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SEGMENT SYNOPSIS: Melissa Hawkins, Humanities Truck faculty fellow and professor in American University's Health Studies Department, reflects on the changes, both positive and negative, that she and her family have experienced due to COVID. Melissa also speaks about the mistrust of science that has become apparent through the pandemic and hopes that will change. SUBJECTS: COVID-19; (Washington, DC) Hi, my name is Melissa Hawkins. I am a faculty member in the Department of Health Studies at American University. And I'm also a 2021 AU Humanities Truck fellow. It is October 3rd, 2020. I think the COVID pandemic has impacted me. The impact has been evolving much like the pandemic has been evolving. So when I think back to seven months ago, eight months ago when this first started, it seems like a lifetime ago in a lot of ways. In some ways time has really slowed down, and in other ways it's been busier than ever. I have four children and so the impact has really been different for different members of our family. My oldest daughter was in her first year in college. And so she had to come home in March much like many college students. My students had to leave AU and then transition my courses online. Then I have three other children who have had to adjust to school online and not being able to see friends and our family members in the way that had been so much a part of our lives.

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We've been really fortunate in our family that we haven't been impacted by illness or loss of jobs. It's been more in the day-to-day impact to our lives and to adjusting to what, in some ways, has been a simplification. There's been some silver linings in terms of the amount of time that we're spending together instead of running around so much and having so many activities that we're doing because the kids are all involved in sports and it always seemed like we were going in a lot of different directions. So this has been an opportunity to really prioritize the ways that we engage with each other and how we're spending our time and so that's been maybe a silver lining. I think we've really been able to re-evaluate a lot of, like many people, what's important and who's important and being able to reach out and different ways to feel connected to our family and friends and loved ones. So that's something that we've all really paid more attention to. I think that what's really kept us going is our pets and so being able to -- there's one. We got a dog, our first family dog, last year in the fall. And so it's been really wonderful to have the daily activity of just taking him for walks and for us going for hikes and for that part of our life to feel not as impacted.

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In terms of what I hope we're going to learn from all of this, I think there are so many lessons learned that have really revealed the fragmentation of our health care system and our public health system. I'm in public health. And so I think that the world now knows what public health is and how important it is. I think that the work that we have to do is being able to really recognize the mistrust and distrust of science and scientists that's sort of become apparent through this and being able to build that trust to to really rely on science in times of uncertainty. So that's been my COVID experience so far.