Coronavirus: Is the World Going Mad?

The coronavirus has taken a hard hit in the world. What is surprising is how fast it has spread. I remember only weeks ago I was reading about some new virus in a city in China. I never would have guessed then that it would affect my every day to day life.

It was only a little over ten days ago that we started to understand that it could hit my home state of Utah. People started stocking up on toilet paper and hand sanitizer, but fear hadn’t hit the community yet. It wasn’t until Wednesday that everything seemed to go crazy.

Wednesday

That night as I was hanging out with some friends we heard that Rudy Gobert, Tom Hanks, and Rita Wilson had gotten the virus. We first just thought that it was a joke, but then people started pulling out their phones and checking the news to see if it was real. To our surprise it was. Next my friend told me she was canceling her trip to Europe because of the new ban on travel from and to some countries.

That night seemed a bit crazy but the next day would prove worse.

Thursday

I woke up at 6:30 am, got ready for school and headed to class, where I encountered many angry students mad that all class trips traveling outside of the state of Utah were canceled as of that morning.

We started to hear that many universities across the state were closing and moving online. As a senior in high school who takes several college classes, I quickly checked to see if my college classes were canceled but was informed that the university was still at a code green, meaning everything was fine and was to proceed as normal. I had two classes back to back and arrived a couple of minutes late. When I walked into the room the facilitator was telling the class that nothing had changed and everything was still to proceed as normal. I left class and arrived at my other class right on time, but this time everything was different. My professor was explaining how the university had just moved to Code Yellow ( Students were more at risk of catching the virus). All the classes were to be moved online for the rest of the term.

No one in class could focus on the lecture but instead, we all talked excitingly about everything that was happening. During that class, we received more news that the Governor had asked that mass gatherings be limited to a hundred people. Church meetings where to be canceled and travel should be limited.

After class, I chatted with a girl as we walked outside about how crazy everything had gotten. While outside someone got on the school intercom and announced that the next couple of school days at the high school would be shortened and that classes would most likely be moved online, Graduation might be canceled, and Prom would be postponed.

We just stood there and stared at the speaker in the cold. I think that was the first moment we realized how much things were really changing, and I think many students were scared for the first time about Covid - 19.

It seemed as if almost everything in 24 hours had changed. March Madness was canceled, traveling to and from certain countries was restricted, classes were moved online for the rest of the term, lines at stores were miles long, people were being quarantined and others were getting severely ill. I kept meeting people who said the virus was nothing and others who were in a panic.

Many businesses have closed down and you cant walk into buildings without being met with bottles of hand sanitizer and people keeping six feet apart from each other. As a teenager who has grown up with access to the internet, it is frustrating to search the web and try and find information about the virus and find mostly speculation and many questions about what is happening. My biggest question: What is going to happen next?