Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo, August 12th, 2024
Title
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo, August 12th, 2024
Description
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo discusses how his Metro Detroit business and others were impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, and shares his thoughts on the pandemic's management and lasting effects.
Publisher
Detroit Historical Society
Rights
Detroit Historical Society
Language
en-US
Narrator/Interviewee's Name
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo
Brief Biography
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo was born in New York City in 1969, and moved with his family to Farmington Hills, Michigan in 2007. He has also lived in Ferndale and Oak Park, and has been living in Mount Clemens since 2019. He served several synagogues across his cantorial career, and is the founder and owner of Chazzano Coffee Roasters, which opened in Ferndale in 2009 and is currently located in Berkley.
Interviewer's Name
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo
Date
8/12/2024
Interview Length
26:10
Transcription
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: I'm Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo Also, it's August 12th, 2024, and I'm here with. Please say your name.
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: And where do you live?
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: I live in Mount Clemens.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: How long have you lived there?
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: Lived here about three years.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: Have you lived anywhere else in Michigan before then?
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: Well, we lived in Farmington Hills for about two years. two years I lived in Park because I live in that.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: And what do you do for work?
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: I owned a coffee roasting company Lanzkron coffee roasters. Now in Berkeley, we've been around for about 15 years.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: When did you first hear about Covid 19?
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: Almost immediately. February of 2020. As soon as it hit the news, I heard about it. I, I had a feeling before then that there was something around, because in my, I had a job working for, kosher Meals on Wheels, and there were several of our drivers who got sick with kind of a respiratory illness. A couple of months before that. So it was quite possibly, the beginnings of Covid 19. But really February and March is when up things that, closed down.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: And what was the immediate impact of this closing down?
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: The immediate impact was it impacted my business, my coffee roasting business, because then we had to close down and not allow customers to come into the shop. I had to spend extra money to open up a, having a walk, walk up window in my shop. And, and it it changed my business, in many ways. One is that, I had to let go. Some employees had to decrease the hours of my business because, people were not going out, and, and they weren't coming to the shop as much. We were doing more deliveries to people's homes and selling a lot more coffee in supermarkets. So there was very little need for people to leave their houses, and they were so afraid of leaving their houses that they, they would just buy tons of coffee from us. And the, the immediate thing is that there was incredible amount of fear. That that started almost in the very beginning, because this is something that we had not experienced the pandemic for maybe around 100 years of this serious. And we had no idea, the impact of this, of this virus.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: And were you personally fearful?
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: Oh, I was more fearful for the business and for businesses and for people's livelihoods than I was in terms of, of the disease itself. I felt and, I think I, I was correct that having. Having being healthy, and living a healthy lifestyle would protect me from the worst effects of the virus. So I really didn't have fear, but I had fear of the unknown. How long is this going to last? Is it as serious as they say it is? And fear that a lot of people would die. But I never really had fear of myself getting very sick. Or my family. That was not really a concern because, I just felt that being healthy would help, push away any bad effects. I was afraid. Or would I be able to continue with my business? How far would they close down? And what? I even have a business to, to continue to go to.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: And would you say the pandemic had a negative impact on your business?
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: No. It had a very positive impact on the business because people were hoarding coffee. People are hoarding toilet paper, coffee and, and we people did not know how long it would last and how far, they needed to go. And will supermarkets still have product on the shelves, so people are buying way more coffee. And because people were going to work at the office, they were buying a lot of coffee because then they could drink. Usually that we drink swill at their, at their business place. Most businesses really serve, provide really poor quality coffee for their employees. But so now they had a chance at home to, to buy more coffee and the, the cool thing is that a lot of our wholesale accounts, local wholesale accounts here in Michigan would call me up and say, Frank, I want to help you out. I'm going to buy coffee for all my employees wherever they live. And, they're just going to call you and put it on my bill. So that was a very sweet thing that a lot of, or wholesale accounts did, but it it it improved their business incredibly because, because of the pain and suffering that the government did to all small businesses, there was lots of funding available to help, help that. And that really helped, buoy my business and, and support of future endeavors. And eventually by building and, growing my business in Berkeley. It and also the other thing that the Covid shutdowns did is that I was able to really find the core of my business. Most of my business has been coffee beans and delivery and shipping, and that didn't change at that. And, and that really improved over that time. And so, the big thing about, about the Covid shutdowns is that I was forced to pivot. And that was something that a lot of small businesses, unfortunately couldn't pivot because of their business model. Not a poor business model, but just the business model that was not equipped to, to survive during the pandemic. And my business was because it's very it was just about the coffee beans, which people are buying a lot of.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: And what kind of business models did you observe having the most trouble during the pandemic among your contacts?
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: It's really restaurants that could not pivot quickly in high end restaurants. When you go to a high end restaurant. A lot of it is the food. And a lot of it is the customer service that you're paying for. But it's also the presentation when you're getting takeout from a high end restaurant in a and you get that gorgeous food put into a, a metal tray. It's not going to you're not going to feel that same warmth. Then go into that restaurant. And so the restaurants like that had to really, had to. Lower their prices was a very difficult time because you wanted to keep people employed, but you didn't need as many people, and the quality of your products went down because of the presentation. And so a lot of restaurants had that problem and, and other cafes that had almost open instead of opening { Audio Ununderstandable } whatever the number was at the time, you can't, you can't even pay your bills. And even worse than that, coffee prices, went up 60 to 80%, but my prices were already high enough that I could recover from that. But food prices went incredibly high. You can't. Restaurants and supermarkets have very low margins, and, you can't. It's very difficult to recoup that. It's very difficult to, to survive when your, your food prices went up 60 to 80% and you have to raise people's salaries because they're, they're hurting to the waiters, servers, the hosts, they're not getting tips anymore like they used to. So you have to make sure that they can make enough of a wage that they can survive in a very, in a better way during this pandemic.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: When you say that most of the businesses you were aware of had another negative impact from the pandemic.
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: I would say at least this is a guess. But I would say at least 80% of businesses had a very negative impact from pandemic. And a big part of that was the. Shipping and delivery of products because during Covid, a lot of there were very few employees anywhere who were actually working in the warehouses. The global supply chain, it's really the word I was looking for. And you need your product when you need it in a lot of restaurants because it's fresh, it's food, it's fresh. They really needed product every week, and sometimes they couldn't get product. They couldn't get what they needed. There was a shortage of different things. You go supermarket, and you can't find things and still you can't find certain things up. A lot of supermarkets, big supermarkets locally have empty shelves. It's really, inexplicable. But I think it's still a supply chain that is never stopped. So I think any I would say 80% of businesses had a very severe downturn, during the pandemic. And that's why the government, gave out a lot of money for, disaster loans.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: And do you feel those negative impacts on businesses, persist or have they largely recovered?
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: Oh, they have not. Recovered, much at all. I think there are so many different factors. One is that the restaurant. The restaurant business was a very difficult business and many times restaurants did not treat their staff well. And then when. Their staff was getting money from the government, to support themselves up during the pandemic. All of those subsidies made them rethink their life. Do I really want to go into a job, serving people, as a server, a host, a cook, things like that. Maybe I should do something else. Maybe life is too short to, do this job. That's very difficult. And I have to do a lot of work. Maybe. Maybe it's not the right choice. And because of that, there's still a major, staffing issue for restaurants. And lots of businesses still have severe shortages of, employees. And so that's has ended. The supply chain issues are still a problem. There are there's a there's a tanker of coffee that I'm waiting for. And it's somewhere it's somewhere in the world. It's, from Ethiopia and it's on a ship. And where's that ship? No one knows. Really? Right now. It's that difficult? The supply chain issues have not changed much. They've not improved. Food prices are still very high since the pandemic. For the consumer and also for businesses. My coffee prices are up. 80% since the pandemic and have not gone down. And it's very difficult to find staffing in almost every industry up to about how much you're paying. There's a different attitude about work and work ethic. So, all those factors that happen. I don't think much has changed since the pandemic started.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: And going back to 2020 2021. How did you feel about the shelter in place orders and have your opinions on that changed over time?
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: They never changed. They were always that. It was. Unwise of the government and every every party of the government, made incredibly wrong decisions about, shelter in place because there was no science to support any of that. There was no science about how many feet away it should be from anyone. There were no studies about that. And they just picked the number out of the air. There was a question, in the upper levels of government about this, but should it be six feet, should it be 20ft? Should it be 30ft? There was no. So they just picked six feet, and then they started to be 12ft. So the government made no good decisions. The and they. All they did was, separate people. That was just immense. The Covid 19 created so much division and hatred amongst people, over something that no one, no medical, professionals really understood it. The efficacy of masks or distancing, better know how severe each strain would be or how, how it was. What kind of people were the most, could, will suffer the most and. And they just had they pick their winners and losers. And so I think it was terribly, from the from day one, from shutting down businesses that are dependent on people coming in. Before knowing anything was, a very poor choice. And history, I believe. Will. We'll show that and talk about that, probably 50 years from now.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: And what about your thoughts on masking and vaccination mandates?
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: The only my problem with vaccines and vaccine mandates is that. It is. We now know that the vaccines didn't prevent it didn't stop you from giving it to other people. And so, it was a good college try to have vaccines. And probably part of it was not just the money to pharmaceutical companies, but I would think that some of it was just that, hey, here's a vaccine. You're going to feel better. You're not going to. Maybe it was maybe to be kind to the government and medical professionals. Maybe the vaccine will, you know, make you feel good, almost like a placebo kind of thing, that, you'll feel that the government is doing something about this, that medical professionals are doing something about it. Maybe that was it, but the vaccine was not effective in any way. And and further ones and vaccine mandates just, were a perfect way of separating people and mass the same thing. The the problem is, is that you can't tell people to do something unless there's some kind of real, studies about it. And the problem is, is that the fact the pandemic was a huge surprise, I hope. And, huge surprise. And so they didn't have studies about Covid 19. So they're basically they're always behind the eight ball. And so having forcing people to have masks, forcing people to get vaccines, was unwise, unkind. And it hurt generations, of people for us, especially being stuck inside. It hurts so many kids who couldn't go to school, who missed their senior year in high school, or my wife who missed the funeral of her dad because she couldn't fly. Politicians could fly anywhere, but she couldn't fly out of, out of Michigan to go to Maryland just to pay proper respects to her dad. That is really a gross negligence of, an abuse of power. That was the first time I ever saw it in my life. That to, to to force people to do things. Taking forcing people to take medicine. Reminds me of Nazi doctors. That's just, you never can force a human being to take medicine. Then you're doing something that's really incredibly, gross. And you're treating them like, a non-human.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: And did you personally contract Covid 19?
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: I did, but much later. Then. It was. It was annoying, but it wasn't. It was like. It was like a strong flu. It was like a strong flu. The only thing, the only reason I took the vaccines was because I'm coffee roaster, and I wanted to make sure that just in case it did work, which I didn't believe, it did. But just in case it did work, it would stop me from losing my sense of smell. Sense of smell is everything from my kind of business. I need to know how the coffee smells and and tastes. And if I don't have that sense of smell, then it really hurts my business. So that's the only reason I took that. And also question.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: Whether you personally got Covid 19.
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: I did, I did, but although I'm very annoying to my family when I get sick, but it wasn't really that bad part was really, and I think I believe. And probably am correct about this is because of kind of a healthy guy, eating well, sleeping well, low stress life. And therefore it wasn't as severe as it was for other people.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: And did you know anyone who was severely affected by Covid?
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: Yes, but it happened to be people who were. Very. Unhealthy, very unhealthy, unhealthy lifestyle, seemed to be the theme for, people who would contract the virus and, and have the worst effects from it. So I personally don't know of anyone who wasn't of a unhealthy lifestyle who, had severe reactions to it. But there might. Might be.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: And have your views on the pandemic and its management, or any other factors changed in the years since it started, or have they stayed relatively consistent?
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: I think they have been absolutely consistent in their malpractice up during the whole pandemic. I think nothing has changed. The truth is that. There's going to be a reckoning about how I was treated. It's still too early right now. It's there's so many other things that are happening in the world that we're going to forget about it for the next 20 years, but 20 years. Historians are going to go back and, and take a look at it and see that it was one of the worst managements of a sudden pandemic. That's the. The government and health professionals. Politicians. People. All levels of power. Misuse their power. They hurt the world because they separated people who are the facts. The people who believe that the vaccine. People who are anti-vaccine. And there is no middle ground at all. And so, that has never changed. The only good thing about it is that Covid has now become like the flu. And maybe even less than the flu. So.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: And what lessons do you hope have been learned through the crisis?
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: {Audio Skipped around again} have involved in our country that we find ways to unite instead of divide us up the amount of hatred and disgust that people have eachother. {Audio Skipped again}. I wanted to be a safe place for people. Just a happy place where people drink coffee and tea and cocoa and just smile. That had great conversations. But during the pandemic, that was not to be had. It was only, people who are pro mask or anti-mask, pro freedom, anti freedom, pro vaccine, anti-vaccine, just or Republican or Democrat. People stopped talking to each other in respectful ways. And just like, the analogy is, when you bring your kids to the pediatrician, the pediatrician most often does not give the, give the shots to the kid because, the pediatrician wants to be the good guy and not to, have this feeling. The, wants the person to feel the kid to feel comfortable that the pediatricians office have nurse get the shots, and then the doctor comes, the good guy comes in. Same thing with the cafe. I couldn't have people come in because I didn't want them arguing. One person with the mask, another person without a mask. They're, you know, screaming at each other. And so. I hope through through all of this that we at some point come we that we come to a point of this country where all of this hatred, and disrespect for each other, no matter where we stand on different issues, that we could sit down to actually talk to each other. And I don't think that we can do that now. And now, whatever subject comes up, it's always, one side of the other. There's no middle ground at all. So I hope the lesson that we've learned is that the way Covid was treated and, the way the whole process has gone that we, next time something bad happens, it unites us. Just the idea that we couldn't even be united. We couldn't go to synagogue, we couldn't go to church, we couldn't go anywhere to unite and get together and talk and pray. Just that fact is so incredibly divisive, and and and hurtful. And the country, it's going to take a long time to, to heal from that.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: And was there anything else you wanted to share regarding your experience with Covid 19? Before we end the interview.
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: I cannot think anything else.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: That was so much fun.
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: And where do you live?
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: I live in Mount Clemens.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: How long have you lived there?
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: Lived here about three years.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: Have you lived anywhere else in Michigan before then?
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: Well, we lived in Farmington Hills for about two years. two years I lived in Park because I live in that.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: And what do you do for work?
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: I owned a coffee roasting company Lanzkron coffee roasters. Now in Berkeley, we've been around for about 15 years.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: When did you first hear about Covid 19?
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: Almost immediately. February of 2020. As soon as it hit the news, I heard about it. I, I had a feeling before then that there was something around, because in my, I had a job working for, kosher Meals on Wheels, and there were several of our drivers who got sick with kind of a respiratory illness. A couple of months before that. So it was quite possibly, the beginnings of Covid 19. But really February and March is when up things that, closed down.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: And what was the immediate impact of this closing down?
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: The immediate impact was it impacted my business, my coffee roasting business, because then we had to close down and not allow customers to come into the shop. I had to spend extra money to open up a, having a walk, walk up window in my shop. And, and it it changed my business, in many ways. One is that, I had to let go. Some employees had to decrease the hours of my business because, people were not going out, and, and they weren't coming to the shop as much. We were doing more deliveries to people's homes and selling a lot more coffee in supermarkets. So there was very little need for people to leave their houses, and they were so afraid of leaving their houses that they, they would just buy tons of coffee from us. And the, the immediate thing is that there was incredible amount of fear. That that started almost in the very beginning, because this is something that we had not experienced the pandemic for maybe around 100 years of this serious. And we had no idea, the impact of this, of this virus.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: And were you personally fearful?
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: Oh, I was more fearful for the business and for businesses and for people's livelihoods than I was in terms of, of the disease itself. I felt and, I think I, I was correct that having. Having being healthy, and living a healthy lifestyle would protect me from the worst effects of the virus. So I really didn't have fear, but I had fear of the unknown. How long is this going to last? Is it as serious as they say it is? And fear that a lot of people would die. But I never really had fear of myself getting very sick. Or my family. That was not really a concern because, I just felt that being healthy would help, push away any bad effects. I was afraid. Or would I be able to continue with my business? How far would they close down? And what? I even have a business to, to continue to go to.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: And would you say the pandemic had a negative impact on your business?
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: No. It had a very positive impact on the business because people were hoarding coffee. People are hoarding toilet paper, coffee and, and we people did not know how long it would last and how far, they needed to go. And will supermarkets still have product on the shelves, so people are buying way more coffee. And because people were going to work at the office, they were buying a lot of coffee because then they could drink. Usually that we drink swill at their, at their business place. Most businesses really serve, provide really poor quality coffee for their employees. But so now they had a chance at home to, to buy more coffee and the, the cool thing is that a lot of our wholesale accounts, local wholesale accounts here in Michigan would call me up and say, Frank, I want to help you out. I'm going to buy coffee for all my employees wherever they live. And, they're just going to call you and put it on my bill. So that was a very sweet thing that a lot of, or wholesale accounts did, but it it it improved their business incredibly because, because of the pain and suffering that the government did to all small businesses, there was lots of funding available to help, help that. And that really helped, buoy my business and, and support of future endeavors. And eventually by building and, growing my business in Berkeley. It and also the other thing that the Covid shutdowns did is that I was able to really find the core of my business. Most of my business has been coffee beans and delivery and shipping, and that didn't change at that. And, and that really improved over that time. And so, the big thing about, about the Covid shutdowns is that I was forced to pivot. And that was something that a lot of small businesses, unfortunately couldn't pivot because of their business model. Not a poor business model, but just the business model that was not equipped to, to survive during the pandemic. And my business was because it's very it was just about the coffee beans, which people are buying a lot of.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: And what kind of business models did you observe having the most trouble during the pandemic among your contacts?
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: It's really restaurants that could not pivot quickly in high end restaurants. When you go to a high end restaurant. A lot of it is the food. And a lot of it is the customer service that you're paying for. But it's also the presentation when you're getting takeout from a high end restaurant in a and you get that gorgeous food put into a, a metal tray. It's not going to you're not going to feel that same warmth. Then go into that restaurant. And so the restaurants like that had to really, had to. Lower their prices was a very difficult time because you wanted to keep people employed, but you didn't need as many people, and the quality of your products went down because of the presentation. And so a lot of restaurants had that problem and, and other cafes that had almost open instead of opening { Audio Ununderstandable } whatever the number was at the time, you can't, you can't even pay your bills. And even worse than that, coffee prices, went up 60 to 80%, but my prices were already high enough that I could recover from that. But food prices went incredibly high. You can't. Restaurants and supermarkets have very low margins, and, you can't. It's very difficult to recoup that. It's very difficult to, to survive when your, your food prices went up 60 to 80% and you have to raise people's salaries because they're, they're hurting to the waiters, servers, the hosts, they're not getting tips anymore like they used to. So you have to make sure that they can make enough of a wage that they can survive in a very, in a better way during this pandemic.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: When you say that most of the businesses you were aware of had another negative impact from the pandemic.
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: I would say at least this is a guess. But I would say at least 80% of businesses had a very negative impact from pandemic. And a big part of that was the. Shipping and delivery of products because during Covid, a lot of there were very few employees anywhere who were actually working in the warehouses. The global supply chain, it's really the word I was looking for. And you need your product when you need it in a lot of restaurants because it's fresh, it's food, it's fresh. They really needed product every week, and sometimes they couldn't get product. They couldn't get what they needed. There was a shortage of different things. You go supermarket, and you can't find things and still you can't find certain things up. A lot of supermarkets, big supermarkets locally have empty shelves. It's really, inexplicable. But I think it's still a supply chain that is never stopped. So I think any I would say 80% of businesses had a very severe downturn, during the pandemic. And that's why the government, gave out a lot of money for, disaster loans.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: And do you feel those negative impacts on businesses, persist or have they largely recovered?
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: Oh, they have not. Recovered, much at all. I think there are so many different factors. One is that the restaurant. The restaurant business was a very difficult business and many times restaurants did not treat their staff well. And then when. Their staff was getting money from the government, to support themselves up during the pandemic. All of those subsidies made them rethink their life. Do I really want to go into a job, serving people, as a server, a host, a cook, things like that. Maybe I should do something else. Maybe life is too short to, do this job. That's very difficult. And I have to do a lot of work. Maybe. Maybe it's not the right choice. And because of that, there's still a major, staffing issue for restaurants. And lots of businesses still have severe shortages of, employees. And so that's has ended. The supply chain issues are still a problem. There are there's a there's a tanker of coffee that I'm waiting for. And it's somewhere it's somewhere in the world. It's, from Ethiopia and it's on a ship. And where's that ship? No one knows. Really? Right now. It's that difficult? The supply chain issues have not changed much. They've not improved. Food prices are still very high since the pandemic. For the consumer and also for businesses. My coffee prices are up. 80% since the pandemic and have not gone down. And it's very difficult to find staffing in almost every industry up to about how much you're paying. There's a different attitude about work and work ethic. So, all those factors that happen. I don't think much has changed since the pandemic started.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: And going back to 2020 2021. How did you feel about the shelter in place orders and have your opinions on that changed over time?
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: They never changed. They were always that. It was. Unwise of the government and every every party of the government, made incredibly wrong decisions about, shelter in place because there was no science to support any of that. There was no science about how many feet away it should be from anyone. There were no studies about that. And they just picked the number out of the air. There was a question, in the upper levels of government about this, but should it be six feet, should it be 20ft? Should it be 30ft? There was no. So they just picked six feet, and then they started to be 12ft. So the government made no good decisions. The and they. All they did was, separate people. That was just immense. The Covid 19 created so much division and hatred amongst people, over something that no one, no medical, professionals really understood it. The efficacy of masks or distancing, better know how severe each strain would be or how, how it was. What kind of people were the most, could, will suffer the most and. And they just had they pick their winners and losers. And so I think it was terribly, from the from day one, from shutting down businesses that are dependent on people coming in. Before knowing anything was, a very poor choice. And history, I believe. Will. We'll show that and talk about that, probably 50 years from now.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: And what about your thoughts on masking and vaccination mandates?
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: The only my problem with vaccines and vaccine mandates is that. It is. We now know that the vaccines didn't prevent it didn't stop you from giving it to other people. And so, it was a good college try to have vaccines. And probably part of it was not just the money to pharmaceutical companies, but I would think that some of it was just that, hey, here's a vaccine. You're going to feel better. You're not going to. Maybe it was maybe to be kind to the government and medical professionals. Maybe the vaccine will, you know, make you feel good, almost like a placebo kind of thing, that, you'll feel that the government is doing something about this, that medical professionals are doing something about it. Maybe that was it, but the vaccine was not effective in any way. And and further ones and vaccine mandates just, were a perfect way of separating people and mass the same thing. The the problem is, is that you can't tell people to do something unless there's some kind of real, studies about it. And the problem is, is that the fact the pandemic was a huge surprise, I hope. And, huge surprise. And so they didn't have studies about Covid 19. So they're basically they're always behind the eight ball. And so having forcing people to have masks, forcing people to get vaccines, was unwise, unkind. And it hurt generations, of people for us, especially being stuck inside. It hurts so many kids who couldn't go to school, who missed their senior year in high school, or my wife who missed the funeral of her dad because she couldn't fly. Politicians could fly anywhere, but she couldn't fly out of, out of Michigan to go to Maryland just to pay proper respects to her dad. That is really a gross negligence of, an abuse of power. That was the first time I ever saw it in my life. That to, to to force people to do things. Taking forcing people to take medicine. Reminds me of Nazi doctors. That's just, you never can force a human being to take medicine. Then you're doing something that's really incredibly, gross. And you're treating them like, a non-human.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: And did you personally contract Covid 19?
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: I did, but much later. Then. It was. It was annoying, but it wasn't. It was like. It was like a strong flu. It was like a strong flu. The only thing, the only reason I took the vaccines was because I'm coffee roaster, and I wanted to make sure that just in case it did work, which I didn't believe, it did. But just in case it did work, it would stop me from losing my sense of smell. Sense of smell is everything from my kind of business. I need to know how the coffee smells and and tastes. And if I don't have that sense of smell, then it really hurts my business. So that's the only reason I took that. And also question.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: Whether you personally got Covid 19.
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: I did, I did, but although I'm very annoying to my family when I get sick, but it wasn't really that bad part was really, and I think I believe. And probably am correct about this is because of kind of a healthy guy, eating well, sleeping well, low stress life. And therefore it wasn't as severe as it was for other people.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: And did you know anyone who was severely affected by Covid?
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: Yes, but it happened to be people who were. Very. Unhealthy, very unhealthy, unhealthy lifestyle, seemed to be the theme for, people who would contract the virus and, and have the worst effects from it. So I personally don't know of anyone who wasn't of a unhealthy lifestyle who, had severe reactions to it. But there might. Might be.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: And have your views on the pandemic and its management, or any other factors changed in the years since it started, or have they stayed relatively consistent?
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: I think they have been absolutely consistent in their malpractice up during the whole pandemic. I think nothing has changed. The truth is that. There's going to be a reckoning about how I was treated. It's still too early right now. It's there's so many other things that are happening in the world that we're going to forget about it for the next 20 years, but 20 years. Historians are going to go back and, and take a look at it and see that it was one of the worst managements of a sudden pandemic. That's the. The government and health professionals. Politicians. People. All levels of power. Misuse their power. They hurt the world because they separated people who are the facts. The people who believe that the vaccine. People who are anti-vaccine. And there is no middle ground at all. And so, that has never changed. The only good thing about it is that Covid has now become like the flu. And maybe even less than the flu. So.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: And what lessons do you hope have been learned through the crisis?
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: {Audio Skipped around again} have involved in our country that we find ways to unite instead of divide us up the amount of hatred and disgust that people have eachother. {Audio Skipped again}. I wanted to be a safe place for people. Just a happy place where people drink coffee and tea and cocoa and just smile. That had great conversations. But during the pandemic, that was not to be had. It was only, people who are pro mask or anti-mask, pro freedom, anti freedom, pro vaccine, anti-vaccine, just or Republican or Democrat. People stopped talking to each other in respectful ways. And just like, the analogy is, when you bring your kids to the pediatrician, the pediatrician most often does not give the, give the shots to the kid because, the pediatrician wants to be the good guy and not to, have this feeling. The, wants the person to feel the kid to feel comfortable that the pediatricians office have nurse get the shots, and then the doctor comes, the good guy comes in. Same thing with the cafe. I couldn't have people come in because I didn't want them arguing. One person with the mask, another person without a mask. They're, you know, screaming at each other. And so. I hope through through all of this that we at some point come we that we come to a point of this country where all of this hatred, and disrespect for each other, no matter where we stand on different issues, that we could sit down to actually talk to each other. And I don't think that we can do that now. And now, whatever subject comes up, it's always, one side of the other. There's no middle ground at all. So I hope the lesson that we've learned is that the way Covid was treated and, the way the whole process has gone that we, next time something bad happens, it unites us. Just the idea that we couldn't even be united. We couldn't go to synagogue, we couldn't go to church, we couldn't go anywhere to unite and get together and talk and pray. Just that fact is so incredibly divisive, and and and hurtful. And the country, it's going to take a long time to, to heal from that.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: And was there anything else you wanted to share regarding your experience with Covid 19? Before we end the interview.
Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo: I cannot think anything else.
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: That was so much fun.
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Citation
“Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo, August 12th, 2024,” Detroit Historical Society Oral History Archive, accessed October 5, 2024, https://detroit1967.detroithistorical.org/items/show/1042.