The global pandemic has caused everyone to take personal health and hygiene to an even greater level. Countless simple and common actions that were condoned prior to the pandemic that may have seemed like no big deal are now seen as unsanitary. 

On school grounds, students would have one shared lunch period, meaning there would not be enough room for everyone to be seated in the cafeteria. Friend groups would choose to sit on the floor in the hallways. “I think it was gross that we would just sit on the floors because of all the gross things that land on it as well as anything else that is carried around from the bathroom or from people’s shoes as well,” senior Noellemarie DeChalus said. 

People would consistently share foods or drinks out of convenience with friends without any regard to germs. “Before Covid, people would be sharing foods and drinks and now I’ve become much more aware of the idea that it’s not smart to share with people because you never really know if they’re sick or not,” senior Angie Tehrani said. 

After Coronavirus hit, social distancing was put into place and anyone who chose to stand in a line would have to be six feet apart in order to prevent the spread of diseases. “We used to stand in lines right next to each other, and I realized how easy it is for bacteria to spread and we would also be invading personal space,” DeChalus said. 

In public areas, door handles, carts and other communal objects would not be cleaned on a regular basis, or maybe even at all. “Going out, people would be touching door handles, carts and everything in public that everyone else touched without sanitizing it or wiping it down because nobody cared enough about these things to disinfect,” senior Yune Choi said. 

Students who wanted to drink water but did not bring their own bottle from home would be forced to drink from the public water fountain. “I feel like the school fountain was never cleaned or anything and sometimes people’s mouths would touch the water spout, which is disgusting,” Tehrani said. 

In classes without desktop computers, different class periods would all use the same chromebooks. “We would all use the same computers with everyone’s fingerprints that would almost never be cleaned at all,” Dechalus said. 

After living with social distancing and COVID-19 for over a year, people have come to understand the unsanitary conditions and tend to stay away from these practices.