COVID-19: Visual Crisis
A college student’s perspective: week 1 march 30,2020
Social media has made it its job to crack the code of what’s going on with the pandemic taking the lives of thousands and forcing all Americans to stay in quarantine for what were supposed to be weeks, now look like months. I can open any app and there will be thousands of “sourced” information speaking on ways to deal with COVID-19, how to prevent the spread, what’s true and what’s not, etc. The list goes on and it’s hard to believe anything considering the contradicting facts being put out by several news outlets. The only thing I trust is that I have to stay home and quarantine myself for the sake of my family and the family of others and being young doesn’t mean I’m immune, so with that said I have decided to stay away from reading post and blogs about the pandemic because I feel it incites fear and spreads false information.
Social media isn’t a clear source, so from my perspective, the best thing a person can do is acknowledge the importance of the situation and maintain a normal routine as best as one can. One thing social media is doing right is calling out the racist comments and action against the Asian community. For example, Republican president Donald Trump called the COVID-19 virus the “Chinese virus” which goes without saying that he is a racist disgusting man because it’s not only endangering the lives of Asians, but spreading a hateful opinion. I appreciate social media for not allowing him to get away with that comment and any disrespectful comment. We are going through a huge pandemic that is affecting many lives and it seems natural to be decent human beings at a time like this, but Trump has made this another reason to be a racist pig.
He even said he feels many hospitals are over exaggerating the resources they need and when a reporter called him out on it and said how can this affect how you fill in orders he insisted he never said that and asked her to be “nice”. He is risking the lives on thousands of Americans by insisting hospitals are lying about what they need. If you can’t see how disgusting and terrible he is, then you must be just like him. That is how I feel on the pandemic and social media. Information might not be in order and panic is everywhere, but leave it to twitter to fight against racist, disgusting pigs for their inhuman actions.
The blame game: week 2 April 6, 2020
In a time like this, it’s easier to hold onto something because it makes the fear of the unknown disappear. People say religious people hold onto their beliefs because the unknown is scarier, so hope gets people through and I think the same ideas apply here. It’s easier to blame someone or something and incite panic onto that then have no idea why this traumatic pandemic is occurring. In social media, we have looked at our leaders such as the President and Government officials as the reason the virus has surpassed in undescribed measures.
Also, we have seen religious people say this is an act of God because of a bible verse that hits close to home. It reads that when God holds back the rain (forest fire in Australia), he sends locusts to eat crops (locusts in Africa eating crops and sends an epidemic to his people (COVID-19) if they repent and turn from evil, he would make our land prosperous again. This isn’t to say people are blaming God, but they are using this as a way to make the unknown disappear.
Another one is Trump’s infamous racism. Trump for some reason refuses to acknowledge that this is a worldwide problem and we are ALL in this together. He was called the COVID-19 virus, the Chinese virus and the foreign virus as if the enemy is other countries?… people are dying at a rapid rate and we are all just to come out of this alive with the hopes of a strong economy after and he’s acting like we have to launch a war with China and other countries. Sadly, this man has actual supporters. They’re not embarrassed? If they weren’t before, they should be now.
From all I have said, my biggest takeaway from all this is on the religious side, we are promoting reason and investing our hopes onto certain things because it makes us feel like we know what’s going on, but on the other hand, we see political officials and the President failing the American people with hard facts. We have surpassed China and any other country right now with how poorly we are handling the outbreak and the blame game doesn’t help anyone, but Trump has led us poorly now more than ever. Those who were supposed to help everyone have failed us with a lack of resources and healthcare for all.
As I said, the blame game doesn’t help but when this passes and it will, elections will be held and we must take into account how this was handled to decide who will be our next president.
Emotions x Politics: week 3 April 13, 2020
As someone who knows 3 people who have died due to the COVID-19, it hurts to see Trump and others take the virus lightly. We see the numbers and understand it’s a lot of deaths, but taking a step back and understanding those are 23,577 people who meant something to someone. 23,577 moms, dads, sisters, brothers and lovers. It’s heartbreaking and I just hope the media can civilly play their part by revealing stories while respecting the deceased person and their loved ones.
The media from what I have seen has revealed pretty graphic images that can potentially trigger someone if they have lost someone to the virus. While I feel it’s wrong to show the bodies of people who have died of COVID-19, I understand it can be seen as a scare tactic to convince people to stay home. My mother who is on top of all things COVID has shown me images of bodies being left on the floor, dumped into trucks and tossed into mass graves because the counts are too high and those images alone have scared me into staying home. The media has created fear and that could be both positive and negative depending on how people react.
President Trump has also contributed to this fear by being president. Trump without a doubt clueless and it’s understandable because it’s a huge problem nobody could have predicted, but there were many ways to go about this and he did not take it seriously till it slapped us in the face with now 23,592 deaths (13 minutes went by). He neglected the orders of countless hospitals, fired the professionals that were ready for problems such as this. “oh, but he donated his paycheck” .. say the Trump supporters who fail to see how celebrities such as Rihanna, Paris Hilton, Jay Z (Shawn Carter) and countless others have donated 3x what he donated. In a recent issue published by The Vox, Trump donated $100,000 of his salary to fight coronavirus. He’s made much more than that off the presidency, stating that Trump “ the Trump Organization made more than $20 million in real estate sale revenues in 2018” which trump is still profiting off and the extent of Grisham’s tweet is meant to suggest that Trump is making personal sacrifices to benefit the American people which is false. 100,000 is chump change for trump and he’s donated that to the HHS which he is actively trying to dismantle it. He is a joke.
Trump 1942 .. I mean 2020: week 4 April 22, 2020
As soon as I saw the video, it reminded me of the film, Japanese relocation, because of the ways both the narrator Milton Eisenhower and Donald Trump are being presented. Both are sitting down at a desk with the camera facing the speaker as if we (the audience) are sitting down across from them.
Donald Trump adds a comment that would please the white supremacy nationalist, he states “respond to the coronavirus outbreak that started in china and is now spreading across the world”. The way he worded that dismisses any idea that the United States had any part in the spreading which is false. He goes on by stating the actions being taken by the United States army are to protect all American people and not only are they working to contain this, but the government is also working rapidly. The main reason why we have the highest number of cases in the entire world is that Donald Trump failed to take the necessary actions like allowing testing for all, banning travel and checking ALL those that traveled out of the United States. He added a little more lies by saying the United States government and army are best in the entire world and they have taken action from the very beginning, which is a lie because anyone with any social media account recalls the memes, articles and shared posts on how cheap air flights were. Everyone was traveling for $80 before the banning of travel began.
He appeals to pathos by stating, “He called for emergency action to provide financial relief for hourly workers, and asked the Small Business Administration to free up liquidity for more low-interest loans” ( C-SPAN) and provide checks for people. He failed to mention the requirements behind that because not everyone will receive a check because of their income. The government doesn’t want to give out $2000 checks if the person doesn’t make that. The whole video was a joke and the Trump supporters are eating it up and … injecting disinfected.
Covid-19 around the world: Week 5 May 1, 2020
It’s no secret that the United States has done a terrible job taking care of the American people and dealing with the pandemic. The lack of jobs and work have left people struggling to put food on the table and keeping a roof over their heads. It has left them struggling and scared for the future and Trump has been too busy worrying about how the rich are going to stay rich. It’s sad because other countries have done their best to make sure their people, especially the poor, are taken care of. I’ll be listing a few countries that have done their best for their people. Iceland has reported 1,801 cases and only 10 deaths. New Zealand has reported 1,142 cases and 21 deaths. Norway has reported 8,084 and 219. Taiwan has reported 440 and 6 deaths. While every death is an extreme loss, the lower the numbers get the better it is. All these countries I’ve named are run by women which is great.
It emphasizes why the Cheeto puff we have as the president needs to be removed ASAP. The United States has been increasing then decreasing and increasing again. If Trump hadn’t fired the pandemic team in 2018 then many lives would have been saved. If the NYPD and cops in general could stop harassing black people and start taking care of the overcrowded parks filled with white people then CASES WOULD GO DOWN. The disgusting privilege the white people have has them thinking they can’t be touched. They protest and parade their guns in front of Government officials and black people can’t even sit on their porch with a mask. The United States and Trump administration has done a terrible job controlling the pandemic and it’s only going to get worst because like I said, white people know they can do whatever they want and that means crowding up places without a mask, but no worries the cops will distribute mask to protect the white people and shoot the black people.