Have you looked at a graph of new COVID cases lately?
I have, and I’m scared. Nationally, we’re seeing more than four times the daily cases we saw in the spring, and more than twice the surge of the summer. In Massachusetts, our numbers are just as bad as they were in April. In the spring, businesses were closed. People received money to stay home. Now, things are continuing along like everything is fine.
From The Washington Post‘s coronavirus tracker
Everything is not fine.
On campus, we’ve seen two consecutive weeks with two positive cases each. When a positive case is detected, that person and their close contacts go into quarantine. Secondary contacts have to remain in their rooms and can only leave to get meals.
I’m worried. If one or two more people test positive and send more than a couple close contacts into quarantine, we’ll run out of quarantine beds.
That’s why it’s so important to keep distance. If I test positive, I don’t want anyone else to have to quarantine. And if a friend were to test positive, I wouldn’t want to have to quarantine. On movie nights, I make sure there’s more than six feet between everyone. When I’m eating, I line up my chair with the “put chair here” sticker on the ground.
Feeling like I’m taking this more seriously than other students is frustrating. Too often, I see friends sitting right next to each other on the couch, or sharing a small table in the living room. Masks are great. Twice-weekly testing is such a privilege. But those two things can’t prevent the spread of this disease on their own.
Talk to your friends and family. Ask how careful they were in March. If they’ve relaxed since then, ask why. If you have the privilege of staying home, do. And please, please, please, don’t celebrate Thanksgiving (or eat any meal) indoors with anyone you don’t live with. Even if you test negative, you might still be developing coronavirus.
You might be willing to take the risk, but you can’t make that decision for everyone who will be affected—classmates, grocery store employees, healthcare workers.