The start of the current school year has spiked controversial debates regarding public health and social wellbeing. With COVID-19 wreaking havoc on the public school system, many students have been forced to acclimate to a new academic environment. Many Utah parents fought for school to be in session, but the sudden increase in cases since the reopening of schools is undeniable. According to recent statistics published by the Utah Department of Health, there have been over 2,000 cases since the beginning of school in early August; most of these cases have occurred within the last two weeks. Schools like Corner Canyon, Granger, and Olympus have reached their suggested limit of 15 cases. When we consider why schools were reopened, we can conclude that they were opened with innocent intentions; parents wanted their children to experience in-person learning. With the uncapped increase in cases over the past two weeks, we must start to consider how these hopeless antics to keep our students in schools may not actually be the best decision in the long-run.
When approaching this discussion, we cannot ignore the surrounding community reactions. In fact, the schools that are experiencing the highest case counts are located within communities that already have high numbers; home life and extracurricular activities all influence the spread of coronavirus within schools. The only solution to decreasing the amount of COVID cases throughout the nation seems to be putting our activities on hold for longer. Our desire for public health and restoring our world to normal social ventures can only be achieved through sacrifice. So even though schools were opened up with good intentions, it may be time to reevaluate our priorities and coping mechanisms to minimize the spread of COVID-19.
Not only do we have to be willing to reassess our personal choices during the pandemic, but we must also critically analyze the way our nation has responded to these tragedies. The overall feelings about COVID-19 have seemed to go from nationwide terror about an unknown virus to large groups of people dismissing the severity of the pandemic. An interesting phenomenon can be observed here; we felt the most panic when there were little confirmed cases in the United States. Although many people have grown tired of social distancing and have thus begun to return to their regular lives, we must all realize that a pandemic is still alive and thriving. The only way to return to our seemingly normal lives is to continue sacrificing. Continue to wear your masks, limit your social interactions, and social distance; it is the only way that our world will be able to heal.