Posted By Gettysburgian Staff on Mar 15, 2020 | 2 comments

Joshua Gonzalez (Submitted photo)

By Joshua Gonzalez, Guest Columnist

It seems hard to believe that the world as we know it feels so much different than it was before spring break began. There were rumblings of a disease emerging in China that did not seem to be too large of a threat to the United States or Europe. All of the sudden, I read headlines from major world news organizations that the Italian government is sealing its borders. France is beginning to ban large gatherings of people. Many of the leaders in my political party in Spain, Vox, have been infected after convening a large rally in Madrid more than two weeks ago. Before I had any time to catch my breath after hastily calling family and friends in Spain who are stuck quarantined in their houses, President Trump went on national news to tell us about his administration’s effort (or lack thereof, depending on who you ask) to seal and treat the coronavirus at the national level. Beyond the national news describing a Western world shut down for business, a chill ran down my spine about what this could mean for me.

I was born with a medical condition called severe combined immunodeficiency syndrome, or SCIDS for short. Without getting too much into the weeds with medical jargon, it essentially means that I was born without the ability to produce my own immune system. Without receiving medical treatment as soon as one is born, most patients die of the illness by their first birthday. Though the medical technology available was advanced enough to give me a running start to life, I am still extremely vulnerable to many diseases that the average person can get over in a few days (the common cold, the flu, etc.) This has led to my body constantly contracting respiratory infections, and now I find myself bedeviled by chronic asthma and bronchitis.

I say this only to emphasize the nature of the severity of the coronavirus to my own life. While at the hospital for a routine check of my pulmonary function, I saw the Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey Sheila Oliver state at a press conference that the most vulnerable populations to the effects of the coronavirus are those who have much weaker immune systems. This includes the elderly, the very young, and those who are immunocompromised like me. This is on top of the fact that I have chronic respiratory problems (the first patient in New Jersey to die of coronavirus was an elderly man who had emphysema and other longstanding respiratory ailments). That being said, I have decided to, with the support of my friends and family, keep myself quarantined from the outside world to protect myself from the potentially deadly effects of this virus.

I was worried as to what that meant for my academic life at Gettysburg. President Iuliano sent an email to campus stating that the College extended break for another week and is considering online instruction as a viable alternative. While this may seem like a major inconvenience to many students, I implore you to think about the state of our campus for just a moment. Is it truly in the interest of public health to return to a campus where students do not feel like they can take a sick day because they will fall behind in their classes? Is it worth it to return to a campus where people routinely do not wash their hands and who live in close quarters with those same people? I watch these things very closely not out of paranoia, but out of a healthy vigilance that I have learned to manage when confronting seemingly benign things like the occasional campus flu.

While we wait for our teachers’ emails about their plans moving forward, remember that there are members of your campus community who rely on you staying healthy so that they may stay healthy. I urge President Iuliano and the bureaucracy of Gettysburg College to take this issue as seriously as possible, to help people like me.

We need to reach the common goal of not only defeating this virus but like those Italians and Spaniards who play music and cheer for the working medical professionals from their balconies, maintaining our strength and unity all along the way.