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Not only is COVID-19 circulating on campus, but so are memes and content about the students who allegedly brought the illness to campus after traveling. Starting Monday, students began speaking about the party that occurred on Walnut Avenue late last weekend, where at least one student had COVID-19. The party has now been linked to as many as 45 cases.

Despite privacy violations, students are spreading rumors about and mocking those testing positive through memes and lists on social media, causing an uproar on campus. The consequences that would follow demonstrated the severity of the situation.

I personally received an email from my job at Barnes Center at The Arch stating that we would be closing for the next week. Next, an email stating all in-person activity with the exception of classes would be canceled, as well as new COVID-19 safety protocols, proving how out of hand the case numbers have become on campus. To think that this entire situation stemmed from a single party is believable, but the treatment of the situation by students is rather concerning.

Many students have attended social gatherings throughout the semester with more than 25 people at off-campus apartment complexes, in violation of the Stay Safe Pledge. While none of these parties contributed to a large COVID-19 outbreak, the students at these parties were not always being as safe as possible. An outbreak may have just as easily spread at any of these off-campus parties and fortunately did not.

All it takes is one student carrying COVID-19 to participate in a large social gathering to cause a widespread outbreak, and by chance it happened to be this past weekend. One student has been allegedly traced as the original “Patient Zero” and has received blame for the outbreak.

Looking at the situation from another perspective though, the same students creating the memes and casting blame may also very well be the same students who went out and partied unsafely. The situation that occurred could have happened to anyone, but with poor luck and poor decisions, it happened to be one student and a group that was affected. To create a list of students who had tested positive and to then send that list around is a violation of students’ privacy, period.

There have been other small clusters of cases on campus that were not publicized to the same degree. If a student feels the need to ridicule those testing positive, they should make sure they were not participating in the same behavior that caused this outbreak in the first place.

It is a sensitive time for all, especially with an outbreak of a virus that has killed more than 200,000 Americans. Respect, kindness and sensitivity are important values to remember when so many are going through a hard time.

Feryal Nawaz is a senior political science major. Her column appears bi-weekly. She can be reached at fnawaz@syr.edu. She can be followed on Twitter @feryal_nawaz.

Published on October 7, 2020 at 8:45 pm