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The Rotunda
Tuesday, July 29, 2025

Fear of Pandemic Spreads as Coronavirus Death Toll Tops 2,000

A hot topic in recent times, Coronavirus’ death toll has finally soared over 2,000 as of February 20th. The fears of Coronavirus spreading worldwide have only been fueled as of yet, as cases have been confirmed from as far as Australia, to as close as here in the United States. The virus may even be making its way to Virginia; the Virginia Department of Health reports monitoring 162 travelers who have traveled to mainland China within the last 14 days.

Given the nature of higher education, it is very possible, perhaps even plausible for a virus as contagious as Coronavirus to be able and infect many students and faculty within a campus in only a short time. The virus has seen the worst death toll of any disease (of the last 30 or so years) since that of the Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) which is of the same virus family as Coronavirus (CDC).

Even more worrying, Coronavirus’ incubation period can be up to 14 days according to the Center for Disease Control. Furthermore, Coronavirus can spread before symptoms even appear; only intensifying the worries of the disease reaching catastrophic levels. Symptoms can include running nose, severe cough, and breathing difficulty.

The entirety of the situation regarding Coronavirus is almost purely speculative, as it is only a novel virus at this point; its discovery only occurred merely months ago. With that said, the virus’ growth is alarming. Within the last 3 months since its discovery, Coronavirus has infected almost 80 thousand people worldwide.

This is worrying as the virus could very well continue to spread in intensity within the countries it reaches. However, this is not to say that the world is doomed to fall victim to the virus within years or months. Much is still not known about the virus and as such current predictions or speculations about the disease could be inaccurate or outright false.

With the large variety of information concerning this disease swirling around, it is confusing to understand the depth of this health crisis.

The Center for Disease Control has recommended that every person take measures that would be used in fighting typical infectious disease(s) to combat Coronavirus. These include washing hands frequently, avoiding touching the eyes and mouth, disinfecting surfaces, etc. These measures are already well known by the student body here at Longwood, and as such Coronavirus will be able to be contained if citizens around the world, as well as students, practice these health measures.