As omicron cases begin to decline nationwide, many of us feel, if tentatively, optimistic.
“Things are looking good,” Anthony Fauci said on ABC Jan. 23. “We don’t want to get overconfident, but they look like they’re going in the right direction right now.”
A best-case scenario is that COVID-19 becomes endemic. Omicron’s recent surge has left many of us with hybrid immunity — elevated levels of antibodies supplied by both vaccination and prior COVID infection — which makes it more difficult for the virus to ravage our communities. Endemicity would mean that, while not eradicated entirely, the virus would become a more manageable part of life, similar to the flu.
This, of course, is not the only possible scenario. We could also end up with a new variant that is more likely to evade existing immunity.
For some, this uncertainty is too much to contend with while pursuing a degree. On top of making adjustments to daily life to deal with immediate ramifications of the virus — upgrading masks, being vigilant about hand washing and sanitizing, among other things — some students are also aware of the possibility of a potential return to online instruction.
Ian Rodriguez was a first-year student in his second semester at the University of Minnesota when classes shifted online. The transition was difficult, and his grades dropped. He failed a class.
“I had never failed basically any class before, in or out of college,” Rodriguez said. Online instruction, he said, was much more difficult for him than in-person instruction.
Rodriguez held out for another three semesters, some of which with a reduced credit load. He decided over winter break to take a leave of absence for spring 2022, citing COVID uncertainty.
“On one hand I’d love to have in person classes,” Rodriguez said. “On the other hand, I don’t know if I trust the general human population right now.”
Rodriguez’s comment comes at a time when, despite widespread free vaccine availability, less than two-thirds of Americans are fully vaccinated. Vaccines and masks continue to be points of contention, despite being some of the most effective methods to prevent infection according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Something that the University should have considered in order to reduce students’ COVID anxieties, Rodriguez said, was making remote options available. In fall 2021, several of his courses had given students the option to attend online. Many of these options, he said, have since been phased out.
“At the very minimum, I think the U of M should have provided a way more robust set of online options,” Rodriguez said. “Because there are people where it’s not their own health they’re putting at risk by coming to campus. It’s family members; it’s grandparents and kids.”
At the end of the day, there wasn’t really a plausible scenario in which Rodriguez said he would have been comfortable returning to campus, given the pandemic’s effect on his mental health. Worrying about COVID, he said, is exhausting.
“It feels like 20% of my brain power is devoted to the plague,” he said.
