Student-athlete thrust into challenges amid frightening pandemic

Sydney Mann, a long-jumper and pole-vaulter at Millsaps College, was devastated when the coronavirus pandemic cut short her senior track season. In the span of a little over a week, Mann also lost her job with the Athletic Department.
Photo courtesy of Sydney Mann

By Adam J. Berken
Student Correspondent

Sydney Mann, a long-jumper and pole-vaulter at Millsaps College, has spent years training to overcome hurdles, but nothing prepared her for the hurdles she has had to contend with over the past few weeks.

The biology major was devastated when her senior track season at Millsaps was cut short due to the coronavirus pandemic. In the span of a little over a week, Mann also lost her job with the Athletic Department that she loved and the remainder of her senior year because of the pandemic. But even amidst this fog of uncertainty, Mann has tried to remain optimistic and stay focused on her future.

The life-long Jacksonian was able to obtain a job as a receptionist in March through a local employment agency with a company that is an essential business. There was just one problem. The last receptionist tested positive for COVID-19, the infectious disease caused by the novel coronavirus, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say has “not previously been seen in humans.”

Mann says the temp agency and her employer were honest about the situation upfront. Despite her concerns, she said, “it was an opportunity to make money during the trying time,” so she figured if she was careful she would be fine.

But, a few days into the job, Mann says she awoke in the middle of the night with “every symptom you could think of” relating to COVID-19. She says she had a fever, body aches and shortness of breath.

“It was terrifying,” Mann says. As an at-risk person with asthma, she was not only worried about her own health but whether she had infected her parents, her brother and her grandparents, whom she visited regularly, as they live only a couple of blocks away.

Mann says she and her father stayed up the rest of the night, anxiously waiting to call the family doctor as soon as he opened at 8 a.m. At 8 a.m. sharp, they made the call and she was given two choices, she could schedule an appointment to get tested through her doctor or download the C Spire Health app and schedule an appointment at the drive-through center, located in the Mississippi Coliseum’s parking lot.

The C Spire Health app is a free mobile telehealth app provided by the University of Mississippi Medical Center that allows residents in the state who are experiencing symptoms to connect with a UMMC clinician by phone.

Mann was told that if she got tested at the Coliseum at that time, she might have to wait as long as 10 to 14 days for the results and that they only test for COVID-19, but if she got tested at the clinic she could receive the results in 24 hours and that the test administered by the clinic checks for over 45 different diseases or illnesses. The choice was easy.

Mann drove to her doctor’s office and was administered the test in her car. Waiting for the results to come back was “extremely stressful” for the entire family, she says. She describes being paralyzed by the anxiety, to the point where she could not complete any of her online class assignments or even read her emails.

Almost 24 hours later, Mann received her results. She tested negative for COVID-19. Her results showed that her symptoms were due to a “severe asthma breakout that caused a bronchi flair up.”

A few days after the scare, Mann was able to continue with her online classes and return to her job with the temp-agency.

To help manage her stress, Mann says she walks with her father three to four miles every day. She views this as essential to her mental and physical health and encourages others to safely do the same.

This story was produced by MCIR's Journalism Lab at Millsaps College, part of a public service project initiated by Report for American and the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, nonprofit news organizations dedicated to community journalism and empowering Mississippians in their communities through the use of investigative journalism. MCIR Investigative Reporter and Report for America corps member Shirley L. Smith is the lab instructor.

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