Is America at Risk for Another Pandemic Lockdown?

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Tricia Blackwood, Staff Writer

March of 2020, Covid-19 cases (alpha variant), reached an all time high and the illness spread was officially labeled as a pandemic. Days after the pandemic was announced, America, as well as other countries across the world, began a hard lockdown. The months of quarantine were expected to help resolve the pandemic, however as soon as the lockdown was lifted civilians returned to square one. The Corona Virus is still a large threat to people, and is still affecting people in a fatal way. People became frustrated with the precautions and stopped following them, allowing germs to spread much easier. With these precautions dying out and germs spreading more, new variants of Covid-19 have began causing a new danger.

Since the original lockdown of 2020, the world has progressed a long way as far as Covid-19. Scientists worked efficiently to create a vaccine for the virus. The vaccine was released for older people around a year ago, and officially the Pfizer vaccine has been FDA approved for anyone ages 12 and up. Recently, a “booster” shot has been released from vaccine creators, Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson and Johnson, and is recommended that those who are fully vaccinated should receive their booster shot 5-6 months after their second shot. The vaccine has been extremely effective as far as the alpha variant goes, the only problem is the vaccine wasn’t originally created to protect immune systems from contracting the new variants.

The spark of the Delta variant arose in the summer of 2021, and since other variants have started to take a toll on people. Recently, the Omicron variant has been the biggest threat regarding the Corona Virus. The Omicron variant has spread like no other so far. Towards the end of November 2021, President Joe Biden released a statement saying that there was no need to worry about a lockdown regarding the Omicron variant yet. However, as two months have went by, the rise of the Omicron variant has peaked. Other countries such as The United Kingdom have already began a soft lockdown because of the new variants of Covid-19. President Biden made a tweet a few hours ago encouraging Americans to please continue to take virus precautions seriously. Even though the entire country hasn’t declared a lockdown yet, certain states within America have already began a soft lockdown and have returned virtual. Rumors continue to say that America will soon return to a full hard lockdown, to protect Americans from Covid-19 and all of the viruses different variants. However, until President Joe Biden releases a definite answer the question remains in the air. For now, all we can know is America is definitely at risk for another lockdown