COVID-19 Journal, March 31, 2020

"I began my day today as I do every weekday, by listening to my favorite podcasts: 'Up First' from NPR, and 'The Daily' from The New York Times. They are both related to current events and what is happening around the world; recently, they have been pretty centered around COVID-19. A couple things that especially stood out to me today were that 100,000 deaths in the United States from COVID-19 is an optimistic estimate, and South Carolina would likely not reach its peak for another month. Hearing the projected number of deaths was definitely very sobering. Hearing that South Carolina would probably not peak in number of cases was also unsettling to hear, especially since it would still take time afterwards for the numbers to come back down again. If this ends up being true, it’s possible that this way of life would continue at least until the beginning of June and quite possibly later. Still, whatever happens will happen, and there isn’t really much I can do about it other than of course staying home as much as possible and practicing social distancing when I have to leave the house.

My class had a meeting with a few people in the administration with the dental school yesterday. They, understandably, did not have a lot of answers to most of our questions, but this was certainly a cause of stress among my classmates. Our class president has been working hard as a go-between from us and administration which I am definitely very thankful for. During the meeting, though, we did learn that there is a possibility that we may lose the time that was originally allocated for studying for our boards in an attempt to give us more time in the sim lab and have us ready to treat patients in the clinic as soon as possible. There was also talk of moving our white coat ceremony which is currently planned for June 12.

While our daily lives are changing drastically, I would like to stay as positive as possible. My roommates, family, and friends are all safe and healthy, and I hope that this continues to be the case."

--Anonymous