Coronavirus (COVID-19) has impacted the lives of many killing over 1000 victims to this day. As many believe the virus has not peaked, this virus’ impact could get much worse.
Earlier this year I applied for the Butler in Asia program. After many essays and interviews I was accepted into the Shanghai program. My group was notified about two weeks ago that there might be a change in my program as the virus may not be gone by May. Yesterday I was notified that my program was canceled due to China remaining at a Level 4 for the US State Department Travel Advisory and a Level 3 for CDC Warning. Thankfully the Center of Global Engagement was able to redirect my program to a different site (Tokyo, Japan), but I was still disappointed by this outcome (even though Tokyo will be awesome). Even though I understood fully that Butler could not personally do anything about this problem, it is sad that so many lives are effected by this new virus.
A cruise ship passenger in Asia contaminated the virus, passing it onto other ship guests. The ship was not allowed to dock in any country, stranding people for many weeks. A handful of healthy American citizens were on this ship as well, unable to come back home. As of today the American’s have been allowed off the ship and have been quarantined in a hospital. This virus has impacted everyone in a series of ways, making me question how much worse this virus will get.