Written By: Kaylee Zhou

Covid-19 is a term that will forever be well known. This epidemic started in Wuhan, China, which just so happens to be where my relatives reside. Sitting on the couch in the living room during my winter break, back in December, was the first time I became aware of this disease. It was yet to be named Covid-19 back then, and I was unaware of how dangerous it is.

The next time I heard of this mysterious disease was during my intersession class. I was in an epidemiology course when the instructor said, “I put an interesting article in our shared Google drive, that I believe you will find intriguing. There seems to be a pneumonia-like disease that has broken out in China.” When I went back home that weekend, my parents told me the city of Wuhan had been placed under quarantine. I was shocked, curious, and worried all at the same time since I had never heard of this happening before. On the drive back to IMSA, I had a lot of questions about what their new normal was. I remember asking how they were able to get their food and necessities. I was informed that there were designated people that delivered food and products to people’s doors to try to prevent the spread of Covid-19. 

After Wuhan was able to slow the spread a bit, I believed that everything was going to be alright. A few days later, I was doing homework in the IRC when I got the notification from Apple News that the US had gotten their first case of the Coronavirus. Upon reading the article, I found out that the case was in Seattle, Washington, which just so happens to be where my sister resides and works. Again, I became very anxious and worried, but I felt a familiar feeling of deja vu. It was the same feeling as when I found out about Wuhan. I soon realized that it was because this disease was making its way around the world, and potentially might be in Illinois soon.

Unfortunately, I was right. A few days after learning about Seattle, I got another notification informing me that there was a case in Illinois. I felt pretty helpless at this point because there was nothing I could do. Now fast-forward to a few months later. It is now May, and Illinois has over a total of 112,000 confirmed cases. I have witnessed other places get hit by this virus, and now it’s taken a toll on Illinois. After seeing other places get hit by this virus, I hope we can control it and clear it out soon.