Never would I have thought that COVID-19 would take away the last few months of my senior year. It feels so surreal, but as time goes on everything feels more like a reality. This pandemic has already caused much panic and disbelief in altering everyone's lifestyle. For us, it would be the transition from classroom style teaching to online zoom teaching, and the everyday interactions that turned into social distancing. Since the closing of NYC public schools on March 15, my parents have been stocking up on the necessities like food and toiletries. Stores like Costco have been rampaged against. This problem is a worldwide issue. COVID-19 has already affected 199 countries and territories with 708,020 world cases and growing. As of March 25, case counts in the US have exceeded China and Italy. However, that is not to say that there are not positive benefits. In China, for example, satellite images show a reduction of nitrogen dioxide pollution in the atmosphere. Similarly, in Italy, with the lock down, the canal waterways began to clear up. New discoveries have been made, one in particular of using drugs like chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine to treat patients that have this virus. During times like this, the best way to stay calm is to not spread false information and to stay home.
Tiffany Ngo (Class of 2020)