2 years ago today, we got the first case of a virus known as covid in Massachusetts. More and more things started being cancelled. A few weeks later, schools shut down and we went into a total lock down known as quarantine. We have come a long way from that. People still go out of the house, and the schools have re-opened for the most part. Some stores have stopped requiring masks. We got the vaccines. First for the elderly. Then for the high risk. Then for the adults. Then for the kids. At this point, 76% of us in MA are fully vaccinated, and 95% of has gotten at least one shot. And when people finally started to loosen up a little bit on masks, and quarantines, and all of that fun stuff, Omicron came.

Omicron is much more contagious then the other variants, I know that. However, what everybody, even the covid cautious has been saying, is that it is so contagious because it's almost exactly like the common cold. If you go on google and look up covid, you will find tons of stories about deaths, and hospital trips. But for every one of those stories, there are hundreds of people who got it, and were totally fine. I had covid and I was tired and feverish for a day, and then I got quarantined for a week, when my only symptom was a stuffy nose. My sister got it and had no symptoms. The only people who are truly affected are those who have other viruses or diseases that make it so they can be attacked more harshly by things like this. The thing is though, they could be just as affected by the flu. If I get the flu, will you make me quarantine for 5 days and then wear masks everywhere for 5 days, and make anybody that I was in contact with quarantine? No. You're not. So why are we treating this any differently?

The other thing is that experts are saying that cloth masks offer little to no protection against this new variant. But, since they're not requiring us to wear N95 masks, why are we being forced to wear something that isn't doing anything? To protect us against a disease that isn't doing anything? Massachusetts loves to overreact and this is our crowning achievement. 

All kids ages 5 and up have the opportunity to get the vaccines now. All adults have the opportunity to get both the vaccine, and the booster. Who are we supposedly protecting? Vaccination is a choice, but you can't refuse the shot, and then act like it's outrageous to propose a change for the better. It's been 2 years.

Please, sign the petition, share the petition, do whatever you can. Students should not be required to wear stuffy masks that make it hard for us to breathe, in order to get an education. We're never going to get better if we don't take the first step.