Last year, coronavirus, COVID-19, came to the U.S of America and started to spread around the world fast. The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. and because of its spread, everything shut down and people needed to stay home for a year at school, stores, and airports. Some people took the benefits, but people also lost many things because of COVID-19. After a few months, the vaccine came out. People did not want to take it at first but after seeing many people took vaccines and being encouraged to take it by the government and influencers even more people started took it.

After the vaccine was out there were various people who had lots of different reasons for why they did or did not get the vaccine. But still many people took the vaccine therefore vaccine rate went up which helped to decrease COVID-19 cases. Since COVID-19 cases decreased district decided to start going back to school.

Unfortunately, the Delta variant was spreading around when the students started to go to school. The students ended up still going to school but many students and parents, even the staff, worried about the Delta variant since it is easier to spread and get infected. Let’s talk about basic information about the Delta variant. According to an article by kate Katella, it was first found in India in late 2020.

Katella also says that Higher vaccine rates are the way to get this situation better. It replicates faster than the original virus which makes it spread faster efficiently The Delta variant is more than twice as infectious as the original virus and as infectious as chickenpox.

Vaccines are protecting even against Delta variant. It is becoming the dominant variant in many countries like India, the United Kingdom, Israel, and the united states

From the last update on the Issaquah school district website. There are 16 people, including students and staff, in IHS who are infected by COVID-19.

Most students said that they were vaccinated and their reasons were all similar. It was because of their safety and the people around them and their support to decrease the cases of COVID-19 in the U.S.

Most students were doing a very great job on what the government told us to do. For example, they were willing to take vaccines and stay at home and wear masks.

Freshman, Alexia Tan. is very positive about taking the vaccine and thinks it should be mandatory. She thinks school should be closed and students should go back to remote learning. Although, Tan says “I hated being stuck at home but that’s the only way you can prevent from getting more vivid cases.” She also says that “I do think some areas of America are doing better than others when it comes to preventing the spread. Red states are having more issues following mandates and updating their vaccinations, while some blue states such as California are also having this issue. I think that it depends on where in the U.S you are referring to. “I don’t think that things will ever return to the way it was before, but I do think that eventually things will die down and resume a lot more normally than it was in the past two years.”

Justin Xu, also thinks school should be closed and go back to quarantine. He does not think COVID-19 is going to end and says “No because they are not restricting people. Instead, they opened up restaurants and schools and movie theaters ” 

Junior, Ethan Zhou, knows a lot about COVID-19 and the Delta variant. He thinks that school should be stopped and people should have the option to take the vaccine or not but take it if possible. He also says “It would become a flu-like virus and coexist with humans” and thinks America is trying their best to deal with COVID-19. He adds, ”Yes, the vaccination rate is high but the school district should close down schools to help stop the spread of the virus.”

Senior Chelsea Park thinks we should go back to the remote if possible. She does not think COVID-19 is going to end she also thinks that American is not doing a great job dealing with COVID-19: “No, because cases are rising due to people not wearing masks and getting vaccinated.“

Most students do not really know about the dangers of the Delta variant and basic information about the Delta variant. Not knowing about the Delta variant and its danger could also be another danger of the Delta variant.