Monday, March 19, 2020 - 6
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The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
University of Michigan President Mark
Schlissel emailed an announcement at
4:16pm Wednesday, March 11 saying, most
notably, that class would be canceled for
the following two days and would resume
on Monday via online platforms. The novel
coronavirus had stopped time.
We are all experiencing the world in a
dimension that we have never before. All
museums, movie theaters, performance
venues, sporting events, gyms, recreation
centers, spas, casinos, restaurants, bars,
cafes, libraries and coffee shops are closed
indefinitely, until further notice.
This vocabulary has a sense of finality.
Countless store fronts don signage saying
they will be closed indefinitely. I know in
my mind it does not mean forever, but an
unspecified period of time, yet I’m finding
it difficult to see beyond the horizon of this
pandemic.
While it is in the interest of the public
health to close such a sweeping category of
places, the demands of public health and the
demands of cultural well-being are working
at odds with each other. We go to these places
for a sense of community, belonging, identity,
pattern, routine and human interaction.
These demands of cultural well-being make
us feel human. They have been stripped,
until further notice. No social, cultural or
any others gatherings will materialize in the
coming weeks, perhaps months.
We now must approach this new world
in a way that will be productive, rather than
fearful. While our daily lives have been so
holistically interrupted, it is in service of
social
distancing.
These
unprecedented
directives from not only the university
administration and our state Governor
Gretchen Whitmer, but the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, are to create
space not just between ourselves, but for those
who are more vulnerable, more susceptible to
the virus.
While most of us living in Ann Arbor are
young and healthy, many of us are only one
or two connections away from the vulnerable
population. An aging grandparent. A diabetic.
Someone with lung or heart disease. Being
aware of our personal health and actions
validates that public health is everyone’s
responsibility; how we all choose to behave
impacts all others’ health.
Between caution and panic
MADDIE FOX
Daily Staff Photographer
PHOTO ESSAY
However we choose to exist in space over
the next few weeks will decide how we will
be allowed to exist for the next many months.
The world is truly very scary right now
and it will continue to be for a while. This is
unprecedented; no one has all the answers we
wish for. Professors must learn new mediums
and techniques previously never necessary,
while students must do the same and are not
expected to be experts at this either. It comes
at a strange time as many are not only trying
to finish the school year, but also their college
careers. Two days after President Schlissel’s
initial announcement, he sent another
deeming all commencement ceremonies
canceled.
Since we are all facing such extreme
circumstances, it is even more vital we look
out for each other. Not only to slow the spread
of the virus, but to consider the oncoming
economic impact on those who may not be
able to overcome it. The pandemic has already
brought every crack in our systems to light;
homelessness, healthcare, debt, income and
savings, childcare, workers’ rights, to name a
few. The virus is begging to exacerbate every
single one of them.
It is already evident how this virus is
instilling fear and panic in our community.
The panic felt is triggering a need for survival.
Which in turn, is triggering overconsumption
and hoarding of goods such as toilet paper,
isopropyl alcohol, masks, thermometers,
hand sanitizer, gloves and disinfectant wipes.
It felt near apocalyptic as I walked into
Walgreens to photograph the status of the
store and it’s contents. Now as I practice
social distancing, I stay inside my apartment
and look out my window to see lone people
holding a few plastic grocery bags passing
each other like ships in the night.
In the wake of university housing dining
halls offering take-out only, many students
are packing up their things and moving back
to their permanent residences, whether that
is somewhere else in Michigan, the country
or across the world. The infamous blue bins
can now be seen being wheeled down streets,
a whole two months early accompanied by
cars packed to the brim.
Instead of panic, fear, suspicion, and self
interest, we must turn to reason, rationale,
and patience as we adapt to new ways of
existing in this reality. Even though it is an
unsettling, lonely time, take care of yourselves
and take care of each other.
The Ann Arbor Farmers Market remains quiet during times of social isolation and self-quarantine.
Literati Bookstore temporarily closes its doors and sticks to online orders due to the COVID-19 outbreak in Ann
Walgreens experiences a shortage of essentials, such as toilet paper and hand sanitizer, during the COVID-19 pan-
demic in Ann Arbor.
The University of Michigan closes the UMMA, the campus art museum, in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Several stores, restaurants and University of Michigan buildings close in accordance to social distancing to minimize the spread of COVID-19 throughout Ann Arbor.
MADDIE FOX/Daily