If someone told me back in February that in seven months the United States would have over six million cases and up to two hundred thousand deaths from COVID-19, I would have said such a claim was absurd. Unfortunately, here we are.
To be a student in their undergraduate career in the midst of a pandemic seems all too surreal as we work to obtain degrees with the threat of a lethal virus looming over us. Furthermore, the impact of the pandemic has been felt around the world, not in the sense of health and safety, but how we live and interact with each other on a daily basis. No one would have thought we would see the day where. Before we left the house or dorm, masks would join our keys and wallets as essential items. Now it all seems commonplace.
Here at Virginia Wesleyan University, we’ve seen our school take rigorous actions to implement safety and health policies that ensure the students’ well-being.
Although these are the logical measures to take, people here choose to not adhere to such policies due to personal vendettas against being controlled by a higher power or they are unable to adapt to change. Oftentimes, we see that it is those people who contract the virus and put everyone they interact with at risk.
Personally, if a friend of mine willinging chose to not obey the rules, contracted the virus, and believed it was okay to interact with me, I would only feel that they have no problem putting my life at risk..
As a student that is part of a larger community, I simply want nothing but good health and wellness for my peers. It only seems logical to do my part to limit the spread of COVID-19 during this pandemic. This is where I struggle to find the words to describe seeing people who knowingly don’t follow the rules and policies that are meant to maintain their health and safety.
If people had worn masks, socially distanced, quarantined, and maintained cleanliness back in February, would we still be at 6.4 million cases and 190,000 deaths and counting?
Ezekiel Herrera-Bevan
egherrerabevan@vwu.edu
