Monday, March 19, 2020 - 6 
Multimedia
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