Coronavirus, and How It Will Affect Us This Winter

Coronavirus has had a multitude of substantial effects on society, causing many humanitarian and economic problems over the last eight months, and according to some experts, things will likely continue to get worse as time goes on.

“All the factors we associate with colder weather… will potentially accelerate the virus’ transmission,” according to Richard Neher, a biologist at the University of Basel in Switzerland

With predictions of the coronavirus’ movements being made all over, some people have been taking steps to help prevent the spread.

One such person is Governor Charlie Baker. He placed a stay at home order on the entire State of Massachusetts, which starts at 10:00 PM every night. The deeper we get into winter, the more we will see how this will affect the total number of positive test cases.

“I think it is irrational and foolish,” said Jake Cote, a GHS junior and Massachusetts resident. “People should be responsible for their own health. There is no need to enforce curfews and lockdowns, it is just an overextension of a politician’s power in government,” said.Cote. Cote, along with many others, are of the opinion that the measures that have taken place have been useless.

But there are other measures being taken aside of curfews and lockdowns. There has also been a better overall following of the mask mandate. According to a survey conducted by Pew Research Center, 65% of Americans say that they regularly wear their masks. Compare this to the excess of people back in May who didn’t wear their masks, and it is clear to see improvement.

While people have been wearing their masks more, it is also clear to see that a lot of people are adhering to social distancing rules less and less. The biggest piece of evidence for this would be that the Massachusetts curfew was set in place because of the excess of Halloween parties.

This can be attributed to a number of different things, with the biggest factor being that people miss human contact. This pandemic has been going on for over eight months now, and the general population is really starting to struggle with how long it is taking for things to get back to normal.

There is, however, one last saving grace for the world, that being the COVID vaccine that is being produced. There have been many significant updates about it in the last few weeks, which will hopefully lead to promising results. More restrictions are being put in place until the vaccine is ready for the general public, however. Only time can tell when that will be.