Mathew Seidel, August 20th, 2024

Mathew Seidel, August 20th, 2024

Mathew Seidel reflects on his social and academic experiences during the Covid-19 lockdowns, and the lessons he took from the pandemic.

Detroit Historical Society

Detroit Historical Society

Mathew Seidel

Mathew Seidel is a lifelong resident of Troy, Michigan and an undergraduate student at Oakland University.

Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo

8/20/2024

18:23

Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: I'm Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo, it's August 20th, 2024, and I'm here with. Please say your name.

Mathew Seidel: Mathew Seidel.

DLT: Please spell your name.

MS: M a t h e w S e i d e l.

DLT: Thank you. And where do you live?

MS: I live in Troy, Michigan. It's in the Metro Detroit area.

DLT: How long have you lived there?

MS: I've lived here all my life.

DLT: And you haven’t lived elsewhere in Metro Detroit at any point?

MS: No, I've lived in the same city, same house.

DLT: And when did you first hear about Covid-19?

MS: So I don't have exact dates, but I'm kind of a newshound. So, when the rumblings of the virus coming out in China, I think in December of the— March 2020 is when it came out, so that would be December of 2019. If I had my dates right.

DLT: And were you initially worried based on the news you were hearing?

MS: So as it kind of ramped up, you know, initially it's a virus. We've heard about Ebola, we've heard about SARS and other viral viruses. And they never really hit on a global scale. But as we ramped up into February, the discussion in my family was definitely: this is going to go, this is going out there. This is going to be a thing. And, I will say that for the summer before, I got really obsessed with saying that humanity's due for a plague. So I did accurately predict by about six months. Inadvertently.

DLT: And so when you started to talk more seriously within your family about Covid-19, did you take any cautionary steps?

MS: Well, this was before the lockdown. So we hadn't really, we started to, it wasn't until things got canceled and we started to learn more that it became a substantial worry. And we started with masking, social distancing. We were really with the cultural zeitgeist of that part.

DLT: And were you working or in school at the time of shutdowns?

MS: So, I was homeschooled. During the pandemic, it was my high school years. I was going to community college at the time. So that transition was, I was much more prepared to transition to remote learning, mostly because I have been doing it all my life. So I had the skills ready to do the online and keeping the schedule and really to make the most of it. My education didn't suffer in any way from it. Perhaps it was more convenient.

DLT: And did you notice more difficulties on the part of people who didn't have the same experience with remote learning as you?

MS: So, yeah, I would say, a lot of my friends who were like, outdoorsy, or 4H-y, and much less of like a homebound discord gamer type, they had much more trouble transitioning. Because initially we had— So we were all like living our lives, super busy, booked out for whatever long. And when the pandemic hit, everything got canceled. And so we kind of were just making it up as we go. For me, I really enjoyed it as a break. I think it's the first time and only time I'll ever get, like, a real break in my life, where I finally don't have to be booking out and planning for the five-year-plan, quote unquote, or really pushing ahead in that way. And you just kind of like take things day by day.

DLT: And what did you do with that break that you wouldn't have otherwise had the opportunity to have? Did you take on any new activities?

MS: I was a lot more social during the pandemic because I was online and I transitioned very well into that. So I got into weird friend groups, and I connected with people that I probably wouldn't have normally just because of the time. And it was a weird period where you would play like an online game—Among Us was the famous one—and everyone would have a friend that— Anybody that they remotely knew could be invited to join you in an online space and just hang out. And regardless of location, interests, or anything else, it was just, we were all figuring it out. And so I got a lot of opportunities to meet a lot of different people from, like, the other side of the state, from friends of friends, from different backgrounds that I wouldn't have normally gotten, like I even— And that's how I met my now-longterm girlfriend was through a friend of a friend in those online, you know, anomalies.

DLT: And when in-person learning, and other in-person activities started opening back up again, did you have any difficulty readjusting to that?

MS: I was one of the people who stuck to keeping a mask on the longest. I still wear a mask in lecture hall classes, just for the sake of, I don't want to get sick. So I'm still that person, and I wore a mask through all of 2021 and a good deal of 2022 at just about every social gathering. And I still think— And so I think that's a longer legacy. The pandemic fear, I would say has lessened to a degree. But it's still like, I would say I think about it more than a normal person, and I think I definitely stuck to some of those habits more than other people, even though at this point, I'm a very active and in-person— Like on my campus. I go to Oakland University, I'm very involved there in-person. I still see the value of online learning and stuff like that. And I always try to take one online class. As a commuter, it makes the schedule hum a lot better.

DLT: So you think that greater opportunities for online learning have been a positive outcome?

MS: Absolutely. It's a democratization of knowledge. Like just this past week, I was bored, and so I was watching some of the pandemic lectures from MIT on biochemistry. And so having that option there, not just for people— Not just for me, who just likes to be at home and who doesn't like to wake up early. It also just allows anybody who doesn't have the capabilities to go in-person, whether that's a disability or just monetary reasons, to still have an opportunity to gain an education. And those resources are still valuable.

DLT: And did you personally contract Covid-19?

MS: You know, it's still up for debate. I am sure I did. We had multiple scares where you just, like, feel sick and gastrointestinal. It's like, it's got to be Covid. But given the fallibility of a lot of the tests, where they gave a lot of false negatives, I'm not really sure. But I would say it's almost certainly because during the later stages of the pandemic, I was working in medical facilities, a []. And at this point, Covid’s still around, even though I've been, there's been the vaccinations. So it still runs around as different variants. But I don't pay attention anymore.

DLT: And working in those medical facilities, did you feel they had been impacted by Covid, even if you hadn't been working there prior to the pandemic?

MS: Absolutely. Particularly in the quality of medical care. The quality of care drastically diminished. And you can ask just about any health care worker about the pandemic, period, about the number of patients that they lost to, what I would say, preventable deaths from stuff like, skin breakdown and resulting infections. It happens when you don't flip people. Basically, the quality of care went down. I personally— And there's only so much that you can follow Covid protocols when someone is bedridden. And I don't know a single person who worked in health care who didn't notice a drop in care. And many people died because of it, unfortunately.

DLT: And did you personally know someone who had a very severe case of Covid-19?

MS: Of a variety. Some people, long-term, some of the social implications. My uncle was in New York state, and he was, he died because of a Covid-related bar fight. He got pushed— He was an older gentleman in his seventies. And he got into an argument and he got pushed over by someone else and he unfortunately passed away, and so. But socially, and also I know people with long Covid. That's a part of life. But not, luckily not in my immediate family. But yeah, it affected us all. Even if it's not the disease itself, it is the cultural impact of the moment.

DLT: So you feel that Covid led in part to an increase in political discord, would you say?

MS: I would say it was a part of it. Also, there's a lot of other factors, but we were all stuck at our homes, and we definitely did watch the reality television of our political climate. That was definitely a thing that everyone I knew— But I've also historically been kind of a political junkie, so that's not really fair for me to say, whether it's everyone. But in my circles, yes. I would say it also, it just, it was a time when we all had to adapt. And so it’s a commonality in that. Culturally, there are very few moments where the entire nation comes together—or in this case, the entire world—in trying to solve one issue and adapt to it. Most things are more localized, or even if they have a global impact, it isn't something that we all talk about at the dinner table every night, like a war. Yeah.

DLT: And how did you feel about the shelter-in-place rules at the time, and has your opinion on them changed over time?

MS: I would say I respected them. At the time I was very, I followed them very carefully. I'm thankful for them, because it gave me a time to actually just kind of find myself a little bit more, and in a way that I, because there wasn't a rush, there was a break. It was like a two-year gap year for a lot of young people where we could do kind of whatever we wanted. And I'm very thankful for that. And honestly, I miss it. And think that it was justified. But I don't— I also think that it will never happen again, for a multitude of reasons.

DLT: And how did you feel about the masking and vaccination requirements, and have those opinions changed over time?

MS: I'm a believer that we should keep masks around, especially if you are in that, like, everyone has that moment where they don't know if they're quite sick yet, but they feel like detritus, and other garbage, and they might have a cough or a sore throat. You should, if you're going to work or school, you should wear a mask. It's just a polite thing to do. And I think we should keep that. I have no problems with vaccination requirements. I think it's kind of, if you want to use these social services, then you kind of have to buy in to a certain degree.

DLT: And what do you feel are the lasting impacts of Covid-19 on your life, on Metro Detroit, or the world?

MS: Innumerable. It's, you know, we're still referred to as pandemic-era kids at my college. There are some people who, you know, they were online and communicating a lot and their social skills, I would say, improved. And there are some who were very isolated and are still kind of going through their high school experience, in college. But they'll catch up. So it's not— I think people focus with the pandemic on what was lost. The math scores are down. Education was down. People will catch back up. That's not a worry. But it was a shared communal experience and we all gained something from it, in different ways. Whether it was the time to watch, to try, different hobbies, the time to relax. Or just fears about disease. Which, like, there are still the people who wear a mask every single day at college regardless of what they're doing. And I'm sure there's some hypochondriacs that came out of that. But I don't think it impacted us for the worst. I think it happened and we all— And it was a change, and there were a lot of good things that came out of it, and some bad things, too.

DLT: And what lessons do you hope were learned through the pandemic?

MS: I would say what I want people to take out of the pandemic is that a disease is a real thing, and it's something that you should care about. And I wish that people would take the time to wash their hands, wear a mask when you're sick, be polite. Like, do common health care courtesy to not to not encourage the spread of disease. And I think it also did a lot for our education. Vaccines are another part. And I think those are some oncoming lessons. I think it's also: don't worry about the little things as much, because if everyone can take off two years and take off, you know, it's not a rush. It's a marathon sprint. It's not— We're not going to— Everything isn't going to fall apart if someone takes a break. If the entire world can go on pause for two years, to a certain degree, you can go on pause for a year or two.

DLT: Were there any other aspects of your experience with Covid that you wanted to share that none of my questions have brought up?

MS: There was a lot of TV productions and movie productions that got extra time to finish, and didn't have stringent deadlines because of Covid. So, longer times in the writing room, longer times in the production. So, we got really, really good TV for like, a period. And then we had that break, that gap, and then the deadlines and then some really bad. But we had like this brief period of like, a lot of really good television, because things took the extra time. At least in my opinion.

DLT: All right, then if you have no more final thoughts, those are all the questions I have for you today.

MS: Okay. Thank you.

DLT: Thank you so much for your time.