As the number of cases and general concern level regarding the pandemic has dropped, so have students masks. And their guards, to be quite frank. Among the students of JD, many have been documented in saying that they still have concerns regarding the pandemic, but a lack of worry seems to contradict these statements. 

An argument to be made here is that schools are not as big of breeding grounds for the virus as other places in which students congregate. In fact, in the last fourteen days, there have only been 601 reported cases among the 345 total schools in Utah, according to the Salt Lake County Health Department. That’s an average of just above half a student per school. Alas, this is aside from the point. What did JD students have to say in response to a few questions about the virus and its implications? Our anonymous survey attracted 213 individual responses.

An important questioned to put the data into perspective was as follows: Are you scared of contracting the virus? Here are the results.

When asked how often they wear their mask in a situation in which it is appropriate to wear it, 64% of students said they always wear it, with another 28% saying that they almost always wear it. Although this seems to be good data, no one will ever give themselves up because of their pride. The next question read “How good are your friends about wearing a mask when around others?”. This evoked a much more honest response. 50% said their friends are pretty good about wearing their mask, with 26% saying that they are “ok” about wearing their mask. One would guess that these responses would be fairly similar, but that is not the case here. These two pieces of feedback not only show a slight lack of concern, but also an absence of honesty.

There were four more questions in the survey, none of which tying into the other as the first two had done. These questions gathered general yet interesting and vital information. 

35% of students said that non-family members rarely come into their house. 31% said that friends enter their homes occasionally. The margin between frequently and never was a mere 3%. What can be made of this information? Well, it shows that even if students are being mindful of all COVID related precautions at school, all of their efforts can be tarnished by having people over. Of course, we don’t know if these individuals are responsible with their masks when having others over, but it can be assumed that in the home masks are not worn.

Here are the results of the final two questions:

Along with their answers to the questions, students gave written responses to an open prompt. “We should not let the hysteria control our lives,” says one student. “97% recovery rate I don’t understand the hype,” states another. About half of the other one hundred and four responses, this seemed to be a common theme. A questioning of the severity of the pandemic. One concerning comment in particular read “Fake news”. But of course, for every one of these, a distressed comment surfaced, criticizing those who think this way. Regardless of these thoughts, students will continue to face the damages of the pandemic, no matter how well they handle themselves.