Zoomin' Through A New Era Of Reporting

I've only attended three virtual - or digital - meetings as a reporter since the Coronavirus pandemic hit in mid-March. My last in-person coverage of a civic meeting - a local Build the Block gathering - was at the beginning of March, when anxiety and fear first gripped the city over what to do if everything was shut down and put to an abrupt halt. Sure enough, later that week we learned that stay-at-home orders would restrict our ability to come together and share information face-to-face, something we often took for granted.

Before the technology of FaceTime existed, many businesses would have their briefings and "virtual gatherings" via conference calls on a certified "conference phone" some through VOIP service, which offered call forwarding, call waiting, caller ID and a speakerphone. These appliances, which looked like a space alien tripod contraption, is probably still used in conference rooms all over the world to keep companies and teams connected so they can discuss their professional prospects.

Let's Conference -- OLD SCHOOL STYLE!

Being a reporter is not really a job you can do at home when it comes to "on the scene" tactics.

Ground breaking ceremony - ya gotta be there!!

Perp walk at the local precinct - ya GOTTA BE THERE!

Catching first responders at the front lines of their careers - YA GOTTA BE THERE!

Let's get real...Community meetings have always been the "Let's sit down, have dinner and talk about our day," types of gatherings. Eventually, when you attend civic meetings often enough, you see the same faces, the same elected officials and the same activists who make the community so vibrant and solid. Many of those who attend local meetings become family to each other - seeing each other at two to three, or more, times per week at meetings, for different reasons with different representation. And who can forget the meetings where refreshments are served and they don't mind if residents hang around after to schmooze and chit-chat.

It really felt, at first, like canceling ALL meetings would be both a social, emotional, psychological and physical detriment to the progress of our city and communities. It takes a lot of planning, networking, collaborating and coordinating to put a community event together - especially making sure your guest speakers will be booked and that you have enough time to get feedback from the community.

Virtual meetings, while still effective, don't quite offer the same resources as in-person meetings, but I've learned that much can be done and accomplished in a shorter time when you're in a Zoom, Microsoft or Google video meeting - especially as a journalist whose mantra is "Less Is More." I've so far covered a school board meeting, a NY state committee on education town hall hearing and another Build the Block gathering. I did feel a sense of familiarity and community, as the participants and speakers were leaders I'd known/met, corresponded with and interviewed many times.

One good thing about virtual meetings is that, unlike in-person gatherings, many of the stakeholders are getting right to the point! With Zoom's basic meeting app requirements, you're allowed 40 minutes to host your initial conference and squeeze the most out of that time. I've noticed that during most virtual meetings, time is NOT wasted with jokes (which I do miss) and small talk or 15 minutes of hugs and kisses (which I also miss) before the actual meeting begins. To put it simply, there's less lollygagging during the time when a meeting is scheduled to start and instead the civic engagement conversation rolls out as soon as all the invited attendees are present.

Local Zoom meeting in progress.

I do think it will be somewhat easier and more accessible for reporters to get their information while virtual meetings are the only options available. A lot of us will be given exclusive entry to these meetings to ask questions and we won't have to worry about a physically packed room of people to shout over or wait behind in order to address many leaders directly. Hearing our civic leaders is a lot easier, even though there is less time to hear concerns from those who may not be tech-savvy.

And what about all the old-timers who have been going to meetings for decades - the ones who feel the civic gatherings gives them "a reason to get out of the house?" Reporters know these people by heart - like family - and they know their gripes. They're somewhat the pipelines of our community and  aptly portray the squeaky wheel that needs the oil! My one concern would be for the old timers who aren't able to just "download this app and connect" - the ones who need help and who need resources but don't have or can't process the directions of going digital in order to stay connected. What do we do for these folks? 

When a reporter sees over 100 viewers have joined the online discussion, it seems like a wealth of participants - but how many of those are the older residents who attended every community meeting since ....what was possibly the beginning of time? 

The best part of reporting on a digital meeting is that there's really no excuse to miss it at this point. It's as easy as opening an app on your computer or phone - without even having to show your face or voice (try doing THAT in person!!) You're at home, you're probably comfortable and you don't have to get in your car or on public transportation to GET TO this meeting. Hell, you don't even have to have pants on!

I can attest to the fact that virtual meetings may be the way of the future -and they're not a bad thing. They remain interactive, inventive and they keep people connected in ways that we didn't think possible decades ago (although we seemed to hypothesize video calling as a "Back to the Future" fantasy creation). We can still give each other support, we can still influence change in our community and we can still be a vehicle for information in these uncertain times when a novel virus has torn through our state and much of the globe.

All generations somehow adapt to change and other generations work to create more means of communication that will benefit unprecedented conditions and situations. I'm hoping more civic leaders and associations join the virtual bandwagon even though their fan base remains old school and old fashioned, waiting til the first in-person meeting resumes so they can hug their friends and have a complimentary cup of coffee or water before the presentations start.

I still look forward to large social gatherings as a journalist - and the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Covid-19: A Lesson For The Future So We Don't Forget The Past

Red blotches and craters everywhere!

Swelling, itchiness, exhaustion and body aches...

One of the popular, highly contagious infections I contracted growing up was the chickenpox (medically known as varicella-zoster virus/VZV). According to my mother's notes in my childhood book of immunizations, I suffered with the chickenpox in October of 1986. 

What I remember about the rash-inducing infection was how wide-spread it was among children in my elementary school - and how you just knew someone else had it because they were absent for weeks at a time and returned with tiny pock-mock scars on their face/arms - demonstrating their epidermal battle with the annoying bumps, lesions and craters left on their skin weeks after the chickenpox war.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of kids I went to school with had "their turn" with getting the chickenpox.  Officials never closed down schools for weeks or months at a time (presumably because no one died)...They never canceled any of our programs and life seemed to go on as normal once students recovered from the itchy beast - and man was it itchy!!!!

My recollection of fighting the chickenpox is simply that every body part itched so intensely even after I finished my medications and even after bathing myself in Calamine lotion (which was the only relief in site as far as topical treatments). My parents would carefully blot the pink, chalky goo all over me (as I'm sure most parents did with their children at the time) with a cotton ball and I'd tried my hardest not to scratch my skin. 

"Don't scratch!! It will leave permanent scars!!!"

Some of my childhood vaccinations.

Even though I'd been vaccinated years before that for what seemed to be "old world" viruses and infections like measles, mumps, rubella (in the 1970s, the three treatments were combined as an MMR vaccine) and diphtheria, the vaccination for chickenpox was still in the works and hadn't been available in the United States until at least the mid-1990s, studies say. According to the Center for Disease Control Prevention (CDC) we didn't have clearance to facilitate the chickenpox vaccine until March 1995*.

Sadly, you can develop painful shingles later in life since there's subsequent immunity to the chickenpox but not to strains of other versions of the disease (proof that humans aren't bullet proof when it comes to viruses later in life as well). Still --- why did a vaccine take so damned long?

You can blame politics, government funding, private funding, healthcare disparities and racial inequalities for the thousands of deaths that resulted from the current novel coronavirus - Covid-19. By the time this blog is completed and published, another 100 plus lives will have been lost to a silent killer that shut the city and most of the world down in March 2020.

I find it hard to believe that in this day and age - when robots can assist in executing major surgery and computer programs can enhance a slew of research and resources - we're basically dealing with a fight that can be compared to the Spanish flu/influenza battle in the early 1900s. 

Most historical sites claim that over 670,000 lives were lost in America during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic - another virus that unexpectedly swept the globe.  An astonishing 5 % of the world's population was killed by the virus, calling for emergency measures to be considered as it took over societies in 3 waves*. 

Let's get real. Both the flu, as we know it today, and the chickenpox for example, from what we knew  back then, were both contagious. But, it took YEARS to get them under control and keep the virus confined to one person or a few people who aren't vaccinated. 

Will this coronavirus be the new "normal"post-pandemic? Will society, at ANY POINT simply be able to operate with the deadliest-virus-ever existing silently among us? 

According to some studies, the CDC estimated that the seasonal flu killed 61,100 people in the United States during the 2017-2018 flu season*. Considering the fact that there is a vaccine many chose not to receive, we're still losing a lot less people to flu-related deaths including complications that arise from the illness, such as pneumonia. When dealing with any respiratory virus, death is the greatest dictator and the biggest risk at stake.

Of course, I'm nowhere near being a medical specialist. I have no central knowledge of diseases, viruses, sicknesses and their derivatives other than what the general public gathers from history, experience, literature and studies that may or may not hold much truth.
I also doubt that many of the victims who succumbed to Covid-19 knew what was in store for them just a few months ago. You wouldn't put your hand into a pool of flaming lava if you knew it would burn to a crisp! 

Just think about how one wrong move, that one instance - that one split second - where a Covid19 sufferer could have possibly protected themselves from contracting the virus... Each second turned into a history-making tragedy and they've been added to the statistics thus far collected.

The only realist in this health crisis seems to be 79-year-old Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. In many ways, he's being brutally honest with the press, and Americans as a whole, about how to cope with a new virus we seem to know nothing about in terms of definitive treatment and vaccination timing. 

What makes us angry, as a people, I believe, is that Covid-19 is killing faster and wider than any other virus in history - faster than cancers kill their victims. The percentage that will survive, great! The percentage that will become immune to the beast - superb! But to think that we have to wait years to legally administer and regulate a prevention drug as we have for other "old world" viruses seems...antiquated! 

If this is a political issue more than a health issue, I'm eager to research how the feds and states across the country dealt with funding vaccinations in the 1960s and on. We've battled smallpox and malaria...polio...the bubonic plague, smallpox....and let's not forget the other bacterial diseases that no longer exists because of health guidelines. People in many countries have have to suffer from cholera largely because of contaminated water -- a resource that can be regulated and sanitized.

Is Covid-19 going to be a new norm even after the pandemic quiets down? Will we one day just say to our loved ones/friends, "Oh, it's fine, I just got Covid and have to social distance for two weeks, no biggie...." That is, if the person survives...The bigger question is: Will they be able to market a treatment that will prevent death and the perishing of millions more around the world?? 

Also unknown to humans - what will happen to those who have successfully recovered from Covid-19 in the future? What health consequences will they face, if any, after the damage is done to their bodies? Will they develop breathing or respiratory complications years later as the lungs repair from the virus' wrath? How will unborn children of Covid-19 victims develop?

If history has taught us anything it's that the past "catches up to us" in some ways that we never forsee...

On another note, avoiding contraction of some diseases and viruses are solely YOUR responsibility. If you eat raw, contaminated or expired food, you possibly acknowledge you're risking your health...If you voluntarily expose yourself to unsanitary conditions (wash your hands ANYWAY!!!) you must know you're setting yourself up to getting sick. Some illnesses that have been a part of human history have been our responsibility to consciously thwart off. 

Sadly, the wild-fire spread of the coronavirus was seemingly out of our conscious control until mid-March when we began wearing gloves and masks everywhere we traveled to ward off possible contraction/contamination and even cross-contamination. 

It's hard to think of the coronavirus as a new "thing"...

Even as I recovered from "simple" bronchitis this past February - which involved a grueling 3 weeks of coughing, sleeping and medicating myself - I questioned if there's any true way to stay healthy in this contaminated world of the unknown.  

With so many environmental factors at play and so many humans remaining ignorant to infectious diseases - and add the fact that there's so little time to develop a drug/treatment that will extinguish the beasts of the world -  we still have a long way to go. 

As of March/April 2020, we've enforced 'social distancing' - a term never used in the history of communal functioning - and we're back to disciplining ourselves to keeping with basic functional mandates and following proper basic hygiene (which doesn't mean buying 100 rolls of toilet paper!). These are lessons we learned to follow as children which, as adults we can't seem to practice exclusively in these dire times,  have lead to thousands of deaths...

...Don't cough in someone's direction, sneeze into your elbow, respect other peoples' personal space and keep yourself clean by routinely washing your hands and not touching your face. 

Oh...wait...Why weren't we doing these things to begin with!!!!????

Pray for the best, expect the worst and prepare to be better.

*https://www.thoughtco.com/1918-spanish-flu-pandemic-1779224

*https://www.cdc.gov/chickenpox/vaccination.html

*https://www.healthline.com/health/can-you-die-from-the-flu