Voices of the pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic has forced all of us to reconsider the most basic elements of how we live and move around. It's tested us in ways we are only beginning to understand, and it's taught us things about ourselves we might not have expected. In this series, we'll hear from those at the front lines fighting this disease, as well as the many people impacted by the crisis in so many ways. And we want to hear your story. What have you learned? What decisions have you faced? How are you thinking differently about your future? Most of all, how are you surviving?
Tell us your story. We're listening.
Top Contributors
Stories
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When he got Covid, this student turned to his fraternity brothers at the University of Washington
Nick Baldini was one of hundreds of students at the University of Washington who came down with Covid while living on Greek Row. He says his fraternity brothers had gotten him through tough times before, and so he again turned to them for support.
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A teenager muses on how to keep friends and learn English during the pandemic
When the pandemic started, I felt very lonely. And because I was isolated, my English started getting worse and worse. Because I didn’t see any friends at all, only texting.
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Missing 'lawtiwa' in the time of the pandemic
A barbersalon owner in Burien mourns the loss of casual physical contact with clients and friends. But she's found a way to adapt.
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The pandemic has upended routines for the elderly. This music therapist is getting creative
Joe Kaufman works with assisted living residents in Seattle's Queen Anne neighborhood. Their normal routines have been upended: No more visitors or group activities. He says it’s a difficult time, but also one for creativity.
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As city workers dismantle the CHOP, Omari Salisbury reflects
From Seattle's protests after the killing of George Floyd to the closing of the CHOP, journalist Omari Salisbury of Converge Media has been live-streaming what he sees every single day. Now, as police and city workers dismantle the CHOP, he stands in his doorway overlooking Cal Anderson park. And he struggles with emotion while answering a seemingly simple question: What do you see out there?
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Here's what I've learned feeding protesters in Seattle
Jimaine Miller, A.K.A. the Def Chef, has been cooking a lot lately. That’s his job, but for weeks he’s also been cooking for protesters who march for racial equality and he's been cooking for people in the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest zone, known as the CHOP. He cooks with hundreds of pounds of donated food, and gives it away for free. And it's changed him in ways he didn't expect.
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As a youth, I ran from police. Now, I work with them.
Maurice Lee is the Chief Operating Officer for Navos, a local non-profit that helps people struggling with addiction or chronic homelessness get back on their feet and stay out of the criminal justice system. Lee's life experience as a Black man who works professionally with police has given him a complex perspective on police reform.
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Physician balances pandemic and activism: 'We need to think of racism as a disease'
Voices of the pandemic features people in the Seattle area who are on the front lines of the coronavirus outbreak.
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Keeping a community up and running
Auto repair shops are considered essential businesses and have stayed open throughout the novel coronavirus pandemic, keeping frontline workers on the move. But Eli Allison's garage has been essential to the LGBTQ community for a long time –and they hope that will be true for a long time to come.
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Home with her husband, diagnosed with Alzheimer's
Voices of the pandemic features people in the Seattle area who are on the frontlines of the coronavirus outbreak
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It's not how I thought my store would end: Bop Street Records in Ballard
Dave Vorhees has run Bop Street Records for 41 years. But the pandemic – has kept his customers away. So he’s closing the shop forever. The Internet Archive bought 500,000 of his vinyl records. We caught up with Vorhees on the sidewalk in front of his old store as movers carted his records onto a truck bound for San Francisco.
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This Tacoma doctor marks his days in PPE and poetry
Voices of the Pandemic features people in the Seattle area who are on the frontlines of the coronavirus outbreak.