Should We Go Back Into Quarantine?
By: Mahalia Battle
1/18/2024
With new COVID-19 variants, new symptoms, and more and more people getting sick, many people want to go back into quarantine, but do we need to? In the past week, there have only been about 1000 COVID cases on average in Indiana out of over six million people! Not only that, but out of the 172 people who ended up being hospitalized, only 4 died which is a very small amount. and that number is very small. ( IN.gov. ) Though there are new COVID variants, we don't need to go back into quarantine at Edgewood because Indiana as a whole isn't being affected.
COVID-19 Symptoms
First of all, COVID-19 is already 5 years old. Saying this, doctors and scientists have already created the vaccine for the virus and many people are already vaccinated, meaning not many people are getting sick. Also, we already have the booster vaccines, and there have been multiple times when people have been unable to get infected with COVID again because they've already had it once. Different health professionals have said we might have to go back to wearing masks, but going back into quarantine is just unnecessary. ( wane.com ) Plus, COVID-19 is less and less dangerous now that we have protection from it, and it even gets messed up with influenza and a mild cold. You wouldn't know that it's coronavirus unless you take a covid test.
Secondly, going back into quarantine is simply unnecessary and just a waste of time and money. Over 4.5 trillion dollars were put into COVID-19 release money. The government has to make new guidelines every time a new COVID outbreak happens, which takes a lot of time. Plus, they made it so that if you have COVID-19, you have to stay in your home for at least 5 days. What if you need to get groceries or need to go to work? We can't do any of this if we are in quarantine, and if you do manage to get out to go shopping, a large majority of what's on the shelves will be gone because the manufacturers of the products aren't allowed to work because of quarantine. For example, in 2020, there was a huge shortage of toilet paper because they weren't able to be made, causing people to start “panic-buying,” which is exactly what it sounds like. ( TWP ) And it wasn't just toilet paper, either. Things like medicine and tissues would be gone since so many people were getting sick, depriving people of things they would need.
Multiple students agree that quarantine is unnecessary as well because it caused us to go into an E-Learning episode where we had to do all of our schoolwork online through Google Classroom or Zoom or we had to go pick up a huge packet of work at the school. Parents and teachers had to work at home too and get on Zoom calls. “Quarantine was hard for everyone, especially the parents of all the kids who go to school,” says Emi Kester, a 6th-grade student. Eventually, it wasn't just quarantine, but instead was a global lockdown. You couldn't travel and there was no public transportation available except for your own vehicle. Even if you did get to go somewhere, you would be forced to wear these uncomfortable face masks to prevent the virus from spreading.
The COVID-19 Vaccine Shot.
Out of a survey of 23 students, 20 said we shouldn't go back into quarantine, and Maggie Johnson, another 6th grader, was one of them, "It all depends on if it gets as bad as it was with the new variations. I do think that if you do get it you should stay at home until your test is negative." she says. Even if people are getting sick, we don't need to go into quarantine or lockdown unless there's a serious amount of covid cases. COVID-19 with new variants may seem like a big deal, but since so many people are vaccinated with both COVID and flu shots, is it really?
Author Bio: Mahalia is an 11 year-old 6th grader who enjoys playing online games, reading, hanging out with friends and baking.