With no toilet paper, hand sanitizer or surgical masks left on the shelves of stores, COVID-19, or more commonly, the coronavirus, causes massive panic throughout the country.

The outbreak resulted in the shut down of almost all school functions: extending spring break by one week, postponing or cancelling all spring sports, and leaving major events, such as prom and graduation, in limbo. At the time of press, it is unknown just how long this quarantine, causing schools across the nation to shut down and move to online learning, will last.

“I’m mostly just sad about the possibility that UIL One Act could be cancelled,” senior Cecil Pulley said. “Me and everyone else have been working so hard and everyone was looking forward to it. It’s kind of funny, because what are the odds of a freak pandemic shutting down your theatre activities? I just hope there’s a way for things to end well because I don’t want all my hard work to go to waste.”

Students around the world have responded in the way they know best: making humorous videos on TikTok. The tags #coronavirus and #covid19 have amassed a collective 11.7 billion views across the platform as of March 16.

“TikTok provides easy accessible personal relief during hard times,” senior Kaylah Casasola said. “It makes it less depressing when you can make jokes about something bad like the virus.”

To prevent the spread of the virus, the Trump administration first encouraged Americans to avoid gathering in groups of more than 50, then that number was pushed down to 10 March 16.

Even major sporting events have stopped, movie theatres, zoos, restaurant lobbies have all closed down in hopes of preventing the spread of the coronavirus.

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