The COVID-19 Delta variant is surging across the United States and heavily impacting schools across the country, including our very own Apopka High School. AHS had 31 reported cases on September 7th alone. The new 60-day mask mandate is being used by Orange County to counter the virus, and other counties are following suit with similar mandates, but Florida Governor Ron DeSantis seems to be upset with OCPS enforcing masks. Our interviewees, Junior Logan Little and Junior Ashley Paul have both been, for the most part, safe during this pandemic. They have stated they haven’t traveled much, but the two seem to have very different opinions on the subject of the 60-day mask mandate and other COVID-19 related topics.

The COVID-19 vaccine has been scientifically proven to be safe and effective, but when asked if they’ve received the vaccine or not, Logan Little responded “Am I? No. And will I? No. I don’t want to and I’m not going to,” while Ashley Paul on the other hand hasn’t gotten the vaccine as well but stated that she plans on it. We asked the two how effective they think the 60-day mask mandate will be and Ashley told us “Somewhat effective, not that much,” and Logan gave a quick response, “Not at all, in my opinion.” They were questioned regarding if they’ve ever had COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, and Ashley told us that she had it back in July of 2021. 

Ashley, when asked, told us she was completely LaunchEd last year while Logan was Face2Face. There is something the two did agree on. When we asked them on a scale from 1-10 how would they rate how well our state has been fighting against COVID-19, they both rated Florida a three, without hesitation. When they think we’ll return to ‘normal’? Ashley thinks it could happen in a year or two, while Logan responded: “I mean a few weeks ago we were somewhat normal. But, I don’t think we’ll ever return to what we used to have. We gotta create our new normal.” This last statement couldn’t be more true. This virus doesn’t seem to be going anywhere soon, so it’s our job to be safe and help keep others safe in this seemingly endless pandemic.