Stories from the pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic has affected the entire world in different ways.

While there has been unmeasurable pain and suffering, there have also been inspirational and heartwarming moments.

It will take us years to assess the full damage, and developments, the disease has wrought.

For now, here is a collection of stories the Insider news team has told about real people weathering the pandemic so far:

First responders and healthcare workers

• 'We're seeing more dead bodies than we've ever had to': First responders describe the guilt, trauma, and hopelessness of battling the coronavirus in New York
• 'This is like 9/11 every single day': New York's emergency responders say they're getting up to 75% more calls than normal - and falling ill themselves
• The mother of a 34-year-old NYC paramedic with COVID-19 says she's devastated she can't visit her daughter: 'This is the part that is killing me'
• An emergency worker in Denver says anti-lockdown demonstrators who broke social distancing to protest are 'mind-bogglingly selfish'
• While some travel nurses receive lucrative paychecks to work with COVID-19 patients, those in other departments are out of work as contracts are canceled
• An ER nurse in New Orleans, a growing coronavirus hotspot, used to see 1 patient die per month. Now it's 2 per week.
• 'We're all going to get it': An ER nurse in Detroit with 700 colleagues who already caught COVID-19 describes the pressures of working on the front line of the outbreak
• Hospital chaplains offer solace from the sidelines, as patients ask them: 'Am I going to die alone in here?'

• A senior NYC doctor died by suicide after weeks of working on the coronavirus front lines, where her patients suffered heavily
• 'I am no hero. I am not ready to die': A New York nurse reveals the anguish, fear, and heartbreak of fighting the coronavirus pandemic
• A New York nurse laments his coronavirus patient's last words before intubation: 'Who's going to pay for it?'
• A California doctor who's been on the frontlines of the coronavirus outbreak for the past 2 months says patients are now afraid to go to the hospital
• Constant fear, missed milestones, and showers before hugs: The coronavirus is unleashing an agonizing 'new normal' on medical workers and their families
• An ER doctor who's a new mother shares what it's like to pump milk at work while risking exposure to coronavirus
• 3 nurses in Virginia, Missouri, and Oregon say their hospitals are making it impossible for them to get tested for the coronavirus
• A New Zealand healthcare worker describes the unique stress of waiting for waves of coronavirus cases to hit when so far they haven't
• This LA death doula is bringing comfort to the dying and grieving during the pandemic

Patients

• 3 people who survived the coronavirus describe what it's like and what they wish they would have known
• A Georgia coronavirus patient says he thought he was dying. Then he felt God 'breathe life' into his lungs.
• A California man who got the coronavirus aboard the Diamond Princess describes what his life has been like in quarantine for more than a month
• A recovered coronavirus patient saved 2 lives after donating her blood plasma. She says she's 'still coming to terms' with that ability.
• A 90-year-old woman in Washington state recovered from the coronavirus, and she credits family, God, and potato soup (Here's the recipe)

Essential workers

• 'We're disposable': Faced with coronavirus dangers every time they do their jobs, essential workers are still pushing for better pay and adequate PPE
• Unauthorized immigrants who work on America's farms have been deemed 'essential,' but they say they feel expendable
• USPS mail carriers say the service isn't doing enough to protect them from the coronavirus and are mixing DIY sanitizer and buying gloves online to stay safe
• American factory workers describe 12-hour shifts and 13-day rotations to make masks face shields faster than ever before
• The coronavirus triggered 'sudden and devastating unemployment' among nannies, most of whom are women of color and their families' primary wage earners
• Mail carriers say the USPS is making it hard to take sick leave in the coronavirus pandemic, contrary to its public claims
• A West Virginia worker told us what it was like living at his factory for 28 days to help make PPE, and says he would 'absolutely' do another 'lock-in' to help
• A Delta flight attendant describes what it's like flying during the coronavirus pandemic with near-empty planes and 'ghost town' airports

Foto: Healthcare workers dance outside The Brooklyn Hospital Center on May 19, 2020. Source: Natalie Colarossi/ Insider

Inspirational stories

• I live near a hospital in Brooklyn, and every day healthcare workers come outside to cheer and dance
• The walls of a bar in Georgia were decorated with dollar bills. The owners spent 3 days taking them down to give to unemployed staffers and ended up with $3,714.
• Los Angeles schools are now serving 450,000 meals a day, which is more than the city's food bank
• A Mississippi hotel lets guests foster dogs during their stay and now more than 60 have found forever homes
• A Los Angeles pizzeria is serving an immersive vampire experience to diners under lockdown

Business owners

• Georgia allowed some businesses to reopen, but many store and restaurant owners aren't ready to take the risk
• An American factory owner who pivoted to making face shields in 8 days has 3 steps others can follow to transform their factories
• Inside a Bay Area family's struggle to save their company during the coronavirus outbreak, as big businesses like Shake Shack beat them to government loans
• A family-run small business in the Bay Area got its PPP loan after Business Insider dug into their case. Tens of thousands are still waiting.
• A Maine factory owner who pivoted to making hospital equipment says the marketplace is like 'an air traffic control tower with nobody in it' and the government needs to step in
• From washing hands 'like you've been touching jalapeño peppers' to hourly cleans: Here's how nail salons are dealing with the coronavirus outbreak

People under lockdown

• My fiance and I became homeless in LA during the coronavirus crisis. This is what it's like trying to survive and social distance living in our car.
• A Nebraska dad diagnosed with ALS in January calls the lockdown 'a double-edged blessing'
• How Whittier, Alaska, the 'town under one roof', is preparing for the coronavirus pandemic
• Panic attacks, dreams on hold, and depression: 3 Italian women describe what a month under coronavirus lockdown looks like
• Affection is off-limits for the only child of Spanish healthcare workers as the country's coronavirus outbreak worsens
• An Italian woman living in an area badly impacted by coronavirus admits: 'We expected other countries that are much closer to China to be in this situation before us so we just joked about it'
• 'It was such a panic': A woman's hangover triggered hysteria about coronavirus aboard her flight to Heathrow Airport
• 'It is nasty over here': Expats in China struggle with lost wages, abandoned and hungry pets, and the looming threat of quarantines amid coronavirus outbreak
• New Yorkers in Westchester County describe what life is like in the state's one-mile 'containment zone'
• Patrick Quinones is homeless in the middle of a pandemic. Now he's part of a group suing to halt San Diego from enforcing its ban on sleeping in vehicles.
• Inside an ICE facility in Louisiana, detainees say ICE is depriving them of masks, under-testing for COVID-19, and moving migrants around the country
• New Yorkers have been told they need a car to get tested at city drive-thru sites, but more than half of residents don't own one

People on cruise ships

• 4 passengers aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship docked in New Jersey have been hospitalized over fears of coronavirus exposure
• A cruise ship was stranded at sea for 2 weeks after 5 ports rejected it over coronavirus fears - but no one was actually infected
• After 13 days at sea and refusal by 5 ports, passengers aboard the Westerdam cruise ship are slated to disembark in Cambodia
• A cruise ship has been turned away by 5 countries despite no passengers testing positive for the coronavirus
• As Grand Princess passengers wait to disembark, some are making the best of it. Others are having a "terrible" time.
• 'Soon we will all be infected': Indian crew on quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship pleads for help as coronavirus cases spike

Others weathering the pandemic

• Trump may have delayed stimulus money for several days so that he could put his name on the checks. 6 struggling Americans told us what that extra time could mean for them.
• Without access to support, supplies, or even pediatricians, new moms are struggling under the pandemic's 'big black fog'
• Dozens of American families and their newly adopted children are trapped overseas during the pandemic, and they worry they won't be able to bring their kids home
• 'We're so slammed right now': Texas' abortion ban is sending women scrambling to clinics in other states during a pandemic
• 'Am I going to be able to survive the heart transplant and the virus?': A 59-year-old Pennsylvania woman watched the world change from her hospital bed as she waited 2 months to get a heart transplant
• He entered into a silent meditation retreat in a remote part of Mexico on March 12. When he emerged, the coronavirus had dramatically changed the world around him.
• Americans stranded abroad complain that other countries are evacuating their citizens way faster than the US government is
• Team USA Olympians say there's a 'sense of relief' in the games being postponed, even if that means training for an extra year
• A Team USA pentathlete says she's been shooting laser pistols in her driveway and fencing without a partner while training for the postponed Tokyo Olympics
• Religious leaders are facing the challenge of holding funerals as social distancing limits gatherings to bury the dead
• The coronavirus is causing increased reports of racism and xenophobia against Asian people at college, work, and supermarkets
• A Costco sample-stand worker turned away a kid wearing a face mask because she thought he was from China and could give her the coronavirus
• An AIDS activist group's video chat was hijacked by hackers - the latest example of extremist trolls targeting marginalized groups
• 'It was such a panic': A woman's hangover triggered hysteria about coronavirus aboard her flight to Heathrow Airport