“COVID”, “COVID-19” and “coronavirus” are terms that the entire world has been hearing nonstop in the news for the past two years. With the addition of the “delta” and “omicron” variants, the coronavirus and its variants have been at the top of the list of topics for both discussion and controversy. 

COVID cases are forever increasing and decreasing, but overall, the public seems to have had a calmer reaction to the virus in comparison to that of a year, or even six months, ago. It has been noticed that the students at SBHS have more recently had less severe and fearful reactions to classmates or friends contracting the virus. Even in the two weeks after winter break, when SBHS student cases were skyrocketing and on-campus testing was revealing hundreds of students with the virus, the approach to the virus felt more light-hearted and normal. We’re unable to say what exactly is causing the laid-back response of student’s in regard to their peers contracting COVID-19, but most signs are pointing to the fact that the virus has become more normalized and will eventually be ranked as and reacted to much like a common cold or flu. It is likely that people’s reactions will shift from anxiety, fear and obsessive analysis to, “oh ya, they’re just out with COVID.”

Signs of this shift are already evident among SBHS students as senior JT Moorman reports on his experience from peers when he was out with covid. He explains, “[…] my parents weren’t worried, no I was fine. People checked up on me and I told them it was fine and I’d see them next week at school, it was no big deal.” Likewise, senior Jack Ransdell, who personally did not have COVID but knows of a multitude of people who contracted it, says, “[…] it’s basically just keeping people home now. […] people are just kind of done with it and going back to their ordinary lives just with a mask. It can definitely affect you and people can have it but it isn’t really that big of a deal anymore.”

Although this does not account for everyone’s opinions, the calmer shift in student’s reactions to the virus is most definitely evident in a larger population of students at SBHS than at the beginning of its outbreak. As scientists and doctors continue to track the intensity of COVID outbreaks and symptoms, it will become easier to tell what new reactions people will likely have to the virus in the near future and beyond.

[Image Credit Luna Kirsch Martinez]