Reminder: COVID-19 Is Far From Over

Beaches, restaurants, stores, nail salons, and more are opening, so why not enjoy them? We are all tempted to go and experience these places we are so used to experiencing during the summer. While we might be tempted to go out and see friends because things are starting to open up, COVID-19 is deceptively increasing in peril by the hour. Within this time of great resistance, revolution, and reform, many have forgotten that we are far from out of the woods concerning COVID-19.

The cold, hard, devastating facts

While many places are opening their doors, the risk of catching the virus has grown exponentially within the last month. While there have been rumors that the only reason that the number of cases has risen due to more testing, this is untrue. Mike Ryan, the executive director of emergencies program says, “We do not believe that this is a testing phenomenon,” cited by CNBC. The same article also asserts that on Sunday June 28, 2020, the amount of new reported cases “jumped by more than 183,000, ‘easily’ the most in a single day so far, WHO officials said.” As of June 30, 2020, Johns Hopkins shows there are over 2.6 million confirmed cases just in the U.S. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), says that he “would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 [cases] a day if this does not turn around, and so I am very concerned.” while testifying before the Senate. If all of this information doesn’t convince you that things aren’t over, I’m not sure what will.

Protests

“We’re finding that the social events and gatherings, these parties where people aren’t wearing masks, are our primary source of infection…”

– Director Erika Lautenbach of Whatcom County Health Department

While some have been saying that protests are causing the spikes in cases, this has not been true according to current data. An NPR article released on June 24, 2020 says that parties are causing COVID-19 clusters, not protests. An interview with Whatcom County Health Department director Erika Lautenbach of Washington state reveals that there was both a rally and a protest in the city of Bellingham, and that there were no cases of the virus connected to either. She says the reason for this is masks. While protests do include a lot of people, the majority of the time people participating are wearing masks. If you do protest, please be sure to stay safe and wear masks to ensure you will not spread COVID-19.

I am a teenager.

I know that we are all feeling so anxious to go back to normal life. We’re young and having fun during the summer is what we are meant to do. Personally, It’s so easy to get down about things and feel like I should take a spontaneous trip with friends, throwing caution to the wind. But I can’t. Not if I want things to go back to normal sooner. Quarantine is far from ideal, we can all agree on that. But if we truly want to go back to a reality that we once knew, we have to take precautions to ensure that we do not further spread COVID-19.

Please check out this article I wrote earlier this year to re-educate yourself on protocol of how to keep yourself and others safe during this time.

Sela

Sela is a HS junior and a member of GirlSpring's teen leadership group, Springboarders. She runs a chapter of GirlSpring at her school where she seeks to empower other girls' voices.

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