Dwindling Pandemic Eases COVID-19 Worries

COVID-19

Continued from page 3

McDermott received his first two doses of the vaccine while home during the Spring 2022 semester. Though he was still wary of COVID-19 following his inoculation, he said the vaccine reduced his worry about how severely the virus would impact him if he were infected.

As the summer approached, the University relaxed its physical distancing and masking policies for fully vaccinated members of the campus community. Although Cornell initially planned to remove all masking and testing requirements for vaccinated students for the Fall 2021 semester, its policy changed to require indoor masking due to increased transmission of the virus’s more contagious Delta variant.

Toward the end of the Fall 2021 semester, yet another COVID-19 variant arose — omicron. Though Cornell initially intended to complete finals period in person, the University ended up moving exams to an online format, as well as beginning the first two weeks of the Spring 2022 semester virtually.

“Looking at how my sophomore fall panned out, with campus getting shut down, and my finals getting moved online, I can see why those [past COVID-19] restrictions were so valuable,” Hazimeh said.

While high-quality masks were still required in all campus buildings, the mandatory surveillance testing requirements were lifted in February 2022 for those who were fully vaccinated. The University suspended its masking requirement for most on campus spaces on March 14, 2022 — and 10 days later, moved to code yellow.

As Cornell navigated the two years of the pandemic, so did the current Class of 2026, who began applying for college in the fall of 2021. Some students, like Ceci Rodriguez ’26, felt that the pandemic hindered their ability to develop their applications.

“[COVID-19] kind of put a dent in where I was for extracurriculars,” Rodriguez said. “So, I was just stressed out — I didn’t feel like I was doing enough to make my application stand out, because all of these opportunities got taken away from us.”

Rodriguez added that the University’s test optional policy — which many schools across the country also adopted in response to the pandemic — made her feel that the other aspects of her application held more importance in helping her stand out.

“I was also writing my personal statement for college, and it was very difficult to write that because everybody’s writing about COVID-19,” Rodriguez said. “You need it to be a really good essay, because now that they’re not really looking at SAT or ACT scores, how am I going to stand out from everybody else that’s now applying?”

The Aftermath

Moving into the 2022-2023 school year, masks were not required but “strongly encouraged” and the University completely discontinued its PCR testing sites, although antigen tests were still available.

Students and faculty began to return to pre-pandemic traditions and fear of the virus lessened on campus.

“I go days without even thinking about COVID-19,” said Lindsay Lee ’25. “Whatever the University is doing, it seems to be working because I haven’t heard people freaking out about COVID-19 or even contracting COVID-19.”

To continue reading this article, please visit www.cornellsun.com.