By Ian Quindoza

It has been over nine months since the first case of COVID-19 was discovered in China. In the months following its discovery, COVID-19 rapidly gained the world’s attention. On January 31, it was declared a national health emergency by the Secretary of Health and Human Services in the United States. On March 11, the virus was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. Two days later, the United States declared a national emergency. Following these global declarations regarding the danger of the virus, schools, social events, college and professional sports, and businesses were thrown into a frenzy of confusion and panic. Now seven months since the start of the pandemic, nearly everyone has been in some way affected by this virus. A person’s reaction to the virus can vary; for some victims, the disease causes death, significant illness, or permanent lung damage. Others, however, are asymptomatic or have very mild symptoms, and this variety of reactions has caused confusion among doctors and scientists and made it more difficult stop the spread. Across the U.S., there have been over 7 million cases and more than 200,000 deaths. We have even had cases in our own Collegiate community.  

An image of the COVID-19 virus. Image credit: US Food and Drug Administration.

To get a sense of how this pandemic has affected Collegiate, three members of the Collegiate community agreed to share their stories, each one with their own different situation. My own sister Anne-Claire Quindoza (‘19), was willing to speak about her first-hand experience contracting the virus back in late June, as well as a little bit of the COVID-19 situation at her college, the University of South Carolina. Evans Campbell (‘22) and Quentin Toulson (‘22) also each had complicated experiences that they were willing to share. 

My sister was one of the first people I knew who contracted the virus In late June. She was exposed to the virus at a gathering in Richmond of over 20 people. A friend of hers who attended the gathering had been in Charleston, South Carolina, which Quindoza tells me was, “A hotspot for the coronavirus at the time.” Anne-Claire talked with her friend for about five minutes, and that was all the interaction they had. 

For three days, Anne-Claire went about business as usual, along with the rest of my family. She then found out that her friend had been exposed to the virus in South Carolina and, in turn, had possibly exposed Anne-Claire as well. She went to receive a test as soon as possible and quarantined in her room until her results came back. 

When asked about her initial thoughts during this waiting period, she said, “I honestly thought I would come back negative.” She elaborated in saying, “The fact that one girl spread it to me in just five minutes of talking is kind of bizarre.” After three days, her results came back positive. “I cried…, I wasn’t scared for my health, but I was more scared for all of the people I had been around… It was embarrassing and scary.” 

Quindoza’s symptoms were never life-threatening, and fortunately, she was never in need of hospitalization. However, she did say that “it felt like the worst cold I’ve ever had.” She lost her sense of taste and smell and had to slowly regain them over the span of more than a month. She is now back at school at South Carolina, where she says COVID-19 is, “everywhere you look.” 

I asked whether or not she felt safer knowing that she already had the virus and the possibility that she has a better chance of fighting it off. She said, “I was still scared, because we don’t know for sure.” However, she has stayed healthy, despite having some contact with others since who have since tested positive. After being tested a total of eight times so far, she “doesn’t even wince when getting the nasal swab test.” 

On June 29, Evans Campbell and her brother Marshall (‘20) decided to take a spur-of-the-moment hiking and camping trip overnight in the Appalachian Mountains. After driving with her brother, she spent an entire day hiking with him and camped out overnight. According to Campbell, they found out the next day that her brother had been exposed to COVID-19, and after getting tested, his results came back positive. She said, “I was just freaking out…, I was just freaked out that the big coronavirus had affected me personally.” 

She and the rest of her family got tested, and her results came back negative. However, she felt a very slight loss of smell for only about a day, which she found very odd, giving her a reason to think she might have had the virus. Despite her negative test, Campbell and her whole family quarantined for ten days. When asked about the reactions of her friends, she said that, “they were just bummed for me.” Campbell also said that there was some hesitation from her friends to be around her, even after she had been in quarantine. Luckily, most of her plans for the summer had already been canceled, and this scare did not heavily affect her summer schedule. Campbell claims that it, “kind of forced my family to be together for ten days, so that was nice.” She also said that, fortunately, her brother was asymptomatic.

Toulson started this school year attending his classes on Zoom. He had been told to quarantine by the school after playing in an AAU basketball tournament in D.C., where one of his teammates was playing while not knowing he had the virus. Toulson said, “I thought I had it; we played two games with this kid for well over 15 minutes.” As soon as he heard of his teammate’s situation, he “immediately texted his team group chat and was like ‘guys, what is happening.’” He got tested the next morning and said the testing, “didn’t hurt, but it just felt uncomfortable.” To his surprise, his initial test came back negative. He was then required by Collegiate to get tested a second time. That test also came back negative. He was still required to quarantine and not come to school for the first week because of his exposure to the virus. We talked a little bit about his brief remote learning experience. He says that online school now, “just felt different.” He explained the difference between last spring’s Zoom experience and this year’s by saying that it was, “kind of boring,” due to the fact that most of his classes weren’t really doing much. He is, “very happy to be at school now,” but also told me that, “if we had to go back online, it wouldn’t be too bad, but I’d much rather be at school.” 

When asked if they thought they would encounter COVID-19 when first hearing about it, all three had similar responses. Campbell told me, “No, not at all, I was shocked… I remember watching the news and seeing the numbers grow and grow, but still for some reason thinking it still wouldn’t happen.” Toulson said, “I honestly didn’t think I was ever going to come in contact with it.” Quindoza’s response was, “No, because I thought our country would be able to get it under control.” 

As we have seen, COVID-19 is far from consistent, and many people who have lost their lives, loved ones, or close friends due to the virus. These three students, despite having scares with the virus, were very fortunate to never be in any sort of critical condition or even have any harmful symptoms. Nevertheless, social distancing, hand-washing, and wearing a mask are all steps that can further mitigate the risks of contracting this potentially deadly disease.