19 (the disease)/SARS-CoV-2 (the pathogen) and how we’re handling the outbreak as a global community. ‪For what it’s worth, here’s what I think. Shelter-in-Place Some people believe that shelter-in-place is an ineffective strategy for handling the pandemic because it reduces our immune response. This idea – at least the idea that shelter-in-place reduces our immune response – is objectively true, and is also the point. Shelter-in-place protects people from the virus by preventing them from contracting it in the first place, until a (safe and effective) vaccination is ready for distribution. ‪Because public health professionals understand how devastating a highly-infectious disease with a high mortality rate can be to a newly-exposed population (re: Spanish Flu, Bubonic Plague, etc.), it follows that their immediate reaction to SARS-CoV-2 would