Written by Devon Mitchell
In case you didn’t hear, Virginia has moved into phase 1c of their vaccination program. This means employees of higher education can get their vaccine, including students employed by the school. Additionally, Roanoke just announced they would be offering vaccinations to students next week! Roanoke students are receiving multiple opportunities to get vaccinated, but that’s not necessarily the case in other states.
In my home state of New Hampshire, Governor Chris Sununu announced that out-of-state students are not eligible to receive the vaccine. This presents a flaw in New Hampshire’s public health system. It shouldn’t matter where someone is from, but where they are. Just because a student is from California, does not mean they are any less susceptible to COVID-19 while being in NH. Sununu’s declaration implies that the health and wellbeing of out-of-state students are lesser than that of in-state students. In general, it gives the impression that NH residents are more important than other states residents. Is this not a global pandemic?
This raises questions about the selfishness of the human race. Not to get all philosophical on you, but this is all so, “us before them”, a mindset that has been detrimental to too many Americans. One would think that during a global pandemic, the human race would band together to fight for one another, but in many cases, we’ve seen the opposite happen. People still continue to fight to wear a mask, others refuse to get the vaccine, and on the global stage, Biden “shared” the AstraZeneca vaccine with Mexico and Canada, despite the CDC not approving it.
I guess what I’m getting at is, if we can’t even share the wealth domestically, how are we expected to do so internationally? It’s sickening to hear these kinds of attitudes coming from my own home, and as an International Relations student, I worry about cooperation on a larger scale.
Despite these worries, I know Maroons are working hard to stay safe against Coronavirus and have been doing an excellent job. Keep up the good work Maroons!
