by McKenzie Rogers
COVID 19 became globally known and despised in the duration of the last seven months. Jobs changed, homes changed, and daily life changed for everyone because of the virus. People were forced to quarantine themselves and to deal with the uncertainty of their job security. Though some things people have been forced to do because of the virus have been borderline insane, unusual, and corrupt.
Although places in Asia seemed to be hit hardest at the beginning of the year, some people in Asia still did not agree with the mask mandate in their countries. In early September, The Jakarta Post spoke about an outrageous duty performed by people who refused to wear masks out in public since they chose to neglect public safety precautions. In the East Java province of Indonesia, government officials forced those neglectful people to dig the graves for victims of the virus as punishment. More specifically, the eight anti-maskers were forced to help the three gravediggers in a cemetery in the Ngabetan village who struggled to keep up with the increasing number of COVID deaths. In what other modern scenario does the idea of punishing people with digging graves even come up for discussion? None, it’s entirely new. The justified punishment of digging graves fell under the community service portion of the fine and community service requirement served to ignorant anti-maskers. Officials who created this service did so with the thought that people would possibly choose to wear a mask over digging holes in an endeavor to do the least amount of work. However, Indonesian officials did not force the perpetrators to also place the bodies in the holes or bury them. Since then, Indonesian COVID case rates have stayed fairly steady. As punishment goes, this one was never done before and it did not seem to have a very big overall effect on the number of people wearing masks in public to prevent COVID.
Not only are everyday people in countries on the other side of the world being affected by COVID-19 in unconventional ways, but Americans are also facing ridiculous virus-related tasks. Unlike many institutions such as American restaurants, schools, libraries, offices, and stores closed for quarantine and the safety of employees and customers, prison factories in The United States have not closed. All other operations in the prisons were closed except for the factories, unfortunately. This stayed true even as the virus broke out in the sewing factory. Californian inmates already earn no more than a dollar per hour, no less than eight cents, and work exhausting eight-hour shifts daily. Inmates are still American citizens, even with their criminal acts in mind. The jobs they are tasked with, receiving little payment, are the same jobs undetained Americans are paid much more for doing. The federal minimum wage laws don’t apply to them. In Chino, CA, where an outbreak in the sewing factory happened, female inmates were tasked with jobs that put them at high risk for contracting the virus. Even with the harsh conditions, bare minimal pay, long hours, and the terribly high risk of infections, inmates are told to do more and more each day. Workers in the factory are given drastically increasing quotas of masks to fill each day. For example, one day may start with an amount of one thousand masks to be completed then the next day they would double or triple the amount but have the exact same amount of workers and number of hours allotted to complete the task. Unlike everyone else in the country, inmates in prisons don’t have the option to quarantine themselves since so many live and work in one contained area. Inmates in American prisons have been placed in one of the worst possible positions of anyone in America that has dealt with COVID-19.
The Corona Virus gave everyone in the world a new look into what lengths some are willing to go for their opinions, the safety of their nation’s people, and their economic security. This virus also gave the world the floor to decide how humane they were going to be when everyone’s health and safety are put on the line. If we can learn anything at all from the mere numbers of the victims of COVID 19 in every part of the world, we’ve learned that the virus isn’t picky nor does it have any intention of going away on its own. For everyone’s safety: wear a mask, wash your hands, keep a good physical distance from each other, and try not to make the idea of public safety more than it is. It’s not politics. It’s not a hoax for some ulterior gain. It’s the choice between death or life for people all around the world.
Information gathered from NY Daily News and Los Angeles Times articles
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