Last Monday, I was in the Walsh Family Library when I got an email:
Classes are canceled, students should return home as soon as possible.
Although thousands of students have received emails like this in the past few weeks, Fordham was one of the first schools to take this step, and people were confused and a little scared. After scrambling to finalize travel plans, I was on a train home.
As I write this, I'm sitting at my house in Ohio. My state has shut down all restaurants and bars for the foreseeable future. Our primary election has been pushed back to June. Even my church has put services online until the end of the month.
I get it. Social distancing is hard. I miss my friends from school and I'm pretty heartbroken that I won't be able to go back to Fordham until next semester. Like everyone else, I'm tired of being cooped up in the house and online classes aren't ideal.
That's why it's important for people like me to remember that it's not about us.
I've seen too many young, healthy people, both online and in real life, who have shrugged off the need for self-isolation and caution as COVID-19 has continued to spread. Although I want to be able to write this recklessness off as ignorance, the reality is that the seriousness of the coronavirus outbreak is being downplayed mainly out of selfishness.
When hundreds of people are crowding together in bars, in restaurants, on beaches, or at parties, they're putting both themselves and the people they know at risk of exposure to the virus.
For a lot of people, this doesn't seem like a big deal because even getting sick may not impact them that much. They'll likely get sick, recover, and move on with their lives.
But the elderly people at higher risk for this illness might not. Immunocompromised people and people with pre-existing respiratory conditions might not. The importance of social distancing isn't saving oneself from an illness — it's community preservation.
This outbreak may be inconvenient for you, I get that. But it's deadly for others, and our actions have a hand in determining just how much danger some of the most vulnerable people in our society are in. So, avoid large crowds, be smart, and be empathetic to the people to whom coronavirus presents a serious threat to their health and lives.
It sucks, but it's not about us.
