Debt. Cancelations. Caring for loved ones. listeners tell us how the virus is disrupting their lives
Debt. Cancellations. Caring for loved ones. Our podcast listeners tell us how the virus is already disrupting their everyday lives.
“Coronavirus Is Already Affecting Me and My Colleagues on a Catastrophic Level”
A pottery artisan, Doug from upstate New York, says he’s about to lose a ton of business:
“The coronavirus is already affecting me and my colleagues on a catastrophic level. We have our annual conference once a year where five to six to seven thousand ceramicists from around the country congregate together. We hear important talks on the field. And, from my standpoint, we sell pottery. And that conference is right now in threat of being canceled, which means a loss of millions of dollars in revenue.”
An Uber driver from Austin, Texas, who wished to remain anonymous, spoke about working in the gig economy when the gigs slow down:
“I don’t know how I’m going to pay rent, utilities, groceries.”
“We have no work. No one is coming out. We have no income now. No one is taking care of us because of the gig economy. I’ll put it to you this way: if this keeps up, I will be filing bankruptcy because I will not be able to pay any of my bills. I don’t know how I’m going to pay rent, utilities, groceries. This is affecting my life greatly.”
Nancy from California hires hourly employees, but her events business is taking a serious hit:
“I work in the events industry. Over the past seven days, my company has seen several million dollars in business canceled for March and going into April. I have seen 85 percent of my commissions for the next three months completely disappear. The biggest concern that I have are the people who work as hourly employees. Unless they have a job to work, they have no paycheck. And a lot of the people that work for my company will not be getting a paycheck in the foreseeable future because the business is canceling to that extent. So I’m extremely concerned about them heading into a financial crisis.”
Gabrielle is a 21-year-old college student whose classes have moved online as the result of a community petition:
“I’m a student at Vanderbilt University. My university just came back from spring break and at least nine students were in contact with someone who later tested positive for the coronavirus. People basically freaked out. A petition gathered at least 1,500 signatures for Vanderbilt to switch to online classes. They canceled classes for this whole week, and then they’re going online for the next two weeks. We don’t know if classes will resume in-person on March 30th. This may be the last time I see some of my friends who are seniors, which really sucks, I’m not gonna lie.”
Paul had a disturbingly easy time getting through customs on his way home from China:
“I’m an American citizen, but I’ve been teaching in China about 600 miles away from the epicenter. I came back to the United States to teach briefly in San Diego actually around January 21st. And the person who was a customs only said, ‘did you have a good time in China?’ And I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘Welcome back home.’ And that was it! And that’s pretty frightening. So, who knows if that’s still going on at this juncture.”
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/03/coronavirus-podcast-listeners-disruption-stories-episode/