Page 23 - COVID Consortium Journal - An Edited Collection of Student Art and Writing

group of people are the ones who other.
took the lockdown seriously auto-
matically. These are the people who The government failed us, but
only left their house when absolutely there are citizens right now who are
necessary. However, after a couple of failing us even more. There are literal
months of listening and staying com- protests going on with people trying
pletely inside for months, they have to protest having to stay at home.
become exhausted as their efforts People are gathering in huge groups
are being canceled out by the second to protest wearing masks: the one
group of people. The second group of thing that can easily help get rid of
individuals are the ones who did not the virus. It genuinely hurts me to
listen when the lockdown was placed. see that my generation is the only one
They went outside to do whatever that seems to be taking this seriously.
they wanted whether it was or wasn’t When looking at the protest pictures
necessary. They visited friends and it can clearly be seen that there aren’t
just went outside, but after a couple teenagers protesting. We should be
of weeks they took the lockdown living our teen years to the fullest but
seriously and actually began staying we can’t, and although it sucks it isn’t
inside. However, with them not stay- the biggest problem. It’s the smallest
ing inside from the beginning, it cre- problem, there are people who are
ated a cycle because once they started stuck in hospitals unable to see their
taking it seriously the first group of family. Dead bodies are placed in
people became tired of staying inside mobile freezers outside of hospitals
too long. I am a part of the first group because the morgues are filled. I’ve
of people, and I am exhausted that my even heard that families can even
efforts were for nothing. receive the ashes of their loved one
in the case of the virus being able
This quarantine was not sup- to spread. Families can’t even have
posed to be this long, it could have funerals for their loved ones. People
been easily shortened if this was are mourning loved ones who passed
actually taken seriously. I truly be- from the disease, and there are still
lieve that if the United States was put people standing outside with no mask
on the same lockdown as Italy, our on, treating this whole situation as a
numbers wouldn’t have skyrocketed joke.
so quickly. New York City should have
been the government’s biggest pri- It’s been almost 60 days since
ority considering the fact that there quarantine started but it honestly just
are millions of people who live here feels like a long week. The days blur
and in very close proximity with each together with nothing monumental

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