06-23-20: Greetings to everyone from Brazil. I am happy to contribute a story to this project. My name is Daniel Gumiero. I am a Brazilian, vegan, photographer, and designer. I am passionate about nature and art. I also do my best to help cure the planet. Six years ago my father died because of another global pandemic (H1N1) after 34 days of bravely fighting for his life in the hospital. My heart and soul were destroyed, but I keep myself strong to give peace and support to my mother and brother. Since COVID-19 first started in China, I began a diligent personal effort to alert family, friends, people in my community, people on social media, and the authorities about the deadly risks of this virus. I did my best, but my earnest efforts were not enough to help my country avoid the devastation it endures because of COVID-19. I will keep doing my best to fight against COVID-19. I hope I can help people around the world understand that we must join together to battle this pandemic. We are in this together - all across the globe. On Pixabay I share my portfolio for free. The donations I receive on Pixabay are used to purchase basic food and essentials for poor families in Brazil. I won't give up. None of us should. We all can do something, and we all must. Thank you.

07-15-20: I said goodbye to Mom, physically, believing she had pneumonia - she had a fever, shortness of breath, and body aches. I remember her getting on the elevator and me saying, "Mom, I love you. Don't worry; it'll be all right."

When people contract the COVID-19 virus, they leave their homes and often go into a black hole. I spent three days without being able to obtain information. I didn't even know which Hospital's ICU she was in or the name of the doctor who was taking care of her.

After countless attempts to make contact, I finally managed to speak to the ICU doctor. He told me my mother had been intubated without me being consulted. This had been approved because she was lucid. According to him, my mother had authorized her own intubation. She was sedated and put into an induced coma. I started calling every day.

We had lost my father a month earlier. Mom and Dad were glued together; you have no idea. In the past year she had four femur surgeries - in each of them, the stems and prostheses moved out of place. Damn doctor! My father stayed by my mother's side the entire time, even when she was convalescing in bed, until she had two urinary infections and had to return to the hospital in February. Dad became sicker and sicker, and then he died. Mom was hospitalized and learned of his death two weeks later. When she was finally discharged and returned home, she kept asking repeatedly, "Why did he leave me alone?"

When I was young, the slightest idea about the possibility of my parents dying would make me lose my breath. Look now, I lost them both at the same time. I can't explain the amount of pain I feel, but I assure you that my grief has been eased a bit because we have managed to secure a bill project. Now, it needs to be voted on by the Congress.

In April 2020, the Health Department of the State of Pernambuco had access to the statement I had made on my Facebook page, and they turned my idea of a bill project into a public program. In public health units in the state, visits via video calls have become a reality through this bill. I want people to be afforded the decency of being allowed a farewell with their loved ones. They deserve that opportunity. We all deserve that opportunity.

I thought of this when my mom's doctor, after 15 days, told me that her condition had worsened significantly. The next day, when I called to ask the doctor about how my mother was, a nurse told me he was not in the hospital. I would need to wait for him to return to receive any news about my mother. I asked the nurse to take the phone to my mom.

"It's impossible, ma'am," was the nurse's reply. She told me that she was not authorized to enter the ICU with a phone. I suggested that it didn't need to be a personal phone. It could be a tablet or some type of corporate device. Again, she said that would be impossible. I collapsed.

I felt all the pain a person could personally feel, but I also felt the collective pain of the world, the anguish all family members and friends feel who are experiencing separation from their loved ones because of COVID-19. It is a devastating and shared universal grief that washes over those of us who are denied our humanitarian right to say goodbye to our loved ones. It is the shock and confusion people experience when they don't even know that they should always have this basic right.

I broke down into tears with a sorrow that you cannot imagine. I called the nurse repeatedly, pleading to be allowed to speak with my mother. My requests we denied. I told her that she did not understand. I told her I would go to whatever lengths necessary to be able to speak with my mother. I told her that being denied this opportunity was beyond cruelty.

I was not informed that my mother had died. After her death a nurse called and asked for my mom's documents. I was stunned and bewildered. I said, "What? What do you mean? What are you saying? Did my mother die?"

The nurse replied, "I don't know, you'll have to ask the doctor." Can you imagine hearing something like that? I called the doctor, and he confirmed that my mother had died.

I believe we eperience two different states of anguish. The first and immediate is loss by disappearance. The person you love simply disappears - they are gone. One day, they are by your side and then suddenly, they are no longer present. You can never see them again. It is utter disappearance. Can you imagine the depth of this instant pain? My emotions were raw.

Despite the pain I was enduring, I was relieved that because of my persistent efforts, I had been able to finally speak with my mother for about fifteen minutes two days before she died. I could look at her. I could see her. I said what I wished to say to her even though she was unconscious, sedated, and intubated. Perhaps she was able to hear me.

The opportunity to speak with my mother made all the difference in the world for me. It helped me more than words can express. For her, in memoriam, I decided to dedicate myself to fight for this bill. If approved, guess what it will be called? It will be the Maria Albani Law - in my mother's honor.

The second state of anguish is dealing with the death of someone you love. It is an acceptance of anguish when you are still heartbroken, but you understand that your loved one is gone, and you must learn to carry on without them.

What I want is a protocol that will be instituted in a systematic way, not only during the COVID-19 pandemic, but at all times for any patient with a contagious disease that requires him or her to be isolated from their loved ones. People should have the opportunity to speak with these patients via video calls. This opportunity should be available to immediate family members and also to family and friends regardless of where those people may be. We must compassionately humanize the end-of-life time for everyone.

My mother had a unique joy for life that was greater than any passion for life that I have ever seen. I know she would want this opportunity provided to all people, and she would be humbly honored to have this bill in her name.

Stay Safe,
Silvana Andrade

07-27-20: I recently learned about this story project and would like to share my story. I am 17. My parents are in the medical profession. They have told me things that I will not repeat because they are too heartbreaking to put into written words. People who have COVID-19 suffer so much. They are all ages, not just old people who are forty and older. Some are much younger. My parents are strict with my brother who is 12. He has asthma, and they will not allow him to visit with any of his friends. I am allowed to see my cousin because she is my age and because she is not seeing anyone else. This is serious. It has changed the whole world. My grandparents say that never in their lives has anything been so bad. I am young, and I can say the same thing. I don't know when this will end and when we can live our lives again. Thank you for letting teens write stories for this project.

Take Care,
Daphnée

I took this photograph in April 2020 in Paris. The location is the famous Place du Tertre in Montmartre. It is usually overcrowded with tourists from all over the world, even on rainy winter days. During our COVID-19 "stay-at-home" period Place du Tertre was absolutely deserted as never seen before, not even throughout the Nazi occupation during WWII. Numerous painters and sketch artists come here to paint and to draw portraits.

07-13-20: Hi, I live in a town near Munich in Germany. When the COVID-19 crisis started, the state Bavaria took action very fast. As a result, all pupils got more or less home-schooled for about three months. It was a very tough time to stay in one place for a quarter of a year. It was difficult to always have the same people around, and to have no chance to see friends for over 90 days.

Despite these negative aspects coming with the lock-down and the restrictions, I am glad they existed for health/safety reasons. While my family and I luckily stayed healthy, a friend of my mother lost her son and her husband. A patient of my father told him he wouldn't be able to come to the next appointment because he has to attend four COVID-19 funerals.

All in all, I have to thank all the nurses, doctors, and of course all the people who helped others in this devastating time.

Everyone stay safe,
Sebastian Flegl

06-18-20: When the pandemic of COVID-19 started in Hungary, I self-quarantined and set up a home office. After the fears of the first days, I realized that I had a lot of free time. What was I to do after work, cooking, and lots of bad news about COVID-19? Well, to start, I decided to do a "Big Clean Up" in my house!

I found a forgotten and hidden away cardboard box in a dark corner of a closet. It was full of my old photographs. Many years ago I was an enthusiastic professional photographer, but my life changed, and I gave up that profession. Of course, I continued to take photographs occasionally because I never lost my passion for photography.

When I opened the cardboard box, wonderful memories came flooding back. I immediately felt an irresistible yearning to embrace photography again.

I am concerned about COVID-19, but I am not paralyzed by fear. I am using the increased free time that I now have in a creative way that is encouraging me during self-isolation.

I now take pictures each day. Also, I created a Facebook page for my old and new photographs. If you wish, you can review my photographs on Facebook and also on Pixabay.

Here is a photograph of the cardboard box filled with photographs that I found in my closet. I hope that you can find creative ways to use free time that you may have during this pandemic.

The first case in Hungary that a cesarean section was performed on a COVID-19 pregnant woman occurred on 06-18-20. The mother, infected with COVID-19, gave birth to her premature baby via cesarean section, with procedures to minimize the risk of the COVID-19 infection being transferred to the baby. After birth, both mother and child are in stable condition and the newborn did not become infected with COVID-19.

Be well and stay safe.

Warm Regards,
Eszter Hornyai

In July 2020, World Health Organization (WHO) scientists decided to go to China to investigate animal hosts for COVID-19, and to hopefully identify how COVID-19 jumps from animals to humans. The main focus is the supply chain of China's legal and illegal wildlife trade, wild and farmed animals, markets, storage, and hunting locations. Pangolins are found across southeast Asia. They are trafficked for their scales, which are typically used in Chinese medicine. The coronaviruses found in pangolins is too different to be a SARS-CoV-2's direct ancestor, but researchers say when and how pangolins become infected could provide clues about where SARS-CoV-2 originated.

Pangolins can be exposed to coronaviruses while being traded and then can become infected "incidental" hosts. Smuggled pangolins have been found with masked palm civets, an intermediate host of a virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome, and with bat carcasses. Some researchers say WHO should also examine small carnivores and rodents, including bats, and investigations should include China's neighboring countries such as Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia that commonly have across the borders unhygienic wildlife trade. The WHO investigations could help build trust between the international community and researchers in China.

The Chinese pangolin is native to the northern Indian subcontinent, northern parts of Southeast Asia, and southern China. It has been listed as "Critically Endangered" on the IUCN Red List since 2014. The wild population is estimated to have declined by more than 80 percent in three pangolin generations, equal to 21 years. The Chinese pangolin has the appearance of a scaly anteater. It is threatened by poaching for the illegal wildlife trade.

09-17-20: COVID-19 hit our country (the Netherlands) unexpectedly in March 2020 during Carnaval, a big event in the south region. It was there that we had our first patient. The provinces Brabant and Limburg had numerous infections, some (small) villages lost many people! A lot of seriously ill people were in intensive care for weeks. We did not know how to treat those patients at first. Our hardworking medical professionals had a shortage of PPE (personal protective equipment) and limited intensive care procedures to combat this unprecedented deadly virus. Many of our citizens had to be sent abroad to Germany.

Tragically, I lost two acquaintances that became exposed to COVID-19 during the time we were still working. One was listed as "victim number 6" when she died, so she was lost in the beginning of the epidemic. Her husband succumbed on the day she was to be buried. The date was changed so they could be buried together, as they always were.

Soon we had a lockdown to prevent more spreading. We had no total lockdown like some countries, ours was an 'intelligent lockdown' that lasted for months. Everybody stayed inside as much as possible, worked from home, and children were home schooled with computers. We kept 1.5-meter distance everywhere, frequently washed our hands, and cleaned shopping carts. The streets were empty. There were no traffic jams and the air was cleaner because planes were not flying.

When necessary, you could go outside, do shopping, or walk your dog. Many people started gardening or renovating their houses. Also, a good deterrent against the spread of COVID-19 was the fact that for several months many people did not go to work, sporting events, bars, restaurants, fitness centres, swimming pools, dog schools, festivals, hospitals, etc. Anything that could help to spread the virus was discouraged.

Shop openings were allowed but with safety measures in place, cleaned carts, a limited number of customers, and customers had to shop alone. Some shops did not bother to open, to do so would require additional work and they would have limited customers.

Numerous people in nursing homes (the elderly, handicapped, and mentally ill) became ill with COVID-19 because of limited protective equipment and insufficient precautionary measures. Sadly, it was necessary to keep these patients in strict isolation. They could not have visitors. They were alone even when they became critically ill and eventually died. As you can imagine, this was terrible for them, and of course they could not understand. So little was known about COVID-19. The virus was the worse universal pandemic in modern time, one that hopefully would never happen again!

Starting in June 2020 we slowly got some extra freedom and younger children returned to school in shifts. We were allowed to go outside more to walk or to ride bicycles for exercise and to enjoy the warmer weather. The woods, beaches, and nature areas were very popular and it became necessary to close some locations because of crowds.

In July 2020 restaurants and bars could carefully re-open. They were required to keep appropriate distances between customers and to serve people on outside terraces as much as possible. Also, customers had to make reservations.

In August 2020 we could go on vacation, mostly in our own country, and some people began to travel abroad. Unfortunately, a number of people began to relax their personal precautions. Tragically, some people proclaimed that COVID-19 did not really happen. They insisted that the virus was a lie created by the government.

It is autumn and winter is fast approaching. We now have a surge of new COVID-19 cases, especially in our larger cities; many of these cases are students living together in student-homes. Other new cases involve people who have attended weddings, funerals, parties, and other social events with family members and friends.

An alarming number of people seem to believe that they will not get COVID-19. They are traveling by plane and getting together with family members and friends as they wish. They do not have concern about their health or the health of those they come in contact with.

We have more and more infected people; many are young people who will not require being hospitalized. Most of these young people will not face death, but they can infect others.

Because of this recklessness, our neighbour country has declared the Netherlands orange and the two provinces North and South Holland (where the most infections are) red on the COVID-19 risk scale. So, after visiting our country you must be tested and you must quarantine for two weeks.

I hope this pandemic will not continue to get worse. It is a catastrophic universal disease. It does not care who you are, where you are, what your political affiliation is, what your race is, what your age is, etc. It is insidious, extremely contagious, and deadly. I keep my distance, frequently wash my hands, and stay mostly at home or in my garden. I have family in a nursing home and can visit after 2-5 month absences, but of course I must pass a health check per visit.

I have more time to work in my garden, to take photographs, and to walk with my dogs to quiet locations in the woods. I have a lot of free time because I cannot visit with family and friends, enjoy lectures, go to community gardens, etc.