Unseen Impacts of Covid-19
This past week I watched a youtube video by Molly Burke. She is a blind woman who creates videos to inform others what living as a blind person is like. She currently has a guide dog named Gallop who is trained to get her place to place, alert her of any danger, and basically just be her eyes.
The video that I watched was about her having to retire her guide dog early because of the coronavirus. Her dog has been working for about 6 years and the average amount of years that a dog will usually work for is about 8. Due to the Coronavirus, she has not been able to leave her house for anything but walks. Meaning her guide dog is starting to act more like a pet and forgetting all his training since he is not constantly working. He has started trying to take food from tables and wondering off while on walks, instead of guiding her. She also cannot adopt another dog for another 2 years because the dogs take over a year to train and they cannot currently be trained due to the virus. Therefore her mobility is going to be taken away from her.
This overall showed me that everything in the world is being affected by the coronavirus. These aren't just short problems that can be fixed when the vaccine is distributed. Businesses are closing forever, people are losing their jobs, and the obvious: people are dying. Even the things that we may not think are being affected actually are in some way or another. This makes me fearful for the future and wonder if our world will ever be the same.
Before watching this video I would have never thought about how the virus was affecting people with disabilities. I am very glad that I stumbled across this video because it was a little bit of an eye-opener to show how society is being affected.
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| Molly and her dog Gallop |
This was really interesting. I had never thought about this kind of thing before. I didn't realize that continually doing the WORK of guiding is necessary for the animals to keep doing it. And I never would have realized the impact covid had.
ReplyDeleteP.S. You could have still inserted the youtube link, even if the video wouldn't load on your chromebook. Those of us on different devices would've still been able to open it
Wow, I had no idea about this. When I think of covid, I tend to only look at how it affects my life. This is a great reminder of how covid affects everyone's lives in many different ways, especially those with disabilities.
ReplyDeleteVery intriguing, Grace. Usually, I only think about the impacts medical conditions might have on a person if they were to battle covid, but I never really thought about the impact on those with physical disabilities. I also find Molly Burke's story interesting because I have experience training service dogs. I completely understand how the dog could lose his skills if he does not constantly use them. For dogs, consistency is essential.
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