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Wearing Masks is a requirement, not an option

by Sanjida A.
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The coronavirus is representing itself as a deadly virus across the world but it is absolutely not indeed as a mask can avert it. Yet, it is an alarming virus undeniably as we are not able to be vaccinated against it. Unfortunately, this little sneaky virus can snatch the lives of millions of people across the world as we are guiding it into our body by not wearing masks properly. In this respect, our freedom needs to be reduced to remote our lives to normal as well as save lives. In the cases of saving lives, implementing laws are necessary despite how people might feel about losing freedom. Strict legislation on wearing masks should be imposed to save our planet from being a funeral home, based on the current death rate.

 

The coronavirus has transformed our world into a strange planet, but survival in this strange planet can be possible only by wearing masks while coming in contact with others. In the current world, we are experiencing our daily life in a new scheme as everything has come to a still stand suddenly. However, people still need to go out for groceries, cops need to go out to keep the world in order, and health care providers need to go out to save lives. Every time these people are going outside, they are exposing themselves to the coronavirus. They are making themselves vulnerable to the virus each time they are exposed outside. On this point, covering one’s mouth with a mask can save these people’s lives as masks would block the entrance route for the sneaky virus. In a word, going outside is important for people but going out is life-threatening for them as they will be exposed to the virus. Therefore, wearing a mask is really necessary before going out.

 

However, wearing a mask can prevent coronavirus carrier droplets landing on one’s mouth which can contribute to the decrease of the death rate. As we know, coronavirus is spreading through the respiratory droplets from an infected person. According to the research of CDC, the droplets from coughs can go up to 16 feet and those from sneezes can go up to 26 feet. As a consequence, even if people just maintain social distancing or follow 6 feet distance legislation, they cannot prevent the virus. In the same situation, wearing a mask can provide better protection as it will work as a shield against the droplets. It will not allow the droplets to come in contact with the healthy person, thus saving the person from getting infected. Subsequently, the spread of the virus will slow down and the hospitals will not be overwhelmed with patients, giving them enough time to provide patients with proper treatment. Consequently, the death rate will go down gradually. In a nutshell, wearing a mask can save people’s lives as well as prevent people from the infection effectively. 

 

As there is no strict legislation about wearing masks, people are still not taking the matter of wearing masks seriously, which is triggering the infection and death rates. This is enabling coronavirus to take over our world easily instead of fighting it out. As of now, we all know that the most effective weapon against coronavirus is nothing but a mask. Yet as the public are not abiding, the administration needs to take the responsibility to change the scenario. In this respect, strong legislation on wearing masks needs to be implemented which may include detention in case of violating laws. This could be our vaccine to prevent the coronavirus until the real vaccine is invented.

 

For the time being, we can keep ourselves “vaccinated” by wearing masks even if the vaccine is not invented yet. To save our planet from further unfortunate deaths, the law of wearing masks should be enacted world wide. Wearing a mask should not be an option anymore; rather it should be a requirement for the public when they go outdoors.

Quarantine times

by Ridi S.
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Aren’t you bored of lying in your comfy bed, gluing your eyes to your phone right after eating, having no motivation or whatsoever the whole day like a pig? - no disrespect to the pig though! The year 2020 is being a hell of a ride of disasters after disasters and it seems to continue its deeds. Who is being affected though? Obviously, us human beings, “the superior creature.” However, now we have the audacity to rant about how our life is turning into hell. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we are in quarantine, socially distancing from every other human to slow the spread of a virus. People are not happy with their life. Suddenly, the toxicity in social media has reached its peak and is all about racism, deaths, body shaming, bullying, political debates, etc. In the real world there seem to be problems of deporting, unemployment, protests calling for the cancellation of rent, giving food and reopening the states due to business downfall, etc. Besides all these problems, we are stuck in quarantine feeling like prisoners and it's hard to be unaffected by all this negativity. Despite this, is it important to realize that we might never have another quarantine again, so just like shooting two stars with one arrow, we should view quarantine as an opportunity of golden time to invest in ourselves. 


 

There are various reasons why quarantine is an extra lifeline in our current situation. The first reason is quarantine gives freedom from our monotonous daily life schedule. Remember getting up at 5 am in the morning, waking up the kids, preparing their breakfast and your own, then helping them dress up, getting yourself dressed up as a mother (or if you were a teen like me waking up early, shower no time for breakfast, getting the train for school and oops you forgot your MetroCard)? that was a chaos. However, things are different now. Everything is online. With work from home, there is no need to get dressed up. You can just do things wherever you feel comfortable. Dr.Neal Malik says, "The reason why we associate monotonous with negativity is because of the world we live in. Basically  in our world, people need to be constantly stimulated and distracted. Our lives need to be in constant movement to feel real and interesting! A life without excitement is not a life worth living. Before it was hard for us to have more control in our daily activities but now we have more time and more control in our daily activities.”


 

We know our greatest power is health, i.e mental, physical and social health. Quarantine offers us time and space to engage with and maintain our mental as well as physical health. While health always remains the first priority quarantine also gives freedom on how we plan to cope and when. We are facing a global pandemic right now. Everyone is facing their situation differently and this pandemic has a negative impact on each individual differently which is very understandable despite letting all of these problems drag us down. We can cope with it in many ways e.g. trying meditations, writing journals, i.e. Reflecting on our experiences, emotions however we feel. Watching documentaries, reading books, digging into histories, feeding your curiosities and taking inspiration during this time keeps your mind busy and engaged.



 

A.N Wilson says,”Brainpower improves by brain use, just as our bodily strength grows with exercise.”  Similarly, quarantine is leisure time for all the people in the world and we can use it for creativity and more productivity. Leisure doesn’t improve the quality of life unless one knows how to use it effectively”.There is no pressure on anyone to be creative because creativity is not a mantra and whenever chanted doesn’t work. While our brain is engaged, creativity and productivity are automatically generated. For instance, in quarantine, you were bored and wanted to do some art but in your school art was never broad and always specific, Now you’ve got a new idea and have discovered how invested in art you can be and how amazing your work can come out. According to Wallman,” any pleasurable activity that truly challenges us has the potential to lead to the elusive flow-state that so many people are after.”In conclusion, this is the perfect time to get off that boring work and invest time in something you have always wanted but were never able to do.



 

The future is unpredictable but visions aren’t. Quarantine can be a good time to visualize and plan our paths. I believe things don’t turn out however we wish, but we can pack information in our brains for our future use and learning is never unnecessary, especially for teens like me who can look out for summer opportunities, learn about colleges, and use various websites and applications that provide free extra education. Additionally, we can socially connect and communicate with our dear relatives and old friends and have good bonding with them. We can also spend quality time with our own family and have a good talk about the past future. We are naturally social so at this time we can support our family, friends help them to get through this.

Paying rent in times of Covid-19

by Nabija H.
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            The house rent bill should be canceled during this pandemic. During this pandemic, a lot of people lost their job and their favorite people. It’s a very hard time for everyone. People are suffering to pay house rent bills, house mortgage, grocery bills, car insurance, and more. This will be very good for everyone if the house rent bill & mortgage get canceled. It helps people to be a little more stress-free and also helps with a financial problem.

           There some people do not agree about it. They think everyone should pay their rent bill as always. Also if rent bills and mortgage bills are canceled there will more financial problems in government.

           I disagree with this because, since it’s a very hard time for everyone and people lost their job, it would be very good if the house rent and mortgage get canceled for at least during this critical situation of the pandemic.

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Now you are in a house, with depression, feeling alone. You can’t go outside because of the virus. What do you do in this situation? In this editorial, I will tell about my experience and my point of view in this quarantine, my fears, and the things that I experienced, and I am still experiencing.


 

How I react to this situation and how things are around me have changed.

In the beginning, I was so pacific and I believed that this would end in weeks or months because come on, we are in the United States, and in this country, everything passes fast. I was so wrong because I have now spent 3 months in this house. I can’t go outside and be with my friends or other people. I can’t even be so close to my family because we expose ourselves to the virus or being infected just to have contact with them. However, being in the house has increased my sadness in different ways.
 

Types of Sadness

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Social isolation began with me crying every night before going to sleep (also sometimes I had insomnia). There is scientific evidence that depressed patients suffer from insomnia, which affects their recovery. I can’t say that I have depression because I have not been diagnosed and it would be a lack of respect for those who have it. I may have the symptoms but if I have not been diagnosed with depression, so I am not a person with depression. Then, I started to have problems living with my mom, my sister, and even with myself. Each day we had fights. We fought for inconsistent things and I was always the bad one. However, I always tried to help, doing my best and they didn’t care about that, I even tried to talk with them about this situation but they never listened to me because as I said, I was the bad one and that made me feel like a hateful person and start my low self-esteem again.

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The school and exterior things

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In online school, I had a lot of pressure with the technology and new apps, and I mean whoever could identify with this, being in front of your computer seeing the circle going around with the word "loading" freaking you out. Then you try to participate but there are many people on the call who have a lot of noise in their house. I understand them but is there a jungle in their house? Is there no other place or can't they turn off their microphone?. At this time I also realized who are those true friends, those friends who are in good times and bad, but I realized, I realized that I don’t have friends. They were a screen because they asked me for homework to let them copy. If one friend does that, my granny calls them 'interested' because they don't care about you, just what you give. These kinds of things made me realize the words of my daddy: “There are no good friends in bad, only in good”. 
 

Why has social isolation affected me like this? Why I can just ignore them and that’s it?

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The reasons why are because everything that happens to me is valuable. Those are things that I will remember all my life when I grow up. I can’t just ignore it because all of that hurt me and made me feel bad. They make me want to throw in the towel and run far away from this world. I know that a lot of people feel the same. YOU’RE NOT ALONE. You’re strong. Now I have realized that talking with people is the better choice that you have. I talk with my parents and that has helped me a lot. My father, even though he is away, is the best at giving advice and my mom too. Also, I talk with people who are experts in stress, anxiety, and depression. They have helped me a lot since they know how to handle this type of thing and give better advice than a normal person can give you. Also maybe there is always a person who will be there helping you in addition to your parents., It may be your boyfriend/girlfriend, a friend or someone in your family with whom you can vent and get it out of your head that the strong do not cry.  The opposite is true:  sometimes crying sets you free.



 

(https://nycwell.cityofnewyork.us/en/) This is the link where you can talk to a person specialized in what you feel and you can even do it anonymously.

My experience with sadness in quarantine

by Michi S.

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Racism and Covid affecting our communities

by Kevin M.
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Has it ever made you think that it would be America without racism?Racism has existed throughout human history. Racism is like the hatred of one person by another, because of skin color, language, customs, place of birth or another factor. 

 

One example of racism is that Donald Trump issued an executive order denying entry to immigrants and travelers from various Muslim countries. The judges determined, in a first instance, that the order had signs of racial and religious discrimination and, as evidence,  presented speeches and tweets from Trump himself. According to the New York Times, Trump said in a meeting, referring to the pressure of migrants seeking refuge, that all Haitians have AIDS and that Nigerian migrants should return to their huts. The White House denied that those terms were used (December 2017). 

 

Either way, racism is illegal. In my opinion, it is important to reduce racism because it prevents the victim from reaching his full potential as a human being, and it can bring bad actions such as fighting, revenge, and even lead to death on some occasions.  In this world we should all be seen the same no matter if we have something different from the others. Everyone should be treated the same no matter what. We are all the same.

 

One of the worst cases of racism that we are experiencing in our communities is about Covid-19, and this is affecting many people. As everyone knows, the outbreak began in  an outdoor market in the south of the country of China in the city of Wuhan, which is increasing racism with Asians around the world. 

 

Governments should take urgent measures to prevent racist and xenophobic violence and discrimination linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, prosecuting racial attacks against Asian and Asian descent people, Human Rights Watch said. Incidents against Asian people have continued in the US since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic: in February and March, numerous sources reported attacks and discrimination related to the coronavirus. In late April, a coalition of Asian-American groups that had created a whistleblowing center called STOP AAPI HATE said they had received nearly 1,500 reports of incidents of racism, hate speech, discrimination, and physical attacks on Asian and Asian Americans. 

 

I believe that people should not show acts of discrimination towards other people due to illness. Nobody is to blame for anything. During this public health emergency it is especially important to prevent and stop discrimination. We should not blame people because of their place of origin or because of their race, ethnic or religious identity, and that does not make you safe. In these difficult times we all must work together to end this pandemic.

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