Right now the U.S. Government is undergoing the longest shutdown it has ever endured. There are a great many people who say that they don’t feel this shutdown; however people who work for various parts of the government are most affected. Many aren’t getting paid at all. A notable example of this is TSA workers, they are working without pay, causing what many have deemed the “blue flu” where large amounts of TSA workers have called in sick due to the lack of pay. Government workers are suffering without pay as there have been over a thousand GoFundMe pages made just to help pay for simple things like food and diapers for government workers.

The shutdown has also affected National Parks and museums. National Parks are no longer undergoing any operations or minimal ones and so things like bathrooms are not even available. The result of this being that not only trash, but also fecal matter has piled up and is not going anywhere at the moment. The lack of supervision of these parks can be dangerous because according to the New York Times, at least three people have died on National Park Service land since the government shutdown started.

The Scientific community is very much affected by the shutdown. All government run labs and experiments have been put on pause including ones which are time sensitive. This means that time and money gone into possibly important time sensitive projects has gone completely to waste with no research to show. Some agencies such as the Fish and Wildlife Service and National Weather Service have sent many workers home. A very important agency that had to furlough many employees is the EPA, meaning that many power plants, chemical factories, oil refineries, and water treatment plants are going completely unmonitored.