As we all are aware of, we’re living in some very uncertain times. Different people scared for different reasons, but I think we can all agree we wish the whole thing would go away. I recently, as in this week, moved back into my dorm room. My school is going above and beyond on COVID-19 preparation and attempted prevention. But yet, here I sit in quarantine…
So this begs the question, what are we doing wrong? What are we doing right? Are any of the steps and extra measures doing anything? I wish someone could give a concrete and uniform answer, but I have to say, I’m beginning to form my own conclusions.
Here are the facts. I moved into college at the beginning of this week. Masks are required in all buildings on campus, including inside my dorm. This means I have to wear a mask from the moment I enter the building until I close my dorm room door behind me. I have met with a group of other Resident Assistants daily, always socially distancing, and always wearing masks.
Everyone who is currently in the dorms was tested for COVID-19 yesterday using a saliva test (yay for objects NOT getting shoved up into our brains!) This afternoon, the RAs were informed that we had been exposed to someone who tested positive and effective immediately, would go into a two week quarantine. Now, I’m not here to complain. I do want to draw attention to what being quarantined looks like in a college setting. I think, perhaps, we could do better.
Being quarantined at college looks like this:
- I am not allowed to leave the dorms (aka I can’t go outside to walk/exercise)
- I am not allowed to leave my dorm room (aka I can’t go into the hallway)
- I am not allowed to walk down my hallway and fill up my water bottle
- My meals are brought to me by staff three times a day and left outside my room with a knock on my door until I acknowledge it
- I am not allowed to be in physical contact with anyone else, including the other RAs who had the same exposure as me
- I am to remain inside my dorm room until the health department releases me from quarantine
- Those who were exposed are getting tested again on Monday, although we were just tested yesterday
- We were not told who tested positive or when we were exposed (yes, I understand there are privacy measures to be had, but I also think it would be a good idea to know when we were exposed and who exposed us)
My question to you, the reader, is this. Do you feel that these conditions are healthy? Mental, physical, and emotional health? What do we do with this information?
I’m living this and the unfortunate reality is, there is more to come. Classes have not even started yet. 1 positive case = all the people exposed to that person immediately go into quarantine for a minimum of a week, likely longer. With that kind of reaction, will ANYTHING get done?
My mom works in the healthcare field and I’ve been quarantined 3 TIMES since April. She has been exposed at work each time and never told how close she was to the people that tested positive. Being quarantined has kept me from getting a job this summer to save up for college. I’m also worried about being quarantined again during the school year due to where my mom works. Are they going to quarantine everyone that had class with me from seven different classes?? When I am quarantined am I going to be able to continue learning or am I going to fall behind at a small high school?
I think the main issue is that there is no definitive information. No facts. No where to see accurate statistics because they don’t know how many have been infected. So the answer is quarantine everyone. Probably has more to do with liability than with the disease.