When do science teachers think COVID will end?

Everyone knows what the Coronavirus is, but here is a quick rundown:a respiratory virus that quickly turned into a worldwide pandemic. This virus impacts people of old age and people with underlying health conditions the hardest. This virus caused many states in The United States, and many other countries, to go into a lockdown. Although we are not in a lockdown anymore, life still feels insanely different from normal. The question is: Will we ever get to see “normal” again?

 First and foremost, did people with science backgrounds such as our science teachers expect this to happen? Vosk, a science teacher at Milford High School, said, “When the virus first came out it was hard to know what to expect. Each virus has its own characteristics. Corona viruses are a large family of viruses, so it is difficult to predict if it would end up like the corona virus that caused SARS in the early 2000s or MERS after that or if it was your run of the mill virus. After more information came out what occurred was a lot more foreseeable.” 

COVID 19 is a part of such a large family of coronaviruses; therefore it is hard to know what to expect, which puts into play the question of herd immunity vs a vaccine? Will a vaccine be essential? Maya Kempff, another science teacher at Milford, believes both will be important, “Yes and no; people need to develop herd immunity like Sweden. But, there does need to be a vaccine for the vulnerable.” 

Whether a vaccine is the answer or not, vaccines take a long time to create and with how new this virus is there is not a lot of answers as to when one will be finished. As of right now, only 5 vaccines are approved for limited/ early use. None are yet approved for full use but scientists are hoping that one will be ready by next year. But, since it is not in the near future what will life look like until then? Will school look like this for the rest of the year? Ms. Kempff gave a plain and simple response of, “I hope not,” whereas Vosk said, “I wouldn’t think school will return to normal, but it is possible.”

So overall, what could we be doing as people to end this pandemic and have sanity back as soon as possible: “Follow the rules and be considerate” said Kempff. While Vosk also said, “maybe as a people follow safety precautions. Epidemiologists and virologists are far more educated on this topic than the lay person on the street” said Vosk. Everyone needs to follow the precautions: wash hands and keep clean to help drop the rate of positive test results, so hopefully we can get more normalcy.