Opinion | From student to student, stick to the lockdown rules

By Caitlin Palmer O'Shaughnessy, First Year, Social Policy and Sociology

As soon as Boris Johnson made his speech telling us we would be going back into lockdown I began planning as many social events as I possibly could. From Sunday morning to Wednesday evening I was off seeing friends and taking in as much of the world as possible before lockdown began.

Was this right? Should I have been allowed to do this? Corona was still very much present, and seeing more people in a more concentrated time than usual could have just added to the problem.

Whilst it’s true that this probably didn’t help with minimising the spread of Corona, neither did it pose a disproportionate risk. The people I was interacting with were students, who I would have seen anyway had the second lockdown not been introduced.

Not forgetting, everything I did was completely allowed at the time. However, whilst I am in full support of you having your “last hurrah”, this is where it has to stop. Please just stick to the rules. It’s really not that hard. In fact, it’s nowhere near as hard as last time.

University is staying open and most importantly, you’re allowed to meet up with another person outside. As I write this I realise it doesn’t sound like a lot, but in reality, the effects of these allowances should not go understated.

Having University open and being able to still see people allows for some degree of normality. Of course, things are different. Asking someone for a walk is the new version of asking someone for coffee and evenings are now spent on the sofa instead of at the pub. But just because your social life is slightly less hectic than before, that doesn’t give you grounds to break lockdown and have a party.

To break lockdown and continue partying is supremely disrespectful to those who have suffered as a result of COVID-19

I will shout this from the rooftops if I have to: University is a bubble. When we’re here, surrounded by fellow students, it’s incredibly easy to forget what’s going on in the outside world.

To many COVID-19 is simply an annoyance that means we can’t go to the pub, but in actuality this disease is killing hundreds of thousands of people. To break lockdown and continue partying is supremely disrespectful to those who have suffered as a result of COVID-19 and to those who are working tirelessly to save lives and help people.

You might be sat there thinking that as a student you’re not going to seriously infect anyone so why should you have to follow lockdown? Purely out of consideration for others.

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Just because you think you won’t infect anyone doesn’t mean you won’t, and if the moral justification isn’t enough to stop you breaking lockdown then think about Christmas. Is breaking lockdown really worth endangering the health of so many people?

Having said all this, winter is already mentally tough, and tacking on a lockdown on top of that will mean some people are really going to struggle. If you or someone you know is really struggling then reach out. Your mental health should take priority at a time like this.

At the end of the day, I’m glad you had your “last hurrah”. A chance to get it all out of your system before lockdown began. But now that we’re in the midst of lockdown please just stick to it, because if you stick to it now, the sooner you’ll be out and things will be back to normal.

Featured Image: Epigram / Jack Crockford

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