Opinion By J1 Reporter Gaea Kaan

It’s hard to think about things besides boredom or what you might do tomorrow, but for some members of society, the next day is not a question of what will I do? It is a question of what can I do to help?

There are still more than 12,000 employees who continue to work despite the pandemic at health care and grocery facilities in Omaha alone, simply because members of the community can’t go without these necessities that workers provide. These workers are putting in tremendous amounts of time and effort to further the health and well-being of everyone they can, despite the recent events.

Going off of my own personal experience, my dad and I both work in a grocery store, and my mom is a nurse at CHI Immanuel. The people who provide for our family are extremely grateful to have a job, but it makes the concern of the pandemic even greater. My mom constantly worries about my health because I have permanent respiratory issues, meaning if I were to catch anything, I would get very sick very quickly, putting me in the hospital and damaging my health even further. 

Despite my underlying health issues, I still feel the need to go into work and put in eight hours a day. Instead of working during my normal hours, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., I’ve had to switch to overnight hours, 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. This is just a small part of the overall spectrum of employees who still are employed and their businesses are required by law to remain open. 

The coronavirus has done nothing but hurt every single individual on the planet, whether it is by infecting them or simply by causing them stress and worry about what could happen to them. However, we cannot forget to keep the members of our community who do not have the luxury of quarantining in our thoughts and prayers, because this pandemic would be a hundred times scarier without them.