Jacob Layne

Title

Jacob Layne

Description

In this interview, Jacob Layne shares what it was like working as a Vet during the prime of Covid-19. He also shares his personal experience with Covid-19 as well.

Publisher

Detroit Historical Society

Rights

Detroit Historical Society

Language

en-US

Narrator/Interviewee's Name

Jacob Layne

Interviewer's Name

Kevin Hawthorne

Interview Length

13:54

Transcription

Kevin Hawthorne: Hello, this is Kevin. Hawthorne with the Detroit Historical Museum on the oral history for Covid 19. And today I am joined with me. Please introduce yourself.

Jacob Layne: My name is Jacob Layne.

Kevin Hawthorne: Could you please spell your name for the record?

Jacob Layne: L a y n e

Kevin Hawthorne: And your first name.

Jacob Layne: And J a c o b.

Kevin Hawthorne: All right. Thank you. Thank you for meeting here with me today. And just going to start off of where do you currently live?

Jacob Layne: I live in Madison Heights.

Kevin Hawthorne: And how long have you lived in that area?

Jacob Layne: About six years.

Kevin Hawthorne: And what is your profession?

Jacob Layne: I work in the veterinary field.

Kevin Hawthorne: All right. So a couple of years ago in 2020, when Covid was first starting to make the rounds, what was your thoughts about it initially? Did you think it was just going to be a kind of passing thing like swine flu or other diseases in the past, or were you more worried?

Jacob Layne: At first I was. I was admittedly a little. Nonchalant about it just because I've always been wary of like media scares and things like that. So I didn't take it super serious. I was probably one of those people who was like, it's just like the flu. But then as it progressed very quickly, it I worry started to happen. I would say by March or April of 2020, it felt more, this is really serious.

Kevin Hawthorne: Was there any particular incident that made you feel like, this is more serious than I initially thought?

Jacob Layne: The first person I met or the first person who I personally knew who had Covid was a coworker of mine. And she had talked to me about like, how it felt. And the part that really scared me was when she said it felt like like somebody was sitting on my chest all day. And when I would look in the mirror, my lips were blue. Like I felt like I couldn't breathe at all. And that's just that kind of really set it apart for me.

Kevin Hawthorne: And so it's easy to say, you know, we live in a post-COVID world, but it is still going on. How have you noticed the changes over the past four years?

Jacob Layne: I feel like it's less. Threatening things to vaccines and just in general, like if you've caught Covid and, you know, gotten over it, you know, the antibodies that you've, you know, worked up so that, you know, it feels like the virus has become more of a I wouldn't say a common cold, but it doesn't feel like when someone says, I'm sick with Covid, the first thought in your head is like, no, they're going to need to go to a hospital and go on a ventilator. It's more just like, well, stay safe. You know, drink a lot of fluids and, you know, call your doctor.

Kevin Hawthorne: So for your veterinary physician, did you were you working in this position, pre-COVID?

Jacob Layne: I was not. I was working at a boarding facility for animals, and that's when Covid hit. And then I was actually furloughed from that job, from the shutdowns. And then. About a year or so went by and then I was on unemployment, and then the state of Michigan was requiring people to job search even if they were on the Covid relief. So my job hadn't called me back yet to say that we were reopen. So I ended up applying for jobs at veterinary offices and I got one.

Kevin Hawthorne: And what was it like? What year was that?

Jacob Layne: That was 20, 21. I got that job.

Kevin Hawthorne: And what was the experience of going into the veterinary field in the wake of Covid?

Jacob Layne: It was kind of creepy because it was it was a curbside clinic at the time, like they were doing curbside because of Covid. So to learn a new job and be in an entirely new field in the middle of curbside and, you know, kind of lockdown masking. And, you know, if you felt sick, you were basically not going to be working for about two weeks, things like that. It was it was pretty hectic.

Kevin Hawthorne: And did you have any pushback of obviously with veterinarian like doctor places? They were a lot of places were requiring masks, but places like I know vets and doctors were much, much more strict about that. Did you have any pushback against your mask policies?

Jacob Layne: Yes. We had a lot of when we were first when I was first working there and we were curbside. We had a lot of people who were really upset that they couldn't come inside with their pets, like they had to drop the pet off in the vestibule on a leash. And then when they left, we'd go in and grab them and take them to the rooms and the doctors would examine them and talk to them on the phone. And a lot of clients were really upset about that, especially because it meant the entire day was a lot slower because it takes a lot longer for that to, you know, work out. And then. When he did eventually stop doing curbside, we still required people to wear masks when they came inside for a long time. And we got a lot of pushback from people about wearing masks. And we even had clients who would like leave us reviews and call us like mask fascists and Google. And, you know, we even had people who would call and say, Do you require masks? And when we said yes, they would refuse to make an appointment with us and they'd go somewhere else.

Kevin Hawthorne: And what was kind of that? How did that experience feel? Just seeing so much pushback.

Jacob Layne: It was stressful and disheartening, especially because in the veterinary field it's already such a high stress, you know, like emergency style kind of job of just, you know, we're already dealing with sick and dying animals in emergency situations with injuries and things like that. So the added stress of when someone comes running in because their pet is sick and we're like, I need you to put a mask on and like, it slows the whole process down because now they're fighting with you about putting a mask on. It just it it's, you know, the end of the day, it's so tiring to deal with. And, you know, it it just it was a lot.

Kevin Hawthorne: And then you said you were collecting the Covid relief. What was that experience like in terms of being able to have that kind of safety net?

Jacob Layne: At the beginning, it was a nightmare because I had to go online and apply for it. And it said, I, I it was so long ago. I forget the exact process, but I remember getting some kind of closure of like, okay, you have Covid unemployment. And it said, you know, there's like a processing time, which I'm guessing is done verifying that I'm not like scamming or something. And they would it said like there would be a delay for when my money came in, my money. But the Covid unemployment money would come in and I had to, like check in every it was either every week or every two weeks or something. But it took like three and a half months for my first unemployment check to actually come in. So my bills were piling up pretty bad and I was able to scrape by with the help of, you know, family members and my now wife, who was working at a retail job. But that was really stressful. I kept in the check my bank account every day to see if like the money was there and it didn't show up for months. Once that first payment came in and then it started showing up more regularly, it was. It was a lot more comfortable like it was, you know, it was I was able to pay bills and get groceries and do things like that. But the beginning of it was a nightmare. And when I would try to call unemployment to ask about where my money was, there would be an automated message saying their phone lines are too busy and that no one was there to help and it wouldn't even give you an option to leave a voice message. It would just hang up. So I wasn't able to contact anybody and I would send them emails and messages on like the unemployment website and just I wasn't getting any answers. So it was just really stressful until the money finally showed up in my bank account.

Kevin Hawthorne: And with Covid 19, did you contract the disease at any point in the past four years?

Jacob Layne: I've had it. One time officially and one time unofficially in 2022. My wife and I went to Chicago, and when we came back, we both got sick at the exact same time with the exact same symptoms, and she tested positive for Covid and my tests were all negative. I did multiple at home tests and we even went into the doctors and took PCR tests. And my doctor said, I don't care that it says it's negative. You're being treated like you're positive because your wife is positive. And then last year I did test positive. I got sick.

Kevin Hawthorne: And what were your experiences both times?

Jacob Layne: The first time I actually didn't think it was that bad. It felt like a like a nasty cold. And it I would say it was pretty manageable. And then the second time was pretty excuse me. The second time was pretty rough. That time I did lose my sense of taste and smell. And I had that sensation that my coworker from way past and described before where it felt like someone was sitting on my chest all day and that I just felt like I couldn't breathe.

Kevin Hawthorne: And in general, with the response to Covid on the national and state level, how do you feel that was handled?

Jacob Layne: I felt the government, for the most part, really didn't help us. I mean, the unemployment was, you know, I wouldn't say that was a benefit for all the people who are losing their jobs, but I'm in the sense of how they took the disease seriously and tried to you know, especially from the presidential standpoint, it wasn't being taken very seriously. And there ended up being this huge divide of the medical community fighting with politicians about what is or isn't fact. And even people who were, you know, maybe on the side of being more cautious, like with lockdowns and masking and things like that, I still felt like they weren't listening to the professionals in regards to, you know, what was or wasn't important. And then I felt like we got to a state of fatigue where the government just kind of went, we're going to just, you know, we need to get the country moving again. It doesn't matter if you're all going to get sick. So I did feel like at one point we were kind of just thrown to the wolves with it in Then from a people standpoint, I felt like there was a lot of fear mongering going on with the with the media and or the opposite of the media trying to like certain outlets, trying to just treat it like it was nothing and that it was a conspiracy that a lot of people were just we were so busy fighting about whether to take it seriously or not. We didn't even really have time to actually like. Deal with it.

Kevin Hawthorne: And in the wake of Covid 19, which was, you know, something that for most of us, I think the majority of us, unless there's anyone who was alive back in 1919 who saw a lot now, this is something that we'd never seen quite on this scale before. Are you worried about something like this happening again within our lifetimes?

Jacob Layne: I guess it's a possibility I worry about. I remember when swine flu happened and obviously it wasn't like near isn't as serious as Covid was, but I remember that there was like a big like, hey, everyone needs to be careful and, you know, you need to go get your H1n1 vaccine. And like I remember I had to go line up at a high school and wait like an hour to get one and all that stuff. So, I mean, I feel like if there was a possibility for something, it would maybe be on that scale. But I mean, at the end of the day, if if we did have another like a widespread, widespread pandemic that caused the world to grind to a halt, again, I wouldn't be so shocked just as long as I don't know if if we can come out on the other side of it as the only thing I'd be worried about.

Kevin Hawthorne: All right. And is there anything that we haven't discussed on this topic that you'd like to speak on now?

Jacob Layne: I'm for closing that I'm. Now I feel like I've covered everything I remember pretty well. I guess the. The lack of social interaction for a long time played a huge toll on a lot of us. So it has been nice to be able to, you know, visit family for holidays or special occasions and not always. You know, the first thing on your mind isn't, you know, who is going to bring the highly communicable disease to the party. But it has happened like last year. My sister and nephew caught Covid right before Christmas, so they weren't able to attend Christmas. And then right after my brother tested positive and it wasn't even around my sister. So, you know, Covid still around. But, you know, we're just trying to be cautious when we can and if we feel sick, stay home.

Kevin Hawthorne: All right. Well, thank you so much for your time today.

Jacob Layne: Thank you.

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Citation

“Jacob Layne,” Detroit Historical Society Oral History Archive, accessed November 6, 2024, https://oralhistory.detroithistorical.org/items/show/1076.

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