The Omicron variant emerged just as schools shut down for two weeks of winter break. Now classes are back in session and students are surprisingly indifferent regarding the new strain of Covid-19.
Finch Garcia is a junior at Leesville Road High School. At home, they share a house with their family including their immunocompromised grandfather. Due to their living arrangement, Garcia spent the last two years cautious in an attempt to avoid Covid. Meaning when the new variant made an appearance, they were already fully vaccinated and wearing a mask.
Since they have already been cautious regarding Covid, when the omicron variant emerged, there was not much for them to change to protect themselves.“I am not more worried about getting that than any other types of Covid,” said Garcia.
Other students show similar reactions to the new strain of Covid taking over. Despite Omicron being significantly more transmissible than the Delta strain, many students are confident that since they managed to avoid Covid in the past, they can continue to avoid it now.
“I was able to survive not getting covid for the last two years so I think I’ll be fine but I’m still a little bit anxious about it all,” Julia Thorne, a student at LRHS, said.
This attitude towards the new variant continues over to schools like Leesville. Many schools are attempting to stay open for as long as possible amid increasingly large numbers of quarantining teachers. Wake County is one of the districts attempting to stay fully open. They turned to strategies like new optional weekly testing to slow the spread among their students.
As the Covid-19 pandemic slogs on into 2022, the now vaccinated and masked population is ready to continue into regular life.
Hi! My name is Lauren! I’m President of the LRHS book club. Outside of school I’m a curler for Team Taylor and I like to rollerblade.