Too Soon?

The Coronavirus has turned the world upside down, to say the least. Stay-at-home orders began on March 15 and have not let up since. New York and California are leading the charge with some of the most restrictive orders out of the 50 states. Oklahoma Governor, Kevin Stitt, has teased the idea of opening back up the state for non-essential services beginning on May 1st, but no clear answer has been given just yet. With protests growing every day around the United States, everyone's feeling pretty antsy to get back to work. The thing is not everyone feels this way. According to a recent poll by Fox News, 60% of Americans want the stay-at-home- orders to be extended. The University of Oklahoma has been considering keeping classes online all the way up until 2021 to rule out any option of spreading the coronavirus, also known as, COVID-19. Are businesses and schools opening up too soon or are people letting fear dictate their decisions?

It is not just The University of Oklahoma considering closing their doors till 2021: multiple universities are considering the possibility of completely eradicating in-person classes until the new year. Oklahoma Baptist University, among many other universities, has already canceled all of its in-person summer classes, causing students to wonder about the upcoming fall semester. According to CNN, Boston University is one of the forerunners in deciding whether or not to reinstitute in-person classes for the upcoming fall term. Due to COVID-19, nearly every university did not allow their students back on-campus for in-person classes after spring break. Already students were confused, the virus was just beginning to take hold and most students thought it was an overreaction. No student could have predicted being sent to their homes for the remainder of their school year, but it happened. Now, with the looming idea that in-person classes will not resume until 2021, it has students thinking: “What do I do?” The thing is, it is not only colleges canceling events for almost four months in advance. Concerts, shows, and large events are all being canceled. Movie premieres, like “Black Widow”, have been pushed back as far as November while others, like “Emma”, are having at home premiers on various streaming services. It was one thing to cancel events with more than 50 people, but almost all events until the end of the year. When will it end? College students may seem the most upset, but concert-goers may take the cake for the people who are the most frustrated with this pandemic.

Concert goers are stuck in an awkward limbo for most of the events they were planning to go to. One college student who was planning on going to multiple concerts this semester, including Vacation Manor, Surfaces, Mt. Joy, and Mayday Parade, was fuming at the recent choices taken regarding the coronavirus. The student commented saying, “I’m pissed. Honestly, words do not express how devastated I was. Being from Oklahoma, it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for any artist to stop in our ever so forgotten state. Most artists rescheduled their tour dates for other states but unfortunately, residents of Oklahoma received refunds, and we’re told we could catch them in any of the surrounding states. I was not happy. Who needs four tour dates in Texas.” Concerts are an experience to remember for a lifetime, and they certainly do not come cheap. In an article by The New York Times, Tami Combs relayed her frustrations: saying, “I have about $3,000 tied up in these tickets.” The problem is not that she has that much money bound in concert tickets this year. The problem is the site she bought the tickets on will not give her a refund for her money. She goes on to say, “This is my money that they are holding hostage.” Money is already becoming tight for families across the U.S. with all of the layoffs due to the poor economy. The fact that a company will not refund tickets for an event they canceled seems like borderline stealing. Nonetheless, concerts have been canceled that were scheduled for July and it has people thinking: “Are people closing events to soon?”

Rioters believe so. Denver has been a hotspot for riots in the past week with people claiming, “This is a free country.”, according to The Guardian. Even California, which is considered more liberal-minded, has protesters fighting for their right to go back to work. The Guardian also pointed out in a live stream in California, one of the protestors claimed that their governor, “Is a dictator.” With people being fired up about being stuck at home, politicians are seeing the mental state they have placed their people. Michigan has become a hot spot for political activity due to its governor’s stay-at-home executive order. People are going as far as to call for the governor to resign from her position. People are not only frustrated they are upset that the stay-at-home orders are not being lifted but instead are being expanded. When will it stop? Do the statistics even show that there is a reason to continue stay-at-home order? What do the statistics even show?

For the sake of space, these statistics will primarily focus on Oklahoma. According to the CDC, Oklahoma is one of the states with the fewest amount of cases with 101 to 1000 reported cases. After further research from the Oklahoma State Department of Health, it stated that “roughly 80% of [coronacirus] cases are mild.” The site also said that there were 2,894 cases of coronavirus in Oklahoma. So which is it? Are there between 101-1000 cases like the CDC says or are there 2,984 cases like the Oklahoma State Department of Health states. This is part of the problem. The numbers that people are looking to for answers are unclear. The research and definitive numbers politicians need to make a decision as to whether or not to open back up are inconclusive. No wonder so many people are confused: they are being told two different things. Who are the people supposed to trust: the CDC or The Oklahoma State Department of Health? There is no way to say just yet if things are opening too soon because there are no conclusive numbers to help make the decision. No matter how many cases of corona are in Oklahoma, the number of cases compared to the number of people inhabiting the state is less than 3%. Less than 3% of the people in Oklahoma have the virus and 80% of the cases are mild. This makes no sense why quarantine would continue in the Heartland state with numbers so low. According to KFOR News, there were 2, 999 flu cases that were hospitalized last flu season. 2,999. That is more cases than corona and there was no lockdown on the state to stop the spread of the virus. How can states stay closed when compared to numbers that disagree?

States are beginning to scramble as people are flooding the streets demanding their beloved towns to be reopened. According to the numbers, it does not seem too soon for Oklahoma to reopen, but that does not go for the whole of the United States. Looking at the facts, and taking into consideration all of the people that is how politicians will know if it is time to open that state or not, and who knows: maybe the states will be open for Summer… or the New Year.