2020 in 20 images - A Student Archive

In 2021, students in Dr. Joshua Frens-String’s Spring 2021 section of “Thinking Like A Historian” at the University of Texas at Austin deliberated over 20 objects and images that could stand in for the long 2020. Taken together, this “unconventional archive” tells the history of the year 2020 (and early 2021) through the lens of material culture. It encompasses different aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the contentious 2020 election, racial justice protests, and the rise of the political far-right, both in the U.S. and around the globe. In so doing, this digital collection strives to be a resource for anyone looking back on this challenging year. It includes 20 images followed by individual descriptions drawn up by students.

Student contributors included (in alphabetical order):  Katie Austin, Carlos Badillo, Kevin Barajas, Catherine Barany, Joni Brunk, Bennett Burke, Henry Epperson, Emilio Gomez, Sophia Harkins, Aina Ongcheap, Aran Sahebi, Alex Schleppe, Skye Seipp, Amy Shreeve, Madison Tuley, and Pierce Wisnie.

Object 1: A Cancelled Plane Ticket

During the early months of 2020, many countries around the world began to enact increasingly strict restrictions on international and later domestic travel. The decisions followed news about the spread, first in Asia and then later in Europe, of the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2-19, or Covid-19 for short.  

In early March 2020, life in the US came to a standstill as a result of Covid-19’s rapid spread through Europe and the US. Then President Donald Trump interrupted the television programs of most Americans to let the nation know that the coronavirus pandemic was soon to cause catastrophic damage to the US healthcare system, and was about to upend the daily lives of everyone—though few could predict for exactly how long.

Trump abruptly declared a travel ban directed at all flights to and from continental Europe, sparking widespread panic as thousands of Americans overseas sought the first available plane ticket home. Domestically, colleges and universities closed down, giving their students little choice but to return to their family’s homes and “hunker down” for the weeks and months to come.

After a surreal week of institutional closures and event cancellation (a week that also saw major airports jampacked with tens of thousands of travelers trying to return to their homes), air travel fell sharply. Shortly after, most Americans found themselves under strict stay-at-home orders that were issued by state and municipal governments. As time went on, the severity of the virus—and the extent of its community spread—became widely apparent. Spring and summer plans were shelved, often replaced by new hobbies and streaming services.

The image above is a screenshot of an alert from American Airlines. It was one of thousands such messages sent to ticket holders, informing them that their booked flights had been cancelled and that the flight’s value would be credited for future travel. Indeed, one aspect of this pandemic has been its effect on people’s leisure activities. While many Americans continued to do what was socially required of them (work, school, the fulfillment of parental obligations, etc.), one of the major things the virus took from everyone was the ability to do the things they enjoyed. Initially, traveling was one such activity.

As a result, economic challenges in the tourism industry became one of the first consequences of the pandemic. It did not help that one of the first big outbreaks happened on a cruise ship, the Diamond Princess, where more than 700 cases resulted in several deaths. By the end of March 2020, international tourism was feeling the pandemic’s full impact, as seen on this chart produced by the UNWTO. The loss of income was eleven times worse than the 2009 economic crisis and resulted in the loss of 1.3 trillion dollars in tourism exports. Unsurprisingly, the countries hit hardest were ones whose economies mainly relied on tourism, for example small island destinations like the Maldives and the Bahamas. These countries have large portions of their working population based in the tourist industry, and the lack of tourism meant their economies were immediately devastated by the pandemic.

Image Credit: Henry Epperson

Object 2: A Basketball on a Deserted Court

On March 11, 2020, the repercussions of Covid-19 came front and center in everyday Americans’ lives when the National Basketball Association (NBA) cancelled the remainder of its professional season. While Covid-19 had been altering life in Wuhan, China, since at least December 2019 and the first case in the U.S. had been reported in Washington state on January 21, 2020, it wasn’t until the NBA announced it would be cancelling the rest of its season that many people realized that life was about to change drastically in the U.S. as well. From this point forward, the dominoes of other major institutions began to fall. Colleges started to extend spring break by an extra week, before going online completely. Meanwhile, many companies and businesses quickly moved their employees over to remote work platforms.

A player for Utah Jazz was the first to test positive for Covid-19 before a game against Oklahoma City Thunder. L.A. Times journalist Nathan Fenno described the cancelling of the NBA by writing, “It had been easy in the days and weeks before the scene in Oklahoma City to dismiss the virus as an oddity, an inconvenience that would soon pass.” But from this moment, Covid-19 could not be dismissed anymore.

Following the suspension of professional basketball games, a sense of panic emerged. People become glued to the news. In turn, news organizations frequently lifted their paywalls for stories related to the virus. However, many unknowns remained. While some people started wearing masks, public health experts began by saying that such measures were not necessary. This advice would later be reversed as the virus proved to be primarily spread through respiratory droplets. It was from this point that terms like “social distancing” began popping up in the lexicon of everyday life, and graphics and videos on how to properly wash your hands for two minutes were seen everywhere.  

Photo Credit: Henry Epperson

Object 3: Dow Jones Industrial Average Ticker (as of March 2020

In this image, we see a visual illustration of the sudden, pandemic-induced collapse of U.S. financial markets, as measured by the Dow Jones Industrial Average. This collapse, which began in the early Spring of 2020, followed growing outbreaks of—and concerns about—Covid-19 in the United States. In early March 2020—and particularly on Thursday, March 12, 2020—stock prices fell off an especially steep cliff due to Covid-driven uncertainties. When American buyers withdrew their money from the market, the ripple effects were felt in other major economies around the world, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region and in Europe, which saw trading on their stock exchanges close temporarily to prevent a global sell-off. To some, the stock crash signaled the beginning of a major economic recession—perhaps the worst recession since the 1987 and 2008 market crashes. The collapse of global markets illustrated the interconnected nature of the world’s economies, which transcend national borders. 

Image Credit: Wikipedia (Creative Commons) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stock_market_crash_(2020,_DJIA_2017-01-03_through_2020-03-16_opening_low).svg

Object 4: A Homemade Cloth Mask

The homemade cloth mask is representative of the early pandemic period in 2020, a moment when people weren’t sure whether or not they could or should wear surgical masks, or if there would even be enough supply to go around. According to one report from the CDC, “Masks substantially reduce exhaled respiratory droplets and aerosols from infected wearers and reduce exposure of uninfected wearers to these particles.” However, the CDC has also noted that cloth masks are not as effective as respirators, like the N95 face-pieces, since they are looser-fitting around the face. It’s therefore more likely for a user to put their mask on incorrectly.

Access to masks has been a consistent problem in the United States and around the world since the pandemic began, and shortages for the highest-quality/most-protective N95 masks were especially widespread in the early days of the pandemic. As recently as February 2021, the Washington Post reported that while “the initial shortage has eased” there “still aren’t enough medical masks for health-care workers, let alone others.” This has caused a dilemma for both consumers and healthcare workers, as the price for N95s increased dramatically. The number of counterfeit and defective masks has also brought down the quality of masks across the board.

However, by 2021, it was clear that any mask was better than none at all. There remains a shortage of masks for healthcare workers even as many people in the U.S. have refused to wear masks at all without a mandatory order in place by the government. This is in complete disregard for the guidelines set by the CDC, which say that “people age 2 and older should wear masks in public settings and when around people who don’t live in their household.” Indeed, the issue has laid bare a conflict between those who claim that masks infringe on their individual freedom and those who have tried to curb the pandemic through the use of preventative public health measures.

Photo Credit: Amy Shreeve

Object 5: Contact Tracing Diagram

The two illustrations above underscore the development of pandemic contact tracing. In particular, they look at the development of such efforts as they related to a large COVID-19 outbreak at the University of Texas at Austin in early 2020. On a more general level, they highlight the importance public health officials placed on contact tracing, especially early on in the pandemic, to stop the spread of Covid-19.

In March 2020, the Texas Kappa Alpha Theta (known commonly as Texas Theta) went to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico for Spring Break. When they returned, there were 64 positive cases of COVID-19 within the sorority group. Many of these students had returned to UT-Austin’s West Campus where they interacted with other people, thus exposing the wider community. The event was arguably the most significant cluster of Covid-19 in and around Austin in the early days of the pandemic.

The story of the UT students Spring Break “superspreader” quickly made national headlines, with many news outlets, such as VICE, writing about the incident. Eventually, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) decided to use the UT Austin incident as an example of how “contact tracing” could work. By locating the physical contacts of an individuals who tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the community transmission of the disease could, at least in theory, be stopped. 

Early in the pandemic, public health officials estimated that as many 100,000 contact tracers needed to be hired and trained in the U.S. to carry out such work. As CNBC reported in May 2020, “Because people with Covid-19 often don’t show immediate symptoms and may not know they have the illness until they receive an official diagnosis, contact tracers will help the infected person remember and identify the people they have been in close contact with during their diagnosis period and the two days leading up to it.”  

Image Credit 1: CDC.gov https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6926e1.htm?s_cid=mm6926e1_w

Image Credit 2: CFCF - Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Contact-tracing_adapted.svg

Object 6: Stimulus Check

Following the outbreak of the Coronavirus, the United States, and the rest of the world, faced an unprecedented economic crisis. Many individuals found themselves out of a job and others had their work hours severely reduced. It is estimated that unemployment in the United States was as high as 14.8% in April of 2020, the highest since the Great Depression. Businesses struggled as well as many individuals opted out of going out to restaurants, movie theaters, and other businesses during the height of the virus. It is estimated that the economic fallout from the COVID-19 crisis will reduce the United States economy by $8 trillion over the next decade.

The CARES Act, also known as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, was introduced in Congress in early January of 2020. The bill was eventually passed by Congress on March 25, 2020, and signed into law by former President Donald Trump on March 27, 2020. The CARES Act was a $2.2 trillion stimulus package, representing the largest aid package in United States history.

The image above is an example of a stimulus check that was sent out in early 2020. The check is one of the many $1,200 stimulus checks that was given to many single adults who filed taxes in a previous year. Many individuals with families or other dependents received an extra $500 per dependent. The stimulus package was the first of three direct payment packages that were eventually passed by the United States government. The second payment was also under the Trump administration and was generally around $600 per person. The third direct payment package was under the Biden administration and was generally $1,400 for single adults, plus an extra $1,400 per dependent. The US government also passed several other aid packages that did not include direct payments.

Photo Credit:  Pierce Wisnie

Object 7: A Bottle of Clorox Bleach

The above photo depicts a familiar household cleaning product: Clorox bleach. But this item came into public debate following a report by top White House officials that sunlight and cleaning supplies could neutralize the COVID-19 virus. In late April 2020, this prompted then President Donald Trump to make the bizarre—and dangerous—suggestion that household disinfectants might somehow be injected into the human body to cure an infected patient of the virus. Though he assured the audience that he was, “not a doctor,” he did claim to still have a “good you-know-what.”

As Rachel Schraer, a BBC health reporter, would note, this proposal is by all expert accounts a terrible suggestion–one that could result in poisoning or even death for an individual who took the former President’s advice and consumed bleach. Even the experts on air with President Trump, like the administration’s coronavirus response coordinator, Dr. Deborah Birx, had to suppress looks of shock upon hearing Trump’s words. Consequently, across the United States, organizations and officials—from the makers of Lysol to Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, to Harvard toxicology experts, and beyond—warned against imbibing these dangerous chemicals.

This moment represents just one example of many during the pandemic when President Trump gave questionable health advice to the public. Other such examples included his promotion of the drug hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 – a recommendation that medical experts later regarded as ineffective. Trump also showed personal discomfort with the idea of wearing a face mask, doing so in public very rarely.

Image Credit: Adina Firestone - Wikimedia Commons (Creative Commons) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Clorox_Bleach_products.jpg.

Object 8: A Yoga Mat and an Online Yoga Video

This object features a image of a yoga mat rolled out in a living room with a YouTube video. An at-home yoga practice video plays in the background. During the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting mandated quarantine, home workouts skyrocketed in popularity and many fitness influencers and professionals produced videos to meet the demand. The desire to embark on a journey of self-improvement during isolation, combined with the forced closures of gyms and fitness centers, led many people to try and take their personal fitness into their own hands. As a result, sales of fitness equipment in the U.S. increased by 55% between January and March of 2020 as lockdowns took effect.

This culture of self-improvement was not just limited to home workouts. Meditation practices began gaining popularity, followed closely by increased interests in healthy cooking, beauty and wellness trends, leisure reading, journaling, crafting, and countless other hobbies that could be undertaken in the safety and seclusion of people’s homes. The isolation brought on by the pandemic and its quarantine took a notable toll on mental and physical health, and many people tried to alleviate or curb these effects by keeping their bodies and minds occupied in screen-free ways.

The results of quarantine self-improvement journeys were personalized and largely mixed, as can be expected. Some emerged from quarantine and reported feeling fitter and more at peace mentally, while others emerged with the so-called “Quarantine 15” weight gain, realizing they’d spent most of their quarantine being largely unproductive. Either way, the experience of quarantine has produced many new self-improvement trends and these show no signs of going away anytime soon.

Photo Credit: Catherine Barany

Object 9: A Rubber Bullet

On March 25, 2020, George Floyd, a Black man living in Minnesota, was murdered by Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis police officer, after Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes. His death was filmed by local citizens, and Floyd could be heard yelling out for his mother and begging Chauvin to stop before his death. The video went viral on social media and sparked global Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality and systemic racism in the late Spring of 2020.

These protests are an important part of the “bottom-up” history of 2020 since organization of the protests was done by community activists in different cities across the country and indeed the world. Floyd’s death ignited not only talks about the future of policing in local, state, and federal governments in the U.S., but it also called attention to racist policing systems and systemic racism worldwide. As South African journalist Lynsey Chutel told NPR, “"There is a George Floyd in every country." Calls to “defund the police” became ubiquitous in last year’s protests, and some cities like Austin, cut their city’s police department budgets.

Protestors were often met with a severe police response, include the use of tear gas and rubber bullets, as seen above. While some of these measures were used during riots, other times it was the use of force that led to peaceful protests escalating to violence. Many protestors were seriously injured by the police's use of force and “non-lethal” weapons. Journalists found themselves targetted, and many were fired upon with non-lethal munitions or arrested after clearly presenting themselves as members of the press. The protests show that people who have historically been oppressed worldwide are ready for change and an end to systems that were built to oppress them.

On April 20, 2021, the police officer who killed George Floyd, Derek Chauvin, was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and third-degree manslaughter. While it is not known what the future holds and whether policing tactics will actually change, it is clear that the protests last year were another “unprecedented event” among many others that will have a lasting impact.

Photo Credit: Skye Seipp

Object 10: Los Angeles Police Department’s Virtual Zoom Meeting

In June 2020, following the killing of George Floyd and the first week of anti-police brutality protests across the U.S., the Los Angeles Police Commission hosted a virtual town hall meeting via Zoom. Various residents joined the Zoom event to air their grievances—both against the Los Angeles Police Department and, in a broader sense, police institutions nationwide. Most of the frustration was directed toward Michael Moore, the police chief for the LAPD, and many called for Moore’s resignation. However, others issued demands to cut police funding, and criticized the manner in which the Zoom call itself was unfolding.

One particular caller stood out. Eight hours, six minutes, and forty-eight seconds into the eight-and-a-half-hour meeting, resident Jeremy Frisch asked if everybody could hear him. He then unloaded a quick, thirty second rant that would go viral on social media. Frisch opened his comments with a broad condemnation of the entire department and the commissioners sitting in on the call. Frisch then pivoted to address police commissioner Moore directly, calling him a “disgrace,” and adding a series of additional expletives. The exchange, which lasted approximately thirty seconds, highlighted pent-up frustration American policing and the underscored problems with how police departments and government officials addressed criticism of their agencies.

Much of official response to documented police brutality, accusations of racism, and allegations of bloated budgets mirrored the general tone of the LAPD Zoom meeting: a clumsy effort to soothe unrest by officials, direct and explicit criticism from the public, placations and promises to address concerns given in apathetic tones. In Los Angeles alone, two years passed between an city promise to reform policing after documented incidents of excessive police force and the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. One Black woman called in to the LAPD Zoom call to simply say that “on behalf of [her] community”, she was tired and had “had enough.”

Image Credit: YouTube Screenshot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz0CKlGj3uI

Object 11: Covid-19 Mask Mandate

During the Trump presidency, the federal government decided against issuing a national mandate in favor of allowing individual states to manage their own pandemic responses. On July 2, 2020, a statewide “mask mandate” was reluctantly issued in Texas by Governor Greg Abbott to address the rising Covid-19 infection rate. Referring to the advice circulated by various medical professionals, GA-29 required that all Texans wear a face covering while out in public. Anyone found violating the order was subject to an initial verbal or written warning, followed by a maximum fine of $250 for each subsequent offence. Governor Abbott’s order looks much like those issued by other governors from the rest of the United States at around the same time.

Governor Abbott received heavy criticism from his right flank for issuing the order. The order went against the wishes of many conservatives who felt that imposing a mask mandate infringed on individual liberties and catered to alarmist rhetoric. Several businesses and subordinate governments in Texas defied the order under protest, and a series of anti-mask rallies were held across the state, including one outside of the governor’s mansion. This is part of a broader national movement against the restrictions imposed under the pandemic. The mandate was later lifted on March 2, 2021 when Governor Abbott issued GA-34 as a part of his plan to “reopen” Texas.

The case of Texas is not an isolated one, as other governors also received pushback from the public for their approaches to addressing the pandemic. Governor Gavin Newsom of California was criticized for authorizing the most restrictions out of any state, and Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan faced armed protestors in the state capital. Though mask mandates have been controversial, their value in curbing the rate of Covid-19 infections has proven to be a key factor in overcoming the pandemic.

Image Credit:  Open.Texas.gov https://open.texas.gov/uploads/files/organization/opentexas/EO-GA-29-use-of-face-coverings-during-COVID-19-IMAGE-07-02-2020.pdf

Object 12: The Orange Glow of Raging Wildfires

The above photo reveals an orange sky hovering over the Bay Bridge that connects Oakland and San Francisco. The photo was taken as wildfires raged in northern California the late summer of 2020. The apocalyptic image was one of many taken during an intense wildfire seasons, a season that the LA Times described as the worst on record. As the newspaper reported in September 2020, “eight of the 10 largest fires in California history have burned in the past decade.” That includes the 2020 August Complex fire, which was the “largest fire in the state's history.”

The California fires represented the culmination of a year of devastating, climate-change fueled forest and brush fires that spread across the world.  Just as 2020 ended with the fires of California, the year began with fire crews battling out-of-control wildfire disaster in distant Australia. The destruction from those fires destroyed native plants and animals and caused several deaths. Global carbon emissions rose to alarming levels and the biodiversity of the Australian bushland collapsed. Taken together, the Californian and Australian fires offer a preview of future events to come, as global temperatures continue to rise.

Image Credit:  Photo Credit: Christopher Michel (Flickr / Creative Commons), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:North_Complex_smoke_in_San_Francisco_-_Bay_Bridge_and_Financial_District.jpg

Object 13: COVID-19 Test Results

Pictured above is documentation of a test for COVID-19 which yielded a negative result. A great many documents exist just like this one as testing for the coronavirus became widespread throughout the world as a required step for employment, recreation, or travel. This negative test was received and used for the purpose of this project with the explicit written permission of the patient, Mariam Ali, who requested that her address and other personal details be redacted.

The test was received in McKinney, TX but was submitted for review to the Department of Tourism of the U.S. Virgin Islands as a condition for entry into the islands. A press release indicates that as of November 9, 2020, all travelers to the Territory were required to submit a negative COVID-19 test or else face a mandatory 14-day quarantine. Many nations throughout the world had similar requirements or outright bans on travel and foreigners entering, but this is a particularly interesting case where the coronavirus pandemic highlighted the unusual relationship between the United States and its territories.

Though the US Virgin Islands are technically a U.S. Territory, the islands still exist in a strange colonial status with citizens not being able to vote for the U.S. presidency and congressional representatives only being able to speak, rather than vote, on the U.S. house floor. Furthermore, the tourism and service sectors form a large majority of the islands’ economy. For these reasons which ostensibly hinder the territory in regular times, they were also able to enjoy a degree of autonomy in terms of imposing restrictions on travel, whereas U.S. states did not.

Image Credit: Bennett Burke

Object 14 : Silver Blankets

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about unprecedented changes to every aspect of migration and travel. Migrants crossing into America who had been caught without documentation already faced miserable living conditions in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities. In 2019 and into 2020, the above image of silver mylar blankets covering unaccompanied child minors who were detained in U.S. detention facilities has been emblematic of the U.S. immigration systems and the shortcomings of ICE.

With COVID-19 cases surged in the United States, the issues related to immigration detention grew increasingly problematic. The combination of dwindling protective supplies across the nation and hostility towards undocumented migrants resulted in the slow rollout of basic precautions—such as masks—and inadequate monitoring of the situation in detention facilities. In at least one detention facility, detainees were denied universal Covid-19 testing because officials claimed it “would be too difficult to quarantine all detained people who may test positive”. Furthermore, government attempts to get ICE to reduce the number of people in detention via court order were met with evasion. Instead, according to Aaron Reichlin-Melnic of the American Immigration Council, the numbers of people detained only increased.

In an effort to control the spread of COVID-19, ICE also turned to harmful chemical disinfectants. Of particular note was the usage of Spartan Chemicals’ HDQ Neutral, an ammonium disinfectant that its manufacturer says should only be used in well-ventilated areas. The product was used widely in the Adelanto Detention Facility. Testimony from detainees asserts that HDQ Neutral was sprayed every 15 to 30 minutes around each housing unit, and chemicals came in contact with “eyes, noses, mouths, skin” as well as food and drinking water. Reported effects included fainting, nausea, blistering, and coughing up blood. In response, twenty-six members of congress petitioned ICE once more to release detainees.

Image Credit: US Customs and Border Patrol - Wikimedia Commons (Creative Commons)  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ursula_(detention_center)_2.jpg

Object 15: “Proud Boys” Logo

The object above is an online logo disseminated by the far-right “Proud Boys” group after a presidential debate in the Fall of 2020. It refers to words used by then President Trump when confronted in that debate with a question about his association with far-right white nationalist groups like the Proud Boys. Calling on the group to “Stand Back and Stand By,” Trump set off intense debates about the Proud Boy’s support for the President, and the more insidious role of violent white nationalist groups in the modern conservative movement, including the Republican Party itself.

Confrontations between the Proud Boys members and progressive activists occurred throughout the country in 2020. In October 2020 in downtown Austin, Texas members of the alt-right group, which some have called a domestic terrorist group, challenged those who had gathered for  Women’s March to commemorate the recently deceased Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg in. The Austin Women’s March was originally intended to be nothing more than a public display to honor and grieve Ginsberg’s passing, but it quickly became heated and dangerous with the arrival of the Proud Boys, showing how divided and mistrustful the average politically conscious US citizen had become.

The Proud Boys’ appearance at this event shows the political divisions that grew ever deeper in US society during the Trump presidency, and particularly amid the racial justice protests of 2020. Additionally, the reaction of the marchers to the presence of the Proud Boys shows the despair, pain, fear, and anger that was widely experienced by many in the U.S. at this time.

Image Credit: https://t.me/proudboysusa/6243 Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Proud_Boys#/media/File:Proud_Boys_Trump_logo.jpeg

Object 16: Zoom School

This image features a laptop with a Zoom meeting open on the screen. When the gravity of the COVID-19 pandemic was revealed to the world shortly before many schools closed for spring break, most people did not understand how drastically their lives would change. Once administrations and workplaces had made their plans, Zoom, a video communications service, became the answer to replacing in-person school and events in hopes of curbing the spread of the coronavirus while allowing for interaction.

No longer were students and workers going to their classrooms and offices every day. Instead, they completed their work at home via their laptops and interacted with others through Zoom’s video service. The increased reliance on Zoom spawned a new term called “Zoom fatigue”, referring to the mental and physical effects of spending so much time interacting and working via screens. Such reported symptoms include but are not limited to eye exhaustion, headaches from overstimulation and blue light, and strong feelings of disconnection and isolation.

Rates of depression and virtual therapy have risen among students and young people. 56% of young people, a larger percentage than normal, reported experiencing symptoms of anxiety and/or depression during the pandemic. This is likely due to the feeling that young people, college students especially, feel like they are missing out on the best time of their lives by not having the opportunity to take advantage of in-person classes and social events. To add to the concern, many professionals are worried about the stunted socialization of young kids, who desperately need the experience of attending school to aid their emotional development. Although Zoom has been a godsend for many in this time of need, it also creates problems and concerns about the state of mental health and socialization once we no longer rely on it as much.  

Photo Credit:  Bennett Burke

Object 17:  Anti-Anxiety Medication

This object is a traditional transparent orange pill bottle, filled approximately halfway with 300mg pills. The label on the bottle reads “take 1 capsule by mouth 2-3 times daily for anxiety.” This medication was originally prescribed in the autumn of 2020 to address the patient’s new concerns about their anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. They weren’t alone. Experts at the CDC have estimated that the percentage of adults with anxiety or depression symptoms increased by 5% in 2020.

It isn’t hard to imagine why this might be the case. Self-isolation and formal quarantines alike limited social interaction. Feelings of isolation can lead to mental health problems. A global pandemic’s impacts beyond quarantines can also affect the mental health of the general public. The presence of a contagious disease can lead to health anxiety (formerly known as ‘hypochondria’) that focuses on one’s own infection. People with pre-existing Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder may feel their symptoms are exacerbated because of the presence of a contagious disease. If one has already been afraid of being infected before a pandemic, the reality of COVID-19 can only make things worse. Even further, many people who have been infected with COVID-19 have seen psychological impacts in additional to traditional physical impacts.

COVID-19 also impacted people’s lives personally and economically. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities estimated that 11% of houses with children didn’t have enough food in March of 2021. When people don’t have their basic physical needs met, they are even less likely to have their psychological needs met. In addition to economic loss, many have faced personal loss.  Over 3 million people have died from the illness. The loss of a family member or friend is always difficult. This difficulty only increases when one cannot attend memorial services and seek support. Unaddressed grief has the potential to develop into a psychiatric disorder.

Despite circumstances that lead to an increase in mental health issues, there has not been an increase in mental health care. Because so many people are seeking therapy or psychiatry, it is difficult to access. A shortage in therapists means many people who reach out for help never receive it. Even the people who are fortunate enough to meet with a practitioner may not feel that their problems are addressed. Patients may be hesitant to open up during telehealth visit because they lack privacy.

Photo Credit: Anonymous

Object 18: I Voted Sticker 

The presidential election of 2020 was one of the most contentious in the history of the United States, and these torn “I voted stickers” represent the election. Normally, stickers are handed out by people. This year, they were torn apart so there wouldn’t be excessive human contact. Many poll workers were needed to keep polling stations clean for voters. In fact, poll workers were encouraged to follow the regular CDC guidelines, in addition to an extra stipulation in which those who “have recently had a close contact with a person with COVID-19 should stay home.”

Voters were strongly advised to continue CDC protocol if choosing to vote in person, while also recommended to take advantage of early voting if possible. The CDC website emphasized voting when polling stations had a lull in activity, thereby reducing the risk of possible infection. Lastly, the CDC urged voters to prepare voting in advance by filling out required forms ahead of time in an effort to streamline the process and minimize the amount of time voters spent at polling stations.

Going into last year’s presidential election, people were genuinely concerned about how the process would work given the seriousness of the pandemic. Many decided to alter the way they normally voted by filling out an absentee or mail-in ballot in lieu of voting in person. According to Pew Research, “A slim majority of voters (54%) say they voted in person this November, compared with 46% who voted by absentee or mail-in ballot.” This shows that almost half of voters were more concerned with avoiding COVID than voting in-person.

Then President Trump went on to denounce the election as a sham and claimed that mass voter fraud had been committed to “steal” the election from him, citing mail-in voting as the mechanism of fraud. In the days before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, President Trump and his campaign even contacted as many state officials as they could in key swing states in an attempt to overturn the results.

One of the officials contacted personally by President Trump was Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. In Georgia, the Secretary of State is the chief administrator of all elections and was thus crucial to any attempt to invalidate the results. Secretary Raffensperger later released a now-infamous recording of a call between himself and the President from January 2nd, where the latter is pressuring the former into changing the outcome. The interaction immediately became a scandal and both men came under fire. President Trump was heavily criticized for trying to alter the election results in his favor, and Secretary Raffensperger was blasted by his own party for leaking the call.

The scandal was one of the most damaging high-profile incidents of President Trump’s tenure. The call was but one element of the larger movement to overturn Joe Biden’s victory. Several states and interest groups filed lawsuits after the election to invalidate the results. Many republicans in Congress, including 140 in the House of Representatives, officially contested the certification of the electoral college’s tallies. On January 6th, armed rioters stormed the United States Capitol Building while the results were being certified in a last-ditch attempt to have President Trump declared the winner. President Trump and many of his followers continue to argue that the election was not legitimate.

Photo Credit: Amy Shreeve

Object 19: Graffiti on Poster of French President Emmanuel Macron: “Wanted Dead or Alive. Reward Freedom”

It’s no surprise that the leader of the third largest economy in Europe, the relatively centrist Emmanuel Macron, was the target of protestors in 2020. But the graffiti on the above image of a poster of Macron seems to be graffiti written by someone who isn’t French, or at the very least is meant to appeal to a non-French person.

While you might have seen English graffiti on a Parisian political poster in the previous century, the likelihood has only increased in recent years. Thanks to the internet, people outside a country are only a click away from immersing themselves in the concerns of any nation. Political protest is almost a way of life for many in France, but what has become notable in recent years is that much of the protesting has been done by far right nationalists who are some of the most vocal critics of Macron and other European Union leaders.

Indeed, it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume this graffiti comes from someone advocating a conservative anti-European Union ideology—an ideology that in the context of the pandemic was turned against Europe’s strict Covid-19 protocols and restrictions. The use of the platitude “Freedom” on the poster, if we are to assume it is a criticism from the political right, could point to freedom from the EU, and it offers a lens into how the ideas of Britain’s Brexit movement are spreading fast across continental Europe.

In sum, the internet has led to an increase in feelings of collective solidarity among people with similar political beliefs, even when that collective solidarity is centered around anti-collectivism. Covid-19 restrictions on travel and other “individual rights,” has led online rightists around the world to band together around such individualist rhetoric. This means that a conspiracy-driven Trump supporter is more likely than ever to cheer on Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil or Viktor Orban and his traditionalist ideology in Hungary. In the case of our unknown artist in this image, there is perhaps a desire that far-right leader Marie Le Pen assume power in France, precipitating France’s exit from the EU, a ban on immigration, and the privatization of France’s large social programs. A growing right-wing international awareness and solidarity has been one of the most worrisome trends of 2020. As conservatives in the U.S. become annoyed by “social justice warriors (SJWs)” and “cancel culture”, they see their likeness in alternative far-right movements around the globe.

Photo Credit: Alex Schleppe

Object 20: COVID-19 Vaccine Card

The photo above features a record card, intended to document vaccinations against the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. The redacted information, removed for privacy concerns, consists of the patient’s name, date of birth, home address, and phone number. Information regarding the vaccination itself includes the location where the vaccination was given, the company responsible for the creation of the vaccine, the date of inoculation, and the doctor who gave the vaccine.

For this particular patient, the vaccine was produced by the company Pfizer. Pfizer, Moderna, and a number of other companies were part of an effort entitled “Operation Warp Speed,” in which the United States government granted billions of dollars in order to expedite their research and produce 300 million doses. Moderna, over the course of the pandemic, received a total of over $2.48 billion for research and development and supply funding, making its vaccine cost around $25 per dose. Pfizer, which resisted government funding for some time, eventually received  $1.95 billion. Pfizer’s eventual deal was to give its first batch of vaccinations to the United States for a cost of about $20 a dose. Their prophylactics have demonstrated 94.5% and 95% efficacy, respectively. 

Initially, most of the limited supply went to healthcare workers, and eventually it expanded to the elderly and those with pre-existing health conditions. However, most Americans were initially excluded. For months, vaccine rollouts were distributed unevenly across the states, some expanding beyond the initial groups, and others lagging dangerously behind. For example, up until March of 2021, the second most populous state, Texas, was ahead of only four other states in vaccinating its citizenry. However, after President Biden’s mandate that all adults be eligible to receive a vaccine by April 19th, states began opening up vaccinations to nearly everyone. In February, March, and April 2021, websites where patients could sign up for vaccine appointments crashed, and long lines stretched around vaccination clinics. Some urban residents fled to rural areas that had significant vaccine supplies but low demand.

For many people, getting vaccinated has meant being able to see loved ones for the first time in a year. Life is slowly returning back to some form of “normalcy,” though recently, there has also been speculation regarding the notion of “vaccine passports”, wherein cards such as the one pictured above might be required for entry into foreign countries. As of April 2021 the implementation of such initiatives has yet to be seen.

Despite the successes of the recent vaccination campaign under the Biden administration, systemic forms of discrimination continue to show themselves through demographic data on who has been vaccinated. Black and Latino Americans are receiving vaccinations at slower rates than their white counterparts, even though data suggests these groups are being hospitalized and dying from severe cases of COVID-19 at much higher rates. Access to high speed internet has also become a prevalent issue as most vaccine clinics require patients to set up an appointment online. Although many Americans are getting vaccinated now, it is important to remember that the United States’ racial and class divisions have been exacerbated by this crisis. Moreover, all the vaccines created in the US have been privately patented, despite receiving a great deal of public funding. This has led to an outcry throughout the world regarding the necessity of suspending vaccine patents in order to hasten the end of the pandemic. In early May 2021, the U.S. suggested for the first time that it may be willing to suspend such patents to improve global access to life-saving vaccines.

Photo Credit: Katie Austin