Getting Out There Without Getting COVID-19
You can find a ticket to Jamaica for $400 right now. In fact, I myself have several price alerts set for different countries that Americans are allowed into. I like having the option of getting away from this cursed country and its inconsiderate residents who don’t care about COVID-19 precautions.
Some may say, “But Megan, traveling kind of makes you the same asshole who puts people at risk.” To that, I would say, perhaps, but I disagree. If I were to travel abroad, I would do it in a hazmat suit, double masked, gloved, goggled and with a face shield. Not one inch of my skin would show. I would even mist myself in hand sanitizer spray every so often, relishing in the tiny droplets of disinfectant that would shower me like a fresh coat of perfume.
COVID-19 is a real threat that we should all be worried about, but since so many Americans have decided that they would rather have the freedom to go out in public and not wear masks over having freedom from COVID-19, locking ourselves up from everything instead of proceeding carefully — until we have a vaccine, cure or someone in office who will actually do something productive about COVID-19 — isn’t always the best thing for everyone.
Traveling can be a necessary escape. Not to mention that some people may not usually have the opportunity to travel under normal circumstances when it is expensive and they have to work. Obviously there will always be inconsiderate people who travel and refuse to wear masks, but catching COVID-19 is probably the only thing that can stop them. That being said, I believe travel can be done safely right now.
It is one sort of escape that seems significantly less risky than setting loose a bunch of irresponsible college students who have been trapped at home for months. Some of them will experience their first taste of freedom away from their parents, with no supervision, during a pandemic. Traveling solo and taking the proper precautions can’t present more of a risk than students trying to party.
While we don’t necessarily have to bunker down right now, no one should ignore or disregard COVID-19 because they’re young and think they’re invincible. Partying is a big no-no. There is no security there; you are putting people at risk and it’s unchill, to say the least.
Instead, go camping or take a road trip. Take some time, go find yourself a nice sugar daddy or sugar mommy, put yourself out there — fund your travel with some honest sugar baby work. Americans are limited in the places that they can go due to travel restrictions stemming from the poor COVID-19 restrictions in the United States. However, some countries like Barbados and Croatia are still allowing American travelers.
If none of those options seem possible, but you still feel the urge to get away from home or your housemates, traveling within the U.S. is the most likely and reasonable option right now. Go grab a tent and whoever you’re quarantining with, and pick a direction. With school online, there is nothing holding you back. Mexico is also open to U.S. citizens if you’re in the mood to cross a border.
Travel can be safer than the way some people have treated COVID-19, like those who refuse to wear masks, find excuses because they’re used to privilege and think they’re entitled to freedom, and leave their noses dangling out like infectious limp chodes. If I’m tested before and after I fly on an airplane, taking every precaution, I am way less likely to spread COVID-19 than the average reckless American.
If you’re safe, the options are almost limitless. Channel your inner “Outer Banks” or Greta Thunberg and invest in a boat — or get the sugar parent to do that for you. Now you have a private, isolated place that provides transport, a place to sleep and adventure, plus it’s environmentally friendly. If you’re going to be isolated from society, you could at least do it on a boat in the Caribbean. This may seem unreasonable, but it’s not impossible. There are so many safe options that are more preventative of COVID-19 than wearing a mask wrong or partying.
If you choose to take advantage of online school and remote jobs, take the proper precautions, be considerate and have fun when fun can be hard to find for responsible people who socially distance.
Megan Ramsey supports your usage of a Sugar Daddy to fund travel during COVID-19 instead of partying.
Ruhika Nandy / Daily Nexus
Don’t Take that Vacation: Prevent the Spread and Protect the Planet
Summer is the perfect time for college students to travel. Especially after quarantining since March, it may seem tempting to go on that vacation that the pandemic has forced you to put on hold.
However, it would be wise to hold off on those vacation plans for a little while longer. Unfortunately, the threat of COVID-19 is still prevalent, and it is our moral responsibility to remain socially distanced. While there are ways to make traveling during the pandemic safer, such as wearing a mask and staying six feet apart from others, it is impossible to totally eliminate the risk of contracting or spreading the virus.
If someone were to contract the coronavirus while traveling, they would have a significantly greater risk of spreading the virus during all of their interactions along the way. If the vacationer had stayed at home, they would have exposed less people, and it would be easier to contact and trace their interactions.
Most people’s vacation plans also involve flying. However, flying poses a large risk of exposure to COVID-19 because airports and airplanes put people in close contact with others who are from areas all across the United States for long durations of time. This leads to the perfect environment for COVID-19 to spread from person to person at a deadly rate.
If you contracted the coronavirus at the airport when traveling to visit friends or family, it could take two to 14 days before you begin to show symptoms. Therefore you would interact with your loved ones and expose them for days before you could begin to show symptoms, likely spreading the virus to them as well.
Then, on your flight back home you also potentially expose everybody on the flight to the virus. These passengers would go across the U.S., return to their communities and expose their friends, families and others.
The reality is COVID-19 can spread at a deadly rate if people do not take the necessary and proper health precautions. While traveling, people have more interactions with people, specifically people outside their communities. Each extra interaction exponentially increases the risk of spreading the coronavirus.
Travelling also has severe negative consequences on the environment. If you decide to go on vacation, there’s a good chance you’ll be flying on an airplane. Unfortunately airplanes emit insane amounts of carbon dioxide into the air. Globally aircrafts emitted 905 million tons of CO2 in 2018. To put that into perspective, if the airline industry were a country, it would rank sixth in the world in CO2 emissions. Airplanes also release toxic chemicals into the atmosphere such as nitrogen oxides, which result in an estimated 10,000 deaths per year. Recent trends project emissions by the aircraft industry to triple by 2050 as commercial aircraft use continues to increase.
But if you think that’s bad, meet the king of pollution in the tourism industry, cruise lines. Cruise ships produce three to four times more pollutants, such as nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide into the environment than airports. An ordinary ship also typically releases 210,000 gallons of toxic sewage into the ocean per week. The toxic waste, which includes: sewage, oil and harmful bacterias, disrupt the oceanic ecosystems and makes marine life severely sick and can even kill them.
The recent fires across California and the Northwest have reminded us of the danger climate change presents to our health and safety. There are various pictures circulating social media of San Francisco with the sky covered by an amber haze. Most of Northern and Central California could not safely breath the air outside. We are living through the consequences of climate change right now and unless our habits are changed, things are only going to get worse.
I am not saying vacations are bad and you should never go on them. Vacations are a healthy way to escape from the stresses of everyday life, and life has become extra stressful recently in this unprecedented year of tragedy. While many people are desperate to get out of their homes and go on vacation after quarantining for months, it is not worth the risk of exposing yourself, loved ones or others to the virus, along with the environmental impacts of travelling.
I am asking you to be responsible when deciding to take a vacation. For the safety of yourself and others, please wait to travel until after the pandemic unless it is absolutely necessary. If you do need to travel, make sure you are taking all necessary safety precautions such as wearing a mask and washing your hands. Until the pandemic is over, everybody must make responsible decisions regarding the public and personal health risks and only travel if necessary.
Nathaniel Ramirez encourages people to consider the negative effects of their vacation.
Megan you are the problem and reason that the disease spreads. Asymptomatic spread has pushed this problem to get bigger and bigger. You are the asshole spreading it to different communities and countries. What an awful person. Breath deep go home and infect your own family this way the only people you hurt are the people you care about not strangers who you obviously have no care or concern for. I hope your family is willing to sacrifice themselves so that you can travel. You claim your precautions make you more safe but that is just an opinion every experts… Read more »