At the beginning of this year, I expected my senior year to go normal. I was told I would be doing this paper and I was excited about doing it, too. The beginning of the second semester came around and so did the start of this paper. My sub-group throughout this paper was Jehovah’s Witnesses. I grew up around this religion, despite not being in the religion. I completed half of my ethnography before the coronavirus hit. This virus has been around since November of 2019, but the United States did not know about it or was being affected by it. China was hit hard around the end of December and early January. The virus came to America around February, and it started affecting us all in March. Now we are all on lockdown. There is something new about this virus each day.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses that I interviewed and the Jehovah’s Witnesses across the world are all being affected by this global pandemic. By talking to my Aunt Danielle, she has told me her group cannot go door to door or their Sunday meetings. Instead of doing in-person meetings, they use the app called “Zoom.” This app is good for this type of stuff but lately there have been rumors of Zoom violating people’s privacy by ending the call, the app still uses the camera. Who knows if any of this stuff is true, but in this day and age this kind of privacy violation is common. For the Jehovah’s Witnesses, I think those people will do whatever they can just to do their meetings every Sunday. Like everyone should be doing, the Jehovah’s also respect the rules of social distancing and understand that staying home is what needs to be done in order to prevent the virus from getting worse.
The coronavirus itself has been around for awhile. It’s been reported by the CDC that the SARS virus was actually a strand of the coronavirus. The virus that is affecting us is a new strand called COVID-19. It presented itself in November of 2019 in Wuhan, China. People who were at a supermarket in China were the ones who were affected first. The virus spread like wildfire in Wuhan. Soon China was being torn apart by this virus with thousands dead. At the time, only older people were dying. The virus’s next major hotspot was Italy. This country was hit big with the virus spreading everywhere. Then the virus came to America. People then started to realize that this virus is not only affecting old people, but now young people. Even animals are starting to get COVID-19. Tigers at the Bronx Zoo in New York contracted our coronavirus. Animals have been known to get coronavirus, but now they can also get our coronavirus. Just recently CBS reported a dog getting coronavirus. The entire family had COVID-19 and the family noticed their dog sneezing. Somehow this dog got tested and came back positive with COVID-19. This virus is now jumping over from species to species. The Center for Disease Control or World Health Organization will not know how this virus came to be until long after its gone. Some speculate the virus was transmitted to humans by people eating “bat soup” or that China released it from a lab. Despite all this information, people still do not understand the danger of this virus.
In these trying times, sometimes people can see the nature of what people actually do in a crisis. Some people are respecting the rules, and others not so much. There are people across the country protesting for their “freedom.” These people want to stop social distancing and open up the country. Our top medical experts see a second wave happening. By going against the CDC’s guidelines, the second wave will only come sooner in some states. A lot of these people get this idea from someone who wants to re-open the country. This person is our president. He expects us to open the country in the coming months like some states are not even in the middle of a major crisis. This man contradicts himself so much; one day he tells us all that we should inject Lysol products in ourselves and the next he says he was being sarcastic. The people would be better off listening to what a chimpanzee has to say about something than our so-called president. In this time of crisis, it is best to listen to the CDC or the top health officials.
Staying at home has been a very important fighter to this virus. From 2019 and early 2020, the CDC and doctors concluded that this virus affected only the old and fragile people. That is until it hit New York. Young people across New York were getting put in the hospitals and on ventilators. Most recovered, but there was also a good number of young people who did not make it. Now people are reporting young people are having strokes from the coronavirus without having any major symptoms. CNN reports, “The new coronavirus appears to be causing sudden strokes in adults in their 30s and 40s who are not otherwise terribly ill” (Fox). With this being reported, it opens a new door to the danger of this virus. Staying home can save not only our grandparents’ lives, but now our parents. Losing someone to a virus and knowing there will be a vaccine in about 18 months is hard.
This whole pandemic has shown how some countries were not prepared for this. Italy was one of the major countries that got hit. This country had a surge of cases; they had people who died because there was not enough room in the hospitals. The doctors had to find new ways to make ventilators because the hospitals ran out. CBS reported that doctors in Italy are using scuba masks for ventilators. “Doctors at Maggiore Hospital in Parma are using a 3D printer to modify masks so they can connect to oxygen” (Livesay). The doctor they interviewed even warned us to hurry up with preparations but almost a month after this report came out, we as a country are also struggling to cope with this virus. At the end of April, the CDC reported at “957,875 cases, 53,922 deaths.” The United States is almost at one million cases. What is this country doing to fight this virus?
For each and every state in this country, the states ultimately decide what to do within their state. The states of Illinois and New York have been taking this seriously. New York is finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with the outbreak getting better. Governor Andrew Cuomo is still concerned about the second wave of the virus. In Illinois, most of the population lies within the Chicago area. Chicago is at more risk of the virus by having most of the population, but that does not mean the southern or middle part of Illinois will not get as affected. Randolph County had 120 cases as of April 27th. St. Clair County, which is a little north of Randolph, had 354 cases as of April 27th. No one is out of the blue yet. JB Pritzker is working hard as Illinois governor to try to make the stay-at-home order to be extended to May 31st. Some southern counties do not agree with this and went to court to block the decision. JB Pritzker is appealing that rule. It is important to stay home another month when our cases have not even started dropping.
Both of my parents still have to work in this pandemic. My dad is listed essential as head of delivery at Construction Supply. He says every day he is busy at his work, which is crazy because during this pandemic, people would think that there would be less business. He does not like to complain a whole lot, but I am sure he wishes his work would get shut down during this virus because he hates his job. My mom is a teacher at the Chester Mental Health Hospital. I am not sure how the whole process works, but I do not think she is allowed to see her patients. My mom was not happy about the fact that she still had to work because she is not an essential worker and she cannot even see her students. My sisters and I stay home with the exception of shopping for our family. Every week my older sister goes and picks up a delivery for groceries, and I do shopping in town for my grandparents. My entire family is at a bigger risk of the coronavirus due to my parents still working, but I will still continue to go out and help my grandparents with anything they ask me to do.
I think what bothers me the most is people are not taking this seriously. The other day while shopping for my grandparents, I witnessed more than 10 people without masks on. Some people did not even follow the social distancing rule. People do not understand that social distancing and respecting the rules is ultimately going to cause a second wave of the virus to come soon. Social distancing is the “‘physical distancing,’ means keeping space between yourself and other people outside your home.” If I could ask a person who is not taking this seriously, I would ask them, “why?” Is it really necessary to put someone’s life at risk?
As a senior, I am sad that I will not get to experience my last year of high school to its full potential. Social distancing and staying home will help save people’s lives and that is the bigger picture here. If I cannot have my graduation or prom, I will just do a little get-together with my family and when this is all over, I will do it with my friends. It may not be the same, but there is a bunch of entertainment stuff that can allow a “quarantined graduation.” In the popular game Minecraft, people can have all their friends join a server and that could be one’s graduation since people can build whatever they want on there. People are even saying they will do prom and graduation on computer games like Club Penguin and Roblox. There are a ton of facetiming applications as well. On social media sites like Instagram, Snapchat, and even Facebook, people can facetime. Facetiming is a way to see one’s friends without having to actually physically see them and not break the quarantine rules. These are some creative things to do with one’s friends during quarantine. Technology has really been a life saver for so many people during this pandemic. Schools have switched to e-learning and technology just gives people something to do. Staying home can save a life.
The future of this pandemic is uncertain. After all this is over, the people of America will never be the same. No one could have ever imagined something like this happening. In the future, I hope the government learns from this and is prepared for the next time this happens. As a country, America was not prepared at all. We spent almost no money even prepping for something like this to happen. The government should not only focus spending money on the military, but also spend money on a war against a virus. Even people’s attitudes towards going out in public will be different. When the state of Illinois starts to open things back up slowly, it will be scary to even go out. The coronavirus will still be out there. Scientists say a vaccine will be ready in a year or a little more. There has also been a recent report on Oxford University having a vaccine ready by September. “In the global race to find a vaccine, Oxford University just jumped way ahead of the pack. Human testing is already underway, and scientists are hopeful a coronavirus vaccine will be widely available by September” (D’Agata). If this vaccine works, then America and the rest of the world can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. This vaccine is said to take the virus’s genetic material and injects the common cold virus that has been neutralized so it cannot spread in people. The modified virus will mimic COVID-19, triggering the immune system to fight off the imposter and provide protection against the real thing” (D’Agata). Even after a vaccine is made, people will still be cautious. People should still be cautious of any virus or any sickness like the flu.
COVID-19 started its path of destruction in November of 2019. It started in China and has made its way to the United States, affecting over a million people. Making sure we follow the guidelines of the CDC and what the governor tells us, we can save people. This pandemic will be over soon if people stay at home and social distance. States will open soon, but then they will close back up. Staying safe until the vaccine comes out is vital for our health care workers and, in general, everyone who can be severely affected by this.

Works Cited
“Cases in U.S.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 26 Apr. 2020, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/cases-in-us.html

D’Agata, Charlie. “Oxford Scientists Say a Vaccine May Be Widely Available by September.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 29 Apr. 2020, www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-vaccine-oxford-university-scientists-september/

Fox, Maggie. “Covid-19 Causes Sudden Strokes in Young Adults, Doctors Say.” CNN, Cable News Network, 23 Apr. 2020, www.cnn.com/2020/04/22/health/strokes-coronavirus-young-adults/index.html.

Hennrich, Danielle. Personal Interview. 21 March 2020.

Livesay, Chris. “Italian Hospital Is Turning Scuba Masks into Ventilators as Supplies Run Low.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 29 Mar. 2020, www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-italy-maggiore-hospital-parma-modifying-scuba-masks-into-ventilators-2020-03-29/.

“Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19).” San Mateo County Health, 27 Apr. 2016, www.smchealth.org/coronavirus.

“Social Distancing, Quarantine, and Isolation.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4 Apr. 2020, www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/social-distancing.html.