Selfish Americans in Coronavirus Times

By Kishan Rogers, 9 years old, 3rd grade at Monroe Elementary School, Monrovia, CA

The Coronavirus is killing people. We should take this seriously and follow the Governor’s rules so we don’t get Coronavirus. But some people have not been doing that, and that makes me feel upset. They are being selfish.

My neighbors were having friends over for a sleepover at their house. I thought they were breaking the Stay-At-Home orders, so I told my mom to call the police. First of all the government of California said that everybody has to stay at their house so people don’t get sick. Most people are following that rule but some, like my neighbors, are not. My mom did not call the police because we knew that their opinion about social distancing was different than ours.

In Australia the police have been very strict about social distancing. For instance, they don’t allow people to visit each other, so the police are stopping drivers and asking where they are going. My grandparents live in Sydney and so do my cousins. If they went to visit each other the police would stop them. So they haven’t visited each other. But all of that has paid off because Australia is clear of Coronavirus. Next week they are reopening the schools. But my aunt is not going to send my cousins back to school because she wants to make sure that the Coronavirus really has passed. My uncle is an epidemiologist, which means he studies diseases. He has been studying Coronavirus and helping the government of Australia figure out how to stop the spread. My uncle does not think they should be reopening schools until they are very sure that the coronavirus has passed.

We live in Los Angeles where the Coronavirus is very serious because it is killing people. I felt upset and confused because my neighbors were not keeping their distance from other people. My mom has a friend in her forties who has Coronavirus. She was unconscious on a ventilator for four weeks. Right now she is awake but is still fighting the virus. She lives in New York where I was born and that is also a place where the Coronavirus is infecting people right now.

In my neighborhood, sometimes it feels like the coronavirus is just hitting far away places like New York City. However, I have a friend my age who has this disease called Kawasaki, and scientists think that in some way it is connected to Coronavirus. Lots of kids in New York are getting this disease too. My friend is in the hospital right now. If you had pink eye you could have Coronavirus because scientists figured out that pink eye is also a symptom of Coronavirus.

This means anybody could get coronavirus, and even if you think you don’t have it, you don’t know.

It makes me mad that people are not staying home, they are not following the government’s rules. People have been going to the beach lately because of the heat wave, but have not been keeping their six feet. The government of California had to shut down the beaches because people were getting way too close to each other. Now people are protesting for the government to reopen the beaches. The people are saying that they could get depressed or anxious just staying home all the time.

When everybody goes to the beach it makes me feel like going to the beach. The people who are going to the beach are breaking the rules but my family is not. We are a beach family but since Coronavirus we have been helping the community stay healthy by not leaving our house, except shopping when we need to get food. When people have sleepovers it makes me want to do the same thing. But again, I have not been doing that because I’m trying to do my part to help the community.

In my opinion I think that everybody should be staying in their houses because then they would be doing something good for the community. Americans have been doing things for themselves but Australians have been helping their community nonstop. As a result, the Coronavirus has passed in Australia. Now, Australians are allowed to go to the beach.

Where would you want to live?