12
Thursday, June 3, 2021
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
STATEMENT
“The COVID transition: Summer travel, social activities
and masks
Over late night cups of tea during
finals season, one of my housemates
and I discussed our hopes and
plans for the summer. She would
be vacationing in Florida with her
boyfriend and going on a trip home to
Seattle. The talk of travel and social
activities was exciting; however,
there was a lingering uncertainty
about just how “normal” life would
be during the summer. When I
described my hopes to be back in The
Big House by next fall, my housemate
admitted that she wasn’t sure when
she would feel fully comfortable in
crowds again, even though she is fully
vaccinated.
Less than one month later, new
public
health
guidelines
have
equipped us with more knowledge
on what this summer will look like
and how to navigate travel and social
activities. On May 13, the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention
announced that in most cases, fully
vaccinated people no longer need to
practice social distancing or mask-
wearing. For U-M students, there
is a clashing mix of excitement and
apprehension surrounding the shift
in guidelines, particularly concerning
what it means for returning to a sense
of normalcy in time for summer
vacation.
I talked to several students to hear
their thoughts surrounding travel
and social activities this summer.
Is there a hesitance to go back to
things like concerts and parties, as
my housemate expressed in our
conversation nearly a month ago? Or
are students ready to get back into
the world with full force? I expected
to hear a mixture of enthusiasm
and hope for post-COVID life, but
I was also prepared to encounter
some concerns or anxiety about the
transition.
LSA
senior
Sophie
Einbund
described
feeling
immense
excitement for her travel plans in the
upcoming months, though she also
expressed some uneasiness over the
balance between having fun with
being safe and responsible.
“I don’t get too nervous when it
comes to traveling, but I guess in
terms of traveling during COVID-19,
it is somewhat nerve-wracking even
though I’m vaccinated,” Einbund said
during our Zoom conversation. “It is
frustrating to wear a mask and hope
that other people are vaccinated as
well.”
In July, she plans on going to Miami
with a friend, and in August her family
is flying to Hawaii. She mentioned
that Florida will most likely be a
vacation hotspot, but she is hoping
she will be protected from COVID-19
after previously contracting the virus
and more recently getting the vaccine.
“I think I was pretty opposed to
traveling when COVID started, but
now that people … are vaccinated,
or obviously more than prior stages
when there were no vaccines, I
definitely feel more comfortable
traveling myself or for other people to
travel,” Einbund said.
Engineering junior Thomas Dokas
also plans on traveling this summer.
He will be visiting South Carolina
with his family.
“My
entire
family
has
been
vaccinated, so we are mostly not
concerned about it,” Dokas said. “But
if any of us weren’t, then I think that
would have become a big issue.”
He and his family members
are among the over 4 million
Michiganders who have had at least
the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
For Dokas, being vaccinated plays
a huge role in terms of safety and
comfort with traveling.
“Personally,
I’m
not
terribly
concerned about (traveling) because
I know how to keep myself safe from
that sort of thing,” Dokas said. “I’ve
been doing it for over a year now, but
it’ll be interesting to see how other
people start to behave.”
On the flip side, LSA freshman
Maggie
Sterling
questioned
the
necessity of travel in general. While
she will be traveling from Texas to
Michigan when classes start in the
fall, she has her reservations.
“Personally, I’m not traveling for
unnecessary reasons just because
it still seems crazy, and planes have
these enclosed spaces,” Sterling said.
These feelings, she noted, account
for her own actions and concerns and
not her judgment of others.
“I have known friends and family
that
have
traveled
during
the
pandemic with unnecessary travel,
and I definitely found it hard for me
to tell them not to because everyone
makes the decisions that they feel
(are) best for themselves,” Sterling
said.
As of right now, the CDC still
requires face coverings for public
transportation, including airplanes.
Still, there could be some hesitance
over such excursions.
Dr. Jon Zelner, assistant professor
of epidemiology at the University of
Michigan School of Public Health,
talked to me about his recent
experience traveling to New York.
Dr. Zelner is vaccinated, but with
two young children not yet able to get
vaccinated, there was added risk to
consider.
“I drove up there by myself because
I was not comfortable getting on
a plane,” he said. “I would be fully
masked, but the idea of sitting in an
airplane with lots of people in close
proximity, I just couldn’t handle it
and it didn’t feel safe yet, even though
this is one of these things where it’s
probably just fine.”
Dr. Zelner emphasized it could be
a difficult transition for some people,
one that may just take time.
“Certainly a year and a half ago
(safety measures) seemed like bizarre
things to do, like to sit six feet apart
and keep our mouths covered, or if
you have somebody at your house and
keep the windows open in the dead of
winter … you know, all these things
felt kind of apocalyptic,” Dr. Zelner
continued. “And it’s nice to let them
go, but I think they become such a
habit that to just focus back on our
lives can be hard to do.”
BY ELIZABETH SCHRINER
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