COVID-19 is unlike anything anyone has experienced before. Events have been canceled, and nonessential businesses have been closed to slow the spread of the virus. While this has been deemed the best decision for the safety and health of the people the economy has experienced a significant drop causing states to consider reopening despite the fact that the virus is still spreading.
With quarantine measures expanding from only canceling large events to school being canceled for an extra month all within the span of two days, it can be hard to recognize the severity or timeline of the virus. Even though going out for non-essential items is discouraged, there is nothing put in place to stop anyone from going out for non-essential reasons.
“I think that other countries where they’re starting to see progress in lowering their number of cases have a lot more extreme measures and we still have a lot of people here who aren’t following the rules. I think if we were to fully shut down and stay inside for even just a few weeks we’d be a lot further along,” Julecia Smith ‘21 said.
The transition for students has definitely been difficult. Going from seeing tons of people every day at school to being stuck at home.
“I am a teenager and I love hanging out with my friends so obviously I am hating quarantine right now and hating being by myself. I am an only child so I don’t get much interaction with people my age,” Smith said.
Since so much is changing, most people just want things to go back to normal as soon as possible. However, health workers have shown that they disagree with reopening at this time criticizing the protests against the lockdown.
“I feel that the health professionals should set a number of active cases and until we can bring our active cases down to that number we should continue to try to contain the virus as much as we can. I think if we reopen before we are actually ready there will be a second wave that will hit even harder and affect everyone even more,” Kellyn Brown ‘21 said.
With the number of active cases still high in the US, the virus would still spread and put more people at risk.
