Kentucky Kernel: March 8, 2021

SPECIAL EDITION

kentuckykernel Monday, March 8, 2021

‘A WAR THAT

CONTINUES’ The Commonwelath marks one year of the COVID-19 pandemic

Monday, March 8, 2021

IN THIS EDITION

By Natalie Parks

There are a lot of words in the next 26 pages of this special edition. Hopefully, these words illustrate some of the challenges and struggles Kentuckians have faced this year, as well as the resilience Kentuckians found within themselves day after day. That resilience was necessary; this pandemic has taken the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans, sickened many more, and it is not over yet.

Alongside the incalcuable loss of life from this pandemic sit many other losses: the loss of time spent with family; of celebrating personal milestones; of careers, income, businesses; the loss of human connection, of the friendly wave given while crossing the street, a simple hello at the register.

And these are only some of the losses from COVID-19. Our year of

grief has been compounded by other forces: racial injustice, political polarization and most recently, historic flooding that has taken homes and security from hundreds of Kentuckians.

So even though the Kentucky Kernel trades in words, we know that words are not - can not be enough for the magnitude of these losses. What words are there to comfort a mother grieving the loss of her child? What words are there to explain to traumatized nurses why their sacrifice is necessary?

What words are there to describe the hopelessness with which young people are looking to their futures in this broken country?

I don’t know the answers to those questions.

Words fail us, often, and we do not have the luxury - yes, we now know it as a luxury - of human touch.

I can only hope that the pieces in this special edition show those who need

a reminder that their story is important. There are a great many stories to tell this year, and it can feel like our individual collections of hurts and sorrows are being washed away in an overwhelming tide.

But that is not true. Each person, old and young, has a story to tell of this year. In one year of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have each of us borne the weight of history. We have each witnessed the incredible human capacity to endure. We have all been alone, and we have all been changed.

But though change is inevitable, we will not forget. Though numbers can never capture the totality of loss, there is something to say for having it written down, to having someone pause and say this matters.

And that is what we hope to convey with this issue - that there is someone listening, someone saying we hear you, we know, and we remember.

4,806

Kentuckians have died from COVID-19

As of Saturday, March 6, the number of Kentuckians lost to COVID-19 is equivalent to the passenger capacity of 12 Boeing 777s

410,000+

At least 410,000 cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in the Commonwealth of Kentucky in one year, enough people to to fill Kroger Field seven times over

523,000+ Americans have died due to COVID-19 in 13 months, more people than the population of Sacramento, California

3 million

American women have had to leave the workforce because of pandemic stressors, the same as the population of the state of Arkansas

30 million MARTHA MCHANEY | STAFF A mourner plants a flag during the memorial service marking one year of the COVID-19 pandemic in Kentucky on March 6, 2021, in Frankfort, Kentucky.

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Americans have contracted COVID-19, equal to the population of Yemen

Monday, March 8, 2021

LOOKING BACK, MOVING FORWARD VOTING FOR SGA ELECTIONS OPENS TODAY

Beginning on 9 a.m. on March 8, UK students can cast their ballots for student government positions for next year, including student body president and vice president.

All students can vote on BBNvolved using their linkblue. If students have issues voting online, a physical polling location will be available in the SGA office in the Gatton Student Center from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Monday, March 8 and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday, March 9. Results will be announced via social media at approximately 9 p.m. on Tuesday night.

Students can see the platforms of some candidates at uksga.org/election. Following a voluntary end to one campaign, there is one ticket running for student body president and vice president along with one write-in candidate. Students can vote for undergraduate senator-at-large positions and for senators for their respective colleges.

FRIENDS REMEMBER NURSING STUDENT

kentuckykernel

CONTACT Editor-in-chief: Natalie Parks

SLAIN

Following his death in a drive-by shooting, friends and colleagues have shared memories and messages of mourning for UK student Jesse Averitt online.

Averitt, 28, was shot inside his home just after 2:00 a.m. on Thursday, March 4.

He was pronounced dead at the hospital.

“Jesse was an exceptional student, but more importantly, he was an exceptional person with a big heart and the ability to brighten anyone’s day when they were feeling down,” nursing dean Janie Heath wrote.

Averitt was expected to graduate in December with a nursing degree. He was employed as an LPN at Eastern State Hospital.

Morgan Elizabeth, one of Averitt’s coworkers, said on Facebook that Averitt was incredible to work with.

“The compassion he had for our patients was unmatched. He loved them. I am truly devastated that such a kind soul was taken from us way too soon!” Elizabeth said.

“Jesse was the kindest soul and I loved the days I got to work with him,” said coworker Stacee Cole.

Eastern State employee Sajana Dumre said on Facebook that Averitt had compassion for everyone that came into the hospital.

“Jesse was the first person that made me feel like I belonged at the hospital and made sure that I was comfortable doing my job. I’m so so thankful for getting to know such a kind heart even for such a short time period,” Dumre said.

Police do not have any suspects in the shooting and are asking anyone with information to call (859) 258-3600.

SGA DIRECTOR RESIGNS FOLLOWING N-WORD INCIDENT

Student Government Association’s director of government relations resigned, effective immediately, from his position on Thursday, March 4, following a resurfaced tweet from 2016 where he used the N-word.

David Seth Shockley, a political science major, also served as SGA’s director of government relations in the 2018 - 2019 school year. His tweet was connected to an endorsement for an SGA campaign since ended due to the connection.

Shockley said he was suprised and ashamed to find he had used the N-word in a tweet. He said he takes full accountability for the tweet and is sorry for the hurt he has caused.

“I was a young person at the time but that doesn’t excuse it,” Shockley told the Kernel. “I think that that shows more of who I was around and raised up then than my personal beliefs.”

SGA announced his resignation in an Instagram post and said they have full belief that he can learn and grow from his mistakes, but that that growth must take place outside of SGA leadership.

Shockley had previously considered running for student body president this election cycle but decided not to following the outing of his tweet.

BERNICE KING TALK RESCHEDULED FOR MARCH

JACK WEAVER I STAFF Warm weather this week brought students out to enjoy campus. A UK student plays tennis on Wednesday, March 3, 2021, at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky.

Following a cancellation of the original event during Black Hitory month, the talk by Dr. Berneice King, daugher of Martin Luther King, Jr., will now take place on Wednesday, March 31. A limited number of in person seats are available and must be reserved through BBNvolved.

editor@kykernel.com Managing editor: Michael Clubb editor@kykernel.com Asst. news editors: Haley Simpkins Sports editor: Braden Ramsey sports@kykernel.com Opinions editor: Sarah Michels opinions@kykernel.com Asst. opinions editor: Gillian Stawiszynski Asst. photo editor: Jack Weaver Designers: Ryder Noah From Social media manager: Sarah Simon-Patches KENTUCKY KERNEL OFFICES 340 McVey Hall University of Kentucky Lexington, KY 40506

On the cover: The family of Reverend Dr. Gregory Smith, who died of COVID-19 three months prior, plants a flag on the grounds of the Kentucky Capitol building during a memorial service marking one year of the pandemic in Kentucky on March 6, 2021, in Frankfort, Kentucky.

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Monday, March 8, 2021

opinions

Societal lessons learned this year

By Sarah Michels opinions@kykernel.com

The first anniversary of Covid-19 has come and gone, and contrary to optimistic initial predic-tions, the pandemic is still raging. The end seems near, but no one can be sure.

The bigger uncertainty is whether society, the aggregate of all of us, will learn anything from this experience. Will life remain unchanged, the systemic problems exacerbated during Covid-19 once again ignored?

Or will people turn the lessons they’ve learned into permanent wisdom and compassion? The job falls on every one of our shoulders. Yes, even you.

Here are four lessons that “society” should bring with it into 2022 and beyond: Trust scientists over politicians In 2020, scientists had a lot of bad news to share. Many Americans, ever true to the old adage, “ignorance is bliss,” chose not to believe them. Instead, they believed politicians, who told them exactly what they wanted to hear, whether it was true or not. Their job is to get reelect-ed, and ugly truths rarely further that goal.

Humans will look for any excuse to stick with the status quo, and politicians were ripe with false reassurances.

However, the most painful and uncomfortable truths are usually the ones we need to heed most.

Scientists have no reason to lie; they hate sharing bad news as much as anyone else, so why kill the messenger? In the future, we must stick with the Dr. Fauci’s of the world, instead of falling for the tricks of manipulative politi-

4 | kentucky kernel

cians whose motivations are anything but pure.

Everyone’s actions affect more than themselves The United States is rooted in the value of individualism. People can do what they want, when they want and how they want, and it’s none of your business. During the pandemic, people have adopted this attitude toward masks, social distancing and vaccines, arguing that forcing them to take any of these safety measures attacks their personal freedoms.

But that’s where it gets sticky; does one person’s personal freedom to refuse to wear a mask trump another person’s right to safety? Legally, I don’t know. But morally, the answer is clear. The basic laws of compassion require us to consider the effects of our actions on others. If we can’t do something as simple and mildly inconvenient as wearing a mask or getting a vaccina-tion, then how will our society ever gain the level of compassion needed to eradicate home-lessness or eliminate racial and sexual prejudice?

As long as the members of society exclusively care about themselves, nothing will ever change, and the systemic problems that have caused harm for the past decades and centuries will only continue to wreak havoc.

We all need social interaction When they teach elementary students the necessities of life, they include food, water, shelter and safety. But they forget one essential component of a sustainable, healthy life: regular so-cial interaction. During quarantine, most people got a glimpse into what it felt like to be truly isolated. Even the most introverted

MICHAEL CLUBB | STAFF A student walks past a masked James Patterson statue during the first day of classes for the fall 2020 semester on Monday, Aug. 17, 2020, at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky.

among us began to feel a little lonely.

When the pandemic is over, we shouldn’t forget that feeling.

Because while we might have our friend groups and social gatherings back, some members of our society will still be stuck in a sort of quarantine. People without a home, those with debilitating disabilities, elderly people in nursing homes and those in prison are some of the groups of people that may still be isolated, without the warm, genuine human connection they need to live a fulfilling life.

Now that we know how these people feel, to a certain degree, we should make efforts to ei-ther

personally or systemically help them.

We can adapt Whenever an event like the Covid-19 pandemic happens in the movies, the whole world switches gears. Suddenly, everything that mattered before no longer does, and it’s just an in-tense, action-packed fight for survival.

Reality didn’t quite match that. Yes, many aspects of life changed, but for the most part, peo-ple just kept living the way they always had. They continued working at their jobs, going to school, talking to their friends, watching their favorite shows and partaking in their hobbies. After

the initial wave of toilet paper freak-outs, there was no longer a sense of urgency or a feeling that the world was going to end any second. We moved on and adapted to a new nor-mal fairly successfully.

So, in the future, when another disaster inevitably strikes, we don’t have to instantly go into panic mode. We can skip the toilet paper frenzy, because we will have learned that we can and will adapt to whatever the world throws at us.

Monday, March 8, 2021

opinions

Personal lessons from a pandemic

By Gillian Stawiszynski opinion@kykernel.com

Life pre-COVID feels archaic at this point in the pandemic. Concerts, movie theaters and large gatherings are a thing of the past, and quite frankly, the thought of any of these activities frighten me. But with this changed way of life that we all are continuously adapting to, along with the risk we all have of being exposed, I have learned so many lessons. !"#$%&'() *+,") +$) "-. "#/*0+&1) #+10*) &%23) $"#+. %4$(/5 School and Home are in the same place and it has been stressful, to say

the least. The struggle of saving some time for myself while trying to balance this new work / life balance came at me unexpectedly.

At the beginning of this pandemic and the initiation of a societal quarantine, I thought that not having to be in person for everything would be a breath of fresh air for my often overloaded plate of responsibilities. That was ridiculous to think. While trying to wind down at the end of my day, I found myself feeling guilty for not getting all of my work done in one sitting. After all, I always had access to this work because everything is mobile, so why wasn’t I just constantly getting things done? The truth is, we all need at least half a day every week to

forget all responsibilities and do something we love while being in solitudewhether that is painting, watching your favorite sitcom, or reading for pleasure. If you find your mind spinning in circles with all of the things you need to get done, plan a night for yourself. Obviously, don’t neglect anything dire to your grades or your paycheck, but we all need to take a second to breath.

6*7$)%8)*%)9""()'282'#:) +&) $%;+'() $+*4'*+%&$) ,%#") $%)*0'&)<"9%#"5 The most interaction I have with people is at my part-time job, and my roommates (who are my best friends). There is hardly awkwardness in these

situations because at work, we may chat, but there’s always a task to get done, and with my friends, it’s natural and easy to speak with them. Now that a few more things are in person, such as classes or internships, I’ve noticed social anxiety not only within myself, but in others as well. Seeing that other people are having trouble in social situations has brought me comfort.

We all feel this way. Small talk is a rusty skill in my book these days. We’re not alone, though, and that’s something we need to remember. We’re all humans who have overactive sympathetic nervous systems, and that’s ok. ='-+&1) ') $,'(() ;+#;(") +$)&%#,'()'&:)0"'(*0/5

I like to consider myself an ambivert. It feels so rewarding and energizing getting human interactions, but before COVID-19 I found myself getting overwhelmed by the amount of daily human interaction I had. I do not miss being burnt out from social overload. I constantly needed to recharge. The pandemic has changed this. There are so many people I will always care for and love, but have just drifted from due to the restrictions of COVID. It isn’t realistic trying to maintain 25 different friendships weekly.

Having a small group of friends that you trust with all of your heart is much better than having nearly 100 acquaintances, none of which are very close to

you. Don’t feel bad about not having the huge group of friends you did pre-pandemic, this is healthier and keeps you from stressing so much about potential FOMO. We all have had lessons similar to this throughout the course of the year. This advice is unsolicited and has absolutely no expertise to back it up, but I remind myself of these lessons every day to remember that I am strong for adapting and living through a once in a lifetime global pandemic. We’re all so brave for getting out of bed in the morning even though the world has been flipped upside down. I hope that you remind yourself of these lessons, as well.

spring 2021 | 5

BEYOND THE MASK Monday, March 8, 2021

Everyone has their pandemic story. With more than 115 million cases of COVID-19 worldwide, no one’s life has been untouched by the virus that swept across the globe, upending tradition and normalcy. But not all of the stories that have emerged this year apply to everyone - we all have our own experience, our unique pandemic history, that weaves into a national story of loss and change. In this photo series, the Kernel attempted to capture some of those individual experiences with short questions that ask everyday people we saw on the street about their year of COVID-19. From the moment the pandemic became real to the moment they felt hope the pandemic would end, these short profiles aim to go behind the mask - to tell the untold stories that we all carry with us.

Story by Natalie Parks | Photos by Jack Weaver

“Absolutely. Physically, every single person that I know. I think being isolated, sort of even some isolation, is a lot harder for people who already have anxiety. And it’s makes people more prone to depression, like my roommates - one of them specifically is just having a lot more depressive episodes. So that’s hard to see. But yeah, I don’t think there’s too much positive out of this. Other than maybe resilience after it’s over.”: on if students are struggling more with mental health “It’s actually made me definitely stronger in the pre-med field, like I’m in the early assurance program, so I have a seat at UK med school. But this is really like me focus more on classes, cause there’s just a lot more to help people.”: on how the pandemic affected her medical major UK junior Supriya Challa, a psychology major, on changes from COVID-19

6 | kentucky kernel

“We’ve really seen that not being able to socialize with other students, and definitely not having a place to congregate, has really been what’s affected our students the most is that missing community. Particularly with our freshmen, and just new students on campus, first year students who hadn’t already had their niche, you know, set up their their home. And soit’s truly been a challenge. I have had student leaders who are involved, who are, you know, ahead of the crowd, essentially, who also feel like they don’t necessarily belong or haven’t found their community. So, when you’re hearing that from student leaders, that’s when you know that truly, truly now more than ever, we have to be here for one another, and really create spaces for community and for students to find that outlet with one another” Ruth Gonzalez Jimenez, Latino student community specialist, on challenges she’s seen this year

“A frat party”: Aidan Kane, on where she wants to go post-pandemic / “Maybe study abroad, but I really want to be at a sweaty frat part”: Isabel Chumbler on post-pandemic plans / “Wendell maybe wants to get more free pets again”: Emma Poole on after COVID-19 “The pressure cooker that is the pandemic allowed us to grow a lot”: Poole on mental health during COVID-19 / “I feel like this semester a lot of students came in and decided the pandemic doesn’t exist in Kentucky”: Kane on UK and COVID-19 “My parents, they work in healthcare, so they were like you cannot see anyone you cannot being this home to us bc it was so so hectic”: Chumbler on the early days of the pandemic

“It seems like people started taking it more seriously when celebrities started coming out and saying that they were getting sick, like I remember Tom Hanks was kind of a big one that everyone first really reacted to”: on when the pandemic got real

(L to R) Sophomores Isabel Chumbler, Aidan Kane and Emma Poole with dog Wendell

Jordan Starks, who works in marketing and as a part-time model, on one year of COVID-19

“I couldn’t go back to Australia at all, because they basically said, ‘you are in the United States, which is like a big hot spot, and we just don’t want to risk ourselves.’

Which was sad for me, because I couldn’t see my family. I just couldn’t visit like, at all, like, even if it was just for two days.”

“It was exhausting cause they [doctors] had to run around a lot. It was a lot of people needed a lot of things. One of the most dangerous things working there is you don’t know who coming in is COVID positive so that’s always a risk”

Cindy Sossa, sophomore animal science major, on being an international student this year

“I‘m hoping that everyone is willing to hang on a little bit longer so that they give the vaccines time to work and kind of get this under control. But optimistic”: on the state of the pandemic now “I have been writing more like creative writing. I started baking more. Lots of puzzles”: on quarantine hobbies

Scott Martin, security officer, on his stint on the COVID-19 floor at UK Hospital

spring 2021 | 7

“Interactions. You begin to start like taking advantage in small batches, just like going out and seeing people walking around campus. You miss the interaction with people like some people need to feed off being social, so it’s just stuff like this that you really begin to miss.”

I’ve just been worried for my family. And I was out of work for a while too, because I work at a restaurant. And it just, it really impacted me for the whole year. I couldn’t really even go out and do anything. And I’ve been pretty much broke.”

Aeon Johnson, UK track & field thrower, on how things lost to the pandemic

Madelyn Grubbs, restaurant worker, on changes from the pandemic

“Some people do depend on just reading lips, or they need reading lips and sign language. So that’s why they were saying it’s very important that we are able to definitely use our hands a lot more. Because with this mask situation, it makes it harder for deaf people. I actually volunteered at a vaccine clinic and multiple people, they had hearing aids, and it was especially difficult because they couldn’t read our lips.”

“I know that they’ve [healthcare workers] had to work a lot more, a lot more stressed fighting these kinds of things. And I feel like, this is like kind of a signal that we need to push to prevent these kinds of things, which is why I don’t think the masks and stuff will go away. Because obviously, the only way to effectively combat things like this is to try to prevent them.”

Kayla Horne, sophomore health sciences major, on access during COVID-19

Jason Wang, freshman biology/chemistry major on the pre-med track, on the future of the medical profession

8 | kentucky kernel

Monday, March 8, 2021

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spring 2021 | 9

Monday, March 8, 2021

news

Where are they now?

Two women associated with the early days of the pandemic in Kentucky look back a year later

By Natalie Parks editor@kykernel.com

Kimberly Blanton was on her way home when she got the call that made the pandemic real.

“I knew the minute I got the call from the governor’s office that that first patient was positive here,” Blanton said. She turned her car around and went back to work.

Blanton, MSN, RN, MHA, is director of Infection Prevention and Control for UK HealthCare. In the early days of the pandemic, she was one of the people responsible for the behind UKHC’s COVID-19 response – checking PPE supply levels, coordinating cross-office initiatives and sometimes speaking at press conferences to inform the public about this new disease and its ramifications.

“I’d get off from doing the interview and then two hours later, something would change in the in the guidance,” Blanton said.

“And so I know I remember calling people routinely, I kind of felt schizophrenic at a time because it was changing so quickly, because we were learning as we were going.”

Prior to Kentucky’s first case of COVID-19, Blanton worked with the campus team extricate students who were studying abroad.

That was where she first ran into an issue that be-

10 | kentucky kernel

came a hallmark of the early pandemic period – medical supply shortages.

“We couldn’t get a thermometer for students.

There were no thermometers in town,” Blanton said. “I thought ‘well, I have never.’” She recommended UK’s Emergency Operations Center begin stockpiling thermometers for students.

At the hospital, Blanton was strictly managing pro-

tective equipment through a centralized station that she kept in place until July.

“It was more or less, real stressful, because you were trying to make sure you had what, what you needed and that we were moving quick enough to get the supplies in and find other supplies that we could substitute because they were backordered,” Blanton described.

Part of this shortage came from limited manufactur-

ing, but also competition from other states that Blanton said led to an ‘unheard of’ shortage.

She would quickly take on another crucial role – being the voice UKHC’s COVID-19 approach by personally calling individuals who tested positive.

For the first several months, I called every positive patient back myself, worked through the list myself, while the other

members of my team, were just building calls and dealing with supply issues,” Blanton said, which could be hours of work.

“They’re scared,” Blanton said. “You have to talk with them and help them and give them direction.”

Fortunately, the infectious disease team had just undergone refresher courses for viral diseases in November with a crop of Ebola experts.

STAFF FILE PHOTO UK HealthCare Enterprise Director of Infection Prevention & Control Kim Blanton speaks to local media on Friday, March 13, 2020, in UK Chandler Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, to provide updates on the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“That was beyond valuable,” Blanton said. “It was a totally different virus and how we handled it, because this was so completely respiratory driven, but it was so handy to have had that experiences and run those demos.”

Good partnerships, not just with state offices, but with the clinic side of UK healthcare, helped manage the transition to full-blown pandemic.

“We were able to send people when they, you know, if you didn’t need to be in the hospital, but you still needed to be seen via telehealth, or we needed to get to COVID swabbed or get your medicines, whatever, we were able to really have a great partnership,” Blanton said.

Though prepared for an influx of patients, Blanton said she did ‘not at all’ expect the scale and extent of COVID-19 in the U.S. “I never dreamed, ever, that we would be sitting here today talking about a year of a pandemic like we’ve been through. I suspected we would have a few cases,” Blanton said.

“I never dreamed it would be this way.”

The scale of sickness has taken a toll on healthcare workers, which Blanton has witnessed firsthand.

“Your job is to help those who are in need.

And we do it, and we do, you know, we’re a trauma

See NOW on page 11

Monday, March 8, 2021

news NOW CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10

“For the first several months, I called every positive patient back myself, worked through the list myself, while the other members of my team, were just building calls and dealing with supply issues,” Blanton said, which could be hours of work.

“They’re scared,” Blanton said. “You have to talk with them and help them and give them direction.”

Fortunately, the infectious disease team had just undergone refresher courses for viral diseases in November with a crop of Ebola experts.

“That was beyond valuable,” Blanton said. “It was a totally different virus and how we handled it, because this was so completely respiratory driven, but it was so handy to have had that experiences and run those demos.”

Good partnerships, not just with state offices, but with the clinic side of UK healthcare, helped manage the transition to full-blown pandemic.

“We were able to send people when they, you know, if you didn’t need to be in the hospital, but you still needed to be seen via telehealth, or we needed to get to COVID swabbed or get your medicines, whatever, we were able to really have a great partnership,” Blanton said.

Though prepared for an influx of patients, Blanton said she did ‘not at all’ expect the scale and extent of COVID-19 in the U.S. “I never dreamed, ever, that we would be sitting here today talking about a year of a pandemic like we’ve been through.

I suspected we would have a few cases,” Blanton said. “I never dreamed it would be this way.”

The scale of sickness has taken a toll on healthcare workers, which Blanton has witnessed firsthand.

“Your job is to help those who are in need. And we do it, and we

do, you know, we’re a trauma center, and we take care of some traumatic things,” Blanton said.

“And it’s always placed on you.

I mean, it just lays heavy on your heart.

Though there were hopeful times, like the release of the COVID patient and her husband, healthcare workers were under constant stress, including witnessing the pain of separated families.

“That was so heartbreaking.

It’s hard to not be able to have families, and sometimes we had husbands and wives that were sick and they were two doors apart,” Blanton said. UK was able to use their E-ICU units to connect patients with families virtually. Blanton thinks telehealth and infection control practices are here to stay.

“One would have thought that would have been how we would always be thinking, but people now know hand hygiene, mass, social distancing, they work,” Blanton said.

Those practices have worked to mitigate cases, Blanton said, but real hope arrives in the form of vaccines.

“For us in infection control, we have absolutely seen a decrease in the numbers since we rolled out the vaccine,” Blanton said. That effect will hopefully bring the pandemic under control by the end of the year.

In the meantime, Blanton is encouraged by people stepping up to help others. She is especially thankful for community members who donated supplies to the hospital.

“When I think back on this year, if I’m ever blessed have grandchildren, I’ll be able to say ‘boy, I lived through this.’ And it was hard times. But the thing I saw was that we, we pulled together.”

‘Definitely been a roller coaster’ The pandemic began sooner for Kaitlyn White than it did for

many other Americans.

White, 23, was the first UK student publicly revealed to have COVID-19, testing positive on March 25, 2020. She’s since had COVID-19 a second time, but didn’t get as sick, and is now vaccinated.

“When I found out I had it a second time I was like, ‘Oh no, here we go again,’” White said.

Looking at the millions of Americans who have contracted the virus since then, White said being one of those early cases is “unreal.”

“The first time, it was a big deal. It was like, ‘Oh god.’ But now I own, almost every time I log into social media I see a new person say, Oh yeah, positive now I have to quarantine. And it’s almost like this, like for them it’s just a nuisance, it’s not, it’s not a big deal.”

Knowing that White had COVID-19 early on, friends have reached out for suggestions when they contracted the virus. White finds it strange how many people act casually about the virus.

“There are so many people who are insisting on partying insisting on going out to bars, insisting on living like we’re not in the middle of a pandemic, and I can’t,” White said. In her original interview with the Kernel, White said she was vocal about her positive result in order to raise awareness of the still-underestimated disease.

“We wouldn’t even be having this conversation if in March and April of 2020 we took the time to lock down and isolate the way we needed to,” White said.

White was one of the first 1,000 cases in Kentucky and likely one of the first 100 in Lexington.

Her first bout with COVID-19 last March shaped her life in one significant way – she returned to UK for grad school spending half of her final semester online and after graduating in 2020.

“I originally was not going to

stay here, but I ended up feeling so connected to the UK community as a result of the professors and staff who reached out to me and made such an active effort to be in my corner and show me how much they cared when I was going through that.”

White is now earning a Master’s through the College of Education and has high hopes of walking at an in-person ceremony when she graduates with that degree.

White thinks that most of the COVID-19 cases among UK students were avoidable and happened because students intentionally ignore safety protocols.

“I think the university itself is

in kind of a tricky situation, because they are obligated to provide us the best education that they can and for a lot of majors a lot of courses programs, etc., their material isn’t accessible virtually,” White said.

When students contract COVID-19 this year, they are reported to UK’s Health Corps. But when White got sick, that center did not exist yet. Help instead came from individual professors, checking in on her and her health.

“I was actually able to finish spring semester with a 4.0, even having COVID in the middle of the semester,” White said.

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Kaitlyn White, now a graduate student at UK, was a senior when she became the first UK student revealed to have had COVID-19. Photo provided by White.

spring 2021 | 11

Monday, March 8, 2021

features

In the last of the before times

By Haley Simpkins features@kykernel.com

As March continues, almost every day marks a year since this COVID development or that COVID development. On Saturday, Kentucky marked one year since the COVID-19 hit the Commonwealth. The next week holds several similar anniversaries – UK announcing classes would be online, the cancellation of March Madness, the World Health Organization officially declaring coronavirus a pandemic. As these anniversaries accumulate, more and more Americans are looking back at the moment the pandemic became real to them.

UK students are no exception, sharing their memories of the last normal thing they did before the pandemic took over.

One of the last mass gatherings to occur at UK before much of the country shut down was DanceBlue, a traditional dance marathon fundraiser, that snuck in just five days before Kentucky confirmed its first case.

With 923 dancers gathered on the floor of Memorial Coliseum, such a gathering is almost unthinkable now.

Anna Helker, a junior psychology major, said her favorite memory from DanceBlue was the final line dance at the end of the 24-hour marathon.

“This memory is always so fun to remember, as ev-

12 | kentucky kernel

eryone is just giving their all into the last dance of the marathon and is just so hyped up from the reveal,” Helker said. “So many people came to the Coliseum for the reveal, and it energized the entire crowd and all of the families there. It almost feels surreal how many people were around me at one time.”

Helker said she doesn’t remember any COVID-19 precautions at the marathon, since it was not on the minds of hardly anyone at that time.

“I know the morale of the dancers will be affected significantly since they won’t have the hundreds of students around them at one time, but I still hope they can make it as enjoyable for the kids and their families, as well as the students,” Helker said.

This year’s DanceBlue will be completely virtual and shortened to eight hours, both stark differences from previous marathons. Helker’s final line dance at DanceBlue 2020 may be the last traditional DanceBlue memory she makes during her college career, depending on how COVID-19 will affect 2022’s marathon.

As an invisible clock ticked down on normalcy, UK students passed the week before everything changed with a stunning loss to UT in men’s basketball, memorable because it was the last time UK would play at home before sports were shut down.

MICHAEL CLUBB | STAFF Dance Blue participants pose for a photo at the end of the 2020 Dance Blue Marathon on Sunday, March 1, 2020, at the Memorial Coliseum in Lexington, Kentucky.

Students also recall one of SAB’s final events, held on March 4 and featuring YouTuber David Dobrik.

Samantha Valentino, a junior broadcast journalism major, co-hosted the event with Brandon Brown.

“Both of us hope to work in entertainment journalism, so we saw this as our first experience working as hosts,” Valentino said.

Valentino spent 90 minutes on stage with Dobrik in front of an audience of 1,400 UK students. Dobrik

ended up challenging a student to a rock, paper, scissors match where he donated $10,000 to DanceBlue as a result of his loss.

“Really the entire event is a happy memory for me.

I’ve been a fan of David Dobrik since he was on Vine, and I used to watch his YouTube videos for hours when I was in high school, so I was really just thrilled to be able to meet him and work alongside him for the evening,” Valentino said.

Nine days after the Do-

brik event, students left campus for spring break knowing they would be online for two weeks afterward and with the possibility of staying virtual for the rest of the semester in their minds.

Though some students canceled their spring break plans in light of the pandemic, others continued with travel.

Integrated strategic communications major Carlie McCoy-Lambert said her last pre-COVID memory was her spring

break trip to Universal Orlando Resort, where she enjoyed her first ride on the long-awaited Hagrid’s Motorcycle Adventure coaster.

“At the time we knew COVID was happening, but we didn’t know to what extent,” McCoy-Lambert said. “I’d say we were worried about it, but we had no idea how serious it would be.”

McCoy-Lambert also said she was checking for announcements from UK during this time about pos-

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Monday, March 8, 2021

features BEFORE CONTINUED FROM PAGE

sibly going virtual, but she in no way expected it to be a life-changing announcement.

“I think we just thought it’d be an extra week off for the break,” McCoy-Lambert said. UK announced the rest of the semester would be online on March 17, the Tuesday of spring break.

Sophie Meadors, a senior broadcast journalism major, was also on spring break. She and her roommate visited her hometown of Raleigh in North Carolina, where the streets were eerily empty.

“It was the last thing I did in public without a mask on,” Meadors said.

“We went to a couple of museums and like a candy

store and we barely saw anyone, which was out of the ordinary even for a Monday afternoon, but it was great that one of my best friends from college got to meet some of my best friends from back home.”

Meadors said she didn’t realize the severity of COVID-19 until her family planned a day trip to the beach the next morning but canceled once they realized all the public restrooms had been closed. The rest of the trip was uneventful until she returned to Lexington to pack after UK’s announcement about remote learning.

UK has omitted spring break from the academic calendar this year, so new spring break memories will be on hold for many this year.

COVID-19 also cut some memories short. Deisy Sandoval, a freshman accounting & marketing major, said her senior year of high school was cut short because of the pandemic.

Her last pre-COVID memory is that announcement of just that, as she waited for the end of school bell one day.

“We heard a loud announcement over the intercom from the principal saying that the next week would be online then we’d return, but long story short, there was never a return and my senior year was cut early,” Sandoval said.

“I never got to say my true goodbyes or have my senior week experience.”

Freshman business major Mitchell Urban had a similar experience.

Urban had a jazz con-

UK sophomore Emma Wahlbrink moves out of her dorm room in University Flats with the help of her mother, Michelle, on Saturday, March 22, 2020, in Lexington, Kentucky. UK students will have classes online for the remainder of the semester due to the coronavirus pandemic. STAFF FILE PHOTO

MICHAEL CLUBB | STAFF YouTuber David Dobrik listens to a moderators question during the Student Activities Board David Dobrik YouTubeU event on Wednesday, March 4, 2020, at the the Singletary Center for the Arts in Lexington, Kentucky.

cert and esports tournament scheduled for March 13, the day that his school announced they were closing. Once the shutdown was announced, the concert – what would have been his final high school performance – was canceled.

“It was pretty unfortunate as I was going to be recognized with a big solo and a senior recognition ceremony, so I missed out on that,” Urban said. Luckily, his esports competition was allowed to happen.

“It was one of the best experiences I’ve had. We played our matches online, but we did it together in the coach’s classroom.” Urban said. “We were fresh off the undefeated regular season and were about to head into the playoffs. We were actually going to win the state championship, and it wasn’t even going to be close.”

Though his high school

esports team and jazz band were never able to return before he graduated, Urban was able to continue his passion for esports by joining the UK Smash Cats. He also hopes to get back into jazz band next semester.

As vaccines offer hope for normalcy by the end of this year, students like Urban and Sandoval may be able to replace those lost moments with a true college experience. But those last pre-COVID memories will stick with UK students, especially as the calendar marks off the anniversaries of what would have been.

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White wishes UK would do more for students’ basic needs and is appreciate of the vaccine rollout. Her main reason for getting the vaccine was to protect oth-

ers, since she has already had COVID-19 twice.

“I kind of had the same feeling as voting,” White said. “Like it to me It felt kind of like a civic duty.”

White said the one-year anniversary of COVID-19 in Kentucky feels like the end of a long roller coaster ride.

“One year ago, I had a completely different vision of what I would be doing with my life right now,” White said. The pandemic forced her to slow down and rethink her priorities.

“Before it’s like I was on a dead sprint. And I was so focused on that finish line that I wasn’t paying attention to the things I was passing,” White said. Now, she goes to therapy regularly. And, White was able to accomplish the only goal on her mind during her first bout with COVID-19 – taking her dog and quarantine companion, Eli, to the park.

spring 2021 | 13

Monday, March 8, 2021

Then to now: the CO

2020

By Natalie Parks &

DEC. 31, 2019 World Health Organization notified of pneumonia cluster from “unknown cause” in Wuhan

MARCH 12, 2020 All NCAA tournaments, including March Madness, canceled

MARCH 13, 2020 Last day of in-person instruction at UK

JUNE 8, 2020 New Zealand lifts most COVID-19 restrictions after ‘eliminating’ virus

JAN. 9, 2020 First death from novel coronavirus reported in Wuhan

JAN. 21, 2020 First U.S. coronavirus case confirmed by CDC in Washington man

JAN. 23, 2020 University of Kentucky sends first campus message about the novel coronavirus

MARCH 16, 2020 Gov. Andy Beshear announces state of emergency, issues first wave of restrictions

MARCH 17, 2020 UK announces the rest of the semester will be held online

JULY 9, 2020 Gov. Andy Beshear signs executive order mandating masks in public spaces, businesses

JULY 17, 2020 Two weeks after the Fourth of July, the U.S. records its highest-yet daily new cases at 75,119

JAN. 31, 2020 WHO declares public health emergency as world surpasses 200 deaths

MARCH 25, 2020 U.S. Senate votes unanimously to pass first round of relief for Americans with CARES Act

FEB. 3, 2020 United States declares pub health emergency

MARCH 27, 2020 Students move all be longings out of dorms campus facilities adju ed for social distancin

AUG. 17, 2020 First day of fall semester as UK resumes in-person classes for first time since pandemic began

SEPT. 9, 2020 Kentucky surpasses 1,000 deaths from COVID-19

2021

MAY 27, 2020 U.S. surpasses 100,000 deaths from COVID-19

JAN. 7, 2020 Chinese authorities isolate the novel coronavirus, share genetic sequence on Jan. 12

DEC. 15, 2020 UK HealthCare begins first COVID-19 vaccinations for medical staff 14 | kentucky kernel

DEC. 18, 2020 Second COVID-19 vaccine, from Moderna, approved by FDA

DEC. 17, 2020 President Trump signs second COVID relief bill into law, releasing $900 billion in aid

JAN. 8, 2021 New daily cases in the U.S. peak at 315,179, according to CDC following family gatherings for holidays

JAN. 13, 2021 UK begins vaccinations for non-healthcare employees

JAN. 19, 2021 UK opens mass vaccine clinic at Kroger Field

Monday, March 8, 2021

OVID-19 pandemic Gillian Stawiszynski

0 s blic -

es, ustng

FEB. 6, 2020 First U.S. death from COVID-19 occurs, but is not confirmed until April through postmortem testing

APRIL 3, 2020 UK announces plans for field hospital on campus

SEPT. 23, 2020 UK surpasses 1,000 student cases of COVID-19 since fall semester began

FEB. 11, 2020 WHO announces official name of new disease as COVID-19

APRIL 8, 2020 76-day lockdown ends in Wuhan, city of virus’s origin, with worst yet to come for other countries

SEPT. 27, 2020 First hospitalization of UK student reported

JAN. 20, 2021 President Joe Biden signs national mandate requiring masks to be worn on federal property

JAN. 25, 2021 Classes begin for third semester since pandemic began

MARCH 2, 2020 UK expands travel restrictions, begins to extricate students studying abroad

MARCH 6, 2020 First case of COVID-19 confirmed in Kentucky, in isolation at UK Chandler Hospital

APRIL 10, 2020 Refunds for spring costs transfer into student accounts

APRIL 28, 2020 U.S surpasses 1 million cases of COVID-19

OCT. 2, 2020 President Donald Trump is announced to have COVID-19 and is hospitalized

JAN. 26, 2021 Kentucky confirms first cases of COVID-19 variants

NOV. 9, 2020 U.S. records more than 10 million cases of COVID-19

FEB. 9, 2020 UK commits to vaccinating all employees

MARCH 11, 2020 WHO declares COVID-19 a global pandemic UK announces that classes will be held online for two weeks following spring break

MAY 1, 2020 UK announces it will reopen for fall semester

NOV. 24, 2020 In-person aspect of fall semester, first reopened semester, ends

FEB. 22, 2020 U.S. surpasses 500,000 deaths from COVID-19 in 11 months

MAY 22, 2020 Restaurants allowed to reopen in Kentucky

DEC. 11, 2020 First vaccine against COVID-19 approved for emergency use

by FDA

FEB. 26, 2021 Third COVID-19 vaccine, which had trials in Lexington through UK, is approved by FDA spring 2021 | 15

Monday, March 8, 2021

features

‘You never know what’s going to happen’: How the pandemic led to major life changes

By Callie Justice features@kykernel.com

One year ago, the world stopped. When it resumed, very little was the same.

Masks adorn faces, friends greet each other only on the screen and houses became the whole world.

But for some, these routine changes are not the whole story. The pandemic led to monumental career and life shifts for some Americans, including University of Kentucky senior Victoria Graffam.

Graffam, a health society major, was studying abroad in New Zealand last March working as an intern at the International Health Department. The pandemic put that path on hold. A month into her studies, she was requested back by UK with threats to take away her health insurance if she did not return.

“I was thinking I might be able to stay just due to New Zealand being really safe at the time,” Graffam said. “As things got worse and worse, you could see students getting the email each day, day by day, more and more students would have to go home because their universities were requesting them back.”

Graffam was one of the last students requested back. She returned to hauntingly empty air-ports

16 | kentucky kernel

and went from an immersive learning experience in her field of study to class in front of a computer screen, a transition that strongly affected her motivation.

“I do appreciate that UK is taking a lot of precautions, but it’s also affecting my style of learning,” Graffam said. “Thinking into the future, that transition from being in school then going into a career, I feel like it’s going to be tricky.”

As a social person, the lockdown has greatly affected Graffam’s lifestyle.

Her connections with friends are limited due to isolating almost exclusively at home.

“I find that I have no need to go out and do a lot of things,” said Graffam.

“I feel like I’m really lazy now and I feel like my mental health is definitely not at its greatest, just because you know you’re locked inside with your thoughts a lot.”

The struggles of lost opportunity and confinement weighed heavy on Graffam. But she she was able to find meaning by connecting with family.

“I have never felt closer with my family just because during the time of extreme quarantin-ing we had to do, it was really fun. My mom would work from home, my dad’s job never stopped but he would

MICHAEL CLUBB | STAFF Demarcus Smith poses for a portrait on Sunday, March 7, 2021, in Woodland Glen Park in Lexington, Kentucky.

come home,” Graffam said.

We were always in good moods which is surprising, I know some people aren’t lucky enough to have that.”

Like many, Graffam found that the pandemic forced them to realize what matters most to them. This change in perspective has been a marked quality of Graffam’s year.

“I feel a little more grounded too, just before I felt I was constantly on the go, doing this, doing that.

Now I feel like I have a little better grasp on just my life in general just because I was able to slow down, halt everything and reevaluate,” Graffam said.

For some, reevalution led to big changes. Abigal Owens, a nursing major at Bluegrass Community Technical College, was living the normal college student life – socializing, planning a trip to the Bahamas before quarantine took effect.

“I guess I was just not being as appreciative for life as I should’ve been,” said Owens. “Now it’s like all the things that you took for granted a year ago are so different now.”

Owens was planning to apply for dental hygiene school, but decided to wait because she believed she would not do well in the online learning model. COVID-19 has since led to a career change, with Owens changing her

focus to more caretaking and switching her major to nursing.

“It’s definitely opened my eyes to ‘wow I’m young, I have so much life to live, I have so much that I can give to others,’” Owens said. “I hope to be making a difference, impacting people, just spreading love every day, because that’s what I strive to do every day.”

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Monday, March 8, 2021

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Nurses have been in high demand throughout the pandemic and will continue to be as many Amer-icans struggle with the long-term effects of severe illness.

One of the biggest struggles for Owens has been not being able to visit her grandfather for over a year to protect him from the virus. He has developed dementia during the pandemic.

“It’s kind hard to even know if he will remember who I am now,” Owens said. “He was my best friend my whole life growing up, we did everything together. He lived in a little country house on land we’d just go out and do all kinds of different things.”

Owens transformed this personal struggle into a positive impact. She began working for Homestead, a company that caters to the elderly, many with dementia by providing resources and needed company. This service allows elderly Lexingtonians to stay in their homes without having to risk contact or enter a nursing home.

“I would pass meds for them, make sure they were assisted with hygiene task, make sure they were changed, make sure they were clean, make them food,” Owens said. “Just small stuff that you would never think that someone really needs, and they do.”

Owens was able to help others in need, but also help herself by providing her with compa-ny that she

could not receive from her grandfather “It’s very sad to see someone deteriorate, but it’s also very positive effect because you know that although they don’t maybe remember you, you know that you will always remember them and the impact you left on them,” said Owens.

Many can relate to Owen’s hardships of being separated from family. Jackson Leach, a junior at Tulane University who took a class online last semester at UK, lost his grandmother to COVID-19.

“She was kind of like a mom. I was as close, or maybe even closer, with her than my mom,” Leach said. “She was kind of dying of a lot of reasons but COVID definitely made it faster. It was kind of a shock.”

Even though Leach was greatly affected by this loss, he did not become bitter against those who did not precautions during the pandemic.

“I thought I probably would [become bitter] but not really, honesty. I can kind of put my-self in people like that’s shoes, their lack of understanding, lack of empathy. You know you can’t save everyone,” Leach said.

Leach is currently taking a semester off school because of his dislike for virtual learning and a desire to return to New Orleans.

“New Orleans is a lot more locked down than here, so it affected my decision to not go back and my parents’ decision to not want me to go back,”

MICHAEL CLUBB | STAFF Victoria Graffam poses for a portrait on Sunday, March 7, 2021, at The Gatton Student Center in Lexington, Kentucky.

Leach said.

Many students, like Leach, do not like online school – the biggest change in the day to day lives of college students. Demarcus Smith was a junior studying film at the University of Cincin-nati. He was director of recruitment at his fraternity and worked at a nearby bar, both things lost to the pandemic.

“Online stuff is just not how I learn. I need human interaction to be able to ask my profes-sors questions and stuff,” Smith said.

Ramifications of COVID-19 led Smith to leave college and Cincinnati, moving to Lexing-ton despite knowing few people in the city.

See CHANGES on page 21

STAFF FILE PHOTO Containers of Clorox wipes are scattered throughout the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government office, where Lexington mayor Linda Gorton addressed the public and announced a state of emergency after the first case of Corona virus in Kentucky was announced on Friday, March 6, 2020.

spring 2021 | 17

Monday, March 8, 2021

news

A tale of two pandemics

By Sarah Michels news@kykernel.com

If you thought 2020 was bad, wait until you hear about 1918.

Still in the throes of World War I, a global conflict the likes of which had never been seen, a myste-rious new respiratory illness silently but steadily travelled through barracks.

But while soldiers on the front lines and in training camps were the strain’s first victims, they were nowhere near its last.

Influenza was a skilled killer. It felled 14,000 Kentuckians, 675,000 Americans and 50 million people worldwide before it ran its course, according to the University of Kentucky’s 1918: Over Here exhibit, curated by UK librarians Carol Street and Jennifer Hootman.

The first known case appeared in March in Kansas at Fort Riley, where soldiers were training. Contrary to popular belief, this disease likely did not originate in Spain, as the “Spanish influenza” nickname would have people believe.

Wherever the actual origin, the strain was mostly contained within training camps and prisons until the end of America’s involvement in WWI in November 1918, when soldiers came home to huge celebratory events where influenza was disseminated.

But there were “superspreader” events before then – one of the most in-

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LOUIS EDWARD NOLLAU F SERIES PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINT COLLECTION The Gymnasium Hospital during the influenza epidemic on September 23, 1918

famous in Philadelphia in September 1918. Despite calls from doctors and health experts to call the event off, the city held a massive “Liberty Loan March” to raise money for the war effort, according to a history.com article.

12,000 Philadelphians died from the flu in the following four weeks.

Gov. Andy Beshear alluded to Philadelphia’s mistake in some of his

COVID-19 updates, instructing Kentuckians to be like St. Louis, which cancelled their 1918 parade, not Philadelphia. Hootman said that this contrast between pandemic approaches by different localities was one striking paral-lel between the two pandemics she has noticed.

Kentucky’s first case of the flu appeared mid-September at Camp Zachary Taylor, near Louisville,

said UK Special Collections librarian Terry Birdwhistell. As the troops travelled along the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, they briefly stopped at Bowling Green, spreading the disease in the process.

By November, the state had 8,000 cases. By mid-December, the health department was so over-whelmed they asked Surgeon General Rupert Blue to have the U.S. Public Health Service

take over all other administration of health work business until the pandemic was over.

Louisville was hit hardest. Within a week of the first reported contraction, there were 1,000 influ-enza cases. Approximately 180 people died from the flu during both the second and third weeks after the initial case.

The Kentucky State Board of Health an-

nounced an order to close “all places of amusement, schools, churches and other places of assembly” on Oct. 6, along with a travel ban, according to a Courier-Journal article.

Lexington, a more rural community at the time, staved off influenza a little longer. The city experi-enced its first influenza casualties on Oct. 10; William Wade, 47, and See FLU on page 19

Monday, March 8, 2021

news FLU CONTINUED FROM PAGE 18

Francis Arnet, 14, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Just one day later, UK president Frank McVey announced that the university would close for a month, and the Buell Armory would transition to a makeshift hospital for students run by the American Red Cross.

Influenza had entered UK’s campus through the Students’ Army Training Corps’ (SATC) ranks, a group of about 400 men who prepared to fight for the war effort in Buell Armory. Throughout their train-ing, 170 members fell ill and five died from the flu, including sophomore Private Harry K. Smith of Louisville and freshman Private G. Lloyd Haydon of Springfield, Ky. Preceding the October campus closing, two functions contributed to the spread—an Oct. 1 natural-ization ceremony, where 1,100 men were inducted into the U.S. Army and Navy, and an Oct. 5. circus-themed party hosted by the Philosophian Society in Patterson Hall for female students.

However, after the quarantine order, students mostly avoided future gatherings, likely due to a real fear that getting sick might actually kill them.

“We have so many ways to treat this disease. And even then, we’ve seen over half a million deaths nationwide,” Birdwhistell said. “When you got sick, back then the treatment was really much dif-ferent than you would have today.”

Among the 1,200 students enrolled at UK in 1918, 403 contracted influenza and eight died.

It could have been much worse, Birdwhistell said. UK’s death rate was lower than the state as a whole, making them a model for other communities to follow.

“I think one of the parallels is that it took leadership from

LOUIS EDWARD NOLLAU F SERIES PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINT COLLECTION Women students in music class circa 1918 and Professor Carl Lampert

the university to make sure that we got through the (pandemic) in 1918 and also the one now,” Birdwhistell said. “Not unlike now, it took a community effort, you know, everybody pulling in the same direction.”

In 1918, the community was led by McVey, who had only been at UK for a year before the pandem-ic hit. He came from a presidency at University of North Dakota with a Yale doctorate and a former professorship and public policy experience at the University of Minnesota, which guided him along his journey to solidify the shaky financial standing of the university at the time. He made the tough decision to shut down campus from Oct. 11 to Nov. 3 for everyone but SATC members and a hand-ful of women residing in the Maxwell and Patterson dormitories.

Those five weeks of halted instruction may have saved lives, although it did delay commencement an additional month. Birdwhistell said that he thinks UK is lucky to have Capilouto, with his public health doctorate, as president this time around.

In 1918, UK tried and failed to keep students on campus for the entire fall semester. But in fall 2020, it was a different story.

“I think that the effort that UK made on behalf of students, to try to get students back on campus, try to get things back as normal as they could, was really took a huge effort and it was kind of a gamble, in a way, to see how that would work out,” Birdwhistell said. “From my perspective, that seems to have done about as well as could be expected.”

Another key sect of the community effort against influenza

was the group of women who ran Buell Armory, the campus gymnasium turned makeshift hospital. Mrs. George R. Hunt led the Lexington chapter of the Red Cross, Mrs. W.H. Thompson managed the hospital, Miss Catherine O’Brien was head nurse and ten female staff took charge of nursing duties and food preparation. According to a Nov. 11 edition of the Kentucky Kernel, the hospital could accommodate 150 students at a time, and was a major success.

Street said that looking at photos of these 1918 frontline workers, often wearing masks, was very familiar.

“They looked exactly like the faces of the hospital workers we see on the news reports every night, just with modern clothes,” Street said. “I understood why they look the way they

did. They look tired, and they looked exhausted and as they’ve been working all day and dealing with something that they’re really scared of and worried about taking it home to their families.”

One of the most tangible longterm effects of the 1918 pandemic on UK came out of this medical endeavor. At the December Board of Trustees meeting, members suggested that the university needed a permanent hospital on campus. This conversation began a multi-decade push that result-ed in the 1962 opening of Albert B. Chandler Hospital and the beginning of the UK HealthCare en-terprise.

Over a century ago, antsy quarantiners didn’t have Tiger King, Chloe Ting workouts or TikTok to keep them occupied.

But that didn’t stop them from having a little fun. The fifteen women stuck in the dormitories during the five-week break in classes found many activities to occupy their time, as reported by the Kentucky Kernel: “Rare friendships have developed among the girls who now realize that the only reason why many people don’t like each other better than they do is simply because they don’t know each other.

The girls embroidered, knitted, played cards, danced, took long hikes, read countless books and stories, sang and serenaded until they either lost their voices or became professionals, accumulated quite a collection of snapshots, almost wore out Mary Archer Bell’s victrola, stole a ride in Elizabeth Kimbrough’s Ford, and played many games…”

Street said there were some examples of mask resistance from 1918, but not many on campus or in Lexington. Their research for the 1918: Over Here exhibit didn’t find whether or not the limited resources and communication tools people had in that time period, with newspapers See FLU on page 20

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as one-way gatekeepers of information, contributed to the milder resistance. Hootman added that staying at home might not have been as big of a deal, considering that the economy didn’t rely as much on restaurants and businesses as it does today.

“It seems like there are sort of cavalier attitudes today about widespread virus,” Hootman said. “’Oh, it won’t touch us, we don’t die from these different kinds of things today,’ you know, like in previous generations, but we do. We do die of these sort of pandemics and epidemics all the time, not only in this country but around the world.”

The Kentucky Kernel wrote an op-ed to students stuck on campus on Nov. 27, writing that while Thanksgiving looked different in 1918, with war and influenza, they could still find reasons to be thankful.

“The flu will probably be raging, and perhaps some other destroyer of happiness will have been discovered by that time, but our thanksgiving must not cease,” the article read. “Those who haven’t the flu, be glad you’re escaped, and those who are unfortunate enough to have it, be glad you’re not dead.”

It’s unclear whether the level of compliance with quarantine orders really was greater in 1918, or non-compliance simply wasn’t recorded. Nobody could Tweet out an infraction of the pandemic rules in 1918, Birdwhistell said, and if, say, church congregations in rural areas continued to meet, there was little to no enforcement.

When students returned to class, they faced new protocols, similar to this spring’s campus return. According to the Kentucky Kernel, those who left campus needed to obtain a doctor’s note from their county or town health

20 | kentucky kernel

authorities verifying that they hadn’t been exposed to influenza in the past four days and have permission from the Lexington Board of Health to return. When they ar-rived, they were under a four-day quarantine before they could resume their studies.

“The welcome of fellow classmates, who have (escaped) or recovered from influenza, will be en-thusiastic this first week; each will be eager for the work which awaits him after almost five weeks of interrupted classes and the waiting studies will be seriously (attacked)” read a Nov. 11, 1918 Kernel article headlined, “Flu Well in Hand.”

Things quickly returned to normal the spring of 1919, Birdwhistell said, with classes and sports back on track. Football fans were among the most ecstatic. The loss of most of the 1918 football season, save three games, was perhaps almost as big a disappointment as 2020’s sports cancellation.

Before the Board of Health order, UK’s only competition was their season opening victory at Indi-ana on Oct. 5. Their annual Thanksgiving match against rival Tennessee was canceled, along with the postponement (and eventual cancellation) of a match against Centre, who was particularly upset at their lost chance to defeat UK for once.

“For the first time in years the Wildcats can eat their turkey in peace, with no thoughts of a coming gridiron struggle, and townspeople with the lure of the pigskin removed, can observe the day with true Puritan tranquility,” the Kentucky Kernel reported.

The football squad, made up of SATC members, played two other games on only a few days of prac-tice: a loss at Vanderbilt on Nov. 2 and a win at Georgetown on Nov. 9. The 2-1 record was disap-pointing for all See FLU on page 21

LOUIS EDWARD NOLLAU F SERIES PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINT COLLECTION

LOUIS EDWARD NOLLAU F SERIES PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINT COLLECTION Convalescents playing cards in Gymnasium Hospital - Buell Armory during influenza epidemic October 17 1918

Monday, March 8, 2021

news FLU CONTINUED FROM PAGE 20

involved, but the 1919 Kentuckian, UK’s yearbook, chose to look at it from a hu-morous standpoint: “There are just two lenses through which to look at that gridrion record. One is lettered S.A.T.C., the other FLU. In roughneck parlance, if such will be pardoned, ‘S.A.T.C. and flu sho’ busted up Kentucky football last fall.’”

Throughout the 1918 pandemic, Fayette County had roughly 1,000 influenza cases and 51 deaths, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader. The death count could be underreported due to the misclassification of some influenza deaths as pneumonia deaths. With a population of 41,000 peo-ple, that’s a 2.4% positivity rate and 0.1% death rate.

So far, there have been 32,789 Covid-19 cases in Fayette County, as well as 234 deaths. With a popu-

CHANGES CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17

With little job availability in his college city, Lexington provided him with an overwhelming amount of opportunity.

“I lost my job at the bar and I was working at the University of Cincinnati as an orientation leader,” Smith said. “I could not find any work in Cincy, but as soon as I came down here to Lex-ington, I had interviews lined up.”

Available work proved

lation of 322,000 people, that’s a 10% positivity rate and a 0.07% death rate.

If one were to just look at these numbers, it would seem that Lexington has learned from history. But is it a fair comparison?

“I think the ways we had of dealing, I just think it’s like apples and oranges in a way,” Birdwhistell said. “Look at this one today—how many more people are in the country?

How many more people are in our communities? … It’s is just different times and I think it took different strategies this time and we’re not out of it yet.”

One key similarity between 1918 and 2020 is that both begged the question of how much can so-ciety bear at one time. In 1918, influenza was far from the only issue on the table.

There was the massive destruction of WWI, racial issues, economic changes and influenza, Hootman said. In 2020, there was racial strife, a hotly contested election, economic problems and wildfires, in

to be a huge benefit in his move, but moving to a new city during a pandemic left the usualyl social Smith with few friends and fewer avenues of meeting new people. He was able to overcome this obstacle by joining a recreational volleyball league and forming rela-tionships at work.

“Just with COVID no one wants to meet anybody new, no one wants to go out and do stuff, everything was closed. So, it was very very very hard to meet people, I mean it still is hard,”

Dates from Kentucky Kernel, Lexington Herald-Leader and UK Libraries records. Graphic made in Piktochart by Natalie Parks.

addition to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I got the sense like in doing our research for 1918, that the flu pandemic, I mean, while it was really awful, it wasn’t their

biggest focus of the year,” Hootman said. “It really seemed to me the war was the big focus.”

Perhaps the most interesting connection, however, is the use of humor

to cope with adversity. In 2020, people all around the world used social media to joke about their experiences in an attempt to make light of the situation. While they didn’t have TikTok

or Twitter in 1918, they weren’t lack-ing in humor, as illustrated by this entry in the 1919 Kentuckian: “Flu—like hair, most every one has it. God bless the bald-headed man.”

Smith said.

The former film student’s path has completely changed from his art-based dream due to the job opportunities he found in Lexington. He is now working as a dental assistant for surgery and considering going to dental school.

“A small portion of it [switching career paths] did have to do with COVID, just because like even though we weren’t allowed to be around people, I had a mother sense to want to be around people

and help people,” Smith said. “Honestly is was just a spur of the moment thing, I just got that job in healthcare. Some things just fall in place like that.”

Despite losing his social habits and routines, the importance of connection and pas-sion have never been clearer to Smith.

“I was already getting a little too caught up in the fast life, college life,” Smith said. “The re-al people in my life who actually meant something were reaching out. All the people

there just for parties or fun went away.”

Moments spent with friends or family have never held such an importance, as isolation tak-en away a luxury few recognized.

“I had friends that I would have plans with and just cancel like ‘oh I’ll see you next week or something’ and now it’s not like that because you never know what’s going to happen between those times,” Owens said.

With states easing restrictions, the year-long

distance from loved ones may soon shrink. But the lessons of isolation will linger as these students embark on new paths brought to them as consequences of the pandemic. This oncein-a-lifetime disease has also been life-changing, and many hope their new appreciation for connection and purpose will last.

spring 2021 | 21

Monday, March 8, 2021

news

Kentucky researchers and the race for COVID-19 vaccines

By Hannah Stanley news@kykernel.com

Some people called it a scientific miracle. But the development of three vaccines against a new coronavirus in less than a year is just that – science. The incredible effort behind these successful vaccines was helped along by researchers in Lexington, including at the University of Kentucky.

As a research university, many of the UK’s faculty applied their knowledge to aid the fight against this new disease. But the Center for Clinical and Translational Science in particular has contributed to tackling the pandemic by becoming the lead for three local sites of trials for Janssen COVID-19 vaccine.

Originating from the pharmaceutical companies of Johnson and Johnson, this vaccine is a single dose shot that doesn’t have the same cold storage requirements as other vaccines.

The partnership with Baptist Health Lexington and Norton and University of Kentucky was the largest enrolled site in the world with 890 local volunteers.

Results from the study, which included 43,000 people globally, showed that the Janssen vaccine provided complete protection from hospitalizations

22 | kentucky kernel

and death. The vaccine averaged 86% effectiveness against severe illness and had an overall efficacy rate of 72% in the United States and 64% in South Africa.

UK’s trial first began seeking volunteers in November of 2020. UK’s Dr. Richard Greenberg was the principal investigator, along with Dr. David Dougherty of Baptist Health Lexington and Dr. Paul Schulz at Norton Healthcare and Mobile.

The trio participated in a press conference on Friday, Feb. 26 concerning the interim results of the trial.

The Janssen vaccine was under review by the FDA at the time to see if it met the requirements for emergency use authorization. Greenberg, who has more than 40 years of experience in infectious diseases, was optimistic of the possible approval of the Janssen vaccine.

“It has added meaning to all of us because if the approval is granted, we’ve put a tremendous amount of effort and been very successful in gathering the data to have this happen,” said Greenberg.

The Johnson and Johnson vaccine recieved emergency authorization the following day, kicking off distribution across the United States. Kentucky expected to get 30,000 dos-

A researcher preps a syringe with a COVID-19 vaccine as part of the Johnson & Johnson trial. Photo provided by ENSEMBLE research group

es last week. Researchers said the Janssen vaccine was “more tolerable” than other vaccines, with trial participants reporting less side effects after dose administration.

“In our trial, at least, there were zero cases of anaphylaxis. Only about 9% of folks got fever with only a very low percentage of those getting severe

fever. So it is a very, very safe vaccine and all three vaccines, we’re lucky to have all three vaccines at the stage of the pandemic,” Dougherty said. No deaths were documented in the overall trial.

Unlike the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, the Janssen vaccine was studied in countries like South Africa and Brazil,

where COVID-19 variants are already circulating, variants that may be more contagious and fatal.

Greenberg said that the Janssen vaccine having trials in those countries may be why its efficacy rate is lower than other vaccines.

“The efficacy is difficult to compare because the timeline and the COVID rates in all the countries

where this study took place, they went up over that timeframe of the Johnson and Johnson study and put a lot of pressure on the vaccine,” Dougherty said.

“I think the most important point is that there were zero hospitalizations and zero deaths in the vaccine arm, including in South Africa and Brazil.”

See VACCINE on page 28

Monday, March 8, 2021

sports

Women’s basketball falls in second round of SEC tournament

By Eric Decker

to prove it the next time we step on the court.”

The Cats will need production from the entire starting unit, not just Rhyne, if they want to stand any chance once the NCAA tournament starts.

Kentucky is also a team

sports@kykernel.com

Two weeks ago, Kentucky went on the road to Athens and put themselves in prime position to have a favorable seeding heading into the conference tournament. What a difference two weeks can make.

Kentucky gained momentum from a win over Georgia on Feb. 25 and was looking to get revenge against a sub-par Ole Miss team that defeated them in Oxford as they cruised into the SEC tournament.

But the Rebels came into Memorial Coliseum and trounced the Cats again, which fueled doubt as the regular season concluded.

The loss didn’t help Kentucky’s chances in the conference tournament, either. Because they had fallen to the fifth seed, Kentucky lost their double bye and were forced to play on Thursday, March 5, against a Florida team who went 3-11 against SEC foes in the regular season.

Kentucky pulled out a win against the Gators, but not without concern.

The Cats were losing in the game as late as the fourth quarter and they allowed Kiara Smith to go off for 36 points in the process.

It took a 10-15 shooting performance from Rhyne

that struggles with rebounding, and that issue will need to be addressed heading into the first round on March 21, whoever they may play.

MICHAEL CLUBB | STAFF Kentucky Wildcats guard Robyn Benton (1) gets tangled up with UGA during the UK vs.

Georgia womenís SEC Tournament basketball game on Friday, March 5, 2021, at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, South Carolina. UK lost 78-66.

Howard to help secure the first round win for Kentucky that internally has high expectations for themselves once the NCAA tourney rolls around.

“Sometimes I’ll just be like ‘give me the ball’…

‘I’m gonna create for us and we’re gonna get back on top and win this game, ‘ Howard said after the 7364 win over the Gators.

That formula wasn’t as successful on March 5 against a top-20 Georgia team.

Howard still found a way to put up 33 points on

over 50% shooting against the Bulldogs, but she couldn’t do it on her own.

Chasity Patterson was the only other Wildcat in double figures with 11 points Georgia pulled out of the gate with a 15-2 lead and never really looked back. Kentucky had opportunities to try and close the gap to build some momentum but failures in shooting night any chance of that happening as they lost by 12.

“I thought we clawed back in the third quarter,

but at the end of the day we couldn’t get some crucial stops.” Coach Elzy said.

“We gave up an offensive rebound at the end of the third quarter, which was a big momentum shift” Kentucky’s next game date is unknown as they await their seeding in the NCAA tournament and decision on when they play in San Antonio.

“We knew that we were good enough to win this game and should have won this game in my opinion.”

Howard said. “We’re going

MICHAEL CLUBB | STAFF Kentucky Wildcats forward Keke McKinney (3) celebrates with a coach after getting an and-1 call during the UK vs.

Florida womenís SEC Tournament basketball game on Thursday, March 4, 2021, at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, South Carolina. UK won 73-63.

spring 2021 | 23

Monday, March 8, 2021

sports

What went right in Kentucky’s wins

By Barkley Truax sports@kykernel.com

Now sitting at 8 – 9 following Kentucky’s victory over South Carolina, this season’s record has been the reverse of men’s basketball’s usual performances.

Instead of expecting (and getting) wins, fans came to expect losses. So many things went wrong for the Cats that in previewing their chances at the SEC tournament, it’s easier to look at what went right.

Morehead State, Nov. 25 The then No. 10 ranked Wildcats trampled Morehead State 81-45 in their season

opener the night before Thanksgiving.

Brandon Boston Jr. led the way for Kentucky with 15 points and seven rebounds along with three of his teammates scoring in double figures.

Kentucky could do no wrong – or so it seemed. In hindsight, this is by far the Wildcats best performance of the season.

They would go on to drop their next six games, as well as any hope for that final four run that seemed almost inevitable for this squad in the preseason.

Mississippi State, Jan. 2 After a long, dark December for BBN, Kentucky opened up conference play on the road against Mississippi State on Jan.

2. Kentucky won 78-73 in double overtime, marking their first victory in nearly five weeks.

This game – referred to as the Dontaie Allen game – had a little bit of everything.

Head coach John Calipari got ejected and fans finally got to see Allen do exactly what they knew he could do. Not only did putting Allen in appease fans (for the moment), but his performance led to a thriller victory in double overtime. Allen’s 23-point performance, anchored by seven three’s, set the tone for Kentucky’s threegame winning streak to begin SEC play.

What went right for the Cats was giving a highly-touted player a chance to (finally)

MICHAEL CLUBB | STAFF Kentucky Wildcats guard Devin Askew (2) loses the ball during the University of Kentucky vs. University of Kansas men’s basketball game at the Champions Classic on Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2020, at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana. Kansas won 65-62.

24 | kentucky kernel

prove himself.

Vanderbilt, Jan. 5 Kentucky defeated Vanderbilt 77-74 at home behind Olivier Sarr’s 24 points and Davion Mintz’s game-winning corner three-pointer. Sarr took over, going to the free throw line 17 times and cashing in on 14 of those attempts. Allen cooled down this time around, providing 14 points for Kentucky following his previous career game.

Myles Stute dropped 16 points while Scotty Pippen Jr., Dylan Disu and Jordan Wright all scored 18 points for the Commodores. Down seven points at halftime, the Wildcats outscored the Commodores 44-34 in the second half to edge Vanderbilt by three. That victory came on the back of a confident night from Sarr, who had been stuck in a rut of simple errors.

Florida, Jan. 9 Kentucky absolutely dominated Florida on their home court 76-58, capping off a three-game winning streak to start conference play. Keion Brooks Jr. returned to Kentucky’s lineup after missing the start of the season with an injury. He went 6-8 from the field, scoring 12 points to go along with six rebounds and four assists. Boston (13), Mintz (13) and Sarr (10) would also score in double figures for the Wildcats.

Kentucky went into the locker room with a six-point lead. After halftime, Kentucky would outscore the Gators 41-29, not stepping their foot off the gas until the final buzzer. Brooks was the difference maker here – his veteran leadership provided not only the playing experience Kentucky needed, but the stability as well.

His presence was extra important in a year with young players who have not had the same opportunities as other teams to bond, due to COVID-19.

LSU, Jan. 23 Kentucky blew out LSU 82-69 inside Rupp Arena on Jan. 23. Brooks Jr. would score 13 of his 15 points in the first half – points that proved a deal-breaker as the Wildcats went into the locker room with a 13-point lead and never looked back.

See WINS on page 28

Monday, March 8, 2021

sports

Cats face tough road to SEC victory

By Braden Ramsey sports@kykernel.com

Kentucky is headed to Nashville off its largest conference win of the year and biggest margin of victory since its season-opening game against now-Ohio Valley Conference champion Morehead State. The Cats’ collective confidence couldn’t be higher, and that’s a good thing; they’ll need every ounce of it to claw their way to an NCAA tournament berth.

For the first time since 2009, Kentucky will not enter the conference tournament with the benefit of a bye to the quarterfinal round. The Cats, slotted in the SEC’s eighth spot – their lowest ever since the league expanded in 2013 – have never not possessed the vaunted double bye (2013 on-ward) before, making the path to victory even more difficult.

An even longer streak was broken by the team who finished at the top of the conference. On the back of a 20-6 campaign, Alabama notched the SEC No. 1 seed for just the second time this century (2002).

Head coach Nate Oats is the favorite for conference coach of the year fol-lowing the unexpectedly dominant showing, which made the Crimson Tide the first SEC regular season champions in both basketball and football since Florida in 2007.

Alabama’s primary challenger is one of the two teams it fell to in con-

ference play and only other team to record 20 total victories: Arkansas. The Razorbacks, led by coach Eric Musselman, defeated Alabama 81-66 in Fayetteville on Feb. 24 and boast the fifth-highest point per game average in the country (83.2). If they can navigate their way to a championship game appearance, they’ll have full faith in their ability to bring home the bacon.

LSU is locked into the three seed after beating Missouri 86-80 on Saturday evening. Will Wade’s crew is the only top-three conference foe the Cats knocked off in 2021. The second-best offensive team in the SEC is capable of lighting up the scoreboard on anyone, but with the fourth worst PPG in the conference also let everyone rack up points in return, as evidenced by Kentucky’s then season-high 82 versus them back at Rupp Arena on Jan. 23.

Tennessee and Florida, who the Cats earned double-digit wins against on the road but lost to at home, are the fourth and fifth seeds. The Vols clinched the final double-bye due to a 65-54 win over the Gators in Knoxville on Sunday.

The result keeps Ole Miss in the six spot.

Kentucky’s first opponent is Mississippi State, whom the Cats prevailed over 78-73 in double overtime on Jan. 2. Dontaie Allen displayed his talents in impressive fashion, recording 23 points off the bench

MICHAEL CLUBB | STAFF Kentucky Wildcats guard Davion Mintz (10) lays the ball up during the University of Kentucky vs. Vanderbilt men’s basketball game on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021, at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky. Kentucky won 77-74.

to end a six-game losing streak. The Bulldogs, who come into the matchup at 14-13 (8-10 SEC), will look to avenge their heartbreaking defeat when they meet.

If the Cats are able to get by Ben Howland’s bunch, they’ll book a date with the Crimson Tide. Alabama swept Kentucky for the first time since 1989 behind a dominant 85-65 showcase at Rupp Arena and a more competitive, closer than indicated game, 70-59. Three-pointers are the name of the game for the Tide, who connected on 14 treys in their 20-point

win. They only hit six deep balls in their rematch, but countered with 24 makes at the charity stripe to pull away late. Likely All-SEC selection John Petty tallied 23 points to pace his team in the first meeting, while Jaden Shackelford’s 21 led ‘Bama the second go round.

Seven seed Missouri is the tournament dark horse.

After dealing the Tide its first SEC defeat 68-65 on Feb. 6, the Tigers are only 2-5 in their past seven contests. But Cuonzo Martin’s men have demonstrated an ability to reign supreme over some of the country’s

best, including expected NCAA No. 1 seed Illinois in Columbia and Arkansas.

Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, LSU, Missouri and Tennessee all find themselves among the project-ed NCAA Tournament field for both ESPN’s Joe Lunardi and CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm. The two Bracketologists also have Ole Miss among their top bubble squads outside the 68team seed list. This means the Cats, barring any unforeseen upsets, will have to circumvent three March Madness participants to become one themselves.

They’d also have to do

something they haven’t managed to accomplish in 2020-21: win four games in a row.

The odds areunsurprisingly slim. But they’ve been that way all season long.Whether they can actually put it all together long enough to make their run though remains to be seen.

The Cats and Bulldogs square off at 12:00 p.m.

E.T. on Thursday for the right to battle Alabama at the same time on Friday.

Kentucky’s first broadcast is set for SEC Network.

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Monday, March 8, 2021

sports

ONE LAST CHANCE TO DANCE Can the Cats save the season with an SEC tournament victory?

By Braden Ramsey sports@kykernel.com

As everyone expected, this year’s Kentucky team reset a number of notable program marks – just not the positive kind. Three Wildcat records – the overall regular season of 9-15, SEC play at 8-9 and 1-6– represent the worst winning percentage for the program since the 1926-27 season.

Only the 1988-89 squad, Eddie Sutton’s final year as Kentucky’s head coach, is comparable at 8-10 in the SEC. Those numbers came in the wake of recruiting and academic violations; these lie in the shadow of an international pandemic. No matter the circumstances, Kentucky fans won’t ever be truly satisfied with such a poor year.

But would a run to the SEC title salvage a piece of the 2020-21 season? The answer depends on expectations.

Diana Parks, a sophomore and community leadership/physical therapy double major, said watching the team has been rough but she knows the coaches and players are trying their best.

“I know if we want to get into the NCAA tournament, we have to win the SEC championship,” Parks said. “So maybe that’d be like a big motivational for us, kind of like a nice little last push for us to finish it all.”

But students have doubts that Kentucky can correct a disastrous season, even if they do well in the tournament.

“It’s been brutal. It hasn’t been too good. I mean, it’s probably

26 | kentucky kernel

the worst season that I could possibly think of in the history of the school,” Trey Conrad, a freshman finance major, said of Kentucky’s performances.

Sophomore Alec Smith said it wouldn’t be an easy road to victory in the SEC tournament, which Kentucky has to win to have a chance at the NCAA championships.

“I think they’ve really shown that at times this season, they definitely can put together a run,” Smith said. He thinks success in the SEC will be dependent on Kentucky’s shooting.

Coming off a COVID-shortened campaign where they retained only one role player (Keion Brooks J.) from, the Cats’ expectations were through the roof. Transfers Olivier Sarr and Davion Mintz were destined to join Brooks as the elder statesmen of the roster, showing touted freshmen B.J. Boston, Terrence Clarke and Isaiah Jackson, among others, the tales of the trade. John Calipari looked to have a versatile bunch that would be able to execute his patented defensive strategy at a high level and attack opposing teams in a variety of ways offensively.

The season-opening display, an 81-45 victory over Ohio Valley Conference champion Morehead State, only further solidified this belief, and had a number of prognosticators questioning why Kentucky only came in at No. 10 in the initial top-25 AP Poll.

But that showing proved to be a mirage. The optimism of game one quickly waned with each

MICHAEL CLUBB | STAFF Kentucky Wildcats guard Davion Mintz (10) is lifted up after winning the game with a last minute three pointer during the University of Kentucky vs. Vanderbilt men’s basketball game on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021, at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky. Kentucky won 77-74.

successive loss in the non-conference, including a blowout defeat to seemingly inferior Georgia Tech and neutral court mishaps against Kansas and North Carolina.

“It’s been frustrating just a little bit because, you know, they start off rough, obviously. And then they had that a midseason spark of hope looked like, and then they kind of fall right back into what they are now,” Smith said.

The Cats even fell to typical

little brother Louisville, who is set to make the NCAA Tournament but isn’t anything special.

The defense remained locked down, but the offense was forced to return to basics, handcuffing Cal’s playbook.

“This isn’t like my past teams,” Calipari said after a 7570 loss to Missouri. “We went to the circle [play] but couldn’t get guys open.”

The inability to score, or even to try to score, persisted throughout much of the conference slate.

“No one wanted to shoot,” Calipari said following a loss at Auburn. “We missed wide-open shots.”

Students see the team’s issues as stemming from a lack of cohesion.

“We have a lot of new incoming freshmen and transfer students because I kind of think we didn’t get to be able to like bond this season,” Parks said. “And I just think like with the COVID, and a lot of the fans and supports See CHANCE on page 27

Monday, March 8, 2021

sports CHANCE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 26

not being there the atmosphere in Rupp Arena is kind of different.”

“I feel like a lot of the problem is almost teammate chemistry. It doesn’t even look like all the guys are in sync,” Conrad said.

“We don’t have a guy we can throw it to, and he goes one-onone and gets by anybody,” Calipari said after a loss to Alabama that had Kentucky shooting 2-9 in the last seven minutes. “We don’t have that guy… we have to do it different.”

Shooting struggles continued, costing Kentucky even in games where they had the lead.

“We are playing good enough to win, and then we hit a stretch where we don’t score a basket,” Calipari said after a loss to Tennessee.

Since that Volunteer loss though, the tide has shifted somewhat. Kentucky has notched 70 or more points in five of seven games from then on, and has eclipsed the 80 plateau four times, culminating in a rousing 92-64 shellacking of South Carolina on Saturday. This has come at the expense of its effectiveness defensively but has enabled a 4-2 record to close the regular season, the lone six-game stretch the Cats have with more W’s than L’s.

The absolute best-case scenario for Kentucky to end the year is claiming the SEC’s auto-bid by virtue of a conference tournament title and a double-digit seed in the Big Dance. The ceiling for teams in similar positions has historically been a Sweet Sixteen. Would that be satisfactory? It depends on personal expectations.

Freshman finance major John Farah said there are signs of life for Kentucky.

“We definitely show potential against better teams,” Farah said.

“We play better, but not enough

MICHAEL CLUBB | STAFF Kentucky Wildcats guard Brandon Boston Jr. (3) celebrates after making a three point basket during the University of Kentucky vs. Auburn men’s basketball game on Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021, at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky. UK won 82-80.

to win and then against bad teams we just played terribly.”

Farah said he was ‘pretty damaged’ from football and does not mind UK’s poor performance in basketball as much.

“If I really cared about it, it would definitely hurt a lot,” Farah said.

He said he sees problems with players not living up to their potential. But with some coaching adjustments, he thinks they have a shot in the SEC tournament.

“Anything’s possible cause we got the talent. It’s just really a matter of Cal’s coaching, if you can pull it together,” Farah said.

Anthony Volkovitsky is less

optimistic about the team’s chances of saving the season with an SEC championship.

“I don’t think so,” Volkovitsky said of taking home the SEC title.

“I mean, maybe if they figure out like defense and all that, but we’ll see.”

Volkovitsky, a freshman biology major, said he saw the team’s struggles coming in advance.

“You want them to pull through, but like, you just feel like it’s gonna happen because of past games,” Volkovitsky said of the season.

Students expressed hope that UK can learn from their mistakes this season to improve next year.

“They can go back and look at film and kind of regroup and re-strategize what they want to accomplish next season,” Parks said.

Conrad thinks that’s where the team’s mind should be at, with the low chance of making it through to the NCAA tournament.

“There’s always a shot that you can do that,” Conrad said.

“But at this point it’s almost just like, you know, get better for next year type thing, but I’m not sure anything can happen in post season.”

Of small comfort to fans is the struggles of other traditionally dominant teams.

“Duke, North Carolina, us – Kentucky - all having a little bit of rough years, and that makes me think maybe some of COVID,” Smith said. “So I’m not necessarily surprised because it’s a bunch of freshmen out there that haven’t played together and they had less time to get their season prepared together and stuff.”

Conrad, who is from Louisville, said that on one hand it’s nice to finally see UK go down hard – but as a student who was looking forward to cheering for a top team, the season “kind of sucks.”

Jack Weaver contributed reporting

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Monday, March 8, 2021

news VACCINE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 22

because the timeline and the COVID rates in all the countries where this study took place, they went up over that timeframe of the Johnson and Johnson study and put a lot of pressure on the vaccine,” Dougherty said. “I think the most important point is that there were zero hospitalizations and zero deaths in the vaccine arm, including in South Africa and Brazil.”

Greenberg said that 95% of the isolates from South Africa studied in the Janssen were of the variants, so the data shows the vaccine does have activity against the variants.

“And it also did well in Brazil, where there’s another variant circulating.

The vaccines are slightly different, apparently. And the response to the differ-

ent strains may be different,” Greenberg said. He added that all three vaccines are good vaccines and that people should get one when they are eligible.

Though the Johnson and Johnson vaccine is less effective than other vaccines, a single dose COVID-19 vaccine could accomplish vaccinations at a far quicker rate than the two-dose vaccines currently available.

“So from impact perspective, then every dose is granted to you, every dose that’s manufactured and distributed, is a person vaccinated rather than two doses per person. So, I think that’s really important to keep in mind as well,” Dougherty said. As the press conference was being held, Greenberg said Johnson and Johnson had trucks delivering doses to CDC stockpiles in preparation for approval. The company hopes to have 100

WINS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 24

Boston Jr.’s 18 points was a turning point in the season for the former McDonald’s All-American as his 18 points proved he can be worth the hype after a disappointing start of the season. Isaiah Jackson played valuable minutes off the bench as well, snagging 15 boards in 16 minutes. This game was a reversal of Kentucky’s other performances, where they fell out of touch with each other in the second half and leads slip through their fingers. Staying consistent and locked in late in the game is one thing the Cats need to get right again and again and again.

Auburn, Feb. 13 Kentucky split the season series with Auburn 1-1 after defeating the Tigers 8280 in Lexington. It looked like Kentucky

28 | kentucky kernel

million doses by summer.

Another benefit of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is that it is easier to transport, not requiring deep cold storage.

“It would just make vaccines more accessible to the rural areas, as well as something mobile to get into areas like the nursing homes where people can’t get out and get vaccinated, the vaccine has to go to them,” Greenberg said.

That accessibility could shift the global vaccine rollout, which is necessary to combat a pandemic.

“If we don’t vaccinate the world, we’re going to continue to have variants developed around the world and to seep into the U.S. borders,” Dougherty said.

With the hopes of the Janssen vaccine to be successful, the research group has already sought new goals for the future of Kentucky and those around it.

was going to run away with the game – they lead by as much as 14 points in the second half.

Between JT Thor (24 points) playing the best game of his young Auburn career and Allen Flanigan scoring 23, the Tigers mounted a comeback. Luckily for Kentucky, they held superstar freshman Sharife Cooper to 6-23 shooting. Jackson and Boston Jr. led Kentucky in scoring with 18 and 17 points, respectively.

Vanderbilt, Feb. 17 The only team Kentucky swept this season, Kentucky took down Vanderbilt on the road 82-78. Kentucky went into halftime up a dozen on the Commodores, holding their star Pippen Jr. scoreless in the first half. He would ramp up his offense in the second, though, finishing with 21 points on 5-19 shooting.

Kentucky had no answer for Disu again, who scored 29 points and 16 rebounds in

Vials of doses from Janssen Covid 19 Vaccine Phase 3 trials. Photo provided by the ENSEMBLE research project.

“I’d like to also mention that coming up, we expect to be doing pediatric versions of these studies. And we’re also trying to plan for a study on campus with one of the vaccines,” said Greenberg. “So this has

really led us down a great path and given us national notoriety. And it gives us some very exciting projects coming up, that will make a difference.”

Greenberg and the CCTS team will enroll up

38 of 40 minutes in regulation play. The Wildcats were once again bailed out by Mintz’s four three-pointers and Kentucky held out for the victory in Nashville.

Tennessee, Feb. 20 The sweetest victory of the season for the Cats, Kentucky traveled to Knoxville to pummel Tennessee 70-55 on their home court. This marked the second of two three-game win streaks for Kentucky this season.

Mintz’s five three-pointers led Kentucky over the Volunteers. Isaiah Jackson scored 16 points, capitalizing on his 8-9 free throw attempts – something that would be huge for Kentucky down the stretch to maintain their lead. Most importantly, the Cats didn’t let Tennessee and John Fulkerson get in their head, instead maintaining their presence of mind enough to execute the fundamentals. And Calipari finally got some of those ‘daggers’ he spoke about as

to 200 Lexington adults for a trial investigating whether two shots of the Janssen vaccine is more effective than one.

Kentucky upped its ante on three-pointers.

The baskets themselves were crucial, but so is the mindset behind those shots – a mindset the Cats struggled to have consistently.

South Carolina, March 6 Boston Jr and Mintz combined for 12 of Kentucky’s 13 made three-pointers in Kentucky’s regular season finale, demolishing the Gamecocks 92-64. Five three-pointers in a row from Mintz took Kentucky’s lead from eight to 19 to begin the second half and never looked back. Boston finished with 21 points, while Mintz had 20 for lead the Wildcats. Isaiah Jackson scored 13 points and 10 rebounds in the victory as well. Kentucky took advantage of South Carolina’s turnovers, but the biggest thing they did right was not letting things go wrong. They held on until the finish and didn’t let up on defense to give the Gamecocks a chance to dent the lead.