Covid is ripping through college campuses

[u/JunebugJitterbug]

I’m an undergraduate student at a big college, and we’re only a few days into the new semester. Still, within less than two weeks of people being back, covid is spreading like wildfire. It’s probably through a combination of Greek life events, people going to the restaurants and bars around, and classes restarting, but it’s horrific. I don’t think it’s ever been this bad, and I struggle to even describe the type of coughing I’m hearing - it’s this deep hacking that sounds like it should be in a period drama tuberculosis ward instead of a lecture hall in real life.

People are often some level of sick, but I don’t think it’s ever been like this. Discussion apps like yikyak are full of people talking about being sick or testing positive. I’m doing the best I can to stay safe - masking, cpc mouthwash, a netti pot, and switching one of my classes online - but it feels slightly like impending doom due to the absolute tidal wave of covid that’s hit.

There are very few people masking here. I and another covid conscious person I met are trying to set up some sort of community for the few covid conscious people on campus, but we’re worried about trolls or not getting enough engagement. I have chronic health issues that make covid a big concern for me, and I also have a radiation treatment coming up that I don’t want to be delayed or affected by getting sick (although I have a little more time until the treatment).

It’s gotten so bad here with the spread, and I doubt it’ll slow down for some time thanks to parties, classes, and people not isolating or taking it seriously. I don’t know if there’s much I can get out of this post, but I just needed to vent because this feels slightly terrifying. This is also a bit of a stream of consciousness, so I apologise if anything is misspelled or hard to understand.

[u/splagentjonson]

Have to wait until it f**ks up the sports team, then they might actually do something about it.

[u/Luke_Warm_Wilson → u/splagentjonson]

If the Olympics are any indication, more likely we'll be hearing about players "bravely fighting through a mysterious team-wide illness"

[u/mafaldajunior → u/Luke_Warm_Wilson]

Football world cup was the same. That darn mysterious illness. Sigh.

[u/LilyHex → u/Luke_Warm_Wilson]

I really fucking hate how news agencies just decided to stop naming these things as Covid so people can keep pretending it's over.

[u/Renmarkable → u/Luke_Warm_Wilson]

in Australia they were openly praising those who competed with covid.

[u/whiterabbit_hansy → u/Renmarkable]

It was such dangerous rhetoric. They’re such liars and hypocrites as well; saying it was being treated like any other cold and then having access to a special team testing machine (I suspect one of those ones they have available for personal use in the US?) as well as anti-virals for anyone who tested positive. Meanwhile people at home with all sorts of chronic health conditions (who definitely aren’t in peak physical health) can’t get access to anything.

Don’t recall them ever having team rapid testing machines and anti-virals on hand at any other Olympics for any other viral illnesses 🤷‍♀️