2020 Gumbo Final - Book - Page 100
National Pandemic
Story: Catherine Carpenter
Photo: Eddy Perez
Design: Catherine Carpenter
O
98
COVID-19 closes the nation
n March 12, 2020, students who originally
signed up for in-person courses faced the new
beginning of classes online. The World Health
Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic
the previous day, resulting in the suspension
of sporting events, meetings, extracurricular
activities and classes around the nation. At
first, students were ecstatic to have their
Spring Break extended an extra week as
classes were to resume on March 30 and
joked about having a ‘COVID-cation’. However,
as soon as LSU recommended that oncampus residents to move out, many students
decided to pack their bags months early and
head home. Many out-of-state students joked
about paying for out-of-state tuition only to
be learning in their home state, which is not
something anyone expected, but everyone
faced different hurdles during this unusual
time.
The world had not seen a pandemic like
COVID-19 in over 100 years. It affected LSU
and the world in extreme ways. People
interpreted the idea of everyday sanitation
differently due to COVID-19. No one could go
to the grocery store without lugging along a
bottle of hand sanitizer or walk outside without
seeing neighbors in a mask—that’s if they
were lucky enough to stock up. Toilet paper
even became the new hoarding item, despite
nobody knowing exactly why, but monkey-see,
monkey-do. Many people lost their loved ones,
many people risked their lives to save loved
ones.
LSU became a part of the journey to help fight
COVID-19 through the use of talent, ingenuity,
resiliency and fighting spirit. The many satellite
campuses came together with innovation to
help with COVID-19 testing, safety precautions
and a vaccine. The PMAC became a center
for a large-scale production of personal
protective equipment to support the medical
professionals on the frontlines. Departments
and LSU students combined their resources to
aid in producing these supplies, which mainly
consisted of gowns and face shields.
LSU professors and students adapted to a
new learning environment, whether that be
their couch, kitchen table or bed. Stay-athome orders were issued across the states
resulting in people only leaving their homes
for essentials. The lives lost to COVID-19 will
never be forgotten, neither will the mark it left
on LSU.