COVID-19 Journal #1

Every day for the last two weeks I’ve been asking myself, ‘How did we get to be the epicenter of a pandemic?’

Yep, I live in Seattle, the epicenter of coronavirus in the United States.

Last week I was watching the news, and my Twitter feed, obsessively. Like so many other Seattleites, I was just trying to figure out what was going on. Was I was experiencing allergies or COVID-19 symptoms? Were we going to be on lockdown or what? Should my partner and I go out and stock our home to the brim with non perishables and water? (Probably.) And then my partner got really sick.

She woke up one morning with a wicked sore throat, fatigue, runny nose, and body aches. Since she didn’t have a fever, she technically didn’t check all the boxes for COVID-19, but with lack of access to test kits, overcrowded hospitals, and healthcare hotlines that take hours to get through, there was no way of knowing either way. I’ve read accounts of younger people who tested positive for the virus even without having all of the typical symptoms. We quarantined her in the bedroom, I disinfected door knobs and other surfaces diligently, and washed my hands so often they became chapped and cracked.

Most of the time when one of us gets a cold or flu, we’ll be out one or two days max, but she was out for about five days, and couldn’t do much except sleep, watch Hulu, drink water and take all the zinc and vitamin C she possibly could. She recovered, thankfully, and the last two days she’s been pretty much back to normal. We are taking care to self-quarantine ourselves. Staying at home and social distancing is effective in slowing the spread of COVID-19, and allows hospitals more time to keep up. I jut learned that King County is building a temporary field hospital on a Shoreline soccer field that will provide an extra 200 beds for people with the virus.

I reported on the effects of coronavirus on Seattle cafes that were still open for Fresh Cup Magazine on March 11. Then on March 15th, Washington Governor Jay Inslee issued a proclamation that shutdown all restaurants, bars, cafes, and other establishments for at least two weeks. Many of my friends work for restaurants and cafes, live check-to-check, and this news, while essential to flattening the curve, is devastating to many employees and owners.

My mission in the coming months is to write as many articles as I can that bring attention to issues faced by working people during this crisis. If you have a story idea, or experience you’d like to share for an article, don’t hesitate to reach out.

What I Do / Who I Am

I thought it’d be a good time to refresh my intro on the kind of writing I do, and what I’m about. If you’re new to following me on social media, or reading my online articles, thank you!

I’m Mark, a freelance writer and social media manager. I typically write about specialty coffee, Seattle news, LGBTQ+ topics, and workers rights. Recently I’ve had the honor of interviewing nonbinary coffee workers for a three-part online series about nonbinary identities in coffee. I’ve covered Kshama Sawant’s inauguration, and interviewed “the grandfather of gay country music.” I’m working on some upcoming articles tentatively titled “How Did Cafes Get So Broey?” and “How Can Cafes Be More Accessible?”

I always welcome opportunities to write about Seattle news and events, queer and trans issues, and workplace organizing.

A little about me: My first freelance job was writing articles about high school sports for my small town’s local newspaper. At 17, my second job was at McDonald’s. First of all, working there made me vegetarian, and secondly, I witnessed one of the worst food service experiences of my life: In the middle of a busy lunch rush, a lady approached the counter and demanded to speak to someone because her burger wasn’t made as she requested. The first person to help was a primarily Spanish-speaking worker. The customer yelled about how disappointed she was, and finally threw her burger at my coworker before storming out. What stayed with me wasn’t the customer’s fit, it was the image of my coworker using a paper towel to clean ketchup and diced onions from her uniform.

That memory has a lot to do with why and how I write about the food service industry.