Editor’s note:  This article was originally written for Larissa Hebert’s quarter two Journalism course.

Michael Lohile is a regular 59-year-old man, in a regular county that has been overrun with the Covid-19 pandemic. Vermont has been lucky so far, but there is always the fear that suddenly everyone around you may get Covid-19, and with that becoming a regular occurrence in the world we live in now, the reality of losing loved ones is very real.

When asked about those who refused to wear a mask, Lohile said, “I try to avoid them- I think they’re rather selfish, and they aren’t really thinking about other people, only about [the] inconvenience to themselves.” 

Anti-maskers are a danger to Lohile as he used to be a smoker for the majority of his younger years; he quit a couple of years before the pandemic. He was born in 1961. This pandemic has been especially dangerous for him and his wife as they are both extremely high risk. 

They are both extremely high risk due to their age as well as the fact that they both smoked cigarettes for a long period of time, and Lohile’s wife, Sheila, has Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary disease, which is a death sentence for her if she gets the coronavirus.

They have both taken extreme precautions to make sure to minimize the risk of contracting the virus, including staying home for the holidays and not allowing anyone over without a proper quarantine.

When asked how Covid-19 had affected Lohile personally, he responded, “It’s made it harder to go see doctors, harder to go shopping.  My family can’t come with me, so I need to take pictures to make sure I get the right things- mainly health stuff, [it is] hard to get into the hospital. No one was able to come in with me when I had to go to surgery. [The surgery was to fuse his lumbar spine because the bones were rubbing together and pinching the nerves].”

In conclusion, Covid-19 has been rough on everyone. This is just one story of millions of people who have had similar experiences. Some people haven’t had it as hard while there are others who have not been able to leave their homes for weeks.