For the last six months, the United States has been under quarantine due to the coronavirus pandemic. Day after day, we see the number of cases and deaths go up here in America at an alarming rate. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website (CDC), a government website keeping track of the statistics of COVID-19, the U.S. had over six million total cases, and over 187,000 deaths.

Our country is supposed to lead by example for other nations, but what kind of example is America setting by allowing so many people to get infected and die of this virus? All we have to do is practice social distancing guidelines which, while annoying, isn’t a hard task for people to do, yet most people in this country refuse to follow those guidelines and make things worse.

While the recovery rate is great, with over 17 million people recovering so far, according to the CDC, the United States is still under lockdown, and it’s looking like it’ll affect American River College in the foreseeable future, as it looks like there’s a possibility we’ll continue to take our classes online in the spring 2021 semester.

Although the pandemic is still ravaging our country, it sometimes feels like we’re not even under quarantine at all. People across the country are still going to public events that shouldn’t be happening in the first place. It’s even worse when I hear someone I know telling me they’re hosting or going to a large gathering with multiple people, and then hearing later that no one practiced social distancing or even bothered to wear a mask.

It’s frustrating to go to a store, even if that store says to wear a mask before entering, and still see someone walking around not wearing one. Then it’s usually those same people who are arguing and refusing to wear a mask in a public place like a store when they’re told to wear one before entering.

To make matters worse, the leadership in our once great country hasn’t done the best job in dealing with this pandemic with President Donald Trump disregarding any and all information he gets from Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Trump is even going as far as stopping any funding for the WHO in the middle of this pandemic, which only makes things worse for our country in these trying times.

Furthermore, Trump keeps referring to this disease as the “China Virus” whenever he talks about it—this only raises tensions between people in this country with people of Asian descent being harassed because of names like that.

Compared to other countries, America’s statistics for deaths and cases from COVID-19, it’s clear we’re doing a terrible job and I feel there is so much blame to go around for that.

I believe we have a president who doesn’t care and isn’t doing everything he can to help our country during this pandemic, and we have people who refuse to follow social distancing guidelines, which leads to spikes in cases and deaths.

The fall 2020 semester at ARC just started, and within the first week of school, one of my professors said that the school is already considering classes to all be online in the spring semester like it is now. So we’ll be sitting at home sitting in class through Zoom, more likely than not we won’t have sporting events on campus, and the struggle for some students and professors when taking an online class will continue, all because our country doesn’t know what to do during a pandemic.

Wearing masks everywhere you go is annoying, I agree with that. For me personally, it’s hard to breathe in them because of my asthma, and if I wear it for too long I start struggling to catch my breath. While I may not like it, I still wear my mask everywhere I go because I want to stop the spread of this horrible virus.

I wear my mask everywhere I go in hopes that someday, this pandemic does end and we can go back to seeing friends again at a public place, have family reunions again with people we love but haven’t seen in so long.

I even miss going to ARC’s campus everyday because things were so much more simple and safe then.

I could just ignore the social distancing guidelines of course like other people are doing, and still attempt to go to public places with friends or host large gatherings at my house. However, by doing that I would be putting myself and everyone I love at risk to possibly catch the coronavirus, and just adding to the number of confirmed cases and possible deaths.

Wear a mask, practice social distancing, think about others before thinking about what you want to do. Otherwise, this pandemic will last even longer, and we’ll all be forced to stay home as we watch life go by and not have the freedom we used to have.