By Madi Santos
Covid-19 is a new economic threat to both the world and our families. Many families are being forced to “shelter in place” and work from home. Many schools in California have been closed until May 1st, businesses have been shut down and shipping internationally has been banned. Stalk prices and bond yields are plunging, so how does this affect us? Families are losing money by not being able to go into work, so that means no bills can be paid, food and essentials can't be bought, Doctors and nurses are being overworked along with grocery store employees and businesses are being shut down. Many families have raided grocery stores of toilet paper, disinfectant, and essentials such as canned foods and water.
As a victim of both the new coronavirus and the shelter in place policy, I can say with accuracy that it has affected both my family and our money, and others can relate. Over this past month, our schedules have completely changed, my mom and her boyfriend are usually gone and busy but since the new virus, they have been home and not able to work. Multiple homes in the central valley are suffering with getting little to no income with such short notice. And with such short notice, being a student has become very difficult. Since most, if not all schools in the US, have been shut down due to this pandemic, everyone has transferred to online school, where learning revolves around mostly YouTube and weekly zoom meetings. For people like me, this can sometimes be very hard and unmanageable due to the fact that I die if I am stuck doing one thing in the same place for too long, and going by a schedule is even harder because of how spaced out our zoom meetings can be depending on the day.
While it is easy to focus on the negatives, it does seem like there have been positive effects. Air pollution in China has reduced significantly since the coronavirus, animals are being let out of their cages in zoos, people are finally realizing there is such a thing as being creative, having family time, and understanding more about their mental health and their minds. People are taking the time to heal themselves and give themselves self affection, while the earth finally can have time to heal, and that alone will decrease depression significantly.