Society’s Attempt to Stop COVID

This decade marks the start of another huge pandemic, but unlike the past, we have so many records of each event. In the short 2 years we’ve lived with COVID, much of the world around us has adapted and changed to minimize COVID spread. Many signs, ads, and speeches from famous people were made to deter people from spreading the virus.

Our first example is a simple sign out in a public area near a shopping mall. The sign states, “Help stop the spread of COVID-19” with an image of a person wearing a disposable mask you’d see surgeons wear. Below it is another sentence that states, “Face masks required on the Ithaca Commons”. The sign is obviously telling everyone to wear a mask and that in order to enter the shopping mall that’s listed, you need a mask. The sign is also colored orange, likely to immediately grab your attention. It’d be pretty difficult to say you didn’t see the brightly colored sign that doesn’t match the color of any of its surroundings. The man wearing the mask may also demonstrate how to properly wear a mask, covering not just your mouth, but your nose too. At the very bottom of the sign at a small size is one more sentence that states, “Making downtown safe for all”. This demonstrates that the people who made the sign had the safety of the public in mind, specifically the public in the mall. However, it can be assumed they want everyone everywhere to wear a mask.

 

 

Another sign displays another message against COVID, spreading not only awareness, but also different methods to protect yourself. The sign on the left displays a large text that simply says, “Stop!” Under it is a message that asks if you are feeling any symptoms like: fever, cough, shortness of breath, and sneezing or runny nose then you are advised to not enter the building. This poster helps tell readers that should they be experiencing any of these symptoms, they may have COVID and need to stay away. Next to the symptoms is a note that tells readers to go to a specific location if they need assistance, likely to get help for them if they have COVID. The poster on the right displays how to prevent the spread of COVID, with a large text stating, “We can all slow the spread”, referring to slowing the spread of COVID. Below are different ways you can prevent COVID from spreading including: checking on the old and vulnerable, washing your hands, coughing or sneezing into your elbow, and staying home if you’re sick.
It’s clear both posters talk about COVID, but they state different things. The left poster talks about any symptoms that you would experience if you had COVID, and should you experience any of them, you are advised to stay away from the building. The right poster talks about how people can prevent COVID from spreading, giving different methods in doing so. Present in both posters, however, is a motto that states “Unite against COVID-19” in the bottom right of both posters. It can easily be seen as telling people to work together to stop COVID, but it could also be a reference to the United States of America, taking the “United” part into their motto. Lastly, should anyone need more information, there is a website that is listed on the poster as well: Covid19.govt.nz.

The last image has a much darker tone to COVID, putting up a darker reality than the previous ones discussed. In the image are 3 photos of different people, all wearing what looks like a ventilator, or a machine to help people who are struggling to breathe especially when they have COVID. They each have one line of text that says “Look him in the eyes” or “Look her in the eyes”, followed by another sentence at the bottom. The first image says, “Tell him you always keep a safe distance”. The second image says, “Tell her you never bend the rules”. The final image says “Tell him the risk isn’t real”. All three images list the first name of each person and say they’re a COVID patient, with a message below each stating, “ Stay Home > Protect the NHS > Save Lives”.

This image is likely set much later into the pandemic and aims to point out how careless the public has been when it comes to handling COVID, often asking the reader to tell these patients something they should be doing during the pandemic, but don’t actually do. The first image refers to how people rarely ever keep 6 feet apart from them, which is recommended to prevent the spread of COVID. The second image refers to people who try to ignore preventative measures like refusal to wear masks or vaccines. The last image refers to people who don’t even believe COVID is real or believe it’s like the common cold or flu. The poster depicts that the risks of COVID are indeed real, and the fact no one is taking it seriously is costing real lives. The fact all patients are also looking straight at the viewer is trying to pull emotion and guilt into the reader for allowing them to succumb to the virus because of the public’s carelessness.

The COVID pandemic has a massive group of ads, mostly to deter its spread and warn of its dangers. This essay only shows a handful of the ads during the 2 years of the pandemic, but much has changed during the 2 years, especially when comparing the tones between the first and second images to the third. Hopefully these images will last through the years and the future generation can look through them and understand COVID more than we did.

The beginning of 2020 was the start of a new decade, with many having high hopes for the future. Unfortunately, fate had other plans for our new decade, giving us the fear of a 3rd war, wildfires from gender reveal parties, and a new disease to plague humanity. Before the start of 2020, an unusual disease was discovered in Wuhan, China, which had previously never been recorded. Named COVID-19, everyone initially thought nothing of it. After all, it was in China and assumed to stay and probably end in China. That’s what I hoped during my junior year in high school.

 For many of us before the pandemic, our schedule would be like any other: wake up, eat breakfast, go to school, eat lunch, go home and do homework, shower, and sleep. Rinse and repeat over 100 days, and that was our typical school life. On weekends, we’d be able to go outside and do whatever we wanted (as long as we didn’t break the law) without wearing a mask or worrying about a virus. However, I found myself having more fun indoors playing games, but hearing words from various social media about quarantine would affect how my school life was. Within just a few months, COVID-19 began its conquest to completely dominate humanity, leaving its home, China, to other countries.

Word spread fast across schools that COVID-19 could make its way into the U.S., spread viciously, and force us into quarantine. In just a few short days, our nightmares had begun. COVID-19 made its way here in the U.S. and spread faster than any wildfire. For, at least my school, schools did prepare for full digital learning, but teachers couldn’t move all their lessons into digital learning quickly enough. 2020 for my school was chaotic, to say the least since I’ve never done school work entirely online, let alone entire lessons online! As quickly as 2020 started, it soon ended and paved the way for 2021, with hopes that 2021 would be better and fix the mess left behind by 2020.

I’ve played quite a few games, and I’ve learned some interesting stuff from them. One game in particular from the 2012 era was named Plague Inc., a game about creating and controlling a disease to eradicate humanity. There are different types of diseases; bacteria, viruses, parasites, and even bio-weapons, all of which have their own advantages and disadvantages. One thing I remember is that viruses were unpredictable since they frequently mutated, and sometimes that would help them spread or cause them to be noticeable to humans. An interesting game mechanic and just something only in the game, right? Well, 2021 would like to say otherwise with the new introduction to COVID-19, Delta variant. The new decade just got worse when the COVID-19 virus decided to mutate, meaning two kinds of COVID exist now. Though the Delta variant is less contagious, it has a higher fatality rate than the Alpha (the original COVID), but it still was COVID-19 and more dangerous if you caught it.

Surprisingly the new variant didn’t change my life much. My family took all kinds of precautions at the start of quarantine: masks, carrying hand sanitizers everywhere, and avoiding crowded areas. I even went back to school at the beginning of my senior year, albeit with heavy mask restrictions. However, mask mandates were fine since I cherished my health and safety over freedom because you can’t celebrate freedom when you’re dead. However, what gave us a glimpse of hope was the first COVID-19 vaccine, our first hope at ending COVID-19 and ending a plague during a modern era! At first, I doubted the vaccine due to how quickly it was made and a reported death from it, but as time went on, I began to trust more into it since more testing allowed for fine-tuning the vaccine. At last, we were going to escape COVID-19 and leave behind the awful 2020 and 2021!

Omicron. A new variant of COVID-19 that sprung up out of nowhere, more effective at spreading, less effective at killing. That meant we had Alpha, Delta, and the new Omicron near the end of 2021. What made the entire year worse (and admittedly was much worse than the virus itself) was the misinformation that spread almost as fast as COVID-19 regarding the vaccine. During a time of crisis, humanity needed to work together to defeat a common threat, and we failed at that. The misinformation caused so many families to second-guess the vaccine, and many would pay the price and lose a loved one or more far too soon.

What’s worse was when my father caught Omicron, and the fear built up when I heard he was sent to Urgent Care. He was away in Florida for work which meant I couldn’t even visit him, not that I could go anyways because of the virus. However, I was fortunate that my family believed in vaccines, and in a few weeks, he was discharged; no doubt, the two vaccines he took saved his life. However, that doesn’t mean he left unscathed, as doing normal activities was now exhausting for him due to damage to his lungs from COVID. However, he’s alive and (mostly) well, and the rest of my family has so far managed to escape the cold, unforgiving hands of COVID. The pandemic still rages on, so who knows what horrors 2023 and onwards hold for us.

After the first few months of isolation in COVID, new mandates requiring masks whenever we’re out in public gave us a small glimpse of our old life. By the end of 2020, my family had integrated a new schedule in our life of the pandemic; mornings are the same, but we now wear a mask before preparing to go out, never taking it off for a moment. Anytime we touch a door, a wall, or any object in public, we’d have a small bottle of hand sanitizer to use to clean our hands immediately. Doing this so often, eventually the strong and somewhat burning scent of hand sanitizer on my hands was comforting in a way, especially when out in public. Whenever we got home, we’d always take a shower right away as one more safety precaution against COVID. Anytime we bought anything as simple as groceries, the packaging that they were in would be washed with soap or water wiped down with wet wipes. For my family, we’d integrated these new steps for doing the most mundane things into our life and we’d continue doing them for the entire pandemic.
While my family got used to our new life with COVID, the virus had a trick up its sleeve. I remember playing a viral game back in 2012 named Plague Inc. in which you play as a disease attempting to wipe out humanity. There were different types of diseases you could play as such as bacteria, parasites, or of course the virus. The most notable thing that made viruses stand out in the game was their ability to randomly mutate more often than the other diseases. Just like the game, the COVID virus mutated in late 2020, with the new variant being named Delta. New fear emerged as the Delta variant was rumored to be more fatal and dangerous than the first variant, now being named Alpha, but the Delta was supposedly less contagious than Alpha. Regardless, paranoia quickly ran through me because just like that game, I knew it was just going to mutate once and be done. Even though my family was more less the same before the Delta variant came, I still ran extreme dread.
By now the first vaccines for COVID came out but due to work my family, mainly my mom and I, weren’t able to get the vaccines yet. However, my dad was able to get all 3 shots by mid 2021. By November of 2021, both my mom and I took the vaccines to better increase our chances to survive should COVID infect us. However, things got worse by December of 2021 when COVID mutated once again, with the new Omicron variant. Though rumored to be less dangerous than Delta, it was more contagious and still was lethal to the older and more ill of our population. Eventually my fears would be justified when my dad caught COVID. Panic and paranoia ran through me for days hoping my dad would be fine, and luckily he was able to leave the hospital without having to visit the ICU. Since my dad lived elsewhere, my mom and I didn’t get COVID. Now here we are today, where COVID cases in the U.S. have no dropped very much since its introduction, and the pandemic raging on.

The sun was shining as bright as it had been for years, trees and flowers were beginning their pollination season again, and the birds and bugs that roamed near my home continued to scurry and fly as if nothing had changed. However, a lot changed for our society; COVID had found its way onto the U.S. and spread rapidly like a wildfire in dry grass. In wake of the virus, schools closed immediately and all students and teachers had to move to digital work. Unfortunately for my school, this sudden change in our environment was tough for a lot of students because we were used to being face to face, not face to screen. The days of sitting on a desk, writing down notes in front of a teacher had ended for that semester of school. In its place, we learned behind a screen as teachers worked quickly to convert all their planned lesson into digital lessons. In the case some students had no internet access, there were places students could go where free computer and internet access was allowed, but I never had to use them.
Going outside just to get groceries was like Russian roulette during these times because you were potentially gambling for your life with the virus being anywhere, but you aren’t able to see this invisible killer until it already has its hold on you. I didn’t understand a lot of the virus during its early stage but I understood one thing: it wasn’t something to play with. I was still young and the virus was only dangerous to the older population was, but that’s what I worried most about. Much of my family is fairly old with my grandfather being diabetic, which is what scared me most about the virus. If I caught it, I could potentially spread it to other family members. Luckily, the government began mandating masks and preventing parties that consisted of too many people. Some people may have hated this sudden change in environment, but to others like me, it meant the government realized that the virus needs to controlled before it claimed the lives of millions. The pandemic had started, and now the world was racing to combat it.

It was a normal day of school that began at the very start of 2020. A lot of people were celebrating the beginning of a new decade with high hopes for the year.  Sitting at my desk at school, in a class full of students. No students online, and every work done solely on thin paper. Every student went in and out of these classes with no change of the entire world around us, without the threat of a virus that loomed over us. For me, it was just another normal day that continued on like all the others.
Sitting at home after a long day of school, I read rumors of a third World War at the first month of 2020. People on the internet were discussing how tensions between the U.S. and Iran were not doing well. It was a scary thought to be in the middle of a war right after a new decade began, but thankfully the illusion of continuity was upheld in the world.
Not too long after that, people began talking about the Australian bushfires that raged on, originally in 2019, but continuing to 2020. For a lot of people, 2020 seemed like it was gonna be a like a domino effect; one disastrous event after another.
While I sat comfortably in my house, China had seen the first cases of an unusual disease on December 2019. One that they probably never discovered before. It was named COVID-19.
Before COVID became a massive problem, I remember one thing distinctly. I had looked at a joke one person made that detailed how every 20th year of every century contained a massive disease that’d kill many victims. Like any unsuspecting person, I smiled at the joke, thinking it was nothing but a joke. Never would I imagined that that one joke foresaw a world changing event.
When COVID was made public to the world, most of us weren’t bothered. Perhaps it was just going to be like Ebola; a virus that sounded scary, but realistically wouldn’t be a threat to countries like the U.S.. Most of classes ignored the virus, as if nothing in the world was changing. However, once COVID began spreading to more countries, then the fear began building up like snow piling up in a blizzard. It was spreading and spreading faster than any disease we’ve witnessed. By now, my school realized that this disease may reach the U.S. eventually if it isn’t stopped, so teachers began discussing about a 2 week period where all students will work from home.  Of course, the U.S. eventually caught COVID, beginning the the 2-week quarantine that would last for almost 2 years for us.
The war on COVID had just begun.

My name is Edward Yu and my major is Computer Science. I love playing games, with my favorite being Terraria. One of my favorite books I read is Unwind by Neal Shusterman, and I generally like Sci-fi, Dystopian types of books. I don’t have a specific genre of music I like, I just listen to whatever I happen to come across. My favorite movies are the American Godzilla from 2014 and onwards, and the 2016 Japanese Godzilla. I don’t like most sports, but I do really love swimming. Currently the only shows I’m watching are One Piece and My Hero Academia.

I’m studying Computer Science because I want to make a lot of money, mainly for games. However, I also want to be able to support and give back to my family that’s helped me get here. Right now my plan to live alone and be as free as I want to be, and GSU is my first step in the future I want.

This clip is by far my favorite scene in the 2016 Japanese Godzilla film, Shin Godzilla.