As we see COVID-19 cases on the rise in the U.S. again, it would be discouraging to ignore progress. We have learned more about COVID-19 thanks to scientific research. Over the past two years, vaccines have become available to the public, and we have developed take-home COVID-19 tests that assist in making testing more efficient. Our society and its view of the virus greatly differs from two years ago; it’s almost as if the pandemic is over, but it is definitely not.

Perhaps we are reaching a point in the pandemic where many of us are beginning to realize the virus is simply going to become a part of our everyday life, such as the flu or the common cold. This mindset is not an excuse to let our guard down just yet.

In Onondaga County alone, 9.3% of the 1,916 PCR tests reported on April 30 came back positive for COVID-19. At Syracuse University, there are 64 active COVID-19 cases among students, faculty and staff as of Monday. For context, active cases on campus were nearly triple this number on April 15, which reached 185 active cases.

With these numbers, it would be easy to assume the pandemic is nearing its end. Many will look at the numbers and see improvement, which is a fair assumption to make. But we also need to consider past patterns and how the numbers have been shown to increase after what seems like a steady downward trajectory.

With new variants of the virus constantly mutating and spreading, it is simply not wise to go around acting as if everything is guaranteed to go immediately back to how it was pre-pandemic. We do not know what these variants can bring.

This lack of knowledge on this virus poses issues, especially for immunocompromised people, or those whose immune systems are not as equipped to deal with outside attacks as others. With the virus’s ability to constantly adapt, we need to utilize as much caution as possible in order to keep ourselves and those around us safe.

The combination of the spread of new variants and the aloof attitude toward the pandemic is making room for the numbers to spike back up. This could lead to a situation no one would want to live through again, such as a spike in cases that would lead to a lack of the necessary medical supplies required to cure all of those affected.

On April 18, SU announced the campus would move up a masking level from the previous “YELLOW” to “BLUE.” This switch increased masking requirements in various locations on campus, including classrooms and libraries.

Many SU students expressed their disappointment at the change on the anonymous social media platform known as Yik Yak. This outrage could have been avoided if people took the pandemic more seriously in the first place, instead of taking the “YELLOW” masking level as the sign to forgo all precautions.

I completely understand the desire for life to go back to how it was pre-pandemic, but we cannot leap before we think. By continuously ignoring safety guidelines and suggested precautionary measures, we are allowing for the pandemic to go on longer than necessary. Despite how tired you may be of COVID-19 safety precautions, make sure you do your part to help limit the spread of COVID-19. By doing so, we can ensure that future opportunities on campus can be held safely and will not have to continuously be delayed or altered. None of us want our college experience to have to change more than it already has, so now is the time for us to make sure we do not allow COVID-19 cases to spike back up. The pandemic is not over yet, and we should not act as if it is.

Grace “Gray” Reed is a freshman magazine, news and digital journalism major. Their column appears bi-weekly. They can be reached at greed04@syr.edu.

Published on May 2, 2022 at 8:56 pm