For some people, quarantine has given them the opportunity to spend more time with their family, catch up on their favorite TV shows, or finally learn how to bake bread, among other things. But for those struggling with anxiety and depression, this time may be very difficult, especially if they live alone.
To learn more about protecting our mental health during the ongoing pandemic, we spoke with Elizabeth Irvin, a licensed clinical social worker and executive director at The Women’s Initiative, which offers free and low-cost (now virtual) counseling to women.
C-VILLE: How may the pandemic be affecting people who struggle with anxiety and depression?
Elizabeth Irvin: The virus and our stay-at-home order are triggering fear and uncertainty for everyone. In different ways, that is showing up for people who had depression and anxiety before this all got started. Their symptoms are continuing and sometimes worsening, but we’re also seeing incredible resilience, with many people really putting in the extra effort to reach out and get the care that they need.
The other additional impacts on people with depression and anxiety are what’s facing so many people, including issues with job security, money, and childcare, as well as feelings of isolation and disconnection from others. So as those issues worsen during this time period, it’s that much more important for people with underlying conditions to take even more steps for their self-care and well-being.
What can people struggling with mental wellness do to stay healthy at home?
It’s so important to get the facts about the virus from reliable sources, and make sure to also take media breaks. Avoid…too much negative content, because it really increases your anxiety. Taking the healthy actions that we all can, like good hand-washing, social distancing, and having a plan if someone gets sick—that’s anxiety-reducing too.
I also recommend keeping a schedule and making time to do activities that you enjoy…If the despair or depression is really starting to settle in, you may not have any interest in doing these things. However, it’s really important to start activities often, even without a lot of motivation to them, because they themselves help you feel better.
Taking time to create calm in your day…and taking care of your body are very important. The studies on exercise are clear, both for reduction of anxiety and depression, as well as improved sleep. They also are beginning to show results of fighting the virus. You can do that by running in place in a room and doing jumping jacks—things that don’t even require you to go outside.
Lastly, there’s staying connected. We are physically distancing, but we can make scheduled times to call and reach out to friends and family through FaceTime, Zoom, or however you can. Checking in on a neighbor, from a safe distance, is just as important. We don’t want people to feel acute isolation during this time.
But if you’re trying these things at home…and your symptoms are worsening, please call and reach out for professional help.
What can those who aren’t struggling with
mental wellness do to support their friends and family who are?
Regular check-ins, in the way the person would prefer you to do them. That could mean a text, a brief phone call, or a scheduled longer phone call once a week…You can also reach out for help from a professional yourself to know at what point somebody might need more support.
Overall, do what you can to help and support that person, and recognize you also need to then take care of yourself. Don’t forget your own self-care as you’re supporting others.
For more information on how to access The Women’s Initiative’s free call-in clinic, go to thewomensinitiative.org
Only 18 of the 55 licensed childcare centers and preschools in Charlottesville and Albemarle County are currently open, which means many local parents are struggling to balance working at home while caring for their kids. PC: Eze Amos
For the first few weeks after her kids’ daycare shut down, Sarah Burke found herself in survival mode, scrambling to figure out how to manage her full-time career while keeping her children (ages 2 and 3) busy at home.
“For a while, we felt like this was a short-term problem, and therefore would have a short-term solution, which was just trying our best to get through it,” she says. But eventually, “we [realized] we’re in this for the long-haul. We [had] to actually create systems that work for us.”
Burke, who owns a capital mitigation and criminal defense investigation firm, and her husband, a data science engineer, now switch off every few hours, one handling the kids while the other works at the makeshift desk they’ve created in their bedroom. Her children’s daycare, Westminster Child Care Center, has provided some online programming for its students, such as a weekly Show and Share over Zoom, she says. But for the most part, she and her husband have been “doing the best they can” when coming up with activities for their kids, from making crafts to teaching them about household tasks like gardening and recycling.
“We’re [still] trying to figure out how to manage the fact that my small business needs to continue…and he is supposed to be getting 40 hours of work per week. And there’s just not enough hours in the day to make it all happen,” she says. So “we’re trying to give ourselves a little bit of grace.”
Burke is one of many local working parents who has been without childcare, courtesy of the coronavirus. According to Gail Esterman, director of early learning at ReadyKids, only 18 of the 55 licensed childcare centers and preschools in Charlottesville and Albemarle County are currently open, along with 20 out of 34 licensed in-home childcare programs. And because of social distancing requirements, they have had to reduce the number of children they serve, giving priority to kids of essential workers.
While the UVA Child Development Center remains open, sociology professor Rose Buckelew decided to pull her 5-year-old son out due to safety concerns. She and her husband are now doing their best to meet the needs of their son and 3-year-old daughter, whose full-day preschool is completely closed, while working full-time from home.
“My work has increased. This is normally a really busy part of the semester, so I’m usually clocking in a lot of hours. And the window of time I can do the work has radically decreased,” says Buckelew, who currently teaches three courses (remotely) at the university. “[My husband and I], we switch off. Our morning starts, and one parent is with the kids, while the other one is working…we’re just switching off throughout the day so that someone can be working, getting meals ready, or doing the new work we have of trying to figure out how we get our groceries.”
“Most nights my husband and I clock in when the kids go to sleep around 7:30, 8 o’clock, and we’re working until midnight,” she adds. “At first, I was running on adrenaline, and so I was actually doing kind of okay, and I think I caught a rhythm. But now I’m just really struggling, [and] worn down.”
When she is not recording lectures, meeting with students over Zoom, or fulfilling her many other duties, Buckelew tries to do activities with her children that aren’t “super complicated,” such as worm walks, science experiments, and dance parties, in addition to any Zoom storytimes or other remote programming her daughter’s preschool, Mountaintop Montessori, puts on. Once spring semester ends, she hopes to “build in more learning experiences,” she says. However, her main focus has been “on keeping the kids happy…not putting a bunch of demands on them.”
Despite the challenges of full-time parenting, Buckelew recognizes she and her husband “are in a really good position,” and that “there are other people who are in much tougher situations.”
Some are relying on other family members to fill the gap. As essential workers, local E.R. nurse Kellen Squire and his wife—also an E.R. nurse—aren’t able to stay home full-time with their children, who are 3, 6, and 12. Fortunately, Squire’s parents have moved in to help out, but the changes his family has had to make have been “tough emotionally,” he says.
When they’re able to spend time with their children, Squire and his wife try to do social distancing activities, such as playing outside or watching movies, in order to ensure that they don’t pass the virus on to their kids, or to Squire’s parents.
“I know personally about a half a dozen colleagues from around the state, health care workers, that have gotten infected, so it’s not a theoretical risk,” he says. “And I haven’t seen anybody anywhere truly recover from it…we’re terrified we’ll bring that home.”
With parents like Squire on the frontline every day, sacrificing their health and safety, Burke is grateful to be at home with her family, regardless of its challenges.
“We are all having such a hard time, and it’s really easy to think that the day-to-day [life] that we’re leading is just the hardest thing we could possibly imagine…[but] we’re also really so lucky to have the opportunity to stay home,” she says. “It’s a tough balance between acknowledging how hard it is…but it’s also important to keep the bigger picture in mind.”
While the COVID-19 pandemic has affected people of all backgrounds across the globe, statistics show that it has had a disproportionate impact on black Americans. Data is limited, because only about 35 percent of U.S. cases specify a patient’s race, according to the CDC. But its numbers show that black people comprise nearly 34 percent of those infected with COVID-19, though they make up only 13 percent of the population. And African Americans make up nearly 30 percent of U.S. deaths from the virus, according to the latest Associated Press analysis.
Charlottesville is certainly not immune to this issue. In the Thomas Jefferson Health District, as of April 17, about 32 percent of people infected with coronavirus (and 25 percent of those who’ve died) are black, while black people make up only 13.9 percent of the district’s population.
Black communities in other parts of the state have been hit even harder by COVID-19. In Richmond, all eight people who’ve died from the virus were black. And while 48 percent of the city’s population is African American, black people make up about 62 percent of local cases.
Medical professionals, activists, and political leaders around the country have attributed these disparities to pre-existing inequities within our health care and economic systems. Blacks are more likely than whites to be uninsured and receive lower-quality health care, as well as have underlying conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, and heart disease—all often caused or worsened by poverty. And due to unequal education, housing segregation, and other systemic inequalities, a significant portion of black Americans live in densely packed areas and do not have jobs that allow them to work from home, making social distancing more difficult.
To provide more black Virginians with adequate health care access, the Albemarle-Charlottesville NAACP has sent a letter to Governor Ralph Northam asking him to use his “executive discretion” to speed up the Medicaid eligibility process using data available immediately from the Department of Taxation, along with other resources. Because there is currently a backlog of applications, those trying to be approved for Medicaid may have to wait as long as 45 days—which, for some people, “may be a death sentence.”
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Quote of the Week
“There was a housing crisis two months ago, and this entire community spent a number of years moving towards addressing that…And now we have an even bigger crisis.”
—Brandon Collins, Public Housing Association of Residents, addressing City Council on Monday
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In Brief
Gradual grads
UVA announced two tentative dates for graduation, after the original ceremony was canceled due to coronavirus. The class of 2020 will walk the Lawn on October 9-11, or, failing that, May 28-30, the weekend after the class of 2021 graduates. The university will still hold a digital ceremony to confer degrees this May, although it’s unclear if Zoom will have installed a virtual cap-flinging feature by then.
Sales are not on the menu
Seventy-eight percent of Virginia’s restaurant employees have been laid off since February, according to a new study from the National Restaurant Association. In the first week of April, the state’s restaurant sales declined 77 percent, compared to the same time period last year. That downturn has already forced longtime Charlottesville staple the Downtown Grille to permanently close its doors, while other beloved spots like Rapture, Tavola, and Oakheart Social have closed temporarily.
Capital loss
Death penalty critic Jerry Givens died last Monday in Henrico County at age 67. His son, Terence Travers, did not reveal Givens’ cause of death, but said that he had pneumonia and had tested positive for COVID-19. Givens, who spoke with C-VILLE in February for a story about the fight against the death penalty in Virginia, served as the state’s chief executioner for 17 years, before becoming an outspoken opponent of capital punishment.
Out of the House
Legislators in the state capital won’t be able to meet in their regular chambers for this month’s short veto session. Instead, Democratic leadership reports that the Senate will gather in a convention center, with members seated at desks 10 feet apart from each other, and the House will convene in a huge tent on the lawn near the capital.
Updated 4/22: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Rapture had closed permanently; according to the restaurant’s Facebook page, it is closed “indefinitely.”
Allison Kirkner, nurse practitioner at UVA. Photo: John Robinson
While most of us are staying home, some locals are still heading to work, to keep essential services running. Here are nine of their stories, in their own words.
Allison Kirkner
Lead nurse practitioner and manager, cardiothoracic ICU at UVA Hospital
As told to Erin O’Hare
Every single day is a different day. It would be totally fascinating were it not terrifying.
We work 12-hour shifts in our ICU, cover 24/7, and typically take care of patients who’ve had heart and lung surgeries.
Surgeons like to operate, but, three, four weeks ago, my surgeons made the decision to stop what we’re calling “electives.”
Because the volume is down, I’m asking for volunteers from my team to send to the COVID unit. Six or seven advanced providers, including myself, volunteered to either go on our regularly scheduled shifts or pick up extra ones. We’ve been doing that for about three weeks now. It’s been nice to shift our resources to help our colleagues.
There are a lot of conversations at UVA and elsewhere about who should be taking care of these patients and who shouldn’t be. I have pretty severe asthma, but I feel like everybody has something going on. I have been so impressed by my colleagues who have stepped up and said “I’ll do this part,” or “I’ll do that part.” This is a team sport.
I’m from southwestern Virginia and this is the hospital my parents would come to if they were very, very sick. You do it to take care of your patients and your community and lend whatever expertise you have toward patient care. I’m not a corny person—I’m actually a very sarcastic person—but, one thing I always talk about is that I’m solely motivated by patient care, and that’s really, really hard and frustrating in this. We’ve definitely been hamstrung by the federal government and by slower responses. I’m pretty impressed with UVA’s response overall. There are areas where we wish we could go back in time [and make adjustments] that would help us now. We’ve also been blessed with time, because our wave hasn’t hit yet, unlike New Orleans or New York. We have a little more time to prepare.
Something I’ve learned dealing with critically ill patients who have bad outcomes and do die sometimes, is to let myself wallow when I need to. I have days where I know I’m not going to get anything done, and I let myself be sad. We need to take the time to know what our bodies are saying to us, and to grieve not just specific patients but normal life. I’m also trying to stay working out on my water rower, and spending time with my husband, who’s a school teacher. And also wine.
Photo: Zack Wajsgras
Laura DeLapp
Shift supervisor at The Haven;
intake coordinator at PACEM
As told to Laura Longhine
The Haven is a day shelter. Before, we were open to anyone in need, including those who were housed. They would sign their names on the sign-in sheet and then go about their day. Now, we are no longer able to serve the housed community. We are now greeting people outside of the door, we are temperature checking, we are asking specific questions about health. We did have two that we had to turn away—one had left New York just last week, and another who had just left Maryland.
Once they are inside those doors they have to sanitize their hands, and we’re sanitizing the building, all surfaces, every hour.
There’s very few of us working inside the building, because most of the guests we have are extremely vulnerable. We’re communicating with the other staff either on Zoom or phone calls or emails.
We’re still interacting with the guests, but now it’s a lot different because you know we have to maintain that space. We actually put a piece of tape down by the front counter, and everybody’s covered in masks anytime they’re in the shelter.
The atmosphere is a lot quieter. I think a lot of [our guests] are concerned. I put one of the computers on the news every morning so they can keep up with everything that’s going on. It’s almost a totally different place right now.
For overnight shelter, PACEM is housing the women in The Haven, and we are housing the men at Key Rec Center. All the beds were spaced six feet apart.
As far as getting infected, I don’t have any concerns. Because a lot of the guests we have currently, I’ve been dealing with over a year now. I’m familiar with most of them, their health concerns. I sort of worry more going to the grocery store than I do at The Haven.
I’m always in a mask. I keep hand sanitizer in my vehicle, in my jacket pocket, anywhere that I can fit hand sanitizer I typically have it. And I’m making sure that myself and the guests are continually washing our hands, not touching faces, that sort of thing.
Exercise is a big stress release for me, because I have kids, I have five at home. My fiancé kind of maintains the household when I’m here.
I’ve got a good support system: I’m from a large family, and the majority of us are essential workers. So we talk a lot.
Staff photo
Jane Colony Mills
Executive director of Loaves & Fishes
Food Pantry
As told to Brielle Entzminger
In our normal operations, people come into the pantry and sit at a registration desk, they sign on a signature pad that’s been touched by multiple hands, and they grab a grocery cart and pick out their food. We also use 160 volunteers a week.
So when the epidemic began, we realized pretty quickly that we were going to have to completely redo how we do things. We had to ask our volunteers to stay home, to reduce the chance for exposure.
Now, instead of letting people shop, our staff organizes and bags the food, and puts it into grocery carts, wearing masks and gloves, so it’s ready to go when people pull into the parking lot. We’re still doing a face-to-face registration, but it’s with a clipboard—I’m the one doing that, with a mask and gloves on, and we’ve seen at least a 20 percent increase in people coming in.
Our staff push a grocery cart to a car, and the people receiving the food put it into the car themselves. Staff then sanitize the cart with Lysol before loading it up with bags again.
Trying to keep a distance between myself and the people who come in is pretty hard, because a lot of engines are running. You’re trying to get information from six feet away, and I can’t necessarily hear what people are saying. We’ve also seen a huge uptick in Spanish-speaking households coming for help, so I’ve recruited my daughter, who speaks Spanish, to help with that, along with one of our volunteers.
I think our greatest fear as a staff is that one of us is going to infect one of our clients. We’ve had some of our older clients and ill clients come to get food, and it’s so worrying. But they have no other way of getting food. The whole thing about infecting our families scares us too. I take off everything I’ve worn to work and put it immediately in the laundry. The gloves are thrown away, and the mask also goes into the laundry.
We’re all just trying to get back to our normal, as normal as we can be. I love to cook, so with my daughter and husband home, I’m making dinner all the time, and they are too. While I’m jealous that I’m not actually getting to stay home, the concept is great, because it’s making us appreciate each other more.
Staff photo
Modou Secka
Cashier at Oak Hill Market & Deli
As told to Carol Diggs
I have been working here for five years, and I have never seen anything like this. We want to stay open for our customers, so I am very careful to wipe everything down and to keep things clean. And we have the rules about distance, the tape on the floor. For us working here, they’ve given us masks, hand sanitizer, gloves, and wipes. I use the spray sanitizer on the glass doors too, that’s why they don’t look so clean as they do with Windex. And the plastic screen for the checkout counter will be coming in later this week.
We’re not open as much—only from 10am to 9pm now, it used to be 7am to 11pm. But we have nice customers, they understand. When they come, and they see cars parked outside, they look in first and make sure there won’t be more than 10 people inside. If a family comes, some of them may stay outside.
Many customers do come in for groceries, because they can get in and get out quick, and they don’t want to go to the big stores. And we have a great deal right now on soda.
I have to make sure I’m careful when I go home, too. When I get home, I change all my clothes and wash them, wash my hands too.
Photo: John Robertson
John Anderson
Driver for JAUNT
As told to Brielle Entzminger
Before the epidemic, it was just the everyday hustle and bustle. People felt free to use JAUNT, and ridership was pretty steady. Now, there’s a lot less riders. I drive on the same route, but it’s been cut short. I work less hours, since there’s not as much of a demand for drivers. We aren’t charging fares at this time. Every driver has to wear masks and gloves, and sanitize their bus several times a day—the seats, walls, rails, essentially everything that people touch.
Because I’m not going into the JAUNT office and socializing with my co-workers like usual, it can also be a bit isolating. When I go to work, I see the other drivers in the parking lot and make small talk for a little while, but we have to keep our distance from each other.
As for the passengers, I’ve haven’t seen that many people wearing masks and gloves, but they’ve been practicing social distancing and sitting far away from each other. We’ve also been picking up a lot of health care providers from the main facilities and transporting them. However, I feel pretty safe and at ease, because they can’t enter their facilities without being screened for virus [symptoms].
I try to stay safe and distant from everyone. But still having to go places, both for work and outside of work, it can be scary.
I’ve been sleeping a lot more than usual, because my hours are a little bit different. I don’t have to go into work as early as I normally do. I try not to look at the news as much, and really try to stay away from it, because most of it is bad news. And outside of work, I’ve been staying home and trying to stay safe. It seems like it’s going to be a long time before it gets better, but I’m just hanging in there, and trying not to let it get to me. That’s all you can do.
Photo courtesy subject
Erik Bailey
Paramedic for Charlottesville Fire Department
As told to Erin O’Hare
Before, you’d wear a mask if someone had the flu, or another confirmed illness. Now we wear one always. I’m a lot more vigilant than I used to be, because of how insidious the virus is and how it’s spread: You have to assume everyone has the virus and be good about your PPE usage.
I work on the ambulance, in addition to the fire engine, directly involved in patient care and transport, so, if I’m within six feet of a patient, I’m wearing eye protection, a surgical mask, gloves, and a gown. And the patient wears a surgical mask, too.
The N-95 mask shortage has been all over the news. We’re wearing N-95s when we’re doing an aerosolizing procedure, which can produce airborne [virus] particles, such as intubation, doing CPAP, CPR, things like that, we’re wearing N-95s and the plastic visors, as well as gowns.
You talk to any health care provider, what they’re concerned about is, are you staying safe and healthy? Is your family staying safe and healthy? Are your co-workers staying safe and healthy? Because this is a quietly spreading virus, you’re worried you’re taking it home to your kids, your wife, your husband, anyone else. You see across the country all these fire departments with large portions of their staff being quarantined due to exposure. That’s my biggest concern: I’d feel bad spreading it to other people. My parents are both in their 60s, living in northern Virginia, which is a hot spot right now, so I’m concerned about them, definitely talking on the phone with them more than I used to. And the PPE shortages. Any provider is concerned about having the PPE that they need. We’ve been fortunate to have it so far.
I cope by trying to learn as much as I can about what other departments, providers, and health systems are doing. But I have to pull back when I can, and focus on other stuff. My wife and I just bought a house, so we’ve been doing a lot of DIY projects. I’ll take my bike out on remote roads. A lot of streaming. Trying to read, eat well, rest, stay active. Oh, and I’ve recently joined the legions of people baking bread.
[Medics] are kinda going through what everyone else is going through, making adjustments, trying to be more careful. I’d just say, take care of each other the best you can.
Staff photo
Terrell Mellen
Pharmacist at Top Notch Pharmacy
As told to Ben Hitchcock
It’s really important for people to realize that, even though there’s a pandemic, they should still be prioritizing their health—which means getting their regular medications on time, and efficiently.
It’s been easy for us to come to work. I know a lot of essential workers are kind of nervous about that, but we know our patients by name, know them really well. It makes us want to come to work, to still provide their medications for them. Just letting them know to remember to take care of themselves at a time like this.
We’re still open normal hours, offering all the services we normally do to our patients. We’re not letting people in the store, we’re doing curbside pickup and home delivery only. We can also mail prescriptions. The only thing we’re not currently doing is immunizations, to protect the patients.
We haven’t had a huge problem getting in any medications at this time. The only one that we’re having to limit some supply of is the hydroxychloroquine. [Demand for hydroxychloroquine skyrocketed after President Trump tweeted that the drug was a “game changer” in the fight against the virus; he was referring to a French study that has since been discredited.]
We got in as much as we could. It’s normally used for patients with chronic conditions like lupus. It also can be used as an anti-malarial drug. We’re prioritizing dispensing it to patients who have been on it long-term, and need it for their chronic conditions.
We’re trying to keep business here as normal as possible—still taking days off to decompress from it, though. [My go-to] is gardening and house projects, these days. And mountain biking, too.
Everybody has been, honestly, so kind and generous these past couple weeks. A patient today dropped off Bodo’s, just because. I think everybody’s trying to take care of each other.
Photo: Zack Wajsgras
Lester Jackson
Elevator assistant mechanic at UVA
As told to Erin O’Hare
All of the elevators I work on are hospital, medical research, or medical related. Doing my job, you could lose your life, but it’s more likely from accidents like a long fall or getting caught up in machinery. But now there’s a heightened sense of, you could lose your life and possibly usher in the death of family members, too. If I get this thing, I could bring it home. The threat is there. Not every moment of my time, or even the majority of it, is spent working around hospital elevators associated with the pandemic, but when something needs to be done [there], we play a major part in it.
There are a few elevators at the hospital side that have to work at all times: the helicopter elevator, elevators that are dealing with this pandemic. There’s no getting around it.
We have to wear face masks at UVA, period. But when going specifically to the hospital elevators used for patients who have the virus, I have to wear a Tyvek full bodysuit with a hood. It covers my boots and everything. I wear a surgical mask, an N-95 mask, a splash shield, latex gloves.
It’s hard to feel completely safe. Whenever you have to put on that amount of gear, you may feel physically safe, but mentally, it wears on you. The more stuff you put on, the worse you tend to feel emotionally. Every day when I get home, I take all of my clothes off and put them in a bag outside of my house—my shoes, my socks, my shirt, my pants, everything. My neighbors are getting a free show! It is what it is. I have a bucket of water and soap outside, and I wash my hands and my beard. As soon as I get into the house, I get right into the first shower downstairs before I do anything else.
I’m trying to do what I can to keep my family safe. Trying to keep any exposure that I could possibly have to a minimum.
I’m making a lot of music, though, trying to stay creative. Working on a lot of projects, a Nathaniel Star love album, Eros, up next. I’m spending time with my children, my family. I take my mom groceries. She has everything she needs, but I can’t hug her. She can’t hug her grandchildren. That’s been hard.
You just find yourself saying, every day: “This is crazy. This is crazy.” I don’t even know what else to say. That’s on repeat.
Cooper Halley
Lyft driver
As told to Carol Diggs
I wasn’t too concerned about this virus at first; it seemed like it was mostly overseas, not here. But when the president started closing down travel… I talked to my dad, he’s a pretty smart guy, and he gave me some specific tips that he knew from working for Uber. He was already taking these precautions, because he’s an older man, you know, but for me—I’m 26— it’s hard for me, like most young people, to be afraid of something I can’t see the effect of.
In a car, it’s hard to keep six feet apart. So I keep the windows cracked—unless the customer objects—to circulate air from outside. I cover every inch of my skin, and I wear gloves. I have several different bandannas. Of course I can’t find a medical mask anymore. Usually when I get home, I spray any part of the car that won’t get ruined by it. It’s funny, most of my customers aren’t taking precautions, but they expect the driver to; I think it makes them feel better. I think everyone is trying to be a little nicer to each other, perhaps because you can’t be close together, you know?
Most of my customers don’t have a car of their own. The rides I get are people going to the store for something they need, or to or from the airport. No one’s going out for entertainment.
For now, I’m feeling it out day by day. My dad has stopped driving. I’m keeping an eye on my sick-o-meter. If it gets so a majority of my rides are worrying me, I’ll stop.
Owner Amanda Stevens says Shenanigans has seen a rise in sales of puzzles, arts and crafts, games, and outdoor toys in recent weeks. PC: Eric Kelley
In recent weeks, multiple local retailers, from Oyster House Antiques to Angelo Jewelers, have been forced to shut their doors due to Virginia’s stay-at-home order. But others are adopting contactless business models, and customers are still streaming in.
Shenanigans Toys & Games, on West Main Street, has made the transition to online shopping. Customers can peruse items on the store’s website, then place their orders online, over the phone, or through social media. To encourage people to shop locally, the store offers free delivery for Charlottesville and Albemarle County residents, and contactless curbside pick-up for all customers, says owner Amanda Stevens.
“There’s an expense to offering free delivery, and that’s something that I’m taking on in an effort to keep my customers with me [and] get by,” says Stevens. The store’s seen a rise in sales of puzzles, arts and crafts, games, and outdoor toys. Stevens also hasn’t had to lay off any employees—instead, she’s hired several more to help with deliveries.
“I’m blown away by the community support,” she says. “I’m so thankful to be a small business in Charlottesville, where people care about trying to make sure that we’re here when this is all said and done.”
Longtime sportswear staple Mincer’s, at The Shops at Stonefield and on the Corner, has also gone online, and offers free shipping for customers who spend $10 or more. For those who live within a couple hundred miles of the store, purchases generally arrive in a day, says owner Mark Mincer.
Unfortunately, the store laid off some of its staff, because business has had “a huge drop off from what we normally do,” says Mincer. The handful of people currently on staff make sure to stay in separate rooms, as they work on shipping orders, among other daily tasks. Like Shenanigans, Mincer’s has seen a big uptick in jigsaw puzzle orders, and is now sold out until next month.
“It’s not going great. It’s not going terribly. But it’s going,” says Mincer. “I think things are going to get better at some point…we are trying to get one of those PPP loans from the government to try to help pay the hourly employees, especially the one who are not able to work.”
“There’s [also] been some talk about possibly delaying the collection of sales tax, payroll tax, or income tax,” he adds. “If any of those due dates are postponed…it’ll definitely help.”
While relying mainly on website and phone orders, The Happy Cook, in Barracks Road Shopping Center, is allowing customers to make in-store purchases, but in a limited capacity.
“We are allowing ourselves to be open for intentional shopping. If people call in advance and know exactly what they’re looking for, they [can] come in, make sure that is what they want, pay, and leave, so that we aren’t having interaction with them,” says owner Monique Moshier. “We’re normally seeing…in total for a day, maybe 10 people [do this].”
For customers who don’t need to come into the store, The Happy Cook offers curbside pick-up, and free delivery for those within a 15 miles radius. It also posts no-cost daily cooking tutorials on Facebook, and streams one to two hour-long cooking classes per week with a professional chef ($20 per Zoom account).
“From a business perspective, it’s just challenging all around…the revenue is sustainably diminished from a regular day. Every transaction probably takes three to four times more work than it used to,” says Moshier. “But it really has been so encouraging to feel like the Charlottesville community is recognizing that, and is really trying to get behind [local businesses]…customers are going out of their way to be like ‘Hey, I don’t necessarily need this today, but I’m not affected by this financially, so I am buying these things because I want to support you.’”
In order for area retailers to survive this difficult time, residents need to shop local as much as possible, not just now but long after the epidemic is over, says Elizabeth Cromwell, CEO of the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce, which has been working to provide the business community with information on loans, grants, and other forms of relief.
“Everybody should look at a local organization first and see if they can fulfill your request,” says Cromwell. “And as major organizations like UVA, the city, and the county reopen in the coming months, we are certainly going to be advocating that [everyone] make a very specific effort to buy local wherever possible.”
Even when you aren’t able to get what you need from an area business, “leave a review for somewhere you have shopped with on Google, Yelp, or any social media platform,” adds Stevens. “Those reviews go such a long way.”
Correction 4/16: The original version of this story inaccurately stated that business at Shenanigans Toys & Games has been “booming.” While the store has seen a rise in sales for certain items, sales are down overall, and it is struggling with the added expenses of free delivery.
To see who’s open and what they’re offering, check out these lists from the Charlottesville Chamber of Commerce.
A congregant reacts during an Easter Sunday mass at Covenant Church on Sunday, April 12, 2020. Churches have adapted to allow patrons to listen to the services from their car radios and over loud speakers in order to continue congregating. PC: Zack Wajsgras
Creative worship in the age of corona
Pastor Harold Bare was met with an unusual scene when he stood in front of his congregation on Easter Sunday—a barrage of car horns during a Facebook-streamed drive-in service, which welcomed congregants to decorate their vehicles and watch Bare’s sermon from a parking lot.
Like every other institution in town, religious organizations have had to get creative as the novel coronavirus has radically reshaped our world. On Good Friday, Bare’s Covenant Church convened its choir over Zoom, with singers crooning into laptop microphones in rough, tinny unison.
“Fear not, God is in control,” read a sticker on the side of one car at Covenant’s Easter service. Additional stickers thanked more earthly leaders, like nurses and doctors.
Other religious groups have had to adjust in similar ways. Zoe Ziff, a UVA student, organized a Zoom Passover Seder for her friends who have been scattered across the world by the university’s closure.
“We spoke over each other and lagged, but it was beautiful to see my friends, hear their voices, and share the story of Passover together,” Ziff says. “It’s a reminder that everywhere in the world, Jewish people are retelling this story—though this year, over a webcam.”
“We’re being as careful as we know how to be,” Bare said at the beginning of his holiday sermon. Religious traditions might stretch back thousands of years, but these days, they’re Zooming along just like the rest of us.
A congregant’s car is seen decorated during an Easter Sunday mass at Covenant Church on Sunday, April 12, 2020. PC: Zack Wajsgras
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Signing day
The Virginia legislature turned in a historic session earlier this year, and as the deadline approached this week, Governor Northam put his signature on dozens of new bills. The new laws will tighten gun safety regulations, decriminalize marijuana, allow easier access to abortion, make election day a national holiday, repeal voter ID laws, allow racist monuments to be removed, and more. Northam didn’t sign everything, though—he used his power to delay the legislature’s proposed minimum wage increase by one year, citing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Local COVID-19 case update
53 confirmed cases in Albemarle
34 confirmed cases in Charlottesville
4 deaths
Data as of 4/13/20, courtesy of Thomas Jefferson Health District
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Quote of the Week
“In Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy… in Charlottesville, the home of Thomas Jefferson… We led the charge to change the state. It’s all been worth it.”
—Former vice mayor Wes Bellamy, on the new law allowing localities to remove Confederate monuments
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In Brief
Statue status
Governor Ralph Northam has finally made it official: Charlottesville will soon be able to legally take down its Confederate monuments. The bill, which Northam signed on April 11, will go into effect July 1. The end is in sight, but the city will have to wait 60 days and hold one public hearing before the statues can be removed.
Foy joy?
Last week, state Delegate Jennifer Carroll Foy (D-Prince William) filed paperwork to run for Virginia governor in 2021. Foy is a 38-year-old former public defender who sponsored the legislation that led to Virginia’s ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. If elected, she would become the first black female governor in United States history. Her likely Democratic primary opponents include Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax, an accused sex offender, and Attorney General Mark Herring, who has admitted to appearing in blackface.
(No) walk in the park
To the disappointment of Old Rag enthusiasts, the National Park Service completely shut down Shenandoah National Park April 8, per recommendation from the Virginia Department of Health. All trails—including our stretch of the famed Appalachian Trail—are now closed. Still want to explore the park? Visit its website for photo galleries, videos, webcams, and interactive features, or follow it on social media.
Win-win
Under the name Frontline Foods Charlottesville, local organizations are working with chef José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen to deliver food to health care workers, with meals supplied by area restaurants like Pearl Island Catering, Champion Hospitality Group, and Mochiko Cville. In the coming weeks, FFC plans to add more restaurants, which will be reimbursed for 100 percent of the cost of food and labor, and expand to serve other area community members.
Demanding justice
As reports of intimate partner violence increase due to coronavirus lockdowns, UVA Survivors, a student advocacy and support group, has created a petition calling for the “immediate, structural, and transformative change” of the university’s sexual violence prevention and support services. The petition demands UVA fund an external review of the Title IX office; provide survivor-created and informed education on sexual violence and consent; create a stand-alone medical unit for sexual, domestic, and interpersonal violence survivors; and move the Title IX office from O’Neill Hall (located in the middle of UVA’s ‘Frat Row’), among other demands. It has been signed by more than 100 students and student organizations.
As the number of coronavirus cases in our area multiply daily, health officials have urged anyone experiencing symptoms of the virus—fever, cough, and shortness of breath—to immediately contact their doctor. But what if you have other symptoms, suffer a minor injury, or just need a checkup? Will you still be seen by a physician?
For many patients in and around Charlottesville, the answer is yes—but not in an office. To prevent the spread of COVID-19, many local practices have moved their appointments online, only seeing patients in person when necessary.
Since last month, Albemarle Center for Family Medicine has allowed both new and old patients with non-urgent issues to schedule virtual appointments. Though its staff was apprehensive at first, the appointments have “been going really great,” says office coordinator Stephanie Hall.
After patients schedule an appointment, they receive a text message and an email with a link, which lets them know what their insurance will cover and allows them to pay their co-pay in advance, Hall explains. (Those without insurance pay an out-of-pocket fee of $75.)
At the time of the virtual visit, the provider’s nurse calls first to do an intake. “We check your meds, we check your allergies, we make sure you’re at home,” Hall says. Once the patient is ready, the provider, who is in a private setting at home or at the office, logs in. “It’s almost like FaceTime.”
After discussing patients’ issues, the doctor or nurse practitioner may use the patients’ cameras to perform a limited physical exam, and have them take their own vital signs, if possible, as well as go over their medical history and other important information before giving a recommendation. And like a regular doctor’s visit, all information is documented and confidential.
After the appointment, “we can send in prescriptions if needed, we can order labs and X-rays if needed…[and] we can have them call us back to make a follow-up appointment in the office,” says nurse practitioner Catherine Easter of Charlottesville Gastroenterology Associates, which started using telemedicine with established patients last month.
For other practices around town, telemedicine is nothing new. Since opening in September, Charlottesville Direct Primary Care has allowed its patients to schedule virtual appointments through an app.
“When you join [our practice], you get a prompt on your phone to download the Spruce app,” says co-founder Dr. Lindsey Neal. “So a telemedicine visit for us is literally like press a button, and there we are on the screen.”
Yet despite its conveniences, telemedicine comes with its own challenges, specifically for those without adequate internet or cell phone service.
“Most of the issues that we’ve had have been technical difficulties, because of all the traffic on the internet, particularly during the day,” says Easter. “But it has been very limited as far as problems go.”
Telemedicine can also be challenging for those who are not tech savvy, particularly elderly patients, Hall points out. They may need help from the doctor’s office or a family member in order to set up the video call. And if all else fails, the appointment may need to be done over a regular phone call, or in person.
Connecting with a patient through a screen can be difficult as well, explains Neal.
“There’s a lot of information that a physician can get just from seeing someone” through a video call, she says. “[But] there’s some beauty in the unspoken information that comes from being in the room with someone…We’re also trained to do physical exams. So it’s really hard to make a diagnosis on someone without that added additional information.”
For Hawkins Dale, a patient at Sentara Family Medicine, telemedicine “worked just fine.”
“There was some confusion on their part about the technical requirements,” he says. “But it turned out it was just a regular old Zoom meeting!”
Because Dale’s appointment was for a six-month checkup, he had set it up in advance, and did not have to go through the scheduling process. At the time of his appointment, a nurse connected with him over Zoom, and “took the basic facts,” such as his weight. Afterwards, Dale discussed his health with his doctor, who simply encouraged him to “drink less beer and get more exercise, as she would have done in person,” he says.
With the ease and convenience of his first virtual appointment, Dale plans to continue to use telemedicine for his medical needs.
“Lots of medicine can be delivered remotely,” he says. “Even without the plague, I would much rather do this from my office, rather than having to go to the doctor’s office.”
Dale is one of many patients who have been pleased with their virtual visits, all three medical professionals say.
“[Our patients] are really grateful to know that we’re here for them, but they don’t have to leave their homes to get the help they need for their issues,” says Neal. “They also text message me a lot…[and] are just hungry for reassurance.”
At Albemarle Center for Family Medicine, patients have also given a lot of positive feedback, and are glad to receive treatment without having to potentially expose themselves or others to the virus, says Hall.
“In general, it has been a great avenue for us to be able to reach some of our patients that we would not have been able to otherwise,” adds Easter. “I hope that patients will continue, even after the COVID crisis, to use this platform.”
Correction 4/16: Stephanie Hall is the office coordinator for Albemarle Center for Family Medicine, not Family Medicine of Albemarle.
Jack Jouett teacher Heather Dow sits in her car outside the middle school to utilize the public WiFi. Dow lives in Greene County, and does not have a fast enough internet connection to take Zoom calls for work. PC: Zack Wajsgras
With Virginia’s K-12 schools shuttered for the remainder of the academic year, our city and county districts have moved into uncharted territory: figuring out not only how to teach thousands of students outside of the classroom, but also making distance learning accessible and equitable for all.
The districts say they are still developing formal distance learning programs, which will be rolled out after spring break, on April 13. In the meantime, some teachers in both the city and county have provided students with optional online modules and activities, reviewing previously taught material. Educators have also been using video conference services like Zoom and Google Hangouts to bring kids together.
Accessing these resources, however, is more difficult for some than others. Up to 30 percent of Albemarle County Public Schools students don’t have adequate access to the internet at home. And while Charlottesville City Schools do not have division-wide data on students’ internet access, its most recent CHS student survey indicated that 6 percent of households have no internet.
To bridge this digital divide, ACPS has boosted the WiFi signal at all of its schools, as well the Yancey School Community Center, allowing anyone to get onto the internet from parking lots. Several hundred cars have already been spotted taking advantage of this crucial resource, according to ACPS spokesman Phil Giaramita.
ACPS has also leased part of its broadband spectrum to Shentel, enabling the company to expand internet to more rural, underserved households in the area. With the lease revenue, it’s ordered about 100 Kajeet Smart Spots, which are “devices you can install in your house that will access the network of local carriers in your area,” explains Giaramita. Once they’re delivered, “we’re going to start distributing those to teachers [and students] who don’t have internet access at home,” and will order more as needed.
In the city, CCS recommends that students who have inadequate internet access connect to an AT&T or Xfinity hot spot, as both companies have recently opened up all of their U.S. hot spots to non-customers. The district is also distributing hot spots to students who are unable to use those publicly available.
Both city and county school districts are giving laptops to students in grades two and up who need them. ACPS also plans to distribute iPads to kindergarteners through second graders.
At CCS, learning guides are available online for pre-K, kindergarten, and first grade students with suggested activities that do not require access to the internet.
Despite these efforts, CHS senior Jack Dreesen-Higginbotham remains concerned about the city’s transition to distance learning. “I know they’ve been working on trying to set up hot spots for students, but I don’t know if it will be accessible to everybody. And [still], not everyone has a school-provided laptop,” he says. “My brother, who is in sixth grade, wasn’t provided one, so he’s had to use mine to do his work.”
However, Dreesen-Higginbotham’s CHS teachers, who currently use Zoom, are doing a “very good job at instructing their classes and organizing lessons, so that they can be inclusive to everybody,” he says.
After spring break, both CCS and ACPS will provide more formal online—and offline—academic instruction and enrichment for each grade level.
“We’re looking at finding specific solutions for individual families, whether online, offline, or a combination,” says CCS spokeswoman Beth Cheuk.
“Offline could simply mean working with kids by telephone, by regular mail. We’ve asked teachers to be creative, so that there isn’t any student who is disadvantaged by their access to technology,” adds Giaramita.
While students will learn new material through distance learning, there will be no grading (or SOLs). Instead, teachers will provide feedback on a regular basis.
To former CHS teacher Margaret Thornton, now a Ph.D. candidate in educational leadership at UVA, this is an opportunity for local schools to explore different types of evaluation systems.
“I hope that we can make lemonade out of these lemons, and re-evaluate a lot of our policies—grading is certainly one of them,” she says.
“We’ve [also] known for a long time that our standardized testing system has created a lot of inequality,” Thornton adds. “We can be rethinking assessments at this time, and how we can make it more formative and more useful in instruction.”
Both school divisions want to ensure that as many students as possible graduate or are promoted to the next grade level. Per guidance from the Virginia Department of Education, students who were on track to pass before schools closed will do so. But on April 6, ACPS announced that if distance learning is not “the best fit” for a student, they will have the option to complete the school year by attending classes in July, or (excluding seniors) during the next school year.
While ACPS’ lesson plans will not go into effect until April 13, Giaramita says one of its distance-learning initiatives has already been implemented: Check and Connect. Students will now be contacted at least once a week by a teacher, counselor, administrator, or principal to talk about their distance learning experience, what assistance they need, and what their internet access is like. So that no student is left out, this contact can take place by phone, email, video call, or even snail mail.
CCS has also asked teachers to connect with each of their students to identify which ones need additional support, regarding WiFi or other issues.
Such practices may be particularly beneficial to those who do not have parents at home to help and support them throughout the day.
“So many service workers are being considered essential, and are doing essential work. But that means often that their kids are going to be home alone without adult interaction,” Thornton says. “The relationships between teachers and students are [going to be] key.”
Other teachers, parents, and community members have expressed similar concerns for students with limited access to adult instruction and interaction, such as those from refugee or ESOL families. And with a significant amount of students without adequate internet access, some fear students won’t be prepared for the next school year.
“It is really hard to live in the county and not have reliable [internet] access. We don’t even have cellular service so we can’t utilize a hot spot,” says Jessiah Mansfield, who has a senior at Western Albemarle High School. “If we need something important, we have to go to Charlottesville to download it. I’m sure we aren’t the only ones with this issue, but it will impact our children.”
However, others remain hopeful that teachers will be able to help their students make it through the rest of the semester.
“As the crisis continues and escalates, so does anxiety for all. Learning should be suggested. Remember we are at home trying to work not working from home. Connecting with my students is just as important for them as it is for me,” says Libby Nicholson, a fourth-grade teacher at Broadus Wood Elementary School. “We are in this together! We got this!”
Many local grocery stores have taken steps to protect customers from contracting COVID-19, but some have been more aggressive than others. PC: Staff Photo
Shielding up
While many businesses have been forced to close due to the coronavirus, grocery stores are busier than ever—and their employees have had to continue showing up for work, potentially putting themselves at risk. On March 31, some Whole Foods workers stayed home in a nationwide “sick out” to protest a lack of protections, and call for benefits like paid leave and hazard pay.
In response, the company has made some changes, but conditions for both employees and shoppers still vary widely among grocery chains. We checked in over the weekend to see how Charlottesville’s stores stack up.
Plexiglass shields have been installed in front of the registers at most stores (Wegmans and Reid Super-Save Market say they are coming soon).
Cashiers wear masks and gloves at Whole Foods, while those at Trader Joe’s, the Barracks Road Kroger, and Reid’s currently wear only gloves. Employees at Wegmans and the Food Lion on Pantops have neither.
Social distancing markers have been installed to keep customers six feet apart in check-out lines in all stores, and most cashiers wipe down registers between transactions.
Of the places we visited, Trader Joe’s seemed to be taking the most stringent precautions, limiting customers to 20 at a time in the store. Employees wearing face masks and gloves sanitize each cart before handing it off to a customer, and cashiers have no physical contact with customers.
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For the record
As the virus has shuttered the economy, a record-breaking number of Americans and Virginians have filed unemployment claims. For one on-the-nose example of how bad things have gotten, head to the Virginia Employment Commission’s website—or don’t, because it has shut down, overwhelmed by the amount of new traffic.
Number of unemployment claims last week nationwide: 6.6 million
Number of unemployment claims last week in Virginia: 112,497
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Quote of the Week
“Voters should not be forced to choose between exercising their Constitutional rights and preserving their own health and that of their community.”
—Allison Robbins, president of the Voter Registrars Association of Virginia, in a letter urging the state to cancel in-person voting in favor of mail-in ballots for upcoming elections
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In Brief
Better late than never?
UVA announced on Monday that it will create a $2 million emergency fund for contract employees laid off during the university’s closure. The decision comes after student activists circulated a petition demanding action and C-VILLE Weekly published a cover story about workers laid off by Aramark, UVA’s dining services contractor. The article prompted two GoFundMe campaigns, which raised a combined $71,000 for the employees in a matter of days. UVA is also donating $1 million to the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation.
Booze news
The Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority has begun allowing Virginia-based distilleries to deliver their products directly to customers. The state claims the new rule is aimed at helping distilleries maintain some income during the current economic freeze. While the policy will surely help the distilleries, it’ll likely be even more beneficial for the thousands of Virginians currently trapped inside with their families.
Spring (break) into action
This week would have been spring break for Charlottesville City Schools, so the district didn’t plan to offer grab-and-go breakfast and lunch for its neediest students. But City Schoolyard Garden and The Chris Long Foundation have picked up the slack by partnering with local restaurants Pearl Island and Mochiko Cville to provide 4,000 meals throughout the week.
Moving out
UVA will clear out three student residential buildings to make space for temporary housing for health care workers, the university announced this week. Students who left belongings when they were told not to return to school will have their things shipped and stored off-site by UVA. Students objected to the plan because anyone who wants to retrieve items before the end of the Virginia-wide state of emergency will be charged up to $100.
Colleges around the nation have switched to online instruction, with some hiccups along the way. Illustration: Jason Crosby
“I’m going to kill a fifth during this lecture,” announced one student, holding a bottle of whiskey aloft as his classmates tuned in for a Zoom meeting of a UVA data science class.
“I can hear you,” the professor said back.
As coronavirus has swept the nation, universities across the country have had to go digital, ditching in-person class meetings in favor of video conferencing. The transition has come with plenty of thrills and spills: Clips have circulated of college students confidently striding naked through the frame, getting their hair braided, or taking bong rips while the professor rambles on. As the above anecdote from recent grad Alex Hendel suggests, UVA students and faculty have taken their fair share of digital pratfalls in the two weeks since online classes have begun.
Politics professor Allen Lynch sent an email to his class on Thursday afternoon, admitting that he had delivered his entire 75 minute lecture without pressing record. Only the first six seconds made it online. When a student pointed out the error, “my heart sank,” Lynch says.
He forged ahead and delivered the lecture again the next day—but once again, after concluding, noticed he had failed to hit record. “One more time tomorrow!” said the respected Russian politics scholar, before finally managing to upload the lecture on his third try.
Second-year engineering student Nora Dale says the distance makes her advanced math classes harder. “I can’t show someone my screen easily, to show them my code or a math problem, in an online format,” Dale says. “A lot of the time I would swing by office hours to ask one question, but now office hours—you have to meet over video, you have to join the queue, it just takes so much longer.”
“The golden lining is that sometimes people show their pets on camera, which is always cute,” she says.
Participants might be scattered thousands of miles apart, but in a sense, online learning provides an unparalleled intimacy. Sometimes these glimpses into the lives of colleagues are lovely. “I learned my English professor color codes her bookshelf!” says fourth-year Gracie Kreth.
Other times, such peeks are unsettling. Third-year Emmy Monaghan says that in her anthropology class, a student was disassembling and cleaning a gun on screen during the lecture. “It was so wild…it seemed very intentional.” Monaghan says. “My professor sent out an email yesterday telling us that we need to have our cameras off from now on.”
Some students have taken it upon themselves to provide a bit of levity in these difficult circumstances, with pets or otherwise. First year Aidan Reed noticed a Zoom feature that allows users to project a digital background on their calls, and attended his English seminar from a pineapple under the sea—projecting the inside of SpongeBob’s house behind him as he sat in class.
“One of my favorite shows of all time is “SpongeBob,” and I thought it would be funny because everyone’s in their house right now,” Reed says.
With the world in disarray, and everyone forced to learn a new system on the fly, it’s as good a time as any to relax the rules a bit. “I wanted to make people laugh,” Reed says, “because I’m sure everyone’s pretty miserable going through all of this.”
