Being a graduate student in Seattle in the time of COVID-19

With the University of Washington shutting down and fear of the virus growing, graduate students face a unique and frightening situation.

The University of Washington cherry blossoms are expected to bloom at the end of March, and usually draws thousands of local, national, and international visitors. It’s unclear how severely visitation will be impacted by fears of COVID-19. Image source: GoToVan @ Flickr.com.

A few weeks ago, it was business as usual. I was responsible for teaching a laboratory section to students in my statistics course, while working on my own dissertation research. I was still tutoring undergraduate athletes in my off time, going to bars with my partner in the evenings, and planning a field season for my spring research. The infection across Wuhan, China was still in the back of everyone’s mind — cause for concern, but not yet a national emergency beginning in Washington state.

Then, things changed.

Within a week, Seattle had shut down the entire County offices, most of the city, canceled conferences and conventions, and the University I work at shifted all classes from in-person to online. We made national news, numerous times. I found myself wandering the grocery store, trying to find weekly grocery staples among the empty shelves. While the streets of Seattle aren’t entirely empty, patrons at any of my favorite restaurants and bars are minimal. Buses heading to the University are close to empty. Grocery stores normally packed on Sunday afternoons, are strangely quiet. Hand sanitizer and toilet paper are sold out at every store for miles…