{"id":28820,"date":"2020-06-24T08:30:10","date_gmt":"2020-06-24T13:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=28820"},"modified":"2020-06-23T20:44:29","modified_gmt":"2020-06-24T01:44:29","slug":"apsu-professor-experiences-covid-19-pandemic-up-close-in-belize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2020\/06\/24\/apsu-professor-experiences-covid-19-pandemic-up-close-in-belize\/","title":{"rendered":"APSU professor experiences COVID-19 pandemic up close in Belize"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AustinClarksville, TN<\/strong> – On a sweaty afternoon in early March, Dr. Harold Young, Austin Peay State University (APSU) assistant professor of political science, found himself dumped by a taxi on a street in Chetumal, Mexico, near that country\u2019s southern border with Belize.<\/p>\n

\"Austin<\/a>

Austin Peay State University assistant professor Dr. Harold Young crossing the border between Mexico and Belize. (APSU)<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Despite being only a few miles from the Caribbean Sea, the humid, sub-tropical breeze provided little relief as Young, exhausted from his long journey, walked toward the border, dragging his suitcases behind him.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Mexican immigration, they didn\u2019t care about me because I was leaving their country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Belize had closed its borders to foreigners because of the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic, but Young had a passport from that country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a river border, and I walked across it on a bridge, three quarters of a mile, to the Belizean outpost,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was completely deserted. It\u2019s 3:00pm in the afternoon, and there\u2019s literally nobody.\u201d<\/p>\n

The coronavirus had turned this nation \u2013 a popular tourist destination \u2013 into something like a ghost town. Eventually, after getting his temperature checked and traveling another two hours south, Young made his way home. He\u2019d spend two weeks in self quarantine, but over the next several months, he\u2019d get to see how close and personal a pandemic can be in a small country like Belize.<\/p>\n

Returning home for COVID-19 pandemic<\/h3>\n

Young spent most of his youth in the Caribbean, attending primary and high school in Belize and earning his law degree from the University of the West Indies\/Norman Manley School of Law in Jamaica. He ended up practicing criminal, business and real estate law in Belize City before transitioning to a 16-year career in public health. Then, at the age of 47, he decided to earn his doctorate in political science from Georgia State University.<\/p>\n

\n

Story continues below video<\/h3>\n

In 2016, Young joined Austin Peay State University\u2019s Department of Political Science and Public Management. Four years later, in the midst of the spring 2020 semester, the COVID-19 pandemic caused the University to move all classes online. Young, now able to teach his classes anywhere, petitioned and was allowed to return to his family home in Belize City.<\/p>\n

After a long journey of indirect flights, taxis and walking, he finally made it home. But that first night in the country, when Young stopped at a toll booth on his way home, he realized not everyone in this tourist-loving country was happy to see him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so relaxed, and I apologized to the guy that I didn\u2019t have any Belize money yet, only U.S.\u201d Young said. \u201cHe told me, \u2018Wait a minute. You just got here? You\u2019re the ones bringing this thing in!\u2019 We ended up in a shouting match. There was a lot of suspicion about people coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

[470center]<\/p>\n

\n

Strange new world<\/h3>\n
\"Dr.<\/a>

Dr. Harold Young must clean his hands before shopping. (APSU)<\/p><\/div>\n

In 1954, Young\u2019s parents built their home in Belize City, and last summer the APSU professor renovated it for his returns during semester breaks. The large yard provided some comfort during his two-week self-quarantine, which he spent finishing up his online Fall courses, talking with neighbors, reading up on local news and writing articles for the Amandala \u2013 \u201cBelize\u2019s Leading Newspaper.\u201d<\/p>\n

The country had mandated a curfew, social distancing and the wearing of face masks. Businesses closed and feeding programs were set up for the growing number of unemployed workers. There were lines everywhere for everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cTourism is 40 percent of the economy, so literally in a day or two, 40 percent of the economy just shut down,\u201d he said. \u201cBelize is small, so (the pandemic) is very immediate. I don\u2019t see the unemployed in the United States. Here it\u2019s very apparent. It\u2019s close. Everybody knows everything that\u2019s going. Everybody knew who patient one was. You can hear people talking about it. But it\u2019s not scary. In a way I\u2019m kind of comforted. You know that people are aware and taking it seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

[470center]<\/p>\n

\n

Belize today<\/h3>\n

During Young\u2019s previous career in public health, he worked for a company that was located within the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s Atlanta compound. That experience allowed him to view the situation in Belize with a more critical eye. Initially, the news sounded good as after the first 19 cases, the country went 51 days without a confirmed case. As of June, there have been only 21 cases with two deaths.<\/p>\n

But, as Young put it, the nation is in a fragile situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo show how fragile it is, the whole public health system in Belize has a maximum of 300 beds, which are 80% plus occupied,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are less than 30 ventilators in the country. It wouldn\u2019t take a lot of people being really sick to start to affect the system really quickly. We don\u2019t need 20 cases. Twenty people sick would create quite a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why it\u2019s so concerning whenever he reads the news about what\u2019s happening in the U.S. \u2013 his second home and his primary residence. The growing number of cases there will likely influence what happens in Belize. The one international airport remained closed, ending all airline services to U.S. tourists.<\/p>\n

\u201cBelize is small, and these smaller countries have a saying,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2018When the United States sneezes, we get pneumonia.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, as Young wrote in one of his newspaper articles, this pandemic might help push Belize to a better future.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to stop playing around with technology,\u201d he said. \u201cI wrote about that. Let\u2019s use technology more efficiently and effectively. Let\u2019s make the leap.\u201d<\/p>\n

In August, if the borders remain closed, Young will again set out on a long journey north, bringing him back to Clarksville to resume teaching at Austin Peay State University.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clarksville, TN – On a sweaty afternoon in early March, Dr. Harold Young, Austin Peay State University (APSU) assistant professor of political science, found himself dumped by a taxi on a street in Chetumal, Mexico, near that country\u2019s southern border with Belize.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[23,33023,7841,262,4121,10957,512,825,34581,34634,34779,13695,34642,17481],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-7uQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28820"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28820"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28821,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28820\/revisions\/28821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}