Written by Sifan, 2022 Cohort
Next week, on January 24, our school will resume full-offline classes. It would be nice to get everything back to normal, but most of the students around me have expressed concern about this. This is not unwarranted, as too many news reports express that this is not a good time to resume offline work/classes.
We can’t deny the fact that there are many benefits to resuming offline. But does the fun this offline course/work brings really matter more than life? Let’s take BC as an example.
From the chart above, we can see that around September last year, when the full lockdown was in effect, the number of new people suffering from COVID-19 in BC was averaging only a few hundred per day, and the number of deaths was around six per day. But now, during this period when the full resumption of offline work/courses has been announced, the average number of new cases in BC is 3,000 per day, and the average number of deaths is around 11 per day. The situation is a lot worse now.
Some of the dominant voices in support of resuming offline work/classes now say that the Omicron, which is now prevalent, is highly transmissible but minimally harmful. And most people, especially in BC, have high vaccination rates, so people are just coughing or sniffling for a few days and then recovering. The consequences of getting COVID-19 have not been conclusive. A lot of people are still ending ups in ICU and hospitals are still overwhelmed with the sick.
A Bloomberg article, “Coronavirus Can Persist for Months After Traversing Entire Body,” reveals a terrifying truth. For many people who got the coronavirus, even after they have been dead for more than 250 days, the virus is still alive. And these viruses are not only surviving in the lungs but many are even found in the brain. We can’t imagine what sequelae those viruses that lurk in our body can bring, especially to our brain.
Moreover, we all know that the Delta is the most harmful species of all the coronaviruses, and the Omicron virus is the most transmissible. A recent Bloomberg report suggests that a viral variant combining these two viruses, Deltacron, is emerging. We can’t imagine what would happen if the most dangerous and widely spread viruses merged.
Although many experts are saying that the coronavirus can completely end this year, it is certainly NOT NOW. I hope everyone will be alert and protect themselves carefully.